Posts tagged ‘Deven Khrucell’

How would you rank the Pistons’ big men against the NBA’s top big men in the league?

Join us LIVE Sunday August 30^th at 8pm on blogtalkradio when we’ll take a look at the league’s top big men and see if Ben Wallace, Chris Wilcox, and Kwame Brown is enough to meet any challenge that the NBA has to offer

Is the return of Big Ben just over-inflated hype, or will his presence be strong enough to help Detroit regain respectability in the eastern conference?

Tell us what you think!!!

Join Pistonscast LIVE on blogtalkradio Sunday, August 23rd at 8:00pm when we officially welcome back Ben Wallace!

We’ll discuss Ben’s new role with the Pistons and what we can realistically expect out of his play.

Leadership is one of those words that can be difficult to nail down a concrete definition for. In terms of basketball, I believe a leader is the one who takes on the responsibility of successfully accomplishing the specific goal set by the team.

I think the question of leadership is the only difference between Rodney Stuckey and some of the NBA’s great young point guards like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Derrick Rose. All three are  proven leaders who’s play determines the outcome of games every night.

In only his rookie season, Derrick Rose was clearly the leader of the Chicago Bulls and the heart and soul of the team. So far, Stuckey hasn’t impacted his team quite as much as Rose has in Chicago, but he has shown signs of greatness.

In Stuckey’s defense, unlike the other guards previously mentioned, he hasn’t really had the same opportunity to be a leader. As a rookie, his job for Detroit was to be back-up to Chauncey Billups. The following season he had more opportunities but with the constant line-up changes, it still was some time before his role was clearly defined

Now, with the dawning of a new day in Detroit, is this the season for Rodney Stuckey or will another player step up and become the leader of the Detroit Pistons?

Join Pistonscast LIVE on blogtalkradio Monday, July 27^th at 6:00pm, when we discuss who the Detroit Pistons next number one guy will be.

How can Joe Dumars not keep a guy like this in house?

Hiding this video made it a lot worse than it had to be.  Nike and Lebron should be ashamed!

Join Pistonscast LIVE on blogtalkradio Monday, July 20^th at 6:00pm, as we take a closer look at the newest Pistons to see who has what it takes to help bring the title back to Detroit.

How to listen? It’s easy! Just click on the blogtalkradio link to our show at the scheduled time and wait for the fun to start. 

Don’t be shy Pistons fans!  There’s also a call in number (718-664-6124) and live chat session  during every show to give you the opportunity to have your voice heard.  However to participate in the Live chat sessions you must register as a listener.

GO PISTONS!!

By Deven Khrucell aka Pimpscwalla

You mean to tell me that years ago, when I used to go see the Detroit Lions practice, all I had to do was tackle Barry Sanders in the Silver Dome parking-lot and I could have been famous?

I think Nike Messed up on this one. They just should have let everyone see the king get posterized. Now Lebron looks like a scared coward.

I wonder what his Nike advisors will have him tell the media?  I can just see him in an interview telling them “I have no recollection of any sort of dunk video.”  Then when the tape is released, we’ll have a “dunkergate” conspiracy.

Kobe’s image was almost ruined by his actions with a woman and now if he doesn’t handle this correctly Lebron’s image could be tainted by two points.

While we’re all waiting on Joe Dumars to piece together this difficult Piston’s puzzle, I thought we might enjoy a laugh or two from our new eastern conference neighbor.

By Deven Khrucell aka Pimp Scwalla

From the beginning of his tenure as president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons, Joe Dumars has been pretty hard to read when it comes to his prospective draft picks. No matter how many names are thrown in the mix for potential selections, I never come close to what Dumars is thinking. For example, in 2008 He made Walter Sharpe Detroit’s top pick when most people barely even knew who he was. But after watching the 2009 NBA draft I might have a clue into the thinking process behind Dumars’s selections.

Since his first draft in 2000 when he decided to select Michigan State point guard Mateen Cleaves (passing on Hedo turkoglu and Michael redd), whenever Joe Dumars is in a bind and needs to reach into his bag of tricks, he usually comes out with a forward. When I took a count of each player that Dumars selected since becoming the Piston’s president, I found that out of a total of 23 picks, 14 of them were fowards and of those 14 forwards selected, 9 of them were small forwards, which is equal to the total number of picks at the other three positions combined. It’s apparent that Joe has a lot of love for the forwards—but why?

In an interview after selecting the Piston’s first round draft pick Austin Daye in the 2009 NBA draft, Joe Dumars told everyone that when drafting a player, he looks for someone that can play more than one position. But after taking a closer look at his draft track record, I think it’s a little more than that. I think a certain body type and ability gets his attention as well. For example, not only is Tayshaun Prince able to play more than just the small forward position, his long lean frame and level of athleticism makes him one of the most versatile players in the Pistons line-up with the ability to play four positions. As a rookie, how nice was it to see Tayshaun at 6 ‘9′ slow down Allen Iverson in the 2003 playoffs and follow that performance up with locking up a very hot Tracey McGrady enabling Detroit to defeat Orlando. His length also enabled him to disrupt an otherwise unstoppable Kobe Bryant in the 2004 NBA finals, which earned him the name “Kobe Stopper” by fans. He was as important as any other Piston during their championship run in 2004. Maybe that explains why Dumars, knowing how good Carmelo Anthony was at 6 ‘9′, couldn’t resist taking Darko Milicic who had the potential to play the same position at 7 feet tall. Taking Darko with the third pick turned out to be Dumars’s worst decision to date–all other top five selections are, simply put, the franchise of their teams. In retrospect I’m sure he would have taking Anthony instead.

Carmelo Anthony wasn’t Joe Dumars’s only missed opportunity. In the 2001 draft that followed a season where the Pistons were just 32-50. Dumars was very high on a freshman forward from UNC Charlotte by the name of Rodney White. He saw enough in his game to pass up the likes of Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Tony parker and Gilbert Arenas. This was at a time when Detroit had just lost superstar player Grant Hill and the best the Pistons had at point guard was a very limited, Chucky Atkins. But disappointment didn’t stop Dumars from continuing to pursue his type of players. In 2008 he took as he described it, a “long look” at UAB forward, Water Sharpe, who at the time, no one really even knew and then he drafted four more forwards the very next year in the 2009 NBA draft.

This goes to show that Joe Dumars just likes what he likes. He looks at players from a different perspective than other people do. That’s why he’s able to strike gold with Tayshaun Prince when many others passed him by and also fail miserably with Darko Milicic when others were wondering…”what the hell!” One thing’s for sure, when it goes good it really goes good and when it goes bad, he’s been able to weather the storm pretty nicely.

By Deven Khrucell (aka Pimp Scwalla)

When the Detroit Pistons go on the clock June 25th, it’ll be anybody’s guess who Joe Dumars might draft at number 15 and even more of a mystery is what position. One thing’s for sure, with the current state of the Detroit Pistons, he had better choose carefully.

The Piston’s main concern right now is trying to pick up impact players from the free agent market or by trading for them. Most of the big name free agents are big men like; Bosh, Okur, Boozer, etc… Players like those won’t come cheap. In order to make this possible, there’s a good chance they will lose Rip Hamilton and/or Tayshaun Prince.

The draft pick that I see fitting best in this mix is Louisville Cardinal, Terrence Williams. Williams is a lock-down defender with plenty of explosiveness and is able to knock down three point shots when needed. I also like the fact that he is a four year guy who can guard both the two and the three.

While Williams won’t quickly replace Rip or Tay, drafting a guy like Williams could help soften the blow of losing one or two of Detroit’s cornerstone players. His versatility makes it easy to slide him into either the shooting guard or the small forward position. He also gives the Pistons some leverage when decide which players are going to be here in the future.

Many believe Rodney Stuckey is a better fit at shooting guard and the Piston’s should draft a point guard. That definitely makes sense, but let’s look at the whole picture. Drafting and working with another young point guard (at this point) will be too daunting and could be disastrous for an inexperienced Michael Curry. Besides that, we still don’t know for sure that Rodney’s late season woes were because of the position he plays or the fact that being a great NBA point guard can’t be achieved over night.

Either way we look at it, in order for Detroit to get better, it’s going to cost them at the shooting guard or small forward position–leaving a big hole in the line-up. Why not fill in that hole with someone that can play both - it just makes sense.

What do you think?