Re: Detroit/Pacers postgame thread.
A) the Pistons suck, I almost felt bad for them. Stuckey is strong, but the rest is role players or worse. Big Ben shouldn't be in the NBA at this point.
B) DJones was a key factor in wrecking whatever flow the team had. His slipping defense is a lot more noticeable and of course except for every 8th or 9th game he just forces his offensive action and kills the scoring.
I pulled up the +/- in the 3rd to find out just how bad it was...he was the only Pacer in the negative.
C) Lance still is not playing that well. He keeps trying to make the hard plays and carries no sense of running the flow.
D) Adding West is monstrous, even with him missing a lot of putbacks or makeable jumpers. When he was in the team had a sense of direction, even when the plays weren't called for him.
E) Because of West and Tyler on the bench and the addition of Hill, you can run offense OFF OF (not "for") West, Roy, Danny, Paul and Tyler with DC and GH3 both being borderline self-creating. This means that the team should be able to field at least 2 ATTACK POINTS at all times.
Vogel sometimes went away from that and with Lance and DJones both in you really inhibit that, but I think he'll clear those kinks.
F) Vogel makes solid adjustments without yanking the leash on guys too quick. PG24 had been strong on defense all game, but down the stretch Stuckey started to get an advantage on him and the Pistons attacked it relentlessly. PG24 was given several trips to work on it (good) but was pulled before it got way out of hand and was replaced with Hill which presented a better quickness matchup (great).
This kind of support-the-player but recognize when it's gone too far type of adjusting is going to take this ball club a long way. It beats the crap out of the "you suck, into the doghouse" while another player can do no wrong approach that JOB took.
G) Hill is going to get better, he's obviously finding his role and Vogel is figuring out how he wants to use hiim. Based on how he handles the floor I think you'll see him running things for 20-30 minutes most nights by the end of the year, meaning even when DC is also out there.
H) Danny is coming around I think, he's just got a lot of JOB mentality to shake off. I think he's already better than he was last year at both ends.
I) Hopefully nearly everyone has seen me admit that I was wrong about Tyler. I was right about what type of game he has (not really power or above the rim gets rebounds on hustle, sloppy/scrappy offensive moves that relies on fouls to score) but I was wrong about how well that would work in the NBA (ie, I thought it wouldn't).
It's remarkable how identical his game is to his college game, right down to drawing fouls. Everything he does seems like it shouldn't work, like it is the game of a "nice try kid but the NBA isn't for you" player, but he does it at an elite level.
He's a very unique player, it's not just hustle because that's not enough. He's got a gamer's sense of the court and now that he's getting better about sharing the ball he's really dialing into what the team needs.
Kravitz is right about this chances as 6th man. He's going to stuff the points/rebounds from the bench (12/8 seems very attainable).
J) Roy got knocked to the floor at one point and got SUPER PO'D, I mean just ranting and yelling. Jeff was laughing about it even, laughing at how fired up Roy was. I kept watching him on the bench just fuming. I tried to get some photos but the player huddle blocked my view most of the time.
I'm not sure exactly why this had him so upset, if he thought it was intentional or too hard or just an uncalled foul.
Final word - the team has great balance. The Pistons made things look better than they should have, but regardless I don't see a spot that I think the team can't attack from. On any given night they can go at the other team from the 1 to 5 positions. No team should have them outclassed at every spot, or even 4 spots.
It might be close at all 5 positions, but the Pacers should always have a legit chance to get advantages and runs going without the help of flukes, bad plays or 3pt chucking.
And if these guys can get the offensive roles on the same page, get to know each other better, they could have the best Pacers offense since 2000.
A) the Pistons suck, I almost felt bad for them. Stuckey is strong, but the rest is role players or worse. Big Ben shouldn't be in the NBA at this point.
B) DJones was a key factor in wrecking whatever flow the team had. His slipping defense is a lot more noticeable and of course except for every 8th or 9th game he just forces his offensive action and kills the scoring.
I pulled up the +/- in the 3rd to find out just how bad it was...he was the only Pacer in the negative.
C) Lance still is not playing that well. He keeps trying to make the hard plays and carries no sense of running the flow.
D) Adding West is monstrous, even with him missing a lot of putbacks or makeable jumpers. When he was in the team had a sense of direction, even when the plays weren't called for him.
E) Because of West and Tyler on the bench and the addition of Hill, you can run offense OFF OF (not "for") West, Roy, Danny, Paul and Tyler with DC and GH3 both being borderline self-creating. This means that the team should be able to field at least 2 ATTACK POINTS at all times.
Vogel sometimes went away from that and with Lance and DJones both in you really inhibit that, but I think he'll clear those kinks.
F) Vogel makes solid adjustments without yanking the leash on guys too quick. PG24 had been strong on defense all game, but down the stretch Stuckey started to get an advantage on him and the Pistons attacked it relentlessly. PG24 was given several trips to work on it (good) but was pulled before it got way out of hand and was replaced with Hill which presented a better quickness matchup (great).
This kind of support-the-player but recognize when it's gone too far type of adjusting is going to take this ball club a long way. It beats the crap out of the "you suck, into the doghouse" while another player can do no wrong approach that JOB took.
G) Hill is going to get better, he's obviously finding his role and Vogel is figuring out how he wants to use hiim. Based on how he handles the floor I think you'll see him running things for 20-30 minutes most nights by the end of the year, meaning even when DC is also out there.
H) Danny is coming around I think, he's just got a lot of JOB mentality to shake off. I think he's already better than he was last year at both ends.
I) Hopefully nearly everyone has seen me admit that I was wrong about Tyler. I was right about what type of game he has (not really power or above the rim gets rebounds on hustle, sloppy/scrappy offensive moves that relies on fouls to score) but I was wrong about how well that would work in the NBA (ie, I thought it wouldn't).
It's remarkable how identical his game is to his college game, right down to drawing fouls. Everything he does seems like it shouldn't work, like it is the game of a "nice try kid but the NBA isn't for you" player, but he does it at an elite level.
He's a very unique player, it's not just hustle because that's not enough. He's got a gamer's sense of the court and now that he's getting better about sharing the ball he's really dialing into what the team needs.
Kravitz is right about this chances as 6th man. He's going to stuff the points/rebounds from the bench (12/8 seems very attainable).
J) Roy got knocked to the floor at one point and got SUPER PO'D, I mean just ranting and yelling. Jeff was laughing about it even, laughing at how fired up Roy was. I kept watching him on the bench just fuming. I tried to get some photos but the player huddle blocked my view most of the time.
I'm not sure exactly why this had him so upset, if he thought it was intentional or too hard or just an uncalled foul.
Final word - the team has great balance. The Pistons made things look better than they should have, but regardless I don't see a spot that I think the team can't attack from. On any given night they can go at the other team from the 1 to 5 positions. No team should have them outclassed at every spot, or even 4 spots.
It might be close at all 5 positions, but the Pacers should always have a legit chance to get advantages and runs going without the help of flukes, bad plays or 3pt chucking.
And if these guys can get the offensive roles on the same page, get to know each other better, they could have the best Pacers offense since 2000.
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