Official Detroit Pistons thread

[chemiclord]

I agree, at some point the hack a Shaq morphed. Generally Shaq was fouled when he got the ball. He was a superlative finisher, fouling a player instead of letting him score around the bucket is a legit basketball strategy. They did foul him away from the ball but not as blatantly. If it was used sparingly like that, then maybe you don't change the rule but the last season was absolutely ridiculous. Coaches were sending in bench warmers to commit 5 fouls in the first minute to get a team in the penalty. They instructed players to jump on someone's back to get a foul or fouling the inbounds passer. That is not legit.

The free throw is supposed to be used as a deterrent for a team fouling a player. It was not supposed to be weapon against a player who is a poor free throw shooter and that is what it has become. I don't get what Cuban is talking about, it's stupid. If you foul a poor free throw shooter in the flow of the game that is fine, but they went too far last year. And I can bet had he got DeAndre Jordan, he wouldn't be as vociferous.

Personally, the change I would have made was if any foul was made "off the ball" while in the penalty, the team fouled had the option to either shoot two shots, or keep possession with a fresh shot clock.

But the one they went with wasn't bad at all.

[The Oracle]

Don't know why they just don't call it an intentional foul like it is and move on.

[Kstat]

Because the majority of NBA teams do not want this rule to be fixed.

[jaadam4]

Yup

[Futureshock]

The owners care far less about good basketball than they do making money.

FIFY

The NBA cares nothing about competitive balance. Every team can't have a superstar and we all know you can't be truly successful without one.

[ghandi]

They only care when it starts to affect their pocket book (ie the 76ers last season)...

[Kstat]

Astonishing. You'd think they were a business or something...

[froot loops]

All professional leagues are in it to make money. Silver has to try and make it competitive for every team. But no matter how it is structured financially you are going to have a few teams that are legit contenders. That is the way basketball is and as long as you have 7 game series the best teams are generally going to advance.

You are never going to get to a place where 8 or 9 teams have a legit chance to win a title.

The NBA has to be careful not to overreact because if this, Kevin Durant going to GS is an anamoly. For one there a very few players like Durant so they don't come free very often. Combine that with the huge jump in the salary cap and you have a very unique situation. If Silver doesn't like it, he had a hand in it, they wanted to smooth out the salary cap escalations but they offered no meaningful concessions to the union.

On top of that, it is good for the league. For years you have been hearing about how the big markets/glamour teams can only attract free agents. Until 2015 nobody called the Warriors that. They had a rabid fan base and not much success. Their team was organically grown and they got to sign a great free agent. This is far less corrosive to the leave than multiple teams tanking or shedding all contracts to try and form superteams.

Silver also has a hand in it with the cap on salaries. If there is a cap on how much an individual player can make it will create anomalies like this. If he truly wanted superstars spread across the league you don't cap how much an individual player can make. Durant and LeBron should be making 40 to 50 million a season based on their impact. If you have the ability to make that you will go to that team.

[Futureshock]

The effect would not be so bad if the league/refs didn't have so much of a disparity in the calls made for said player(s). If the "superstar" is that, why does he need a disparitive whistle to do his thing? This was not the case before the early 80s.

It is so disparitive now that only the most hard core basketball fans are actual fans of a specific team.

[Futureshock]

Astonishing. You'd think they were a business or something...

No problem in a business doing business. But don't sell it to the fans that team x has a chance at a championship so buy your season tickets.

pANDs So why even go through the exercise of paying any player close to the max when you have no chance to be reasonably successful? And why should fans care until the conference finals?

[Kstat]

Nobody sells it to fans that team x has a shot at the championship when they don't. There are 5-6 teams during any given season that have a realistic shot and every other team sells fans that someday down the road their team will jump into that group, and this is part of the journey there.

And finding max players is what sets the foundation. The cavs gave Kyrie Irving a max deal when the cavs were one of the 5 worst teams in the NBA. Pretty sure they don't regret that now.

The Pistons weren't a contender...until they were. Then they went away for 10 years, and they came back again or 6-7 years. That's just how the cycle goes.

Every team has a legit chance to someday be in that 5-6 team grouping. Someone's always checking out and someone new jumps in to take there place. It just takes good management, which the Pistons pretty clearly have at last.

[froot loops]

Someone forgot to give the refs the memo that Steph Curry was supposed to get calls in those finals.

[nhwbrooklyn]

I like the idea of a double+ bonus that follows the player thats fouled. So if a single player is fouled more than 8 times (or whatever number) they get 3 shots to make 2 for every foul after that. The down side is that sometimes you'd get guys like James Harden, who draw a shit ton of fouls, there too. That said, 3 to make 2 can only hurt the other team for a total of 2 points so it's not all that bad.

I guess another down side could also be that it would mean even more freethrows to sit through if someone was just so bad at FT that 3 to make 2 was still worth it for the other team. Drummond needs to get to 50%.

[fontes91]

4 1/2 weeks until the first preseason game vs the Nets. Probably too early to get excited, but I liked their relatively low-key off-season moves. Hoping KCP and SJ show growth. Too early to predict wins, but I think they could have a shot at home court in the 1st round barring huge injuries.

[jaadam4]

I love the fact that SJ worked on his off hand this off season. That could be really huge for his growth. For a youngin to be putting that kind of effort into his game is impressive. He put himself out there to look a little foolish while working through his struggles in the summer league.