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The Pistons have fired Michael Curry after one disappointing season as coach.
"This was a difficult decision to make," Pistons president Joe Dumars said. "I want to thank Michael for his hard work and dedication to the organization. However, at this time, I have decided to make a change."
–Detroit News
It’s fair to wonder if Bill Laimbeer’s resignation from the Detroit Shock was a related move. More on this to come.
Read more...With the Allen Iverson fiasco taken care of, the Pistons are left with only one significant rotation question heading into the playoffs (assuming they qualify). Theoretically, the Pistons could consider starting the surprising Will Bynum ahead of Rodney Stuckey, but Bynum’s aggressive style has fit in nicely with the second unit. Michael Curry made it clear that he plans to keep Stuckey in the starting lineup. With the backcourt rotation settled, Michael Curry needs to decide which of his five big men to start and which two of the remaining three bigs will see the bulk of the bench minutes.
When Rasheed Wallace returned from injury last week, Michael Curry hinted that he may keep Kwame Brown in the starting lineup along with Antonio McDyess. As I see it, there are five possible combinations of big men the Pistons could start in the frountcourt.
In summary, Michael Curry has several logical choices, but the best move would be to start Wallace alongside either McDyess or Johnson. It appears that Johnson has fallen out of the rotation. If that is the case, Curry should maintain the lineup he used against Charlotte, which featured Wallace and McDyess. While this hurts the bench during the regular season, this should be less of a problem in the playoffs.
Read more...The future of the Piston’s season hinges on two pieces falling into place much better than they have thus far. If the Pistons are going to make noise in the playoffs, they need Allen Iverson playing well and Michael Curry making smart decisions about his rotation. To date, Iverson has had a negative impact on the team – through his play, not his behavior – while Curry has often appeared lost. For Detroit to win a series or two, the team needs its bench to contribute. The only scenario in which that is possible involves a productive Allen Iverson and a logical rotation.
Without Iverson, the Piston’s perimeter backups have been inconsistent, to put it mildly. Arron Afflalo played well in the first half of the season, but has been mired in a horrible slump the last eight weeks. His PER for the season has fallen to 8.31. Despite his strong defense, he does not deserve to play based on that lack of production. Afflalo should get one more opportunity, given that his game seems to compliment Iverson’s nicely in the sense that Afflalo plays strong defense and does not need the ball on offense. However, Afflalo will only warrant consistent minutes if he can knock down open shots.
The man who has replaced Afflalo in the rotation is Walter Herrmann. Herrmann has made several spectacular plays this season. Those plays overshadow the many easy ones he has botched. Herrmann’s value to the team is supposed to lie in his shooting ability. This season, he has converted just 36.4 percent of his field goals attempts. Many of his makes have been threes, but the flip side of that perimeter shooting has been an inability to get to the free throw line. The result is that Herrmann has the worst true shooting percentage among the 12 Pistons who regularly dress.
Defensively, the exception has once again overshadowed the rule with Herrmann. Last spring, he played excellent defense on Dirk Nowitzki during a comeback attempt by the Pistons. Aside from that one game, he has typically been overmatched on the defensive end of the court. Herrmann often plays like his shoes are on fire. He is constantly jumping around and shuffling his feet. With so much movement, he often finds himself out of position and is easily beaten by his man. For Joe Dumars, the search for Tayshaun Prince’s backup should continue. Thus far, Ronald Dupree, Carlos Delfino, Maurice Evans, Jarvis Hayes, and now Herrmann have failed to fill the void left by trading Corliss Williamson.
The lone bright spot, as far as perimeter backups are concerned, has been Will Bynum. On a per-minute basis, Bynum leads the Pistons in assists and steals and is second to Allen Iverson in free throw attempts. However, with the good comes the bad for Bynum. He leads the Pistons in turnovers per minute, has fallen behind Allen Iverson into last on the Pistons in effective field goal percentage, and has a poor outside shot.
Bynum is effective at driving into the paint and drawing multiple defenders. While that skill has come in handy lately, that happens to be identical to Allen Iverson’s strength on the court. Both Bynum and Iverson are most effective with the ball in their hands. When one also considers that neither player is six-feet tall, it is hard to imagine them playing together. Rodney Stuckey and RIP Hamilton have clearly established themselves as the Pistons best backcourt, so they should be on the floor together as much as possible. Given that, it is hard to imagine Michael Curry finding minutes for both Bynum and Iverson. Curry hinted that he may want to try and play Bynum and Iverson together. Hopefully he reconsiders.
As much as Iverson can help the bench, he has the potential to do just as much damage to the starting unit. The Pistons need their best five players starting and finishing each half. If that means Iverson only plays 15 minutes per game, so be it. The Piston offense is most effective when the starters play together. Playing Iverson alongside three or four other starters would be counter-productive. The Pistons could rest three or more starters at once while Iverson takes over the offense. As soon as all five starters have had enough of a breather to return for the remainder of the half, Curry needs to send Iverson to the bench.
Without Iverson, the Piston bench has been ineffective. With him, the bench has the potential to be explosive. Curry needs to strike a balance between letting Iverson carry the bench unit without letting him take away from the starters’ effectiveness. The Piston’s season depends on it.
Breaking News! The Detroit News is reporting that Allen Iverson has been benched in favor of RIP Hamilton. This is great news and should enhance the Pistons' chances of qualifying for the playoffs. As Chris McCosky stated earlier in the day, if Iverson is unahppy with the move, the Pistons would probably be better off to buy out his contract than to start him over the more efficient Hamilton. Michael Curry has done a very poor job overall this season, but no one can blame him for being too inflexible with his rotations – in fact, he probably has made too many changes. With that said, he got this move right. Only time will tell if the move will actually pay off, but it cannot possibly lead to worse results than what the team has produced of late.
Read more...In coaching, there is a fine line between successfully making adjustments and maintaining consistency. If a coach is too rigid, that coach will fail to make the changes a team needs. When a coach is inflexible with rotations, there is less incentive for players to work to either maintain or expand their roles.
On the other hand, a coach has to maintain some level of stability. There is a middle ground between keeping pressure on a player to earn his minutes and forcing a player to look over his shoulder at every turn. A player needs the freedom to play aggressively without the fear that a few missteps will lead to a reduction in minutes.
All season long, players have been talking about the “transitions” and “adjustments” that accompany roster and coaching changes. Thanks to Michael Curry’s constant tinkering, players have had the added duty of adjusting to different minutes and rotation patterns on almost a game-by-game basis. A player has no chance to find a rhythm if his minutes are yo-yoing and he is forced to play alongside a different group of teammates almost every game.
Michael Curry has come nowhere to achieving balance between flexibility and stability this season. The first lineup change – Iverson replacing Billups – was out of Curry’s control. Since then, Curry had changed the starting lineup four times. After the trade, he first started Iverson, Hamilton, Prince, Wallace, and Johnson. He then inserted Kwame Brown in place of Johnson in order to add muscle to the team’s interior. When Brown failed to produce, he was replaced by Rodney Stuckey in hopes of starting the team’s five best players. Small ball was a disaster, so Curry re-inserted Amir Johnson, this time in place of RIP Hamilton. Today, Curry will be implementing his latest change: starting Antonio McDyess in place of Johnson.
So much for preserving credibility. Less than a month ago, Curry had this to say about the team’s starting lineup:
"This is it for the rest of the season," Curry said.
--The Grand Rapids Press
"At this point, we've had so many different lineup changes, it really doesn't matter," Tayshaun Prince said. "We just have to start playing together and try to get some wins. Dyess will help us defensively and rebounding and he will make some shots. But the key to it all now is, who's going to be that big coming off the bench for us? There's good ways and bad ways to look at it.”The move also flies in the face of everything Curry has said about developing the young players and trying to stagger the minutes of Wallace and McDyess. Curry likes to have one his veteran big men on the court at all times because they are the only two Piston big men with reliable outside shots. When any combination of Johnson, Jason Maxiell, and Kwame Brown are on the floor together, opposing big men can sag into the paint and clog the middle. With Wallace and McDyess starting and finishing games together, Curry will struggle to find minutes for both Johnson and Maxiell – the two Piston big men who are actually a part of this team’s future. Also, while Johnson has not played as well as many had hoped, he is second on the team in net +/-. This implies that even though Johnson is not filling up the stat sheet, the team performs much better when he is on the court.
-- The Detroit News
"I can't see that happening," McDyess said Friday after practice. "Where I'm at mentally, I don't know if starting would be good for me. I think I work better coming off the bench.”This is another example of what Chris McCosky described as overcoaching. The players have already expressed plenty of frustration with Curry. Maybe he will learn from his mistakes and improve as a coach. Unless that happens, Curry’s constant experimenting and the associated poor results can lead to only one conclusion: he is failing as a head coach. Read more...
-- Detroit Free Press
With all the talk about the Pistons’ inconsistent defense, the real problem has been the offense. In the previous three seasons, the Pistons placed somewhere between fourth and seventh in the NBA in both offensive efficiency* and defensive efficiency* every season. While that shows remarkable consistency, it also proves that the Pistons’ performance did not mesh with their reputation as an all-defense, some-offense outfit. Instead, the Pistons were a remarkably balanced team that excelled on both sides of the ball.
This season, the balance is gone. When the Pistons traded Chauncey Billups – a strong defender – for notoriously poor defender Allen Iverson, slippage on defense was to be expected. Not surprisingly, the Pistons have fallen to 11th in defensive efficiency this season.
The roster moves do not, however, fully explain the deterioration of the teams’ offense. The Pistons began this season with last season’s rotation mostly intact – save for the Billups/Iverson swap and the loss of Jarvis Hayes. Iverson is one of the most prolific scorers of all time, while Hayes is a streak shooter who can do little else, so it would have been reasonable to expect the Pistons to replicate last season’s results offensively.
The Pistons have not, however, come anywhere close to matching last season’s performance offensively. After three straight seasons with a top-six offense, the Pistons have fallen to 21st in offensive efficiency. The Pistons lead only Charlotte and Memphis in points per game, but that is, in part, a product of the team’s relatively slow pace. The fact that the Pistons are in the bottom third of NBA teams in offensive efficiency requires no such qualifiers; the Pistons have been a poor offensive team this season.
In spite of their reputations, Billups is actually a much better offensive player than Iverson. That swap explains some of the offensive problems, but the disparity between the players is not nearly large enough to explain the difference between an elite offensive team and a below average one. Since the personnel do not fully explain the plunge in offense, the likely culprit seems to be the coach.
Michael Curry simply has not done enough to put his players in a position to succeed. The ball movement, player movement, and spacing that were so prevalent under Flip Saunders have all diminished enormously. The Pistons have lost more than two assists per game off of their average from last season. Players like RIP Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince have had to find much more off of their offense through isolations, compared to previous seasons when they relied more heavily on screens and off the ball movement. Last season, 53% off Prince’s baskets were assisted. This season, that number has plummeted to 36%.
Flip Saunders had many faults as a coach; he struggled to connect with his players, players such as Rasheed Wallace often ignored his instructions down the stretch of close games, and his playoff record leaves something to be desired. With that said, Saunders’ playbook and ability to make in-game adjustments offensively were exceptional. Saunders is one of the best in the world at constructing offensive schemes.
Saunders was proficient at hiding limited offensive players like Ben Wallace, Amir Johnson, and Dale Davis. They would set picks, occasionally go backdoor for a dunk, and remain in position to fight for offensive rebounds, all while staying out of the way of their more skilled teammates. This season, Johnson, Kwame Brown, and to a lesser extent Jason Maxiell, seem to simply clog the paint on offense. They tend to drift near the basket without apparent purpose. While part of this can be pinned on the players, Curry deserves much of the blame.
With all of the talk about Curry’s starting lineups and rotations, his inability to mold a first rate offense out of so many talented parts has been his biggest failing. Curry is in his first season as coach so there is plenty of room for Curry to develop. In the meantime, Piston fans should appreciate what they had in Flip Saunders and hope that Curry either learns how to implement a productive offense or is replaced by someone who can.
(H/T to BasketballReference.com and 82games.com for stats. Also, Kelly Dwyer was ahead of the curve with this one.)
*Offensive Efficiency is a measure of points scored per possession, while defensive efficiency measures points allowed per possession. The efficiency statistics take pace into account, while per game numbers do not.
The Pistons are an uninspiring 21-21 since the arrival of Allen Iverson. With pessimism spreading through Piston Nation, it’s time to run through the 21 reasons for Piston fans to be optimistic.
1. Rodney Stuckey. Stuckey is already a very good player, but he is on the fast track to stardom. The second year guard plays like a poor man’s cross between Dwyane Wade and Chauncey Billups. At the rate he’s progressing, “poor man’s” might be taken out of the analogy soon.
2. Draft Pick. The Pistons are playing just poorly enough that they might end up with a decent draft pick. When Dumars has drafted between picks 15 and 27, he has landed Tayshaun Prince, Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, and Arron Afflalo. The only pick in that range he would like to have back was the Carlos Delfino pick of 2003. This season, the Pistons will likely end up drafting in the late teens.
3. Reduced Wear and Tear. The Piston veterans have experienced grueling playoff runs each of the past seven seasons. An extended summer vacation may help revitalize them for future seasons.
4. April Will Matter. For the first since 2003, the Pistons might actually play April games that impact their playoff position. Only once since 2003 has an Eastern conference team finished fewer than five games away from the Pistons in the standings. The exception was 2007, when the Pistons finished three games ahead of the Cavaliers.
5. Joe Dumars. In Joe We (Should) Trust. He has been phenomenal as the general manager in Detroit. Even when he has made a mistake, he has been quick to compensate with a brilliant maneuver. If anyone can fix this mess, it is Dumars.
6. Iverson’s Days are Numbered. All-Star Allen Iverson has said he plans to test the free agent market this summer. That seems like a good idea, since the Pistons surely will not want to retain him. Aside from the possibility of addition by subtraction, this seems like a perfect opportunity for Bill Simmons’ “Ewing Theory” to strike.
7. Cap Space. When Iverson leaves, cap space will arrive. The last three times Dumars made serious plays in free agency, he landed Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess, and Nazr Mohammad. Two for three is a light years better than most organizations perform with free agent money.
8. Experimenting. Michael Curry has changed starting lineups and rotations more times than I’d care to remember. While that may have had disastrous effects on the team’s performance thus far, logic suggests that if he continues to test new ideas, eventually something should work. Maybe he should try benching Iverson.
9. Jason Maxiell. The “Baby Eater” is under contract through 2013. That gives him plenty of time to consume babies and do things like this.
10. No Losing in the Conference Finals. This is far from a given, but it looks like the Pistons streak of ending their season with a game-six loss in the conference finals will end at three. The preseason goal was to end the streak via improvement; however the Pistons appear to be taking a different approach.
11. Underdog Status. The Pistons of old relished the underdog mentality. They used perceived disrespect as a motivational tool. The Pistons have now regained underdog status. Step two is regaining underdog intensity.
12. Tayshaun Prince. The Pistons’ iron man has been one of the elite small forwards in the NBA for the last six seasons and has shown no signs of slowing down.
13. No More Flipping the Switch. For years – specifically the last two – there was talk the Pistons would flip a proverbial switch and play hard only when motivated. The current incarnation of the Piston is not good enough to earn such reports.
14. The Coaching Can Only Improve. As far as coaching goes, it is difficult to imagine the Pistons could possibly employ someone who performs worse than Curry has so far. Curry will have to improve or he will be fired, either of which would be progress.
15. Kwame’s Out. Michael Curry recently made it clear – through words and actions – that Kwame Brown will be spending the majority of games glued to the bench. Brown appears to finally be in a role that suits his talents: fifth big man on a team that typically plays four.
16. Longer Summer. The Pistons have kept their fans busy throughout May and often into June for the past six seasons. This summer, Piston fans should have much more time to enjoy the sun.
17. Arron Afflao. “Aflac” is a keeper who should play a much bigger role next season, when fellow shooting guard Allen Iverson departs. Afflalo’s defense and outside shooting would be valuable on any team.
18. No More Arrogance. The media has been annoyed with a perceived arrogance from the Pistons in recent seasons. One way to cure arrogance is to stop winning. In that sense, the Pistons appear to be fixing one of their character flaws.
19. No More Flip. At least before the season, less Flip Saunders seemed like a good thing.
20. Fun Gossip. The New York Post’s Peter Vescey has chosen to chronicle the Pistons’ struggles like a soap opera. Over the past two weeks, he has written articles – which may or may not be factual – about Dumars trying to trade Prince, dead team spirits, players lacking confidence, and a team that has little respect or trust in its coach. His sources are anonymous and his credibility is waning, but there is some entertainment value.
21. Amir Johnson. The 21st reason for Pistons fans to be optimistic is the continued development of one of basketball’s most talented 21-year olds. The young forward is already a game charger on the glass and with his defense. There are questions about his offense, but with time and opportunity, he might be better on that end than some anticipate.
A big part of the reason Michael Curry elected to bench RIP Hamilton instead of Allen Iverson was that he needed to pair Hamilton with Will Bynum off the bench. Bynum worked to learn Hamilton’s tendencies and was beginning to develop chemistry with the three-time All-Star. Also, Bynum and Iverson are too small to play together, so Curry could not afford to play both with the second unit.
Curry has recently taken Bynum out of the rotation – Bynum has played just one minute total during the past four games. Now that Bynum is essentially out of the mix, Curry needs to re-consider his starting lineup. I explained here and here why RIP should be starting over Iverson. Iverson demonstrated with pitiful defense (explained here), poor shot selection (explained here), and poor results (evidence here), that he should not be starting. Michael Rosenberg did an outstanding job of explaining this very issue in today's Detroit Free Press.
Iverson, on the other hands, told the Detroit Free Press he wants to be an even bigger part of the Pistons’ offensive attack.
"I would love to be a focal part on the offensive end," [Iverson] said. "That's where I've been all my career. And that's why I play the game. That's the type of competitor I am. In crucial situations, I want the ball in my hands. But like I've been saying all along: The calls they make, I trust my teammates and the coaching staff to be able to get us over the hump."
It’s a good thing Iverson isn’t coaching. He was the “focal part” of the offense for ten full seasons in Philadelphia. From 1997 until 2006, the 76ers were 21st, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 13th, 23rd, 11th, 26th, 24th and 15th, by season, in offensive efficiency*. In total, the Iverson-led 76ers were in the bottom third of the NBA in offensive efficiency seven times, but did not finish in the top third once**. The Pistons are currently 23rd in offensive efficiency. They had finished amongst the top-six teams in offensive efficiency each of the previous three seasons. The Pistons would be well-served to take Iverson’s advice and do the exact opposite.
*Offensive efficiency is a measure of points scored per possession.
**There were 29 teams during the first seven seasons (through 2003) and 30 during the final three.
Today’s edition of fastbreak buckets is a blockquote special.
-Interesting tidbit in the Monday’s Boston Globe. (H/T TrueHoop)
[Ray] Allen started wearing [a sleeve] when he was in a horrific slump during the Detroit series last spring. He wears the sleeve on just his left arm - sort of like Michael Jackson without the creepiness.
"Rip Hamilton grew his fingernails long and he was scratching me," explained Allen. "I needed the sleeve to shield me from those nails. And I've stayed with it."
Those are the type of tactics that earn a player “wily veteran” status from his fans and “dirty player” labels from his opponents. One thing that cannot be questioned is RIP’s willingness to do whatever it takes to win.
-Anonymous scouts are to sports what tabloids are to pop culture. They can both create unsubstantiated nonsense which appears as fact in print. The New York Post’s Peter Vescey, who usually does a much better job with his NBA coverage, had two quotes worth of anonymous rubbish in his Sunday column. (H/T Need4Sheed)
"[The Pistons] are playing with no emotion," says a long-distance viewer. Allen Iverson "has killed the team's spirit with his style of play."
I have noticed an inefficient offense, inconsistent defense, and poor coaching, but if a “long-distance viewer” can detect a dead spirit, maybe he knows something the rest of us do not.
So hooked on economics is Dumars, an agent testifies, he was prepared to deal treasured Tayshaun Prince for Stephen Jackson (or maybe it was Ron Artest) whose contract was set to terminate after next season.
It was one thing for the Pistons to trade Billups for cap space in an attempt to balance the roster; the Pistons had two quality point guards in Billups and Stuckey, but needed frontcourt help. Dumars elected to trade Billups for impending cap room which he will try to use to lure a big man, thus balancing the roster. Prince is a completely separate issue. If the Pistons were to trade Prince for cap room, they would have cap room and a major hole at small forward to fill. They would probably have to use that cap room to sign a small forward – probably a small forward very much like Prince. Dumars chimed in with his thoughts on the assertion.
"That's absolutely false! I'm not trading Prince, period," Dumars fumed.
-Piston players have made some disturbing comment about their coach recently.
Iverson, to The Detroit News, on the Pistons’ poor defense against Houston:
"Have you talked to MC yet?" Allen Iverson asked, referring to coach Michael Curry. "He should have the answers. He knows better than me why we're not getting it done."
…
"If it looked like we were playing a zone, and we weren't, that's not good," Iverson said.
More from Iverson in today's Detroit News.
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated," Iverson said. "I just feel like I can offer more to the team. I can do more to help us win games, and when that opportunity presents itself, I will be right here to take the challenge."
Tayshaun Prince hinted at displeasure with the coaching staff in this Detroit News article. He said the Pistons need to stop worrying about coaching schemes and simply play better. Reading between the lines, if they need to stop worrying about coaching schemes, that implies that players currently are worrying about coaching schemes.
"At some point you have to put all that aside and not worry about the X's and O's and just do what you have to do defensively as far as taking a challenge. I don't think we are doing that in the first quarters."
…
"It's tough because you would think at this point we would have found our way and we haven't," Prince said.
Rasheed Wallace was slightly less subtle than Prince when he spoke with The Detroit News.
"I guess you can say we were confused early," said Rasheed Wallace, who voiced his displeasure to Curry twice early in the game. "We figured it out in the second half but by then it was too late."
Wallace on his lack of fourth quarter touches against Houston after scoring ten points in the third quarter.
"It wasn't my call," Wallace said. "Just got to go with the flow, I guess."
I'm just focused on the 12 guys we have in uniform, trying to put them in a position to be successful out on the court and to win games.This a great point by Curry. It is a coach’s responsibility to put his players in a “position to be successful out on the court.” Is Curry practicing what he preaches? Which of the Pistons are in a better position with a small ball starting lineup of Stuckey, Iverson, Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace? Which would be better off if a traditional lineup of Stuckey, Hamilton, Prince, Johnson, and Wallace were to start games?
–Michael Curry, via the Detroit Free Press
Michael Curry explained why he reverted to small ball:
"It's a simple matter of getting your best five guys out there as much as possible," Curry said.If Curry really wants his “best five guys” to start the game, he should keep Antonio McDyess in mind. PER is hardly a perfect stat (for example, it overvalues Allen Iverson’s steals, which usually occur when he gambles instead of playing sound defense), but it does give a good indication of how productive a player is offensively and on the glass. So far this season, Iverson’s PER is 16.09, Hamilton is at 15.67, and McDyess is at 15.2. According to those stats, the players are relatively close in terms of offensive production.
– ESPN.com
Michael Curry has said all the right things. Well, he had said all the right things until “Curry said he'll start his small lineup of Rodney Stuckey and Allen Iverson in the backcourt, and Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace in the frontcourt.” (Courtesy of Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News) Here’s a look back at some of Curry’s smarter, but not necessarily as honest, statements.
Curry: I think the toughest is when you’re making lineup changes, especially when guys are doing everything that you ask them to do but maybe for the team’s sake you need to adjust their role. I think that’s always the toughest, but if you’re honest then I don’t think you have as much of a problem. No matter what, at certain times players are not going to like decisions you make. When I was a player, I was the same way. But they respect it knowing that you’re honest and truthful with them and that you’re doing the things that are best for the team and the organization to be successful.
– Keith Langlois, Pistons.com, 6/12/08
"Defensively we have been good in stretches when we have two bigs on the floor," coach Michael Curry said. "One of the things we give up with our small lineup is that inside presence. Not having that other big on the floor, teams attack even more on the inside. When they attacked today, even when they got around Amir or 'Sheed, the other big was there to protect the basket."
– Chris McCosky, The Detroit News, 12/27/08
"The big lineup makes us better defensively and at the end of the day we have to make sure we are good enough defensively," he said. "We know we can go to that small lineup if we have to. We are able to play both, so we will decide it game by game. But the small group has to get better defensively. It has gotten better but it isn't on par with what we can do with the big lineup."
– Chris McCosky, The Detroit News, 12/30/08
"We've been putting emphasis on (defense)," coach Michael Curry said after the Pistons held a team under 80 points for the second time in three games Wednesday. "It's just there's certain things certain lineups can't do."
…
"Amir made some mistakes (against the Nets), but because of his size and ability to rebound, he's really solidified things for us," Curry said.
– Chris McCosky, The Detroit News, 1/2/09
"I wouldn't expect them [Iverson and Hamilton] to like coming off the bench," Curry said. "Both have been starters their whole career. But the reality is, we've got good guys on this team and they are all willing to do whatever it takes for the team to be successful. Whatever decisions we make, is because we feel its the best thing for us to be able to get the most of everybody on the team, regardless if a guy likes it or not.
"They are going to be OK because the No. 1 thing is, they want to win."
– Chris McCosky, The Detroit News, 1/12/09
"We've seen just from the data in our games that we know defensively ... it's no secret when we got two bigs and (Tayshaun Prince) at the three-spot we're our best defensively, and at the end of the day that's normally what's going to drive most of our decisions," Curry said.Read more...
– Vince Ellis, Detroit Free Press, 1/13/09
Michael Curry was hired because he allegedly would have the respect of his players. The theory was that, as a former player, he would do a better job communicating with his players than Flip Saunders. Today, Curry showed he does not have the respect of his players or the communication skills to make a tough, but necessary, decision. It appears that Curry is merely a player's coach more interested in appeasing egos than winning games.
Curry said he'll start his small lineup of Rodney Stuckey and Allan Iverson in the backcourt, and Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace in the frontcourt. -- Ted Kulfan, The Detroit NewsThe Pistons are a more successful team when they play a traditional lineup. Small ball is not effective. Curry should have benched Allen Iverson. Curry needs to bite the bullet, ruffle some feathers and sit one of his all-star guards. Until he does so, expect the Pistons to be no better than an average NBA team. Read more...
Curry decided one month ago that Rodney Stuckey needed to start and handle the point guard duties full time. The move has proven ingenious. Stuckey has played so well that he is being mentioned with Rajon Rondo and Devin Harris with regards to the best young point guards in the East. The move has also had a positive impact on the team’s two shooting guards. Allen Iverson has been allowed to play off the ball, where he is able to play his game without worrying about quarterbacking the offense. RIP Hamilton has also benefited from playing alongside a true point guard, who can get him the ball when and where he needs it.
The drawback with starting Stuckey was that he replaced Kwame Brown in the starting lineup, thus forcing the Pistons to play a badly undersized lineup. An injury to RIP Hamilton allowed the Pistons to revert to a traditional lineup, and the early returns are positive. The Pistons are 5-1 – despite a flurry of injuries – since reverting to a traditional lineup. Curry has hinted that he will stick with the bigger lineup even after Hamilton returns.
An early criticism of Curry was that he played too many players. Early in the season, 10 or 11 Pistons would often see important minutes in a given game. Curry appears to have weeded out a few of his less productive players and settled on a more stable nine man rotation. Will Bynum has not played much of late and Walter Hermann has only seen spot minutes. There is a chance that Kwame Brown will also be squeezed out of the regular rotation when Wallace returns from injury.
When Curry was named head coach, he assured the world that the team’s level of intensity would no longer waver. In the past, the Pistons were criticized for “flipping a switch,” or exerting maximum effort only occasionally. This season, the problem seems to have disappeared. Rasheed Wallace remains lackadaisical on the offensive end, but it is hard to imagine that any coach other than Larry Brown could get through to Sheed. The rest of the Pistons have played hard every game this season. Part of the reason for this is that Curry has kept to his mandate that the players who play best will play in crunch time.
Another Curry promise was that he would help develop the team’s young players. Stuckey is playing his way into Most Improved Player discussions. Arron Afflalo is still not much of a scorer, but he has increased his shooting accuracy and become a lockdown defender that helps the Pistons in a variety of ways. Amir Johnson has developed into a great defensive player under Curry and may have finally locked up a permanent spot in the rotation. Jason Maxiell has taken a slight step back, but he remains a valuable contributor for the Pistons.
As long as Curry sticks with a big, traditional lineup, he has the Pistons headed in the right direction. He is developing the young players, invoking intensity from his team, and winning games. Curry also has the respect of his players – there been minimal, if any, public criticism of Curry from the players. He will face his biggest challenge yet when Hamilton is ready to return. So far, Curry has done an admirable job with the roster. If he chooses the correct starting lineup while keeping all of his players content and on the same page, he will have truly earned his promotion to head coach.
Update (1.13.09): Curry undid much of his progress with one misguided maneuver today. He announced that he will return to a small ball lineup and that Will Bynum will again be a significant part of the rotation.
The Pistons have been hit by the injury bug. RIP Hamilton sat out the fourth quarter against Oklahoma City and missed the subsequent five games. Rasheed Wallace has been out for the past two and a half games. Antonio McDyess sat out two games and then played through two injuries against the Clippers. Thanks in large part to a soft schedule, the Pistons have won seven straight despite the depleted roster. With several prominent players out of the rotation, many players have had an opportunity to take on additional responsibilities. As a result, Michael Curry should have learned a few things about his team.
-Even a banged up Piston squad is good enough to beat the NBA’s doormats. While a seven-game win streak is impressive regardless of the opponents, the Pistons owe the schedule-makers a belated Christmas gift. During the winning streak, Detroit played one very good team – Orlando – and faced a hot Milwaukee on the road. The other five games were against teams that range from sub-par to pitiful. Five of the seven games were home games for the Pistons.
-Amir Johnson belongs on the court and Curry knows it. After the win against the Clippers, Curry said that he told Johnson that he no longer wants him on the court; he needs him on the court. As evidence, Curry pointed out that in the first half, when Johnson barely played due to foul trouble, the Clippers made over 50% of their field goals and scored 52 points. In the second half, when Johnson was on the court most of the time, the Clippers made less than 30% of their shots and were limited to 33 points.
Johnson saw little game action in the first seven games after the return of McDyess. In the eighth, against Oklahoma City, Johnson entered the game with the Pistons trailing by one late in the third quarter. He sparked a Pistons surge in that game and has seen significant minutes in each of the five subsequent games. Not coincidentally, the Pistons have won all six. Johnson is averaging 6.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game on 62.5% shooting in the last five games, but his contribution goes beyond the box score. Johnson has done a great job protecting the paint and defending the pick and roll. The Pistons have outscored their opponents by 27 points with Johnson on the court over the last six games.
Johnson struggles to create his own shot and, according to Curry, often makes mental mistakes on the floor; however, he does so many positive things defensively and on the glass that he warrants heavy minutes. Johnson’s unique combination of size and athleticism allows him to positively influence games despite his limitations.
Check back for Part II of what the Pistons can learn from their winning streak.
-Two of the biggest differences between Flip Saunders and Michael Curry were supposed to be that Curry would play young players and Curry would stop his players from complaining to the officials. Two months into the Curry era, the results have been hit and miss, with more misses than hits.
Young guards Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo have been given plenty of minutes. Stuckey’s development has been the biggest success of Curry’s coaching career thus far. On the other hand, young bigs Jason Maxiell and especially Amir Johnson are not playing nearly enough. Johnson is racking up healthy DNPs despite posting an impressive PER and the best net +/- numbers of any Piston other than Rasheed Wallace.
Also, to date, Curry has failed in his attempt to stem the complaining to officials. Wallace and RIP Hamilton are picking up technicals at a manic rate. The Pistons are fifth in the NBA in technical fouls.
-The first step toward fixing a problem is realizing that one exists. Coach Curry appears to be headed in the right direction with both of the aforementioned issues. He told The Detroit News that he plans to pull Allen Iverson and Tayshaun Prince midway through the first quarter in favor of a bigger lineup. He then plans to re-insert Iverson and Prince as part of a bigger lineup to start the second quarter. The moves should allow Maxiell and Johnson to see minutes at power forward while Will Bynum would effectively be eliminated from the rotation. These move makes sense. In the same article, there is talk that the Pistons are trying to cut back on technical fouls.
-Stuckey tracker: In the 13 games since Thanksgiving, Stuckey is averaging 15.5 points, 7.0 assists, 3.7 rebounds, 1.9 steals, and 2.0 turnovers per game. He has made 55.6% of his field goal attempts and nine three pointers for an effective field goal percentage of 58.7%. His PER is at 19.2 on the season and is surely in the mid 20s since Thanksgiving. The man can flat out ball.
-During an interview on “The Stoney and Wojo Show” Thursday, Michael Curry explained that RIP is struggling to adjust to fewer shot attempts. (Listen here). Curry has also said that RIP needs to adjust to fewer minutes. Curry’s theories are interesting; unfortunately they are contradicted by facts.
Hamilton is actually playing slightly more minutes per game this season compared to last. As far as field goal attempts are concerned, RIP is shooting 0.3 fewer field goals per game, but is more than compensating with an extra 1.5 free throw attempts per game. RIP is clearly adjusting to life without Billups, but there is no need for Curry to contrive additional transitions.
-Rodney Stuckey made an eye-opening four three pointers against Indiana. He is blossoming as a starter and has improved greatly in just the past few weeks. Early this year he struggled to determine when he should look to score and when he should pass. The results were a low field goal percentage and a high rate of both turnovers and offensive fouls. Part of his early struggles can be attributed to the dizzy spell he suffered against Boston and the hard foul he took from Shaquille O’Neil a week later.
However, Stuckey turned a corner against a few weeks ago and has not looked back. Since Thanksgiving, Stuckey is averaging 12.9 points, 7.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals and just 2.1 turnovers, while playing 27.4 minutes per game. He has converted 52% of his field goals, including five for 11 from long range, during the eight-game stretch.
The two most encouraging aspects of Stuckey’s play have been his jump shot and his decision-making. Stuckey looks more confident and has been much more accurate on perimeter shots recently. The big question mark with Stuckey has always been his jumper. If he continues to knock down 18-footers along with the occasional three-ball, he can be a star. Stuckey also seems to be learning when to attack and when to set up his teammates.
-A longer post about small ball is on the way, but in the meantime, here are two small ball-related noted from the Pacer game:
1) Amir Johnson did not play against Indiana and Jason Maxiell was limited to 14 minutes. In those 14 minutes, Maxiell grabbed three offensive rebounds. The rest of the Pistons combined for two offensive rebounds the entire game. Johnson and Maxiell are fourth and sixth, respectively, among 318 qualified players in offensive rebound rate – the percentage of a team’s missed shots that a player rebounds while in the game.
2) I sent an E-Mail to Need4Sheed before yesterday’s game and made the following statement: “Here's hoping Curry is smart enough to abandon small ball before Granger lights up RIP.” Apparently the message was not relayed to Michael Curry, who elected to let RIP defend Granger most of the game. Granger responded with 42 points on just 21 shots.
There is a lot to like about Michael Curry. He’s straightforward with the media and apparently the same way with his players. He is committed to rewarding strong play and does a decent job of making players earn their minutes. Curry does not over-substitute; he instead uses regular substitution patterns that usually make sense. He is also patient with his players and, as a result, is less hesitant that most coaches to play young players who might make mistakes, but deserve minutes based on their talent and production.
With that out of the way, it is time he earns his keep in this league. The Pistons have lost three consecutive games against teams that range from mediocre to horrible. Since the day Curry was hired, he has preached accountability. The most significant difference between Curry and Flip Saunders is that Curry is supposed to have the respect of his players. If he truly has complete command over his troops, he needs to force one of his stars to swallow his pride and accept a role off the bench.
At the time of the Iverson trade, Curry claimed he had no fear of handling Iverson. He also has stated that he will reward strong play and make decisions that put this team in a position to succeed. With Iverson starting in a small ball arrangement, his actions appear to contradict his words.
Iverson is one of the greatest scorers to ever play the game and is still one of the better scorers in the NBA. He is not, however, a good fit for the Piston’s starting lineup. Iverson excels on offense and struggles mightily on defense. With Stuckey, Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace entrenched in the starting lineup, the Pistons have plenty of scoring. On the other end of the court, Iverson’s lack of size and poor focus make him a liability. He has been regularly abused by opposing point guards since coming to Detroit. Also, the current arrangement forces the rest of the starting unit to play out of position and face a size mismatch on a routine basis.
The solution is a simple one, provided that Curry actually has authority over of his players. The Pistons need to start Amir Johnson instead of Iverson. This change would solve a number of problems currently plaguing the team. One major improvement would occur on defense, where Amir would help protect the paint, rebound, and allow each of the starters to return to defending players who play their position. The Pistons would no longer be undersized against most teams and their weakest defender would be off the court to start the game.
A second benefit of the switch would be a better distribution of shot opportunities. The Pistons two best scorers are Iverson and Hamilton. By playing the two at the same time they cut into each other’s shot attempts. Also, when the Pistons go to their second unit, neither of the team’s top scoring threats is in the game. While there should still be plenty of occasions where Iverson and Hamilton are on the floor together, the Pistons should try to minimize instances where both are out of the game.
An improved distribution of minutes would also result from the switch away from small ball. The fact that Johnson and Jason Maxiell did not play against Washington is inexcusable. Each player deserves at least 15 minutes per contest. By starting Johnson, his minutes would obviously increase. Iverson would likely see a slight drop in minutes, but he could still expect to play at least 30 minutes per game. As for Maxiell, Curry made a poor decision against Washington when he played Hermann at power forward while Maxiell sat in his warm-ups. Hermann has a sweet stroke from the perimeter and plays hard, but he is nowhere near the player that Maxiell is defensively or on the glass. Another advantage of the switch is that the Pistons could use Iverson and Afflalo as their backup guards, thus returning Will Bynum to his situational role. By reducing the minutes that Iverson, Hermann, and Bynum play, there should be plenty of opportunities for Maxiell and Johnson to see the court.
If the Pistons elect to start Johnson instead of Iverson, it would be easy for Curry to develop a stable nine man rotation. He would start Stuckey, Hamilton, Prince, Johnson, and Wallace, while Iverson, Afflalo, Maxiell, and McDyess would see the bulk of the minutes off the bench. Bynum, Hermann, and Kwame Brown would each be placed in specialist roles where they only play if match-ups, foul trouble, or poor play from other players dictate that they belong on the court. The aforementioned rotation would allow Iverson to take his shots alongside backups who do not need the ball, it would improve the team’s defense throughout the game, and it would be a step toward making sure that the Pistons no longer lose three consecutive games against weak competition.
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