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JoeD · 10-04-2007, 06:07 PM

Since I was courtside, here is the mandatory insider view about players real heights. All Pistons looked exactly their listed heights, including Amir (6'10).

Rasheed looks like he is in noticeably better condition I'm happy to say.

Seeing Chauncey up close was a first. His calf muscles are insanely wide. He's kinda built like a tank.

Flip Murray looks like he's in really good shape. Nazr looked in a lot better shape than he was at any point last year.

Tayshaun seems like he is in worse shape. He seemed a little gimpy.

The actual game was a bad combination of rookie play and veterans who didn't look like they played basketball all off season. I know it was just a practice, but even for a practice it was sloppy, so I'm pretty confident that most guys didn't do much summer work. Other than Lindsey.

Ranking of players (not including Hamilton, Sheed, and Chauncey, who barely were involved).

1. Flip Murray. In very good shape and made a lot of smart plays and a very good job of getting his own baskets.

2. Lindsey Hunter. He was nailing his shots, playing really smart. It's no small accomplishment that he brought order to the sloppiest of games. He was playing calm in the face of pressure without slowing down.

3. Nazr Mohammed. Was pretty active. Took McDyess 1 on 1 a couple of times. Hit a jumper, got a put back.

4. Jason Maxiell. Did some of his usual things. At one point he seemed to have extended his arm well over the square of the backboard for a rebound.

5. Amir Johnson. Able to rebound offensively well and then put it in very quick. On the downside, I think he committed a number of offensive fouls (which weren't really getting called for anyone). He did a lot of barreling into people.

6. Rodney Stuckey. At the start of the game he was going one on one with Billups. He stuck with Billups through a number of moves on separate possessions, which both ended with Billups missing jumpers. Then when he went against Billups he couldn't do anything himself. Everytime in the halfcourt he took the ball up he'd somehow end up near the three pointline by one of the sidelines and get kind of trapped. He was good on the fast break though. That is about all he did.

7. Antonio McDyess. Totally mediocre. He shot his jumpers so-so, but as far as anything else goes, I just HOPE he wasn't trying.

8. Tayshaun Prince. He was pretty putrid out there. He seemed a bit hobbled, and his shots were ugly. He didn't make one. Either wasn't trying or has some small injury he is taking easy.

I didn't know where to put Hayes. He seemed good, but wasn't involved in much. Same for AA. Wasn't involved in much except two kick out three pointers that he drained. Rip too. He did well whenever he was involved, which wasn't much.

Conclusion: Rip, Sheed, Flip, Lindsey, and Maxiell are about the only ones in playing form yet. Maybe Hayes as well. Everyone else needs to get into shape.

Oh, and I only watched the 1st half.

JoeD · 10-04-2007, 06:18 PM

Oh, I forgot my favorite part of the night. As I said, I hated those Pistons entertainers. The guys who do t-shirt throwing and other stupid crap. The dwarfs among midgets.

Anyway, at half-time some of the college goofballs asked the automotion girls to take a picture with them. Which they did. The guys layed on the floor and were really covered by 20 or so hot women.

The part I enjoyed was the t-shirt throwing guys were seemingly SEETHING with envy, because they were snidely mocking the guys right by me.