Austin Kent

In a nutshell, McDyess could score. There was nobody on our team who had a consistant shot in the playoffs except Dice. You could make an argument for Prince's little runner in the key, but nearly everytime Antonio McDyess would throw up a fadeaway it would go in. When scoring is scarce, like it was for us these playoffs, then I'll play somebody who has one go to move as long as he's breathing. Billups' threes weren't falling, the jumpers that Hamilton usually hits weren't dropping, Rasheed Wallace was off in his own world and Ben Wallace was well, Ben Wallace.

But I also like the idea of my avatar being credible enough for people to base claims off of

Furthermore, in regards to the the bench I have to say I disagree here. At the beginning of the year we had a good bench with the potential to be a great bench.

I figured Dumars would have had some reasoning behind offering Dale Davis such a big contract. I honestly thought he would get some minutes and I really thought he could contribute at least a little bit. Instead he played even less than Elden Campbell did during his stay here. Lame.

I don't even think we need to get into Delfino. The guy should be playing, but he's not, for whatever reason. Instead he was completely ignored in favour of Maurice Evans (who is no slouch either, just not good enough to hog all CD's minutes too)

Darko and Arroyo were the two best young players on our team and they could have been even better. Instead of worrying about not having time to develop them, Dumars and Saunders should have been worrying about putting the best players on the floor, which definitely includes BOTH of them (even if just for a few minutes). Arroyo had his chance, and provided a great contrast to the rest of our team, but I guess he just didn't cut it.

Lyndsey Hunter and McDyess have always given everything we've expected from them. By the end of the year they were the only ones actually getting any burn in the playoffs.

As far as minutes are concerned, our starters played a pretty low amount (mid thirties no?). Compared to the Iversons, Kobes and Lebrons of the NBA that is nothing. But none of our players are on that level. Nobody is even close. Hamilton, Billups and Prince played as much as any borderline all star should have played. Neither of the Wallaces should have even make the team. Ben's motivation has gone down, and since that's all he really ever had, so has his production. And Rasheed is just getting old (or crazy).

I think the best starting five in the league thing killed us. We used to murder teams with our bench, but ever since we built up this identity of having the best five starters in the league we haven't had nearly as much success.

Billups, Hamilton, Prince and the Wallaces combine to make five players who have at one point in time been good players. That's all. To say that four of them were all stars is just another media fabrication.

We had a killer regular season, especially at the beginning, I guess Dumars and Saunders were so blown away by it that they actually thought getting rid of our only shot at depth or potential in order to keep the dream alive would be worth it. It wasn't.

JoeD

Yeah McDyess was pretty much our only go-to option. Rasheed is the only other possibility but he has far less consistency. McDyess does the majority of his scoring by himself, without help. We don't need to run pick and rolls or screens we just give him the ball and it's a free assist for the guards (in Laimbeer's words).

He also does it incredibly efficiently, and that is why he is the best, minute for minute. I know there is more to the game than offense, but his defense has been really good too, as is his rebounding. He offensive rebounds at about the same rate as Ben Wallace. He was leading the playoffs in fg%. He will also perform that way against anyone. He had no problem taking it to Tim Duncan in the finals, where he was absolutely fantastic.

When he has been given starting minutes (though it has barely happened) he performs better than the Wallace's.

Beyond the minute for minute thing I have also noticed whenever he does get more minutes he plays better. Against Milwaukee in 25 mpg he shot 63.2% for 11.4 ppg, got 8.5 rebs (3.2 offensive) along with one assist and one block. In Clevland with 17 mpg, and weaker defenders imo, he was less efficient. This trend has always been there. That is why he should be starting and playing 30+ mpg.

Other good reasons are he very notably gets up for big games and he plays better when he doesn't sit for too long and gets to start early or right away.. He improves his game for important games as much as anyone I've seen.

I think after all the injuries and come backs of McDyess people are quick to think he cant do more. The injuries mean nothing now. All doubt has to be gone after he dunked straight over Zo. Someone who actually does have lingering detriments from injuries would be Webber, yet he still plays like 37 mpg and gets 20/10. McDyess actually seems to be in really, really good shape, and has been steadily improving under the Pistons awseome training staff (seriously one of the cool things about this team). Before the playoffs he talked about how he now felt good enough to do windmill dunks in practice. He could be even better next year.

With Ben gone, I hope it is no longer possible for McDyess to be overlooked. However after watching his miraculous 4th quarter game 5 against Cleveland be rewarded with 5 minutes I've lost most hope. If Saunders has already precluded the idea of McDyess earning starting minutes and over looks him I honestly won't be able to stand to watch the team anymore. It is frustrating as hell. Thankfully, Saunders seemed to think highly of McDyess in a post-Ben-to-Chicago interview when he was saying how we could actually be better off.

Pain5155

As said time and time again, anything less then a championship for detroit last season would be failure, and it didnt happen. So flip didnt do his job.

The Enigma

Unfortunately there is much more to basketball then fantasy stats, box scores and the various assortment of technical statistical breakdowns the new age number crunching fan seems to swear by.

McDyess is an efficient player (a dependably efficient player in fact) however he is not the overall defender you (and others) believe him to be. He is an adequate man-to-man low post defender when asked to stick to and contest his man however his ability to switch, rotate and/ or cover for his teammates leaves little to be desired.
In both the Cleveland and Miami series McDyess was atrocious in both pick and roll and rotational defense. He was consistently late on rotations as he over committed to the ball time and again.

Varejao absolutely went to work when lined up against McDyess in the Cleveland series (game 3 and 4 in particular). Practically all of his buckets came from converting plays under the basket out of high and side pick and roll plays with James. That more then anything else is what limited McDyess in terms of minutes per in that series.

His inability on the defensive side (against the strategy those teams chose to employ) made it tough to take Ben (who is the best rotational defender amongst pivot men in the entire league) off the court. The drop off in screen roll defense was significant when McDyess replaced Ben and the drop in size (as well as floor spacing) on the inside was at times a problem when he replaced Rasheed.

- Rasheed's presence on the offensive end is a big part of what the Pistons did offensively last season (as both an outside shooting and high post passing threat). McDyess' scoring and rebounding alone was (and is) no more valuable to the Pistons then all that Rasheed brings in terms of offence, defense and savvy.

McDyess for all that he brings (which is a lot) is not what I would consider a smart player. The bonehead mistakes he continually makes out of rotations prove to be quite comical the third to fourth time around.

Similar to Prince all fans tend to selectively remember about McDyess are the good points.

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All that being said I expect big things from McDyess this upcoming season (the Pistons will need it if they hold any plans of success this upcoming season).

Note: He will likely be the most statistically productive post player on the team if he logs 28-30 minutes next season.

JoeD

Nice post. Now I want to see you analyze Prince as well.

I definitely did not notice that liability as much as you or MLKG. The way you make it out, I'd expect the coaching staff is working with him on this and it shouldn't be beyond his capability to fix. If it is a matter of lateral speed I don't doubt he could improve there as well. His health has been steadily improving bit by bit even into the playoffs last year. He didn't seem to have such a liability I was aware of (he had a defensive reputation) pre-injury, so between health and coaching I hope he can fix it.

I don't like to rely on stats myself but there aren't as many common memories about McDyess as a starter, besides the few things I mentioned (big game performances and go-to ability).

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