...was clearly Tayshaun Prince. I've always been a fan - I was praying we could somehow land him this off-season - but he was playing out of his mind. He was their PG, he was their go-to scorer, and he was still playing amazing defense and coming out of nowhere to block shots. It didn't seem like he could miss AT ALL. Why they didn't give him the last shot instead of Iverson, I'll never know. When did he get this good?
While his defense was excellent, on offense, all Prince did was score on the switches. We made him look good.
I love Prince, but I think that we will be fine with Batum as he continues to develop. I'm so stoked that I really think we found our future SF. But yes, Prince looked great last night. No complaint here if we go after him, there are just some players I want to keep on our team, and I don't think he is obtainable w/o them.
Shrug. I really like Prince, but most of his points came from shooting outside, many of them contested. Yes, he made them anyway. Some nights you can do that, but statistically it's not great. The best player on either team was sitting on the bench, and it wasn't Rasheed
Contested by whom? Swtching guards and Travis? The announcers were cracking me up because they kept saying how Detroit was exploiting Outlaw on defense. One time Rice said why not put Bayless on him, and Barrett said cause he's a foot taller than Jerryd. Rice said what would the difference be?
Never. He's a very good player, but he's not as good as he played last night. It was a big game for him, but an atypical one. In general, he's a complementary player...great, flexible defender, very good rebounder for a wing, a medicore scorer (both in volume and efficiency) and good passer. A good comparable is Josh Childress, though Prince is the superior defender. We can't get Prince without giving up a lot. We might be able to get Childress.
I don't think that's fair. It wasn't like he was taking bad shots - it was more that he could always get a GOOD shot because of his freakishly long arms. I think he doesn't usually shoot that much because he's the consummate teammate. But remember, coming out of college he was thought of primarily as a scorer. I think it's fairer to say that we don't usually get to see what he can do because Detroit usually has so many offensive weapons. I wasn't suggesting we try to get him - I'm over that, and besides, there's no way they'd part with him. I'm happy with Batum being a young Tayshaun.
I'm not saying he was taking bad shots. I'm saying that he was hitting shots more than he does normally. On a hot night, he did (and should) shoot more. He's not usually that good of a shot-maker. His season and career scoring efficiency is fairly average. Coming out of college he was seen as a mediocre (at the NBA level) scorer. Most felt that his primary role would be a defender and three-point shooter. That's why he wasn't a top pick. He was never expected to be a big-time scoring talent, and he isn't. One of the things that has been holding Detroit back over the years is that they have no lead scorer, they've been a team of very good players, but complementary players. No player who could take over at need. If Prince could be that sort of player, his coaches would have had him take that role. It wouldn't have been selfish for Prince to become a high-scoring player who also created shots for his teammates, as he did last night. Chris Paul isn't any less of a teammate when he scores a lot. I don't think Prince fails to play like this every night because he's being a "consummate teammate" and Detroit doesn't need or want it. I think he fails to play like that every night because he's not a superstar talent. He's a lower level star talent...solidly above average in terms of production and a great defender. I know, my point was that Childress provides a lot of what Prince does and is, potentially, attainable.
prince had a great game, but a lot of that was our *cough*defense. LMA is the better and much more valuable player overall.
