Another

darius miles huh?... yawn...

Hockey in peron...AWESOME

Hockey on REGULAR TV.....

Hockey on HDTV....lil better

love seeing that banner raised tonight!

Powe looked really good in the opener. He's gonna be a huge contribution.

Cue the Duckboats!

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/ ... ate=photos

Well, they're not gonna go undefeated

I'm still very optimistic and love this team's defense

pistons made a stupid move

Incorrect.

Pistons get Iverson now, LeBron later?
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports


Iverson traded to Detroit Nov 3, 2008 D'Antoni empowers self in debut Oct 30, 2008
Joe Dumars had the chance to consider Dallas’ Jason Kidd and his expiring contract over the summer, a league executive said Monday, but the Detroit Pistons president had bigger, bolder ideas. Allen Iverson still gives the Pistons a puncher’s chance in the Eastern Conference this season, but this trade isn’t about him. It isn’t about Chauncey Billups.


Think bigger.


Think bolder.


Think LeBron James, 2010.


The Pistons president doesn’t just have the salary cap space for the Cleveland Cavaliers star. He also has the connections and the championship credibility. Make no mistake: Detroit and Dumars are officially in hot pursuit of James – maybe even the favorite now – and it promises to be a long, agonizing two years for the Cavaliers.


Detroit doesn’t deliver the bright lights and global metropolis destination that James wants when he opts out of his contract in 2010, but two more years of watching Kobe Bryant win titles could transform his priorities. James wants badly to be considered the best player on the planet and that won’t happen until he’s a champion.


James wants a front office with a vision that honors his greatness, and make no mistake: This makes Detroit and Dumars so dangerous, makes them Cleveland’s worst nightmare. The city could justify losing its prodigal son to New York or Los Angeles, but nearby Detroit?


Cleveland would never recover.

So why Iverson over a possible package for Kidd? Several league executives know exactly why: The trade with Denver to make an unhappy Iverson happier just further imbeds the Detroit franchise deeper into James’ agent, Leon Rose, and advisor, William Wesley. Just as they represent James, they rep Iverson.


And as much as anyone, “World Wide” Wes is one of the most important voices in Lebron’s life. Wesley lives in Detroit, where one of Rose’s clients, Richard Hamilton, is a Pistons star. What’s more, Dumars is close to an agreement with Hamilton on a two-year extension that will keep him through 2012, sources say. This is a terrific show of faith for Hamilton, who is trying to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars that a business manager allegedly stole from him.


Wesley comes and goes at the Palace of Auburn Hills as he pleases, and few have such a window into the winning culture of the Pistons.


As one rival GM said Monday, “Damn it, I am afraid Joe has this whole thing wired. He’s got everything in place to pull this off.”

The New Jersey Nets’ move to Brooklyn is falling apart, and so is owner Bruce Ratner’s chances of using limited partner, Jay-Z, to lure James. The Knicks will be a factor, but the bumbling of the Stephon Marbury mess has reflected horribly on the organization. The Knicks have an owner, GM and coach with differing agendas and they’ve made an initial poor impression. Detroit can’t compete with New York as the global city to market James, but winning could take care of everything.


With Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni as GM and coach, the Knicks can still get their act together. Yet, no one will ever need to ask that of Dumars. No one else can sell James on a winning culture as compellingly as Dumars. He had gone as far as he could with Billups, who has three years and $36 million left on his contract. Billups gave the Pistons a slight edge over Iverson to make another run this season, but Dumars had already gotten a final run out of him a year ago. Detroit won a title, reached a Game 7 of the NBA Finals and six straight Eastern Conference finals with Billups.


Now, Billups is 32 years old. He’s declining. This is a low-risk, short-term, high-reward, long-term play for Dumars.


The Pistons president believes that the young guard Rodney Stuckey, a brilliant pick out of Eastern Washington, can take over the Pistons next year. Iverson and Rasheed Wallace could leave the payroll this summer, and the Pistons will be $34 million under the salary cap in 2009. They will have a core of Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson in 2010. No one else among James’ serious suitors with cap space has two All-Stars (Hamilton and Prince) and a potential third (Stuckey) for him to join.

Most of all, James knows he’d have Dumas to give him the right coach, the right teammates, the right atmosphere to chase championships for a long, long time. What makes this plan so ingenious is that the bridge from Iverson to Stuckey, from Wallace to Maxiell, makes it possible for the Pistons to reconstruct themselves without bottoming out. They’ll still be a 50-win team. Dumars hates the idea of rebuilding through the lottery, and that won’t need to happen here. He won’t be offering James a heap of ashes in 2010, but a good team needing him to complete its greatness.

For the flawed franchises falling over themselves to get under the salary cap for 2010, the most ingenious plan promises to start out of the NBA’s brightest executive mind. Joe Dumars is thinking big. He’s thinking bold. This will be an agonizing two years in Cleveland.

so we agree, the C's will roll to a repeat. later is later, now is right fuckin' now.

Actually, a Pistons team with A.I. is better than a Pistons team with Chauncey. See you Sunday.

ok... i guess that's a scorcher....

You sure about that? Billups' more of a pure point guard than A.I.
Rip better hope A.I.'s willing to share the ball.

A.I. isn't playing the point. Rodney Stuckey is. RIP is coming off the bench.

And Chauncey was/is great. AI is running out of time to win. He's hungrier.

From Yahoo:

The Denver-Detroit trade makes sense for one team. Not Denver.
By Kelly Dwyer

Another day, and another reason to have no idea as to what the Denver Nuggets are on about.

Another day, and another reason to be completely wowed by Joe Dumars and his executive savvy, in spite of his noted missteps (Darko, Kwame, Rodney White, etc.).

Woj is reporting that the Nuggets are about to send Allen Iverson to the Pistons for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess, with frontcourt prospect Cheikh Samb thrown in for Denver as well. Throw in whoever you want. It's an absolute steal for the Pistons.

It's an absolute steal even if Iverson turns an ankle on his way toward Auburn Hills and doesn't play a game for this team, because Dumars just managed to do the exact thing (acquire cap space in one fell swoop) that the Nuggets had been supposedly trying to do all along with AI and his expiring contract.

The Nuggets? I've become convinced that they think the NBA is folding sometime this summer.

Iverson makes almost $21 million this year, in the final year of his contract, and paired with several other expiring contracts on the Detroit roster, we're looking at a Pistons team that could have at least $20 million cap space this summer. Had the Pistons held the current roster together, once you figured in Jason Maxiell's contract extension and the fact that Rip Hamilton and Kwame Brown are likely to pick up their player options, the team was looking at being just a few hundred thousand over the cap, even with Rasheed Wallace's giant expiring contract.

Instead, this team will have Hamilton, Maxiell, Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince, Amir Johnson, and a host of youngsters on the cheap, plus enough money to pull in two huge primo free agents. All in return for a 32-year old point guard who is owed $13 million in 2011, and a F/C who might retire.

And, if AI and Rasheed and the gang work out ... who knows? They probably won't, but there are options. The Pistons now have $31.7 million in expiring contracts to shop around starting at the beginning of the 2009 (when Iverson can be traded again). Dumars might not be done.

As for the Nuggets ... what the hell?

Billups is still a little underrated, he's a terrific point guard in the half-court, and Denver is desperate for a competent ball-handler to feed their still-formidable rosters of scorers and finishers. J.R. Smith will plug in Iverson's old shooting guard slot and score just as much, if not more. No joke. He also has the size to defend better than AI, but this is also J.R. Smith we're talking about, so let's not get carried away.

Meanwhile, should he report, McDyess can still play, he's already been a Nugget twice in his career, and Denver will be in better shape with that duo than they were in just with Iverson.

But at what price? This keeps the Nuggets well over the luxury tax level this season, and it means Denver will be right near it in 2009-10 even with just seven players signed and Linas Kleiza's contract situation in the air. Give Linas seven million a year, and the Nuggets are paying six or seven million in luxury tax with only eight roster spots filled.

And assuming Kleiza gets the sort of contract I mentioned, even with McDyess' contract expiring, the Nuggets are on the books for nearly $70 million in 2010-11 with just Chauncey, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Kleiza, Carmelo Anthony, and J.R. Smith on board. Just six players, well over the cap, and approaching luxury tax territory.

The Nuggets will be better with this trade, this season. Don't doubt it for a second. A backcourt with Smith and Billups playing big minutes and Anthony Carter or Chucky Atkins working in reserve will do far more than any combination with AI pulling in 40 minutes a night, Smith filling in where he could, and Atkins/Carter having to log heavy minutes because nobody else can bring the ball up court.

But it won't be enough to get near New Orleans, the Lakers, Utah, or Houston. And it won't touch San Antonio, when Manu Ginobili gets back. It might be enough to put Denver in the playoffs, but that's about it. And that "it" will be paid handsomely through 2011.

Detroit's taking another chance, and though there's the possibility the team might whiff in free agency, it hardly matters. They've cleared cap space and developed even more options. If nothing happens this summer, then they can run the kids for a year before trying to clamp down on the 2010 free agent market. After all, only Tayshaun Prince ($11.1 million), Jason Maxiell (reportedly about $5 million), and the backcourt tandem of Stuckey and Aaron Afflalo (combined to make $4.7 million) will be on the books that summer.

Nobody, not even Joe Dumars or Iverson himself, will be able to anticipate what sort of impact his presence will have on this year's Pistons team. AI's game is that unique. But given the far-reaching implications of what this deal could do for Detroit, again, it hardly matters in the long run.

It's all dependent on Dumars making another series of good moves with his newfound options, but given the man's past, should we even doubt the man?

Rip is coming off the bench?

I think that's dangerous... very few players can pull of the "Microwave" roll

especially a shooter ... it f's with their rhythm


I don't think there's enough shots to go around... but maybe AI will look to last years Celts as an example of what sacrafice can bring you


as for LeBaby on the Pistons... I'd rather that not happen thanks



oh and I like how since the C's are the champs... this is now pretty much the NBA thread