<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">?I am going to start treating Tayshaun like a young guy instead of him thinking he?s a vet,? Brown said. ?He?s going to start coming over on the first bus and be treated like a rookie now.? Prince and Brown had an animated discussion on the bench during the Pistons? 94-86 loss at Utah Monday. Brown yelled at Prince to start demanding the ball. Prince yelled back, saying essentially that it wasn?t his job to tell veteran players to pass him the ball when he?s open. Brown was also displeased with Prince?s defensive effort. ?I am going to make it like I used to with all my teams. The young kids come over early and work hard, whether they are starting or not,? Brown said. ?I think we?ve taken for granted that he?s played a lot and I don?t want to do that. We can?t have him just being out there.?</div> Link
Well one of the reasons why they passed up on Melo is because they're grooming Prince to be their star SF. For the Pistons' sake, I do hope that Prince starts realizing that he needs to take some shots.
Aw well, maybe now Prince won't randomly be on the floor when he isn't doing anything. Now that Okur is injured, Brown still needs somebody to hate so it's Prince now. I have no pity for Prince, he needs to start playing better and more consistently. He is a streaky shooter, sometimes his shot is going in and he never calls for the ball, which makes me pissed. Other times, he can't score yet he gets the ball during every possesion, which makes me pissed too.
Hmm...I think this is a diversion. Brown loves Tayshaun, but he doesn't want people to know he loves Tayshaun, so he's pretending to be angry at him. Just my theory... Isn't it unusual that a coach is upset with his starting small forward because he isn't selfish enough? I do understand what he is saying, though, if he shoots more he'll get more confidence and those shots will start going in. The team needs him to be an offensive power out there. I'm happy that Tayshaun's in trouble. I'm not really sure why I don't like the guy, probably because he's Brown's golden boy, but I'm glad Brown is realizing Prince isn't God's gift to the world.
hopefully, Tayshaun will respond by playing aggresively and having a good game in Portland. then Memo will see that the way to respond to coach's criticism is to step your game up...not sulk. hopefully.
I think alot of pressure has been placed on Tayshaun, he probably feels like Detroit passing up on Carmelo means they feel he'll be be just as good. Obviously that just won't be possible, but that could be a thought running through Tayshaun's mind. Anyhow, Tayshaun didn't see alot of minutes during his rookie season last year, I believe he averaged just 10 minutes per game, so this year is more like a rookie season for him. He's still making adjustments, getting used to the long tiring schedule, and perhaps hitting the infamous "Rookie Wall". Tayshaun shows great potential though, perhaps not a star, but he's got alot of skills. He's great defensively, he can shoot very well, he can finish around the bucket, and he runs the floor extremely well. He's a great fit for this team, he's got all the tools to be successful in Detroit I'd just give him some time.
Seeing as Tayshaun doesn't seem to want to shoot a lot of the time, he reminds me of the Grizzlies' Mike Miller, very capable of doing so but failing to deliver. He's young still and so like many others, plenty of room for improvement. He has shot and speed, that's pretty much it. His effort seems to be lacking if you ask me, although a good coach, Brown's favortism doesn't help much with this either. He really needs to step up, even Ben's had to do some offense due to his lack of performing it at all.
Its kind of funny in a way....this is how Lang Whitaker from Slam puts it: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">C-Fizzle (ESPN's Chad Ford) says today that he doesn't understand why "the media" can't understand that Darko's a work in progress, and that if Carmelo was on Detroit he'd be averaging 12-13 ppg, while if Darko was in Denver, he'd be averaging 12-13 ppg and 6-7 rpg. Hold on...let me stop laughing...whew...OK... We all know that Chad's been espousing the virtues of Darko for the last year, after seeing him play in Europe, watching him in training camp, listening to scouts and League execs rave about him. I learned my lesson on that front years ago. When I was in college, in the summer of 1994, I worked at a big fitness center in Atlanta, which was basically an excuse for me to play basketball all day. This was right after the Hawks had torn down The Omni and were temporarily without a practice facility, so they rented out the place where I was working in order to work out possible Draft picks. They only had a second round pick, so they brought in a bunch of guys, two or three each day, and put them through various drills and exercises. The most impressive guy I saw was a guy named Gaylon Nickerson, who had played at tiny Northwest Oklahoma State. I don't think he missed a jumper the entire day he was in, and he just killed the other point guards that were there. The next few days I raved about him to my friends, saying the Hawks had to get him. And as it turned out, they did select him, in the second round, 34th overall. Now, ten years later, we can look back at his career NBA stats: 4 games, 42 minutes, 15 points, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover. I'm not saying that Darko will turn out like this, but there's always the chance he won't develop into the world-beater ESPN's Insider keeps telling us he will be. Here's the thing: No one had seen Darko play before the Draft, and we still haven't seen him play now. If he was good enough to play, he'd be playing right now. So, obviously, he needs to improve. Detroit was desperate enough to go out and get Rasheed Wallace, who plays the same position as Darko. Detroit also apparently thinks so much of Darko that they traded away players to make room to re-sign Mehmet Okur, who also plays the same position as Darko. Which leaves them in a conundrum this summer. Who do they go after? They moved guys to make room for Mehmet. They have a shot at Rasheed. And all indications are they'll try to get both of those guys. To me that sounds like they don't think Darko's ready to contribute any time soon. Ford suggests they could try and trade Darko. Really? Trade the guy about whom just one year ago, Ford himself quoted a Pistons scout as saying, "He's going to own the game. Own the game. We're going to have to build a new arena." You're going to trade that away, a guy who will "own the game," even if it's for an All-Star in return? But for argument's sake, let's say they did trade Darko. What would they want in return? Certainly not a big guy, since that's where they're logjammed as it is. Not a point guard, since Chauncey Billups is on the verge of being an All-Star. Not a two guard, since Rip Hamilton has a maxed out contract and is their leading scorer. So how about a small forward? Now, would things be different if the two guys were in different places? I can guarantee you Melo would be averaging more than 13 ppg in Detroit, playing every night against bruising Eastern Conference small forwards like Eddie Robinson, Stephen Jackson and Shandon Anderson. And how great would Melo be on a team where he wouldn't have to create nearly every shot attempt he gets. If Billups, Rip and 'Sheed were driving and dishing to a wide-open Melo? Why wouldn't Denver have drafted Darko? One word: Skita. Also, if Darko was in Denver his year, who would he be playing ahead of? Nen?? Marcus Camby? As for the "the media" not understanding that Darko's a work in progress, well, I think we've all been burned before. Four years ago I did an extensive feature in SLAM on Stromile Swift, right before he got drafted by Vancouver. I went to Baton Rouge, where Stro's uncle picked me up at the airport, and I spent a day in the life of Stro, going to the LSU campus, eating lunch with him at Hooters, watching him work out. I returned convinced that Stro was going to be an awesome NBA player, a sure-fire All-Star, and I more or less annointed him the next big thing in the SLAM story. It obviously hasn't worked out that way. He's been a good NBA player, but he will never own the game. The point of that story is that I was wrong. It happens to the best of us. I didn't want to admit that I was wrong, but eventually you reach a point where you just have to give in and say, Hey, I blew this one. In the end, it made me a better journalist. (which some off you would probably argue with, but I digress...) Anyway, to sum this up, we still don't know much about Darko, other than that he has room to improve. But don't forget that Carmelo does, too. For all the talk about Darko being 18 years old, we lose sight of the fact that Carmelo is only 19. He's still going to get much better, too. The only difference is that we know how good Carmelo is right now, so we can gauge how good he's going to be three, four years from now, when he's stronger and wiser. Darko? Well, the sky's the limit. For better or for worse</div> I know this is kind of long but if I posted the actual article it would be hard for others to find it, but does this not sound logical?
