Or want to feel good about Detroit basketball (or freakin Detroit sports for that matter)

behold…

I feel better already

 Via

Oh well, at least Pistons don’t have 90 million dollars locked up in mediocre, one dimensional players like Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva

At least Pistons have a point guard to build around

At least their best big man on the roster isn’t past his prime

At least they don’t have a huge jam at two positions

At least their first round pick isn’t getting wood splinters

At least they have an experienced coach

At least their GM has a stellar history at drafting players early in the draft

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…

Oh wait…

By @KaysOnTheNBA

Ben Gordon’s last 4 games have been pretty bad. He has scored a combined 21 points while shooting 23% overall in those 4 games. He hasn’t played more than 30 minutes in a game since the January 9 game vs. Philadelphia.  Granted, he was injured and missed essentially 10 games in this new year and is only averaging about 22 minutes in 2010, but still, doesn’t he need more minutes?

Gordon’s splits when he starts/comes off the bench are very interesting:

So what does this mean? Should Gordon be starting instead of coming off the bench? Of course there are many other factors involved, such as who else is starting alongside Gordon, the matchups involved, etc.  However, it is easy to make a case for Gordon to start, or at the very least, play more minutes.

Ben Gordon is playing just 29.9 minutes per game.  That would be the second lowest of his six-year career.  That is not a lot of minutes played for someone who is making $10 million this season.  He’s also averaging career lows in points per game (14.9) and probably worst of all, 3 point field-goal percentage (.304).  He was brought to Detroit to score, more specifically to make a lot of three pointers.  Before this season, Gordon had never averaged less than a  40% shooting mark from three point land.

Gordon still has time to turn it around in Detroit.  This has been a tough year for him as he has had to adapt to a new team, a rookie head coach, and serious injuries for the first time in his career (19 games missed this season compared to 12 total in his first five season).  He just does not look like the Ben Gordon who helped Chicago take Boston to 7 games in last year’s playoffs.  But to justify that lucrative contract, Detroit Ben Gordon needs to start playing like Chicago Ben Gordon.

I know that I have, along with many other people, clamored about the lack of a competent point guard on this wonderfully well balanced Detroit team.  Well, provided Joey D. doesn’t acquire some sort of point guard before the trade deadline, Joey D. may very well draft a point guard somewhere in the 2010 draft.

As of late Duke senior point guard Jon Scheyer has been on fire (the whole season really) and one must ponder if he’s playing himself into 2nd round consideration.

You heard it here first folks.

Via

From Lang Whitaker’s (Slam Online) mammoth post about the  “best and worst of All-Stars past“.

BEST RASHEED WALLACE SIGHTING
Washington, 2001
Around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday night/Friday morning in D.C., Russ, Ryan and I left an And 1 party and walked over to the Grand Hyatt, where the players were staying, to hook up with our dude Chris Palmer from ESPN. Palmer was late, so Russ, Ryan and I grabbed a seat in the lobby and were hanging there, when Rasheed Wallace came strolling down the escalator with his posse; they quickly ducked into the lobby bathroom.

I had written the cover story on Sheed in the previous issue of SLAM, calling him out on his mad scientist behavior while pointing out that he’s also allowed to act however he’d like to. I hadn’t seen him since that issue dropped, and I was a little concerned with how he’d react. When they emerged, Sheed spotted me and said,

“The story was cool,” giving us the official thumbs up. I exhaled.

We were then introduced to one of Rasheed’s friends named Perv, who also claimed to have liked the article.

We didn’t get a chance to ask him what Perv was short for, though we had an idea.

Yeah… uh, nothing surprises me anymore.