First to the good news, the Pistons whoop up on Washington and go 4-4 in the Preseason, not really nothing to be all excited about but I’d be pissed if we went 0-8 like Miami, that’s just shameful. And Washington pretty much played their rotation throughout so it was good to see Detroit be able to hold them off. Rasheed looked good shooting but man rebounding may be a problem this season. Maxiell gets up high but lately he’s been having problems bringing it down cleanly, he has to learn how to go up and bring it down strong. He did have 10 rebounds last night but 9 of them were on the offensive glass, now he has to start getting them on the other end too.

 Now, on to Stuckey. I have no idea what actually happen, I was sitting on the opposite end right behind the backboard like 3 rows up from the court and really didn’t see what had happened but Matt Dery reported he was fighting through a screen and his hand got caught or something. At first look I thought it was just jammed fingers or whatever but I guess he ended up breaking it. We do still have Flip and Lindsey over there on the bench but this still hurts, I was so excited about seeing him start off the season. I’m guessing he’ll be out like 3-4 weeks or something but hopefully he’s back by end of November early December. He was balling yesterday too, he looked very confident and it has to be a huge blow to have this setback.

Some other notes from last night…

• I still don’t know why people hate on Flip Murray, people calling him a ballhog now? The dude had 8 dimes last night, if there’s an ballhog on the team its defintely Maxiell who’s like a blackhole, once you give it up don’t ever expect to get it back from him. Its about time Detroit fans start embracing Flip, and I hope with Stuckey being out he gets a chance to get some pretty good playing time and start to prove some doubters wrong.
• Jarvis Hayes is fitting in so far just like I imagined. He’s a great shooter and he seems to have his confidence back which is great. He’s not only shooting the rock well but he’s doing other little things too, rebounding, playing defense, just being great energy out there on the court. Defintely a great pick up by Joe D but once he hits a little shooting slump I expect fans to turn on him as well just like they did on Mo and Flip.
• Amir Johnson at first didn’t look really good but towards the end of the game in there with the subs he looked very comfortable and made some great plays. The only question is can he bring that to the regular rotation against regular rotation guys. I’m not sure he’s big enough to play the 4 yet and he’s not quick enough to play the 3 so it’ll be interesting to see how he fits in this season. Still not worth $4m but maybe he’ll prove me wrong.
• Nazr Mohammed looked pretty good in limited minutes, 11 minutes 4 points and 3 boards.
• Afflalo looked very comfortable and I thought looked solid again but he has to work on that ballhandling, three turnovers last night and a few more which could have been turnovers but he recovered the ball. We can’t have another Rip Hamilton out there so take care of the ball!

 With all of that being said the regular season opens up next Thursday at Miami. With an entire week of before the opener that should give time for guys like Rip to rest them ankles and get ready for what will be a tough first part of the season with 8 of their first 10 games on the road. 

News Around the League

Miami Heat acquire Ricky Davis yesterday in a 5 player trade. Miami sent Antoine Walker, Wayne Simien, Michael Doleac, and a future first round draft pick for Ricky Davis and Mark Blount. A really good deal for Miami in my opinion, it gives them more scoring options and Ricky should fit in very well there alongside Shaq and Wade. This deal right here could probably put Miami over Washington in that division IF Miami can keep their players on the court.

Former Pistons Mateen Cleaves and Darvin Ham were both waived. I never really expected Cleaves to make the Nets roster but from all the talks of Avery Johnson being impressed with Ham I thought he had a shot to stick around as the 15th man or something but I guess it didn’t work out. Hope he finds a way with some team, he can still play decent defense.

Still talks of Kobe being traded, I won’t believe it until I see it. Lakers seem to have interest in Nocioni though so a deal like Ben Gordon, Andres Nocioni, and Ben Wallace could probably get it done but that wouldn’t happen because that would leave Chicago with a huge hole in the middle. Rumors are that if Detroit offered Prince and Rip that would be enough for the Lakers but I don’t see that happening either and I’d hate to give up Rip in any deal right now. I’m all for getting Prince out of here though….

Jermaine O’neal to LA rumor is slightly heating up again but I don’t see that deal working out either too much, LA refuses to give up Bynum.

Former Michigan forward Brent Petway was waived by Portland. I guess he’ll find a team in the NBDL or sign back with the Harlem Globetrotters or something.

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