12/19 - 1/1 Games Discussion Thread

[jeebs9]

Nope... Detroit failed. It just seems like mental mistakes in clutch time.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by jeebs9

Nope... Detroit failed. It just seems like mental mistakes in clutch time.

This is the lowest point in Pistons basketball of my entire lifetime. I'm morbidly fascinated by how a team can be this consistently unsuccessful over such a lengthy stretch of basketball. 25 straight loss, just four wins since February. Crazy.

[jeebs9]

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

This is the lowest point in Pistons basketball of my entire lifetime. I'm morbidly fascinated by how a team can be this consistently unsuccessful over such a lengthy stretch of basketball. 25 straight loss, just four wins since February. Crazy.

Sorry man. Y'all don't deserve this. The funny thing for me is you guys are finally healthy (if you exclude Duren). I think it's too early to fire Monty Williams in my opinion. Cade is finally playing well too.

Nets in a home and home, Celtics and then the Raptors to end the year.

Thunder are not playing around vs the Clippers.

[jeebs9]

Josh Giddey rolled his ankle. The minor injury jokes started rolling in lmao

[DamnYanks2]

Lakers apparently can't win unless it's the tournament.

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by DamnYanks2

Lakers apparently can't win unless it's the tournament.

They’ve shown that Bron has enough juice left that if he and AD are healthy they can be a problem for anybody, and fixed their earlier season bench problems by moving Reaves to 6th man and subbing out LeBron early to bring him back in so most of their bench minutes feature Bron+AR..

Everything else from them is just up in the air. The DLo-Cam-Prince trio as the other starters isn’t horrible, but it’s not contender level either. None of them do anything at an above average level so none of them really feel a specific role or need. Even looking back to last years group, you knew Vando was going to defend the best player, crash the glass, play the cutter/dunker spot. You knew Dennis was going to check all the quick guards. Reaves was the secondary play-maker. Rui would play the 5 spot on defense and allow AD roam. The 3 guys out there for them now are just sorta out there.

Ham doesn’t do a good job at all of staggering his offensive/defensive oriented guys and every night it feels like it’s a puzzle to figure out if they are going to try to win a game with defense and controlling pace, or by going shot for shot hoping to just out score the other team.

Ham can’t decide if he wants to play Wood or not, doesn’t know how to manage Rui’s minutes at all since basically just making him a LeBron backup, hasn’t been able to find a role for Vando since he got back. Some games Christie starts some games he gets DNPs.

Vincent being out basically the whole year leaves a little uncertainty of what issues could be resolved by him being available but overall they feel like a team that really really needs to be able to consolidate 3-4 of these players into 1 or 2 players who actually fill need for them. Only issue is with how little impact DLo has had I’m not sure there is a realistic trade for them to make. I don’t believe there is a team in the league that would want him as a starting PG right now other than possibly bottom of the standings teams like San Antonio or Detroit.

I realize 90% of the league has all these same issues the first 20-30 games into the season. Injuries, roster turnover, figuring out rotations, etc.. but for a team that made the conference finals and then supposedly “won the off-season” they look like a giant mess of uncertainty. They have zero identity outside of AD looks motivated and Bron still has juice left. Which of course comes crashing down the moment one/both of them misses a couple weeks straight. Ham as a head coach still feels a bit shaky to me as well, at least the front office didn’t give him 3-4 guys under 6’4 he could play at the same time this year.

[ggsimmonds]

I'm ashamed to admit that I have not caught one Thunder game yet this season. I need to change that.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

This is the lowest point in Pistons basketball of my entire lifetime. I'm morbidly fascinated by how a team can be this consistently unsuccessful over such a lengthy stretch of basketball. 25 straight loss, just four wins since February. Crazy.

What I find interesting, I was watching the game recap and I noticed that the arena wasn't nearly as empty as I would have imagined. Worst team in the league playing another not great team that typically doesn't generate a lot of interest and the attendance seemed respectable. So I check the figures for the current season and according to that the Pistons are almost middle of the pack in average attendance.

I don't know if its a case of admirable fan loyalty/dedication or if your morbid curiosity is not unique.