I'm more disappointed in the loss to New Jersey than I am to Oklahoma City. The Nets were bottom feeders last season and seem to be headed to the lottery this year. At least the Thunder was a playoff team last year and are considered a fast rising up and comer. I can take that loss a bit easier. In the New Jersey game they lost a late lead and didn't play their lottery pick, Greg Monroe. And why in the hell is Ben Gordon only getting five shots. FIVE! You paid this guy 11 mill or whatever you paid him to jack up five shots. He needs more looks. He doesn't need to be a gunner, but he needs more than five shots to be effective. That is what I'm most disappointed about. I know the team is trying to give fans some hope by winning games, but when you're rebuilding or whatever they want to call it down at the Palace, you also have to develop young players. Coach John Kuester said it was a bad matchup.Please. And Dwight Howard will be a better one. He was the number seven pick in the draft and you have to see what you have in the kid. If you don't develop him now, you know what happens. He finally shows flashes in the final year of his rookie contract and you hope to resign him, then he bolts town. Shades of Allan Houston. I know Piston fans remember that one real well. I'll give them credit against OKC. They did play hard, they looked for Gordon more, and they showed some urgency. But where was the defense on the final play when Jeff Green beat Jason Maxiell for an easy layup. It seemed there was no resistance.
It's gonna be a long winter in Detroit and there's no reason to make it an outright disaster. Play the youngster and tighten up the rotation. No disrespect to Maxiell, but he might not even play on some NBA rosters. If Ben Wallace and Greg Monroe were on a different team, Wallce would be Monroe's backup. Don't try to fool the fans into thinking there's a winning product on the floor. If everything breaks right and they keep their health they might be able to parlay it into an eighth seed. Of course I said the same thing last year and they had a robust 27 wins. Also, trade Prince and Hamilton, they don't need to be around for this and I fear if they are it could become an ugly situation. They deserve better than to be around for "rebuilding".
