Game 78: Pistons @ Cavs | Apr. 10th | 7:00 PM EST

[Stark]

How many of those guys shot 46% from the field over those first 2 years? My guess is Iverson gets knocked off with that restriction haha

- Kyrie
- Wade
- Oscar
- Jordan
- Grant Hill
- Bird
- Tiny

 

[kosis]

Guys, I was at this game tonight and let me give you the takeaway:

Tyler Zeller is the softer version of a freshly baked croissant. I ran out of fingers when trying to count the amount of times Drummond dunked on him. I went with my family and the parents kept asking about the reasoning for hack-a-Drummond... Andre proceeds to lay waste to Zeller on the next possession so I asked them if they prefer he scores two points or one? If you went to the game, I was the dude in the eight row telling Byron to send Zeller's easy bake ass to the locker room. (ll)

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

Guys, I was at this game tonight and let me give you the takeaway:

Tyler Zeller is the softer version of a freshly baked croissant. I ran out of fingers when trying to count the amount of times Drummond dunked on him. I went with my family and the parents kept asking about the reasoning for hack-a-Drummond... Andre proceeds to lay waste to Zeller on the next possession so I asked them if they prefer he scores two points or one? If you went to the game, I was the dude in the eight row telling Byron to send Zeller's easy bake ass to the locker room. (ll)

It's not really Zeller's fault. He was thrown into the starting role by necessity. He's really not meant to go up against guys like Drummond at all. He's much more suited to coming off the bench. That said, you're right. Drummond abused him tonight.

The interior defense as a whole was just awful. I lost track of the number of times the defense let a guy cut to the hoop, receive a bounce pass, then make a wide open layup/dunk. Games like this make me want Noel even more. He'd do wonders for this team and would be much more able to defend guys like Drummond. Drummond could still out muscle him, but I think Drummond will be able to out muscle most guys in the league.

 

[Pioneer10]

It cracked me up when we went Hack - a - Drummond with the game tied or us in the lead. I meant WTF, I'm a big advocate for a hack a bad FT shooting big when you're behind but damn when you're ahead is showing utter lack of confidence in your defense.

Kind of pathetic that Drummond got all his point on putbacks and lobs. Monroe essentially killed us: had to constant eye on him which lead to the defense leaving Drummond alone when Monroe had the ball in the post or on dribble penetration as the team didn't want to leave Monroe alone.

 

[kosis]

It's not really Zeller's fault. He was thrown into the starting role by necessity. He's really not meant to go up against guys like Drummond at all. He's much more suited to coming off the bench. That said, you're right. Drummond abused him tonight.

The interior defense as a whole was just awful. I lost track of the number of times the defense let a guy cut to the hoop, receive a bounce pass, then make a wide open layup/dunk. Games like this make me want Noel even more. He'd do wonders for this team and would be much more able to defend guys like Drummond. Drummond could still out muscle him, but I think Drummond will be able to out muscle most guys in the league.

Come on, Doc. They're both rookies... and after you get dunked on after losing a guy 5 times in a row, at what point do you try to learn from your fundamental mistake? No excuse.

 

[Rich]

It cracked me up when we went Hack - a - Drummond with the game tied or us in the lead. I meant WTF, I'm a big advocate for a hack a bad FT shooting big when you're behind but damn when you're ahead is showing utter lack of confidence in your defense.

Kind of pathetic that Drummond got all his point on putbacks and lobs. Monroe essentially killed us: had to constant eye on him which lead to the defense leaving Drummond alone when Monroe had the ball in the post or on dribble penetration as the team didn't want to leave Monroe alone.

Ugh, Greg Popovich was the king of hack-a-shaq when his team had the lead. He invented it.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

Come on, Doc. They're both rookies... and after you get dunked on after losing a guy 5 times in a row, at what point do you try to learn from your fundamental mistake? No excuse.

I'm aware they're both rookies. However one of them was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school likened to Dwight Howard. They're far from in the same class.

Zeller did a poor job, I'm just pointing out that he's currently filling a role that he's really not capable of playing at a high level.

 

[Pioneer10]

Ugh, Greg Popovich was the king of hack-a-shaq when his team had the lead. He invented it.

Shaq was freakin unstoppable when Pops used to do that. Not the same situation at all even if our defense was rather pathetic.

 

[Tornicade]

Scott was talking about starting Zeller in preseason. Zeller needs to step up. its that simple

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

Scott was talking about starting Zeller in preseason. Zeller needs to step up. its that simple

Zeller is soft, no doubt about it. That said Byron was full of shit if he mentioned starting Zeller. If he was telling the truth than I think he'd have played him at the 4 as I highly doubt he'd have benched Andy. This was before Tristan started looking like a great young talent.

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

Zeller is soft, no doubt about it. That said Byron was full of shit if he mentioned starting Zeller. If he was telling the truth than I think he'd have played him at the 4 as I highly doubt he'd have benched Andy. This was before Tristan started looking like a great young talent.

There was a video interview where Scott tipped his hand during Summer League and said ideally, he would like for Zeller to start and Andy to go back to his super sub role. (which lends itself to Scott and Grant kinda predetermining that Zeller and Thompson would be their starters going forward and Andy could be a great 6th or traded by mid season)

This was before Andy started the season like gangbusters and Tyler exposed his man-gina to us, but he did say it during summer league.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

There was a video interview where Scott tipped his hand during Summer League and said ideally, he would like for Zeller to start and Andy to go back to his super sub role. (which lends itself to Scott and Grant kinda predetermining that Zeller and Thompson would be their starters going forward and Andy could be a great 6th or traded by mid season)

This was before Andy started the season like gangbusters and Tyler exposed his man-gina to us, but he did say it during summer league.

Well then that doesn't make me feel great about Byron. It was painfully clear, even before the season started, that Zeller has no business starting. He's shown flashes of what he can do when he's facing someone who can't just physically dominate him. Only way around that is for him to add a ton of muscle or to come off the bench. He could be a really good bench big or a severe liability that starts.

 

[Kouki]

At the same time, we knew this was still going to be a building season, and perhaps Byron didn't have "win as many games as possible" in mind with starting Tyler, but rather developing him into a potential starter.