A Message For Joe Dumars

I hope Joe Dumars reads this. I hope somebody could whisper this to him.

Please don’t change the core group.

There might not be much of this pleading after the 3 straight loss in the conference finals but he actually pulled out the bad weed.

Let me say this before you charge me of being ungrateful: Flip Saunders did a decent job in guiding the team to 3 successful regular seasons, 3 straight conference finals. But this I say, I’d give that accomplishment a full 100% but just 35% from its total produce. Let me translate that last part in layman’s terms. A head coach can only do so much from the bench, from the sidelines, in the locker room. Draw offensive sets, set up defensive schemes, grade the effort given by the players, scatter the playing time and execute a substitution pattern. I also give the assistant coaches 15% out of the 100% total produce. A full 50% to the players.

In this recent loss, I didn’t hate the Pistons players even if they looked bewildered in the last half of the fourth quarter. They seemed lost. Not out of control, just lost.

I can’t seem to comprehend why Rip was made to sit until the less than 5 minutes in the last quarter. There’s no reason why Theo Ratliff was inserted in the mix when what they needed was a quicker guy beside Rasheed to block off the passing lanes. They were resting McDyess, that I understand. But you can’t put Ratliff in for the very reason that he wasn’t in the mix. Why wasn’t Maxiell sent in instead?

It was a chess match as far as coaching was concerned and clearly it wasn’t done on Detroit’s end. You can’t blame the players for this one. And the one thing that clearly annoys me is the fact that everybody is blaming ‘Sheed for this slip. Almost everyone wants ‘Sheed shipped out. The guy did all this season. If he slid a step or two in performance in the last game, then he slipped. Still, he is just one player out there and this guy was trying to defend the inside. You see his effort was there but with the defensive design that the coach drew that there should be help from the weak side didn’t happen.

Joe Dumars was right in saying that “everybody’s in play” because they crumbled altogether. But in this same light, Joe D must rethink it. Rethink it with one what if and give this bunch of starters one more season, just one more to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Have they shortchanged the fans as well as the management for this third straight conference finals loss? I don’t believe so. The same core group gave Detroit a championship, another trip to the finals the succeeding year.

This year was supposedly to be rather significant with the luxury of a stronger bench compared to the team that lost to Miami & Cleveland. But what average fans and the media failed to see was that the trust given to this bench was short-lived and was never evident in the conference finals. During the regular season, they were used as sparkplugs in cases that the starters’ lights dimmed. This never happened in the playoffs.

The substitutions made, especially in the conference finals games where they lost, were rather erratic if not uncalled for. Here’s why I am pointing this out: if substitutions aren’t done right, if you don’t push the right buttons, the outcome wouldn’t be positive.

Here’s what I would rather request Joe Dumars do: clear some more bench space to get that one scrappy power forward, a small forward that’s an anti-thesis of Tayshaun Prince and others for defensive purposes. They Pistons have enough jump shooters to go around with.

Keep the core, clear bench space and look for scrappy, strong and nothing-left-to-lose players.

And, of course, a coach that doesn’t’ crumble in crunch time.

NBA '08 Finals - My Pick

Good things, happy thoughts. Let’s rest on those things at this point in time. I need something to forget recent loss absorbed by the Detroit Pistons. Fortunately, I just had in my possession the book written by Slash, former Gn’R guitarist now with Velvet Revolver, aptly titled “Slash”.

But first, let me thank Mr. Chris Iafolla for taking time and posting a comment on this page. Let me just say that it was me thinking out loud out of frustration. But then again, it’s a theory. As Sir Charles would put it, “I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It”.

It’s the NBA finals, Lakers against the Celtics. Storied franchises and a rivalry for ages. The top team of the East against the top team of the West. Top defensive team against one of the best offensive machines in the NBA.

My prediction: Lakers in 5 games.

Reasons:

Phil Jackson over Doc Rivers. I am not downplaying the coaching intelligence of Doc Rivers but he is up against a person with 9 rings and was able to, once again, used his Jedi mind powers over the Dark Side of a superstar, this one with a bruised ego the size of Saturn.


The Kobe Bryant Factor. Yes, they have the Boston Three Party in Kevin Garnett, (who’d most likely be pitted against Pau Gasol), Paul Pierce (against Lamar Odom) and Ray Allen..against Kobe?! If not that, then I’ll go back to my first reason: Phil Jackson. He is not a Flip Saunders. Phil Jackson is so intelligent even Pop, who is a mind game player himself, can’t play his game through against Phil’s. the only thing that stopped Phil Jackson from getting his 10th ring is the Kobe-Shaq feud at that time. That was a case of “your strength being your own weakness” kind of thing. If Kobe shrugs off any minor injury, he’ll get his fourth ring, Phil his 10th—and laughing at Red Auerbach thereafter (God bless his soul).

The Triangle Offense versus Hi Pick and Roll. That’s diversity versus predictability.

And you may ask, "Why not a sweep?" For the reason that Phil Jackson knows it'll be sweeter if the Lakers won this one at home.

And, as long as the bench of the Lakers plays the same way, there’s no stopping this freight train.

Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 - All Is Said But Not Done

Third straight year, third straight disappointment, totally disheartening.

Antonio McDyess said it best: “We give (the fans) a good dose in the beginning and let them down in the end.”

I mean, it’s just totally inexcusable not to learn the lessons, not to make the necessary adjustments. Three years in a row of harrowing disappointment is simply inexcusable.

Tayshaun Prince may have given Flip Saunders a face-saving statement, “the media has talked about over the past couple of years how far as us losing in the Eastern Conference finals and it being Flip’s (Saunders) fault. Today was a prime example it wasn’t”.

I’m sorry Tayshaun but I’m not buying that anymore. If a team that’s on the brink of elimination, a team trying to make a point to its fans by getting past the Conference Finals after 2 years of being disappointed, squanders a ten point lead in the final quarter in a game that it should have won.

A player’s standpoint or perspective may be different from a fan’s point of view but honestly, a player can only do so much as to play the game. It’s already a chess match come the playoff time. I mean, if coaches do not take the brunt or the burden of this loss then what’s the point of hiring a head coach and pay them the large salary that they get if they can’t provide the outcome?

Two years back in Miami, the excuse was that the league emphasized more on the offensive part of the game. OK, so the fans gave Saunders the benefit of the doubt w/ Joe D backing up his coach, saying that Flip is the right man for the job w/ his offensive set plays.

A year ago, it was complacency. Also the fact that ‘Sheed rolled his ankle. Ok, it would be because of a number of reasons but last year’s disappointment was still a nightmare. Being killed in the playoffs by a one-man wrecking crew was a stinging loss. We had our hearts crushed on that one. Joe D was quite stern on his warning against complacency thereafter. Mr. Dumars also strengthened his bench with rookies Stuckey & Afflalo; a gunner in Jarvis Hayes; and emphasized on developing the bench. Maxiell got much of the benefit of this.

The fans thought they had everything clicking: a healthy line up, a strong(er) bench, offensive sets and two years of hard-earned lessons (heartbreaks). If it wasn’t the coach’s fault, then should we buy the fact that this was all the effort that the players can give? I don’t think so.

Let’s go back a little, go back to games 3 and 5, the last quarter runs. They showed that, if pressed the right buttons with the correct personnel on the floor, they can execute that stifling defense that was once was their trademark, their staple. Here are the questions:

Why did that defensive execution show up earlier in game 3, early in the 3rd quarter where there was ample time to make a comeback? Why wasn’t the same defense applied when they were trying to defend a lead, staving off elimination?

I’m sorry Flip. You have the millions of Dollars anyway and still didn’t have the job done. The players did what they had to do and even if they did what they wanted to, you are the head coach. It is your primary duty to see to it that your orders were executed on the floor.

It’s time to own this defeat.