RIP CITY

quote: Originally posted by FENDI:Very true indeed. This team relies on the mere presence of Dwight too much. To have Shard and Hedo in the frontcourt already gives us a soft frontcourt. Coz both are wingmen, and not used, and may never be used, to defending big men. I think next year we'll be having a different game plan but only a bit different to what we ran this season. With Battie back, we finally have a servicable big. Then possibility of Fran coming over, his mere length alone is a good presence already. I was watching the LA game earlier, and Gasol's length is doing a great job altering shots. This is not harsh at all. But a reality this team has to face. Our starting backcourt players are easily backups for contenders. Jameer will never get us anywhere. The be schooled by a rookie alone is just too much. Jameer was abused by a rookie. Yes, its just a series, but this series spelled the difference of this season. Not to mention Jameer was schooled most of the time by the opposing players during the regular season. Quite frankly, I'll be surprised, not shocked, if he ever developed a solid post game like KG or TD. Dwight was never known to be a scorer. Even coming out from HS he only averaged like 25ppg. As a matter of fact, I remember his HS coach posting in RGM that Dwight at max, can only be a 25 ppg player. Which obviously is a big plus already. I'd want Dwight to develop a game like Shaq and not TD or KG. Because Dwight can simply muscle his way through, like what Shaq did. Second, he relies on his athleticism too much that he could be a one big fall away from having his style of play changed dramatically. Great post FENDI, and thanks for bringing back this thread. I feel like Dwight will become a much better post scorer in the future, he just needs to work on some things. Right now he doesn't do a very good job handling double-teams. That's the only real flaw that will hold him back. He can score points without having a amazing post game, he already does score without it. But he will need to work on handling double-teams because like I said, he will see double-teams his entire career. This is something that Tim Duncan did a good job of improving at, and I feel like eventually Dwight will also. All though Dwight has struggled against the Pistons during his career, I feel like that will only last for so long. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be the best big man in the NBA eventually. He has good instincts on the defensive end, and might be the most athletic big man to ever play in the NBA. He just needs to refine his skills, mostly on the offensive end.

quote: Originally posted by Kramer: Heck, when Rip ran into his own teammate he got the call! I really don't want to argue about the refs anymore, but I just had to point out that this particular part made me laugh. Because it was a Pistons player that got called for a foul when one the Magic players ran into Gortat, and fell down. I forget who the player was, but they were dribbling into the lane, ran into Gortat, fell down, and the refs called a foul on a Pistons player. There were many bad/missed calls on both ends. But the refs didn't give the Pistons this Series, the Pistons only shot 2 more FT per game in the Series. There were many times where Pistons players were fouled and didn't get the call. There was no fix in on the Magic, the last thing the NBA wants is the Pistons to win, we ruin the TV ratings, and are considered one of, if not THE most boring team in the League. If the NBA were to rig a Series, the Pistons wouldn't be the team to benefit from it, it would be about ratings, money, two things the Pistons don't generate. The Pistons won the Series because they were the better team, not to sound "righteous" but you couldn't even beat us without one of our best players for the last 2 games. Come on man, just give credit where credit is due. Anyway, I'm willing to talk basketball with anyone, but I'm done arguing about the refs.

quote: Originally posted by DwightHoward1880:im so sick of these detroit idiots coming on here and saying the officaiting didnt matter. listen morons take away6 the 3 by billups and hte foul by maxiel that wasnt called and we are very well up 3-1 with game 5 up for debate. when u have the bigger market and yopur the veteran team its easy to come on a board and be all righteous and noble and say the officiating didnt matter but u can kiss my skinny white behind with that, sure we turned the ball over, sure we shot poorly fdorm the line. but ina series tha6t was this close you are an idiot if u dont acknowdlge the poor officiating played into the result. facts are facts critical calls that werent made, wrogn calls might i mention, turned the tide. basketball is about momentum and contenutity. we didnt have a level playing field. so shut up about what the magic have to do. worry abvout yourselves. we will handle our own. as the series advances and detroit faces cleveland or detroit and youre on the sh'tty end of offiactign and it ends your series and season then we'll see how noble and righteous you are, and if u detroit scumbags open your message board ill be sure to come on there and lament your lack of chances because of the f'cked level of competition. but pelase shut the hell up. fairweather detroit fans, im sick of it i really am. youre not as great as u think you are. it took the officials handing u games 3 aND 4 to beat us. evemn game 5 was debatble, there was 5 straight posseisionw ith obvious fouls against the magic, no call. hedo goes tot he line twice? jameer none? dwight once in the second half? shut the hell up. lose your extra chromosome, get a job, get rid of your gun, and kiss my *** Well, I won't respond to most of that, because honestly, you should be banned for that post. But what I will say is that the officiating is not what won the Pistons the Series. You act like the refs were out to get you, or cheated to make the Pistons win. That's just ridiculous. The only real gripe you have with the officials is the 3 pointer at the end of the 3rd qtr that SHOULDN'T have counted. The problem is that the Magic came out RIGHT AFTER that 3 ball, and went on a 8-2 run, and took a 4 point lead in the next qtr., the Magic simply didn't close out the game, and that's just the hard truth. I could write up a nice long post about all the calls the refs missed on our side too, other than the 3 pointer, you have no real case for saying this Series would have been different. Look at the boxscores, the Pistons shot a whopping 2 more free-throws per game in the Series, and the Magic won 1 game. We played two games without one of our best players, I'm sorry but this Series wouldn't have been different because of 1 or even a few bad calls, considering there were bad/missed calls on BOTH ends. As for me being "righteous".... if you feel that way, fine, it's really no skin off of my back. I haven't been on this board bragging about how great the Pistons are...because frankly they have their flaws too. I have always liked the Magic Francise, and alot of the players thru the years, and I have even posted on this board during times when the Pistons were not playing the Magic. I just thought I would post a thread giving my thoughts on the Series, and on the Magic. Because all though they are not my favorite team, my hometown team, I technically am a Magic fan. I like more than a few teams in the NBA, there are certain teams I would like to see win more than others. Really the only time a root against the Magic is when they play the Pistons because the Pistons are my hometown team, the team I have rooted for for almost 20 years now. Sorry you took my posts the wrong way, but I just wanted to talk some basketball. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm not just a Pistons fan, I am a NBA fan too.

quote: Originally posted by Give Me Redick All Day:Tony Parker is a pretty shoddy defender, yet their team is one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. As long as your help D is good, then being weak defensively at the PG position isn't as much of an exploit. I'd even go out on a limb and say that Billups is the exception to the rule; him being the only true defensive-minded PG (then again, I really can't think of anyone else off the top of my head). The Spurs can get away with it though because they have the best interior defender, best perimeter defenders in the NBA, and multiple defensive role players around Parker. They rotate very well defensively, and cover for each other very well. They also have great defensive gameplans set up by the best Coach in the NBA. The Magic don't really have any of that around Nelson except for a great shot blocker in Dwight. And no Chauncey is not a good defensive player anymore. He was horrible defensively for most of this season.

quote: Originally posted by KillingInTheNameOf:4. I think you and many others underestimate how good a post defender Rasheed is. Dwight is still very raw in terms of his ability to pass out of the post and he needs to add a reliable shot from 8 feet. His post game is a work in progress, but is pretty solid. It's his inability to hit a j or a turnaround j, his inability to pass, and Rasheed's D that made him look as poorly as he did in this series. It also didn't hurt to have defensive pressure on every passer trying to make entry passes to Dwight. Yeah, you're right there, I didn't want to make it sound like Dwight struggling was all his fault, and based soley on those flaws in his game. Rasheed IMO, is one of the Top 5 interior defensive players in the NBA, and he's done a great job making things hard for Dwight the last couple years. I wouldn't worry too much about Dwight though, yeah he has some flaws like I said, but he's still very young and can improve on all of them. Plus it's not like he isn't already a great player even with those flaws so he'll be fine once he fine tunes some things skill wise.

quote: i read your series analysis paragraph... i would say you are about 50% correct...in the sense that you were able to control dwight and that no team can live by the 3 without dying by it. however, you are incorrect also. first, the two series are night and day comparisons. you only played better than the magic twice in this series, period. in the first series, you played better than the magic in every game. also, detroit clearly does NOT play much better defense than the magic. in fact, detroit only averaged 1.4 more ppg during the series despite the uneven foul calls(magic were +9 and had more fouls in every game but game 2) and the fact that the magic were +40 on turnovers. what that means is that the magic beat themselves, and got screwed, twice. despite all that crap you only outscored us by one point per game. so, my thinking is that the magic actually played as good D as the pistons, considering how many mental mistakes they made, they still played the series tight. anyone that watched all 5 games know that the series was WAY closer than the final tally. the only reason why detroit won this series is because they took good care of the ball. you did nothing well aside from that, the stats prove it. we played poorly, but the pistons didnt exactly play well either, but atleast they took care of the ball... I'm sorry, but the Magic's defense is not good. And I'm not going to comment much on the officiating because to be honest that was WAY overblown by many on this board. The Pistons got whatever shots they wanted in this Series, and the Magic simply don't play very good defense. That's my opinion, and I am sticking to what I saw.

Alright, hopefully this won't be taken the wrong way, because I'm not a Magic hater, and this is just my thoughts on the Series, and the Magic's team going forward. I'm not going to re-hash the whole Series, but I'll say few things, then get to the Magic. This Series was alot like last years Series really. The Pistons did a great job containing Dwight Howard, and clearly play much better defense than the Magic. The Magic are a better offensive team than last years squad, and are very good shooting the 3. The problem is that you can't live by the 3 point shot, it's not a high percentage shot, and without Dwight dominating the paint, it's not as effective. The Pistons really stepped up, and played well without Chauncey, and the Magic made too many mental errors, and just didn't exacute down the stretch of games. It was a great season for the Magic, one where they made alot of improvement in some area's, but the Pistons are just the better team. Now onto the Magic, and some things I noticed about them in this Series, and a few thoughts I have about the team going forward. 1. Their team defense is not very good. Playing small ball (Rashard starting at the PF spot) doesn't help this, but the entire defense is not good. Jameer Nelson is basically a liability on the defensive end of the floor. Hedo, and Rashard are both pretty average defenders. And Dwight has too much responsibility for cleaning up the mess by blocking shots when these guys let their man go by them. They don't do a very good job rotating to open shooters, and closing out defensively as well. The Pistons got pretty much any shot they wanted in this Series, and outside of Dwight the Magic didn't do a good job on the defensive glass. Bringing in some better defenders should be a priority this off-season for the Magic. 2. As I said, playing small ball doesn't work in the Playoffs. I know most of you know this because I have seen it said on this board, but the Magic definitely need a physical Power Forward to play along side Dwight, and take some of the rebounding, and defensive pressure off of him. Rashard might be a mismatch for most teams on the offensive end because he can draw big men away from the basket with his outside shooting touch, but on the defensive end, he can't get inside and bang with Power Forwards, and it hurts the Magic interior defense, and rebounding. The Magic need to find a defensive Power Forward that can rebound the ball. I know they have Tony Battie, and that will help next year. But they still need a PF next year, and for the future. Battie isn't exactly young. Easier said than done, but they can't have Rashard starting at the 4 if they expect to beat some of the elite teams in the East. 3. And this one will probably sound harsh, but I'm going to say it anyway. The Magic need an entirely new Starting Backcourt. Jameer Nelson improved again this year offensively, and he's not a bad player. But he's probably the worst defensive starting PG in the NBA. He's also not very good navigating the offense, and creating for his teamates. He has pretty average court vision, and doesn't run the offense the way you would like from your PG. He would be much better as a backup that can come in and bring a scoring punch off the bench. Mo Evans is a solid defensive player, and I like what he brings on that end of the floor, but he simply doesn't give you very much offensively, and all though he is capable of hitting 3 pointers he's not consistant enough to be a starting shooting guard in the NBA. Again, this won't be easy, but I feel like the Magic will struggle to become an elite team until they find a better Starting Backcourt. 4. Dwight Howard is still very raw, particularly on the offensive end of the floor. This is both a good, and a bad thing. Bad for the time being, but great if he can improve in the coming years. Don't get me wrong, he's a great player, one of my favorite players in the League. But there are some things he needs to work on. He needs to work on some post moves, and putting a better, softer touch on his shots around the rim. He kind of throws the ball at the basket, and prays for the best when he isn't dunking or shooting the hook shot. He's hook shot is solid, and will continue to get better the more he works on it. He needs to work on his footwork around the rim, and develope a better variety of moves around the basket. He needs to work on dribbling/handling the ball better, and passing out double teams. Whenever he gets double teamed it usually ends up in a turnover because he's not very good at taking 1 or 2 dribbles and just going up without getting the ball stripped. And he's not a good passer, these are things that need to be worked on, because he will be seeing double-teams his entire career. He's a great player, with a TON of potential, but he's really just relying on his athletism at this point, and his skills are pretty raw. But there is no doubt in my mind judging by his work ethic so far, that he will be the most dominate big man in the NBA by the time he turns 25. Hopefully you guys don't take any of that the wrong way. It's just some things that I noticed during the Series, and I felt like making a post about it. The Magic are a good team, and they put up a great fight in this Series, but those flaws I mentioned above I thought were the difference in the Series. Hopefully the Magic have a good off-season and can remedy some of this, and come back better than ever next season. Good Series, and good luck in the future.

Alright, hopefully this won't be taken the wrong way, because I'm not a Magic hater, and this is just my thoughts on the Series, and the Magic's team going forward. I'm not going to re-hash the whole Series, but I'll say few things, then get to the Magic. This Series was alot like last years Series really. The Pistons did a great job containing Dwight Howard, and clearly play much better defense than the Magic. The Magic are a better offensive team than last years squad, and are very good shooting the 3. The problem is that you can't live by the 3 point shot, it's not a high percentage shot, and without Dwight dominating the paint, it's not as effective. The Pistons really stepped up, and played well without Chauncey, and the Magic made too many mental errors, and just didn't exacute down the stretch of games. It was a great season for the Magic, one where they made alot of improvement in some area's, but the Pistons are just the better team. Now onto the Magic, and some things I noticed about them in this Series, and a few thoughts I have about the team going forward. 1. Their team defense is not very good. Playing small ball (Rashard starting at the PF spot) doesn't help this, but the entire defense is not good. Jameer Nelson is basically a liability on the defensive end of the floor. Hedo, and Rashard are both pretty average defenders. And Dwight has too much responsibility for cleaning up the mess by blocking shots when these guys let their man go by them. They don't do a very good job rotating to open shooters, and closing out defensively as well. The Pistons got pretty much any shot they wanted in this Series, and outside of Dwight the Magic didn't do a good job on the defensive glass. Bringing in some better defenders should be a priority this off-season for the Magic. 2. As I said, playing small ball doesn't work in the Playoffs. I know most of you know this because I have seen it said on this board, but the Magic definitely need a physical Power Forward to play along side Dwight, and take some of the rebounding, and defensive pressure off of him. Rashard might be a mismatch for most teams on the offensive end because he can draw big men away from the basket with his outside shooting touch, but on the defensive end, he can't get inside and bang with Power Forwards, and it hurts the Magic interior defense, and rebounding. The Magic need to find a defensive Power Forward that can rebound the ball. I know they have Tony Battie, and that will help next year. But they still need a PF next year, and for the future. Battie isn't exactly young. Easier said than done, but they can't have Rashard starting at the 4 if they expect to beat some of the elite teams in the East. 3. And this one will probably sound harsh, but I'm going to say it anyway. The Magic need an entirely new Starting Backcourt. Jameer Nelson improved again this year offensively, and he's not a bad player. But he's probably the worst defensive starting PG in the NBA. He's also not very good navigating the offense, and creating for his teamates. He has pretty average court vision, and doesn't run the offense the way you would like from your PG. He would be much better as a backup that can come in and bring a scoring punch off the bench. Mo Evans is a solid defensive player, and I like what he brings on that end of the floor, but he simply doesn't give you very much offensively, and all though he is capable of hitting 3 pointers he's not consistant enough to be a starting shooting guard in the NBA. Again, this won't be easy, but I feel like the Magic will struggle to become an elite team until they find a better Starting Backcourt. 4. Dwight Howard is still very raw, particularly on the offensive end of the floor. This is both a good, and a bad thing. Bad for the time being, but great if he can improve in the coming years. Don't get me wrong, he's a great player, one of my favorite players in the League. But there are some things he needs to work on. He needs to work on some post moves, and putting a better, softer touch on his shots around the rim. He kind of throws the ball at the basket, and prays for the best when he isn't dunking or shooting the hook shot. He's hook shot is solid, and will continue to get better the more he works on it. He needs to work on his footwork around the rim, and develope a better variety of moves around the basket. He needs to work on dribbling/handling the ball better, and passing out double teams. Whenever he gets double teamed it usually ends up in a turnover because he's not very good at taking 1 or 2 dribbles and just going up without getting the ball stripped. And he's not a good passer, these are things that need to be worked on, because he will be seeing double-teams his entire career. He's a great player, with a TON of potential, but he's really just relying on his athletism at this point, and his skills are pretty raw. But there is no doubt in my mind judging by his work ethic so far, that he will be the most dominate big man in the NBA by the time he turns 25. Hopefully you guys don't take any of that the wrong way. It's just some things that I noticed during the Series, and I felt like making a post about it. The Magic are a good team, and they put up a great fight in this Series, but those flaws I mentioned above I thought were the difference in the Series. Hopefully the Magic have a good off-season and can remedy some of this, and come back better than ever next season. Good Series, and good luck in the future.

Wow, what a game. Hedo really had me worried for a minute there. Dyess' rebound saved the game, and Tay hit a heck of a shot to take the lead. Just a really fun game to watch, would have been disappointing to lose after fighting so hard without Chauncey, but I could have lived with it, but getting the win was nice. The Series is not over yet, it will be difficult for the Magic to win 3 in a row, but we still don't know what will happen with Chauncey so I wouldn't completely count them out yet.

quote: Originally posted by Give Me Redick All Day:It's called MOMENTUM... a bad call like that CRUSHES a team's mentality. If you don't believe that, if you believe players are ****ing robots with no emotion whatsoever, than you are ****ing moronic. The calls were horrible (and you would feel the same way if it happened to your team), and that ONE play (like Charles and Kenny said in "Inside the NBA") changed the entire layout of the game. Period. I understand what you are trying to say, but it's up to the players to play thru it and overcome it. There was still a whole qtr of basketball to be played, and they didn't play as well in the 4th as they did in the 3rd. Many teams, including the Pistons have had to play with horrible calls and over come it. I know you won't believe me when I say this, but if this would have happened to the Pistons, I would be on the Pistons board writing the same thing "Nick Anderson 4 President" wrote, that's just the truth weather you believe it or not. I just wouldn't be able to blame a loss on one bad call, which again I believe it was, when there was that much time left in the game and only down 2 points. Trust me, the Pistons have dealt with horrible calls, we played the Heat in 2 Eastern Conference Finals where the refs gave Dwyane Wade phantom call after phantom call, but the Pistons didn't play well enough to win in the 2nd ECF with Miami, and didn't do a good job forgetting the refs, and playing thru it. In the 1st ECF with the Heat they did, and they won because they remained focused and took care of business. There are horrible calls that happen all the way thru the Playoffs for every team, the best teams, the Championship teams are the teams that can play thru it and win in spite of it.

Thank you, I absolutely agree that the call was a bad call, and I think there were some bad calls in the 4th qtr. on both sides, and probably a few more that went in the Pistons favor, but the game was still in the balance, and both teams had an opportunity to win. I will never believe that the NBA wants the Pistons to win, we are widely considered a very boring team by most casual fans, and we don't have the star power on our team that brings good TV ratings. The Magic simply didn't play as well in the 4th as they did in the 3rd, had they kept playing the way they did in the 3rd, I believe they win this game fairly easily. I expect the Magic to win at least 1 of the two games in Orlando, and possibly both. This Series is far from over, and I know neither team has played their best basketball yet in this Series.

It was a bad call, but the game was not rigged. The Magic had the entire 4th qtr to win the game, if they had played the same way they played in the 3rd, they would have won fairly easily.

Actually in the Playoffs the timekeepers are purposely chosen from different teams for this reason.

quote: Originally posted by ball junkie:Hey Rip, how about this comment from one of your Piston brothers named sausagecan. Dude registered yesterday to talk some Smack: quote: piston nation will arrive in your godforsaken city on saturday, extinguish whatever it is that was "ignited", drink your beer, use your trash cans as urinals, step all over your 5 ft pt guard and beat yo' butts by 20 and then do it again in game 4. Best Wishes Kwame K. I agree, it's comments like these that make the game a lot better. I have no control over what that guy says, he's obviously not here to post about the games like I am, he is here to start trouble. Please don't lump me in with that idiot. Check my posts, you won't find anything even remotely disrespectfull in any of the 88 posts I have made since I joined last year, and I even posted here when the Pistons were not playing the Magic to comment on the Magic, I'm not here for that nonsense.

Well, I'm not sure I should make anymore sigs, it seems some people here think I am trying send subliminal messages in them that I hate the Magic, lol. No but seriously Mr. T, if I have time I'll try to get to that sometime this week for you. I'm probably going to take off here pretty soon to watch the game, but I'll try to get to it sometime.