Just announced on TNT, Chauncey Billups and his backcourt mate Rip Hamilton were named reserves to the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the third consecutive year. Rasheed Wallace got his wish and was not selected, in fact no center reserve was selected for the East.



UPDATE: (Via Detroit News)

“I am excited. I’m geeked,” Hamilton said. “It just tells you what kind of success we’ve had as a team. And it’s a great opportunity going with Billups again. I feel like we kind of came in together and we’ve accomplished a lot together. I just feel blessed.”

Billups and Hamilton combined are averaging 36.9 points a game, fourth best among guard combinations in the league.

“I would be surprised if they didn’t make it,” coach Flip Saunders said. “I think they’ve clearly been one of the most productive combos in the league, as far as how they’ve played this year. They’ve both been very consistent and our team continues to be one of the elite teams in the league. I think they should be rewarded for that.”

Also selected as Eastern Conference reserves were Toronto’s Chris Bosh, Washington’s Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, Boston’s Paul Pierce and Atlanta’s Joe Johnson.

The T-Mobile Rookie Challenge participants were announced today and our guy Arron Afflalo was not on the roster. I personally think he should have got the nod over Mike Conley of the Grizzlies (although I might be a tad biased). Mike Conley is a fine young player, but he’s only been in 19 total games because of injury. Arron might only be averaging 3.4 ppg but he’s playing behind Chauncey and Rip. He’s played 42 of the Pistons 45 total games this year. Cracking the line up on this team isn’t all that easy either. Just ask Darko, Amir Johnson, and Jason Maxiell before this year.

He’s plays hard and smart doing a lot of the intangibles that don’t show up in the boxscores. Plus the league should want representatives for their best teams whenever available. Hopefully he can use this as some motivation and there’s always the sophomore team next season.

I just wanted to see some recognition for a guy who works as hard as Arron does.  Go Pistons.

• Good write up on the Pistons in the NY Times

“At the end of last season, Joe Dumars made our off-season mantra to instill youth and energy into this team,” Hammond said.Wear and tear on the starters was one concern, but their age was another. Hamilton turns 30 next month, Billups is 31 and forward Rasheed Wallace is 33.

“We didn’t want to reach a point where we had to tear down the roster and completely rebuild,” Hammond said.

• Chris McCosky continues his defense of Tayshaun Prince:

Understand this: If Prince wanted to, he could easily have put himself in a situation where he was the first or second offensive option on another team, and he would certainly be putting up All-Star worthy offensive numbers.

• John Denton of Hoops World has an ax to grind with Rasheed Wallace:

Rasheed Wallace, Detroit’s enigmatic center, is far and away the NBA’s most underachieving player based on his enormous level of talent and spotty, unreliable production.In many ways, Wallace is this age’s Derrick Coleman. Chuck Daly, one of the keenest eyes for talent in NBA history, used to say all the time that Coleman was by far the most skilled and talented player that he ever coached. However, Coleman was a legendary dog of a competitor because of his often unfocused and lazy demeanor.

• Flip Murray staying positive while waiting for his opportunity:

“I’ve been in this situation before,” Murray said. “I know what they’re trying to do here as far as developing the young fellas, as far as getting them some time to be able to play. And me being a veteran, I’ve seen that before. I know what it takes for a team to be able to do that, try to develop their young players. But just in case I’m called on again, (I have to) just be ready.”

Former Piston clippings

• Here’s a Q&A with Chris Webber from Warriors.com. I was hoping they would have asked him something Pistons related, but I can understand why they didn’t. (finder’s fee to Nick)

• Here’s Mehmet Okur vid from FanHouse of Memo apparently giving some heckling fans the one finger salute
• Larry Brown inquired about the Cavs’ first seat

Teeth back in skull….check, clear up passport issues…check. Back down to the D for Mr. Samb…check.

Via: InsideHoops.com

The Detroit Pistons announced today that they have re-assigned rookie center Cheikh Samb to their NBA Development League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.The assignment will be Samb’s second this season. He was originally assigned to Fort Wayne on Monday, December 10. In two games (both starts) during his first stint, Samb averaged 13.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocks in 31.5 minutes with the Mad Ants.

Samb was acquired by the Pistons on draft day from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Maurice Evans on June 28, 2006. Drafted by the Lakers with the 51st pick in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft, Samb spent the 2006-07 season playing overseas with WTC Cornella in the Spanish LEB2 League.

The 7-foot-1, 215-pound center made his NBA debut with the Pistons at the L.A. Lakers on November 16, scoring two points with four rebounds and two blocks in 15 minutes. In two NBA games this season, Samb is averaging 1.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 10.5 minutes per game.

No timetable has been set for his return.

ALSO…

Sammy Mejia, who was Ft. Waynes leading scorer (19.5 ppg) is leaving the Mad Ants to go play in Europe with an Italian ball club.

“Fort Wayne wasn’t the problem,” said Mejia, who missed the first 10 games of the NBA D-League season with a leg injury. “It’s hard to be in one spot, and everybody’s goal is not to be there. It’s a different kind of comfort being over there. Nobody who is part of the Mad Ants wants to be in the Mad Ant uniform. I got comfortable in a different kind of way.” (Via: Ft Wayne Journal Gazette)

Mejia was named D-League performer of the week for the week of December 24th

The Pistons (31-13) will be at Indiana’s Conseco Fieldhouse to take on the Pacers (19-26) tonight at 7 pm est from the The Game can be viewed locally on FSN Detroit.

Pacers’ Snapshot
Home record: 9-10
Last game: 1/26 (Sat) L 96-98 @ Heat
Last 10: 3-7
Injuries: Jamaal Tinsley (sore left knee), Jermaine O’Neal (bone bruise, left knee), Kareem Rush (sore left knee)
Last meeting: Dec. 29th Pistons (98) @ Pacers (92)

The last time we seen the Pacers it was for a home-and-home series at the end of December where the Pistons blew the Pacers out in the first game at the Palace, and then the Pacers made it a more respectable game the next night in Indy. Those two wins made consecutive wins #7 & 8 for the Pistons on their way to a season high 11 straight. The Pacers have been hampered by injuries and have gone  4-10 since then. This game will start a much needed four game homestand for the Pacers who’ve played 9 of their last 11 on the road.

The Pacers will be with out Jermaine O’Neal tonight so they’ll be going all in on the small ball.  The Pistons need to use their size and not be tempted to join in on a shoot out with Indy.  Look for Tayshaun Prince to extend his career long pwning of Mike Dunleavy.  This might even be the perfect game for Amir Johnson to preview some of his promise we’re all eager for.

NOTES:

• Indiana’s currently on a 3 game skid
• The Heat got their first win of ‘08, and also ended a 15 game skip Saturday Vs. Indiana
• The Pacers 19-26 is good enough right now for the 8th seed in the East
• For some Pacer POV check out www.IndyCornRows.com

After Cleveland’s loss at home (110-108) to the Suns this past Friday. Take that trash can!

So it ends, looks as if Webb will sign tomorrow.  Talk about all the unlikely places for him to land, not exactly the best fit for the up tempo game they play out there in Oakland.  Good luck Chris. (finder’s fee to Nation member Nick)

Chris Webber’s unlikely but fast-moving return to the Golden State Warriors is on course to be completed by Tuesday, according to sources close to the negotiations.Barring an unexpected change of heart, sources said, Webber will accept the invitation from former coach Don Nelson and former teammate Chris Mullin to come back to the team with whom he won NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 1994, only for Webber to force a trade to Washington some six months later when his prickly relationship with Nelson collapsed.

I think if he comes, it can benefit our team, it can benefit his and my relationship, it can benefit players on this team. I think he has a chance to make some of our players better and make our team better.

–Don Nelson

“I hope that it happens to be quite honest with you,” Nelson told Bay Area reporters Sunday before the Warriors hosted the New York Knicks. “I think our team needs it.”

Nelson made his own surprising and triumphant return to Oakland last season, guiding the Warriors to their first playoff berth since they went 50-32 in Webber’s rookie season in 1993-94. Sources say Nelson and Mullin, now the Warriors’ vice president of basketball operations, are confident that the 67-year-old coach and Webber are ready for this seemingly hard-to-fathom reunion after multiple conversations in recent days.

For his part, Nelson has maintained that he and Webber reconciled years ago, when he chose Webber to replace the injured Shaquille O’Neal — over Dirk Nowitzki from Nelson’s Dallas Mavericks — as the West’s starting center for the 2002 All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

Webber could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday, but sources insist that he would be Golden State-bound now even if the Detroit Pistons made an 11th-hour bid to re-sign him. The Warriors have offered to sign him for the rest of the season for a pro-rated share of the league’s $1.2 million veteran minimum.

So Rasheed Wallace has made it clear that he’d rather not be voted in by the coaches this Thursday as an all-star reserve. Preferring rather to use all-star four day weekend for R&R, to which Flip Saunder’s had the following to say:

“They can say all that they want,” Saunders said. “But all our players get played a lot of money to play this game. You have an obligation. And the reason you get paid is people want to see you.” (via DFP)

“Being selected as an All-Star is an honor,” Saunders said. “And it’s more of an honor when you’re selected by the coaches. You’ve got to realize, ‘Sheed’s the only guy ever to get kicked out of the McDonald’s All-Star Game.” (via DFP)

Now, I don’t know exactly what context Flip made the above quotes, I only read them in the paper. But, it does sound like he’s awfully critical of Rasheed’s all-star angst. You think he’d have more of a “that’s just Sheed” stance about the whole thing.

Personally I’d kinda like to see Rasheed Wallace represent the Pistons in that game. Even without Sheed I suspect we’ll probably be well represented by our backcourt of Chauncey and Rip again this year which would be fitting because they are a huge reason for our success so far with their superb consistent play.

As for the game itself, eh? it’s not that great anymore to me. Everything was better when you were younger, including the midseason classic.

UPDATE:

In case anyone reading this thinks I’m overreacting to an isolated incident I’ve added some other examples in comments to illustrate my point.

[Box score] If the Pistons were a little soured by losing to the Magic down in Orlando on a Rashard Lewis buzzer beater it showed right from the start as the Pistons jumped all over the Magic at the Palace.

The Pistons hit a couple of “Magic” numbers that more times than not spells victory for them. There were 25 team assists and they hit the century mark scoring 101. They also killed on the boards 49-31.

By the end of the of the first quarter the Pistons were up by 21 points, 39-18. The 39 points is a season high, and they shot an incredible 77%. Rasheed Wallace was the catalyst scoring 13 of 15 points in the quarter. The Pistons were +24 with Rasheed in the game. The Magic actually won quarters 2-4 but the cushion the Pistons built in the first helped them keep Orlando at arms length.

After Rasheed played the set up guy Richard Hamilton went to work. Rip scored 14 of his game high 32 points (64% shooting) in the second quarter leading the way to a 68-49 Piston halftime lead. Rip stuffed his stat line with 8 rebounds (season high), 8 assists, and 2 steals.

Chauncey Billups (21 pts, 6 ast) and Antonio McDyess (10 pts, 13 rbs) joined Rip and Rasheed as Pistons double figure scorers. From the bench Amir Johnson’s stock is rising with more meaningful minutes. Amir grabbed 4 boards and accounted for 3 of the Pistons 4 blocks in his 8 minutes of play. Meanwhile, Jarvis Hayes’ stock was plumeting.  Jarvis picked up 3 fouls in his 2:47 on the court where he shot 1/3.

The whistles were in abundance for this game. There were four technicals called with each team getting 2. Rasheed fouled out for the Pistons. The Magic attempted 39 free throw, a season high for a Piston opponent. They converted on 25.

On Thursday Chauncey was on Jim Rome’s ESPN show Rome is Burning via satellite. Jim had some pretty good questions for Chauncey and I was kind of surprised with the answer Chauncey gave about how good Rasheed is. Billups said Rasheed could be the league’s best player but gets “bored” when playing against comp he feels are not up to his level.

Check out the full “Alone with Rome” interview.

The Pistons (30-13) will host the Magic (27-17) at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Tip off is 7:00 pm est and can be viewed locally on TV20 and nationally on ESPN.

Magic Snapshot
Road record: 17-9
Last game: 1/23 (Weds) W 112-85 @ Memphis
Last 10: 4-6
Injuries: Tony Battie (torn left rotator cuff), Jameer Nelson (strained tendon, right foot)
Last meeting: Jan. 21st Pistons (100) @ Magic (102)

Four days ago the Magic ended their 9 game losing streak to the Pistons on a last second Rashard Lewis 12′ glasser. Tonight they’ll be looking to stop a Palace losing streak that dates back almost four years. The Pistons are coming off a win where they should look to build momentum. Beating Philly isn’t something to leave a red hand print on you back about, but the ‘Stonz did look like they were getting back to the form that allowed the to run off 11 straight victories before being derailed by the Celtics.

The Pistons need to concentrate on defending Orlando’s high pick-and-roll between Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard. They need to do a better job of not sleeping on Turkoglu and just letting Sheed stay home on D. Howard. Hedo is having a great season so far and it’s being done mostly under the radar. The guy is quietly averaging 19 pts, 6 rbs, & 4 ast. per game often times (like Monday) doing most of his damage in the 4th quarter of games.

NOTES:

• The Magic are on a 3 game winning streak (POR / DET / MEM)
• Orlando’s 17 road wins is tops in the NBA
• The odds makers have the Pistons as a 7 1/2 point favorite tonight
• Check out Ben Q. Rock’s excellent work over at his Magic blog Third Quarter Collapse

We Pistons’ fans have tendencies to dwell. There were the annual trade scenarios to bring Mike James back to Detroit Auburn Hills after we lost him to free agency in ‘04 or the more specific Sheed for KG trade that wouldn’t die until Garnett was dealt to Boston this offseason. Our newest hang up is Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III, or more commonly C-Webb. We just love our Mitten-Bred baller.

It’s coming up on the two week anniversary of Webber telling a Sacramento TV reporter that he’d be “back in two weeks playing basketball”.

There’s a very large faction of the Nation that wants Webb back, and there’s also those that don’t share that predilection. Here’s a cross section of both.

Rob Parker says Webber Can help Pistons. Parker expects to see Webber rejoin the Pistons sooner or later. Parker thinks Webber’s ability to pass out of the post would be the “perfect scenario” for Detroit’s offense.


You can see Webber playing 12-15 minutes a night. Best of all, coach Flip Saunders can see quickly if he’s able to help or not. Last season as a starter, Webber was either very good or very bad.

If it’s one of those bad nights, you go to someone else. If Webber is playing well, then you get all those minutes out of him.

That’s not going to sit well with everyone who’s wanted to see Amir Johnson get those 12-15 minutes per night. Especially after the effort he put forth against the Sixers on Wednesday night.

Jamie Samualson doesn’t share Parker’s avidity for Webber’s return. In his Free Press blog bluntly titled Chris Webber would add nothing to the Pistons:


Detroit needs to forget about Chris Webber of Country Day, Michigan and even the Kings. That player doesn’t exist anymore. Webber now is a pull-up jump shooter who never attacks the basket. Don’t you remember his act in the playoffs last year? There were games where he flat out disappeared. In fact the only ream impact I remember him making was early in the Bulls series and one game of the Cavs series. Bottom line. He would not make this team any better. Not at all.

Antonio McDyess was posed the question on Webber’s return on WDFN:


“Chris is a great teammate. I would love to have him but I can’t make that call. I don’t know what he would give us right now, you know, if Flip would even play him, if that was the case. I would love to see him out there as a teammate and I mean I loved him last year, he helped us.”

Dice seems to take the high road but does hint to Flip Saunders’ lack of confidence in Chris’ ability to help the Pistons. Antonio said in the interview that he feels the team needs is another energy guy off the bench, possibly a fourth or fifth big. “Energy player” isn’t exactly the terms I’d use to describe Chris’ game these days.

Even a non-Piston fan thinks Adding Chris Webber would negate any chance of a Detroit Pistons Championship:


He’s about i, me, my which didn’t have any place on the Pistons best teams over the last 6-7 years. During the playoffs, Webber was quoted as yelling on the court during numerous possessions “D-up! I got to get my ring!”

That’s funny, Webber telling teammates to D-up. I hadn’t heard that before, but if it’s true it gives Jim O’Brien’s recent Webber retorts look a tad less sour grapey.

Ok, so here’s my feelings on a Webber return, which aren’t so thinly veiled if you’ve made it this far. The Pistons SHOULD NOT RE-SIGN CHRIS. Look, I’m no Webber hater. I love the guy. I pulled hard for him in Sacto. They were my preseason favorites to win it all a few times. I still have the #4 Michigan jersey that I rocked in Jr. High (although it’s a wee bit extra-medium on me and since it’s a replica joint the dryer has gotten the best of the screened on applications). But, like the required reading in Jr. High “That was then, this is now”.

What the Pistons DO NEED in my opinion is a situational big. We need a mass neutralizer like we had in Elden Campbell or Dale Davis. More or less a large foul eater. We match up well with Dice and Sheed against the athletic bigs in the L, it’s just the plodders we struggle with. This was brought to light to me by the way Big Baby Davis was able to open up his own and1 layup bazaar right there in the Palace paint in the 4th quarter of the Celtics game. Or When we were unable to stop the Knicks, THE KNICKS, from going over the top of our defense to the tandem of Curry and Randolph.

Who pray tell should we go after? I don’t know, sorry. I’d thought for awhile PJ Brwon, but all reports are that he’s content in retirement. I, like the rest of us, have to leave our trust in the very competent hands of Joe D.

Can Gatorade go bad? Check with Tim Duncan.

Roll film…

[Box score] Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups aren’t too accustomed to losing games in consecutive fashion here with the Pistons, so tonight against Philly they made sure streak made an abrupt halt at 3 games beating the 76ers at the Wachovia Center 86-78.

Detroit’s all-star backcourt weren’t messing around from the jump. The two combined to score the Pistons first 19 points of the contest. They didn’t miss a single basket in the first half going 11/11 with no turnovers at the halfway point either. For the game they combined for 40 points with Chauncey’s 19 (with 5 assists) and Rip’s 21.

The Pistons were shooting the rock at a 58% clip for the first half. They finished off the 2nd quarter on a 18-5 run. The Sixers were within 9 though 50-41 because of the second chance scoring by sending multiple guys to the offensive glass. Tayshaun paced the Pistons with 8 of his 16 in the 2nd quarter.

The Pistons got a big boost in the 2nd quarter from their bench who as we know have been having a rough go of it as of late. Arron Afflalo (6 pts) came in and gave the Pistons great hustle and energy playing alongside Chauncey Billups in the Piston backcourt.

And, then there’s Amir Johnson who got some meaningful minutes first entering the game at the 8:12 mark in the 2nd because of some early fouls on Jason Maxiell and also the effort he’s been putting forth in Pistons’ practices. Amir worked hard on the offensive glass and also doing the little things that will hopefully earn him more minutes. He logged just under 15 in this one getting burn in all quarters but the first scoring 5 points and grabbing 5 boards (4 offensive). The Pistons were a +12 with Amir in the game.

Afflalo’s rookie backcourt mate Stuckey had a rough go. He wasn’t able to score in his 12 minutes on the court going 0/4 from the field, which was accentuated by a blown breakaway dunk that, to his credit, was off a good step-in-front steal he made. He’s still adjusting after missing all that time with the broken hand. I’m confident he’ll find his way.

The bench scored 15 of their 17 points in the first half.

Detroit got their lead up to 14in the 3rd quarter but the 76ers are a pretty hard working team. The kept at it and were able to trim the lead down to 7, 70-63, by quarter’s end. To the Sixers credit they fought hard and never let the Pistons run away with this game.

It was good to see the boys in Pistons’ blue win a game they should after some disappointing losses. I was thinking before the game that it would be pretty hard to rationalize or make an excuse for another L tonight. The energy seemed to carry over from the Orlando loss. The Pistons got 7 steals and blocked 6 Philly shots. The offense is looking a bit more crisp with the ball moving more. The most pleasing part had to be the aggressiveness. The Pistons were going to the hoop instead of settling for jumpers. They actually ended up making more free throws (17) than the Sixer attempted (13).

Like I mentioned, Philly played hard and fought the good fight. Their 47-33 rebounding edge probably kept this game from being a blowout.

Philly is a good place for the Pistons to look for a win as they’ve now won 6 straight there and 8 of their last 9.