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Ok, so technically Antonio and Rip didn’t crash Mo Evan’s wedding since they were groomsmen but I needed an excuse to make the above crappy photoshop.

That’s quite a savage beard Ripper’s working on. It’s gotta look killer with some stunner shades. He’s going the give the Baron Davises and DeShawn Stevensons of the league a run for their money. To check out the real wedding pics see: DBB via Need4Sheed via The Sports Culture

In other Piston’s news:

Rumors have Theo Ratliff on the verge of signing with the Philadelphia 76ers to replace injured center Jason Smith, and if there’s a big man in the league who has more to prove than Kwame Brown it’s Ratliff. (via Hoopsworld)

For me Theo played to mixed reviews last year.  I would say he earned his money but I somehow thought he had more in the tank.  Or maybe he wasn’t utilized right by Flipper?   But kay sera sera, we’ve got Kwame Brown now!?

I started to read Keith Langlois’ newest True Blue blog post talking about what the Pistons lineup to finish games might look like and he talked about Rodney Stuckey being out there and sliding Tay over to the four. First thought, Tayshaun is not what I think about when I think of power forward. But, then Keith makes a some good points:

Look at some of the power forwards in the East. Is there any reason to fear the 6-foot-9 Prince being overwhelmed by the likes of Antawn Jamison, Rashard Lewis, Josh Smith, Yi Jianlian or Charlie Villanueva? Maybe you’d want to protect him from the likes of Elton Brand or Zach Randolph, but even terrific power forwards like Chris Bosh or Kevin Garnett don’t present physically dominant mismatches for the lanky Prince, at least not over short stretches – not when the corresponding matchup on the other end takes those players out of their comfort zones. Even if Garnett and Bosh have the foot speed to stay with Prince, pulling them away from the basket to do so is a victory for the offense.

This isn’t the NBA of yesteryear where you have a clearly defined perception of what position players look like and what kind of game they play.  There’s more tweener types like Tayshaun.   Like Keith is saying, he doesn’t have the body to bang with every four in the East, but he’s versatile enough to hold his own against most of them and even create match up problems for other clubs.

If we can be competitive with Rasheed playing the pivot I don’t see why we can’t close out games with Tay at PF.