Pistons get stomped by Hornets

A really, really, REALLY bad 93-74 loss to the Hornets. As Dan Feldman from Piston Powered puts it:

No Piston had a positive plus-minus at halftime – and the Hornets were only up 10. It was incredible how every Piston did his small part to help the team fall behind.

More amazing: they did it again in the second half. All the Pistons who played in the first also posted negative plus-minuses in the second half.

Talking about a team effort, right? Gotta keep a sense of humor here ... This loss was truly annoying. I only got to watch the second half, but boy was that horrible. Ben Gordon was the only player playing well, showing what he's best at, shooting, shooting and more shooting. It was bad enough to hear the New Orleans announcers make fun of the roster (they really got a kick out of the number of guards. Quote when Bynum entered the game: "Oh, a substitution, look, another guard [laughter]".

We have so many guards and neither one of them gets a rhythm. The announcers talked about Bellinelli and how much confidence he has now because he is not afraid anymore to get pulled out after a missed jumper ... Well, how are you not afraid if you are a declining Rip Hamilton when Ben Gordon and T-Mac are sitting on the bench waiting to gobble up your playing time? Same issue for the other too!
I'm still wondering why we got McGrady if we are not going to use him a lot more. I'm starting to beg to make a trade so we don't have this jam at guard. Shooting is 50% about confidence and 50% about practice and talent. None of the players are truly confident. We have two potential game changers sitting on the bench most of the time (Gordon and T-Mac).

Another question: Why did we get Gordon if he's obviously not allowed to take jumpers? What made him great for the Bulls was that he was the leader of the second unit and got the green light. He could any shot anytime he wanted. He had 20+ quarters for Jesus Shuttlesworth's sake. You can't bring in players and take away their biggest strengths, they've been developing them for a mighty long time. Gordon won't be anything else BUT a jumpshooter. If you aren't going to use him you might as well sit him.

You can make the case Kuester is trying to develop the young talent. While Monroe is getting a lot more burn he's still not playing enough minutes. He's lacking confidence in a major way. He's trying to adjust but let's face it, it is not as easy for a big man, because they don't handle the ball as much.

What really annoyed me last night though, was passing up good looks for bad looks. I don't know how many times I saw a player catching the ball with a wide open look, faking, taking one dribble INSIDE the three-point line and fading away for the jumper. That's a streetball move, but you aren't going to win games with that. The Hornets didn't respect the jumper so they didn't leave their feet since they learnt rather quickly Detroit was going to take a bad shot anyway.

Detroit needs to change something! Coach, players ... I don't know, but this roster isn't built to compete. The Hornets are a bad opponent for the Pistons. They match up very well. They have a big man with a great touch (David West), a guard who's strong and fast enough to keep Stuckey from driving at will (Chris Paul) and quick and athletic wing defenders to close out on the jumpshooters (Trevor Ariza). But that's just not good enough of an excuse ...

Pistons Trade Dreams: Chris Paul

So, Chris Paul unofficially demands a trade out of New Orleans (source Yahoo!Sports)! Well, let's dream!
The Hornets ownership will not get bac equal value, there's just no way that is going to work for them, but I will propose something that will give them back good value and at the same time two expiring contracts.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2fnmhw3

As you can see, the Pistons would offer two expiring contracts in Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey. It would open up the 1-guard for Darren Collison and enable Stuckey to play the 2-guard. Tayshaun is such a versatile player that he'll fit with any team he plays for. If you want you can talk about draft picks too, but not necessarily. Although I'd hate to see Prince go, if you can work a trade for Chris Paul, you can't pass it up! Even Joey D, who is so fond of Stuck, would pull the trigger!

Chris Paul would be a great PG and franchise player complementing the skills of the other players as a distributor and facilitator enabling Ben Gordon and Charlie V to get open looks from the perimeter. Paul's also a terrific defender and has great leadership, he would easily carry the Pistons back into the playoffs all by himself, but as the roster is currently constructed, the Pistons might even make the second round.

So let's keep on dreaming!

Pistons Trading for *gulp* Eddy Curry???

Ok, I just found this quote from the Yahoo! Sports' Suicide Lines from a Marc Berman quote of the New York Post:

"According to a person familiar with the Knicks' thinking, the club will explore trading Wilson Chandler, possibly packaging him with the expiring contract of Eddy Curry. The Knicks would love to trade for a premier outside-shooting big man."

My question is, should the Pistons do this? I mean, call me crazy! Call me stupid! But should we do this? Wilson Chandler is actually a likeable guy with horrible shot selection. He is also rather athletic, but doesn't really know how to use it. Then, well, Eddy Curry, he's Eddy Curry ... talented but overweight all the same. He could've been a special and dominant Center, but chose to have his meals at McDonald's instead of hiring a dietician for the $10 Mio dollars he got for playing all of 56 minutes last year (@ Knicks president: If you pay a guy that much, at least make him work for it somehow, make him wash clothes or stupid stuff like that).
Then again, Eddy Curry is an expiring contract.

So why should Joey D consider it? Well, here are five reasons, enjoy!

1) It's an expiring contract worth about $11 Mio and next years free agent market is not completely unattractive (Melo anyone?). Also, you can use the contract in another trade if you'd like to, if another team should be wanting to ditch some salary and get rid of a good player, who are we to deny them???

2) They want a sweet shooting big who doesn't play defense and fits Mike D'Antoni??? Ladies and Gentlemen, you have found yourself a Charlie Villanueva! I like the guy, I believe he will be better this year than last year, he will never (EVER) be a tough player, and we need tougher players. He is a finesse Forward! He would flourish in D'Antoni's system while the Knicks could go with Amaré, C-Nuv and Danilo which would make an offensively explosive trio.

3) Moving C-Nuv would open up playing time for Jonas Jerebko, Jason Maxiell and Greg Monroe. I'm not sold on the idea that Monroe will be a Center in this league and I would like to see him get some minutes at the four. We always do have Chris Wilcox, so the Pistons are stacked at the 4 as it is, we have skilled players for this position I don't see us needing Villanueva.

4) I actually hate to bring this point up, but Eddy Curry still is a Center with huge potential and great moves offensively. If Coach Q could somehow get him to shed some weight and be a player again, he could really help this squad. He used to be a 20 points, 10 rebounds guy, if we could make him a 10 and 7 guy with occasional defense, he would be a nice upgrade.

5) Curry is in a contract year, so he might be extra-motivated to prove he can still be a good Center in this league.

I see this as a low risk, high reward trade. If it doesn't work out, we'll have cap space, if it works out and Curry actually realizes his potential, we'll have a good Center. That's why I think Joey D should take a closer look at this scenario!