DTroppens

I don't spend time learning about players for the draft, but the Lions selecting an OT with the first round has my approval.

Alice Cooper was awesome. The energy he has at 78 is amazing. The guy tours probably 250 days a year all around the US and Europe. The surprise of the concert was a rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit during his encore. First time he's ever done that. Well, I'm sure he's done it for the few shows during this tour, but never has done it during any other tour in the last 25 years.

Played my first night of outdoor sand volleyball last night. The first night of the season is always one of the best. What outdoor sports do people play around here during the spring/summer/fall seasons? I get the feeling I'm going to be peer pressured into pickleball. Actually played it during a day of sand volleyball the Sunday of Labor Day week barefooted for about four hours. It was fun. But we did the bridge walk and walked some trails at some state parks in the area that day and my feet were hurting pretty bad. Basically wore off a couple of layers of skin. So I learned one thing - don't play four hours of pickleball with bare feet.

I had to cover a sporting event and I got to my car late in the second quarter. Heard the score, heard Champion pretty much saying the Pistons were playing mighty well but the Magic just weren't hitting shots and it's scary how it was still tied. So I get home, my wife has me do something outside before I get in to watch the game. I walk in and the Pistons are up 15. It almost blew my brain. 🙂 It's nice to see it's still possible to hold a team to 38-point halves in an NBA playoff game.

I will be on the road for this one. It's going to be a sirus/xm radio game for me. My wife has a super rare Saturday off (had to use her last vacation days of her work anniversary) and had this planned a couple of weeks ago. Hmmmm, It's a Peacock game. I do have Peacock and keep forgetting I do. I think they archive games, right? Maybe I should just try to ignore social media and radio stations (I've become pretty good at doing this) and just watch the game when I get a chance late Sat night. I think I may try to do that.

If there is a player beyond Robinson (who is supposed to be one of those players) can possibly do that, Marcus Sasser. It looks like he'll never play in a playoff game (don't think he did last season and he has hardly played this season) but over the last two seasons the few minutes he plays during the regular season he looks to be no worse than the team's second-best shooter from behind the arc.

Really, almost a must-win. If the Pistons don't win tonight, visions of never winning a playoff series (and a home playoff game) in what seems like forever will be the narrative and this team isn't going to win four games in five left with three being on the road. It also would mean they've done nothing to change solving the puzzle Orlando created in game #1. Orlando did a lot of the things I'm guessing a lot of us worried would happen in the playoffs and they won easily. There's no reason for them to think they can't win three more doing the same thing. Duren isn't suddenly start roaming to hit 15-footers. It's hard to have spacing when you don't have legit perimeter shooters and the guy that is supposedly your section option can't even spread the floor to 12 feet beyond the bucket. There is no one on this team that is going to scare you into making a defense taking your perimeter game seriously. Put an arc 12 feet from the rim and it'll look like a rush hour traffic jam in a construction zone on an expressway the rest of this series. Really, unless the Pistons suddenly can hit from 40% with a few options consistently from outside, life isn't going to get any easier. And even if the Pistons did that for a game, Orlando or no other potential future opponent is going to change what they do defensively because of one game. They'll challenge Detroit to do it a second, a third and a fourth time and take their chances. I'm not as hard core about Thompson thing as a lot of you from game one. I love to see him out there for his defense. And, yes, this team needs that presence. However, he presents nothing to the team offensively and him being out there isn't going to help what this team's dire problem is right now - getting sort of offense that makes life tougher for the opponent on defense. Unless the Pistons get on the break more reliably due to him being on the floor, he also creates some headaches on the other side of the floor. Could he have played more? Of course. I would've liked to see him play more. But it's not like this magic potion that if he plays another 10 minutes in that game the Pistons suddenly win. And it's quite possible if he played another 10 minutes nothing changes, and the offense could've struggled even more.

Going to see Alice Cooper tonight in Toledo.

That's an excuse for a quarter.

The interior defense is supposed to be our strength - not this half.

14/33 from 2 for Pistons.

We will see. I think he's going to command a huge sum. That's one of the reasons let's do it win it this season before all those other issues hit head on and make future runs much harder - kind of my theory with the Lions a few years ago when, well, the Lions didn't go for a field goal to go back up 17, and later not try one to at least tie the game. That will haunt me the rest of my life. Watching that game with my nephews and told them the Lions may never get that close again in your lives because now the real work to maintain begins.

The question of the offseason. I like him but a max contract is what it will take.

Wow, that last minute was my point exactly. Two very unnatural treys and Orlando had two nice in the flow treys with one on the break. Lucky they missed the second one. Life is so hard in today's game when you are playing offense like it's 1999 and not what it is today. You see Orlando already packing it in, not concerned about Detroit kicking it out. And if Detroit does take one it's usually a trey like we saw in that last minute of the half, nothing natural about it. They have to find a way to make offense easier by at least forcing teams to respect a possibility of a perimeter game, being able to make at least x of a percentage to make the interior offense easier and less conjested on every shot - even the ones on the break. And Orlando isn't even hitting that well from outside.

Not being instinctual at the arc to take that shot like every other team in the NBA I worry is a reason that life will be very hard for the Pistons as quarters become games against the same team for two weeks. And with Duncan out, that concern multiplies. The Pistons make it tough to make it easier for themselves in a halfcourt when they just can't kick out like other teams whether they get an offensive board or are attacking the lane or reversing a ball. Can they win this way over 7 games for four series as the teams get better? Really the question I've been asking myself all season, especially since we didn't address that ssue at the trading deadline. It's been my constant question. The team doesn't ever instinctually bring it back out. And the times they do, we don't have natural perimeter shooters that are going to push the defense back away from 15feet and in from the hoop.