It's statements like that one you just quoted which I am referring to. It's almost like once this BBS get's a collective hard-on for a certain player (marco jaric, jiri welsch to name a few), it just keeps getting repeated until it becomes a truth. Sorry, but Maxiell isn't better than Scola or a healthy Landry. At best, he is a solid career backup. Stuckey has a much higher ceiling and could be very good, but he's hailed around these parts as Dwayne Wade or something.
I like Maxiell, don't get me wrong. But defensively he isn't even as good as Scola. Offensively he's a human highlight reel, but so was Stromile Swift. He's what Detroit needed coming off the bench. He's high energy, goes for steals and blocks etc. But for more than 20 minutes a game he's not effective. This could change over time, but right now, that's what Maxiell is. I would want Landry Chuck or Scola to play more minutes than Max only because they are better at maintaining defensive intensity for more minutes and are more than able to pass and participate on the offensive end. Now Stuckey has some great potential to improve, he's a great back up. I can see him during his third year getting substantial minutes off the bench... if there is a big trade truly in the works he may get his minutes earlier. If they stayed with what they have now, I think he would slowly get more minutes as he showed more control. This past season he showed moments of Luther Head like boneheaded passing and if he made a couple of drives to the basket successfully he would get out of control continuing to drive rather than running the offense.
Billups, Hamilton, and Sheed are really old and have all already showed signs of decline. I remember when Hamilton seemed to be the worst of the three but now it seems that Billups and Sheed have declined so much athletically that he has become the man. Guards don't age well and Sheed has already declined sharply so when you do a deal with them you have to look into the future, a couple years from now Sheed might be out of the league and Billups and Hamilton will be 6th man quality players. If you look at them right now, they seem to be really good and a Billups/Hamilton for Tmac trade sounds like a steal but in two years we would be stuck with them. Fortunately, we won't and we can dump Tmac's contract in a couple seasons and go after a star free agent.
IMO Scola is much better than Landry or Maxiell, so i'll leave him out. I do however think Maxiell is better than Landry but Landry is better for our team because he's better at creating for himself while Maxiell needs a good pass. I think Maxiell is a much better shot blocker, defender, and rebounder. Also is ridiculously long arms make his height a non-factor. I would love to bring him in if we had to trade any combo of Scola or Landry. Maxiell is the perfect energy big man, he's like a mixture of Scola, Landry, and Hayes. I was about to post a vid of Maxiel but it had a dunk on Yao that it repeated in slow motion
He is a better shot blocker because he leaves his man to go for the block. That doesn't say better defender to me. He rebounds at a lower rate than both Scola and Landry and about the same as Chuck. I am almost certain. Check his steals. I would guess he avgs less than a steal a game. That to me shows a better team defender than blocks does. Edit: Career Stats Scola BPG - .2 RPG - 6.4 SPG - .7 Landry BPG - .2 RPG - 4.9 SPG - .4 Hayes BPG - .5 RPG - 5.4 SPG - .9 (1.1 this past season) Maxiell BPG - 1.1 RPG - 3.7 (5.3 this season) SPG - .3 Look what my eyes told me when watching the Pistons is shown to be true through the stats! I love when that happens. I just want to re-emphasize - I like Maxiell and what he brings to the table. But to flat out say he's better than our PF isn't true. Edit 2: I also want to say that Landry can't create for himself any better than Maxiell or Chuck can.
Max actually gets a fair amount of his blocks on his own man. His long arms and quickness using them surprise a lot of guys. He had a great block on Garnett in the ECF, for example. Max is also a very good pick and roll defender. That doesn't really show up in stats. He definitely struggles on the defensive boards. He used to be awful but he's now mediocre. He's a great offensive rebounder though.
He does show well on a pick and roll, and can typically recover pretty quickly. I will give you that. He is fast, but far more often than him blocking his own man during the regular season I saw him going for a block and his player getting an easy bucket off a rebound. Especially early last season. He is definitely a contributor and I love when he gets on the court in Detroit cause there is an instant amp in excitement. I just take exception to saying that he's better than all three of our PFs.
Maybe, but if you go by that logic at one point Hayes was head and shoulders ahead of everyone as the best rebounder in the league. I think Hayes is a much better rebounder than all of them, then Maxiel, then Landry, then Scola (he gets many of his from catching his own misses, not the same as boxing out and getting after it). I've said i think Scola's the best. Hayes is the better defender and rebounder. I just think Maxiel is better. 5.3 rpg and 1.1 bpg seems better than 4.9 rpg and .2 bpg but i don't think those stats matter at ALL unless someone is playing big minutes. Even the .4 to .3 steals difference is minimal. We disagree on the steals stat. I think its much less useful than blocks. Blocks per game are actually not important to me at all, the intimidation (deterring people from driving to the paint) is much more useful and Maxiell is the only one of the 4 that i believe ever does that. Steals sometimes aren't even awarded to the right person and i just don't feel they show much of anything about defense other than quick hands. I think Larry Hughes has always done well in this regard and i don't feel he is an elite defender. I'm pretty sure Rafer averaged more than Shane this year, does that make him a better team defender? I don't know if that was meant to be funny or if you were intentionally being condescending of my approach to basketball analysis. It seemed a little offensive. I think he's capable of posting smaller players, his triple threat game is much more developed and he has the best jumpshot. Maxiel is better around the rim though. So, I disagree. I just don't care to here much about stats unless it is some enormous gap (in which case i probably would have noticed it already by watching the game). Didn't someone use stats to say that VC was a better player than Kobe? You can pretty much manufacture anything you want by using stats. I don't take it as "evidence" or anything useful to back up a point anymore (unless its drastic). I'm entitled to my own opinion and that's how i feel.
I didn't mean to be offensive I was just giving you a hard time. A agree that everyone's entitled to their opinion. I was just stating mine too
NOOO when i saw that i was like nooo this has to be dealing with the rockets and tracy i hope it doesnt go down pleasee!!!
dumars needs to trade chauncey while he still has some value....hes getting pretty old in age and im sure he could get a good player for him right now.
i do think it's true, but very debatable. maxiell hasn't been given enough minutes, it really doesn't matter how many piston's games i've watched because he really hasn't had that much pt. very comparable to a healthy landry, but seems a bit more explosive and stronger than landry though. doesn't have the savvy that scola's got, but definitely better than hayes. don't get me wrong, i love chuck, the hustle, defense, rebounding, but he's a liability on offense while maxiell isn't. debatable.
i'm guessing fisher, but he's really underrated, he brings a lot more than the stats say, and he actually makes his shots. i'm so used to watching rafer play that when i see a pg who can hit his open shots... nevermind. welcome barry.
