Lineup change needed for enigmatic P … - 籃球

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作者: Paraguay (巴拉圭) 看板: Pistons
標題: [ 王 ] Lineup change needed for enigmatic Pistons
時間: Tue Jan 20 18:30:18 2009

Source:

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/01/19/nba_story.aldridge20090119/index.

html

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The Daily Dose: Lineup change needed for enigmatic Pistons

By David Aldridge, TNT analyst / Posted Jan 19 2009 10:59PM

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MEMPHIS -- I saw Dave Bing on Monday afternoon, at the Civil Rights Symposium
the Grizzlies put on as part of the city's annual Martin Luther King, Jr.
celebration. And Bing, wildly successful in business since his playing days,
is running for mayor of Detroit.

But after listening to him detail all the problems facing that crippled city,
all the bad choices he'd have to pick from, and the likelihood that federal
dollars will have little effect on the city's deepest-rooted problems, I
finally had to ask:

Dave, why in the heck do you want the job?

It was a question with which Pistons coach Michael Curry might have sympathy.

The Pistons are struggling with everything these days, trying to summon up
the energy that a half-decade of championship-level basketball has taken away.

Tayshaun Prince limps.

Rip Hamilton limps.

Allen Iverson limps.

Is it six years of knocking heads with Reggie Miller's Pacers and Shaq and
D-Wade's Heat and, now, LeBron's Cavs?

Or is it six weeks of playing a small lineup that no one outside of Curry
seems to like?

Or is it both?

Whatever it is, the Pistons have little time to deal with it. The Cavs have
pulled away in the Central division and the Celtics and Magic have separated
themselves as well, and that means Detroit is locked into a 4 or 5 seed in
the East. That's not promising.

That means a likely first-round date with either Atlanta or Miami. Even if
Detroit survives that, that just gets it a second-rounder with either K.G.,
LeBron or Superman.

Without home court.

The Pistons are fond of saying "if it ain't rough, it ain't right." Under
that scenario, reaching a seventh straight Eastern final would be rougher
than finding Republicans in D.C. this week.

"We just have to keep working with each other," Allen Iverson said after
Monday's win over the Grizzlies. If only it were that simple.

Curry has put a small lineup on the floor since early December, with Tayshaun
Prince playing power forward and Rasheed Wallace playing center. The idea was
to get second-year guard Rodney Stuckey on the floor as much as possible, and
get Iverson off the ball.

But to keep both Iverson and Richard Hamilton happy, Curry had to keep
starting both of them. And Detroit's played like a yo-yo, winning seven
straight, then losing five in a row, including an ugly loss at Oklahoma City.

No one seems to like the arrangement, anyway. Prince is giving away about 20
or 30 pounds a night, and playing him at the four is taking minutes from
Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell.

So, change is likely coming.

"I'm sure we'll eventually get to a more regular lineup," Pistons president
Joe Dumars said via e-mail.

But that still leaves Curry with a second, nearly impossible choice in the
coming days -- bench Iverson, who'd rather drink lye out of the bottle than
be a sixth man, or bench Hamilton, who had been coming off the bench recently
after returning from the groin injury.

There is no question -- none -- what the rest of the team would prefer, and
that's Hamilton starting. This is a proud, loyal bunch, and Hamilton has
carried a lot of water since coming to Detroit in 2002. It's not about A.I.;
it's about their group loyalty to Rip.

But it's not Curry's job to be popular: it's his job to be right. And
Hamilton looked much smoother with the second unit on Monday than when he and
Iverson were on the floor together.

Both A.I. and Hamilton said the right things Monday, pledging to do
whatever's best for the team. But Iverson didn't run from the quandary,
either.

"It would be tough for me," he said "I've never come off the bench in my life
... and I've been sacrificing since I came to Detroit."

Isn't it funny, how good the Detroit job seemed at the beginning of the year,
compared to the builds (OKC, Charlotte, Sacramento) and the rebuilds (Dallas,
Phoenix, the Knicks)?

Now it's Curry who may well have to turn out the lights and tell everyone
that the party's over, and that it's time to drive home safely, to the city
with such massive problems and so little hope, the city that Dave Bing wants
to try and save.

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JD 你終於要有動作了嗎？

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