Smith’s play wasn’t always perfect, but he was hustling harder than anybody and didn’t wind up with a bad line. I’ll take it.

Drummond grabbed 10 offensive boards. That’s amazing. Unfortunately, he had a couple boneheaded plays late, most notably his goaltend to give the Cavs a tie with 5 minutes remaining. That ball didn’t look like it was on its way in.

Jennings was laying bricks tonight. And his awful defense was a big part of Thompson’s huge night. Jennings kept letting Irving past, a Piston big would help, Irving would miss the shot (most of his misses were due to the big men, not Jennings), and they’d be out of possession to rebound allowing Tristan to soar in for the put back. Jennings earned as much credit for this loss as anyone.

So Jerebko is a legit part of the rotation now? He did well enough in this one, I guess.

Bynum’s defense was possibly even worse than Jennings’. But at least he was hitting some of his shots.

KCP is barely playing these days and the level of his play fits that. So it’s a chicken-and-egg question. Is his role diminishing because he is stinking it up, or does he need lots of minutes in order to play well?

Stuckey comes into the game to score. He shot 1-5 and turned it over three times. If the other PGs weren’t playing poorly in this one, I would believe that Stuckey entering the game was the difference between a win and a loss.

Loyer isn’t magical. Now that we have that cleared up, his coaching looked comparable to the win over the Spurs but seemed less effective. The Pistons got progressively less aggressive as the game went on. Loyer should have found a way to prevent that.

Monroe deserves an FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Btw. Monroe averaging “”"”"”"”"”".04〃”"”"”"”"”"” blocks a game should tell you a whole a lot about his defense.
a fu*cking 6-11 big guy averaging 32 minutes a game only averages a 0.4 blocks a game!!! WTF man!
I swear he just raises his hands in the air he should at least get a block!
This guy has no future in Detroit. Bye.

Blake griffin, Zach Randolph, Dirk, David Lee, Tristan Thompson, Carlos Boozer and Kevin Love…all players averaging similar blocks numbers. BPG are not the end all be all of any big man. As one of the posters keep pointing out, there are plenty of big men who succeed on good Defensive teams with a good scheme.
Either way, you can waste a lot of time after every game wondering why Monroe isn’t traded or you can understand that a trade isn’t possible without a quality trade partner and before the deadline Monroe has the least possible value in trade since the trade looks desperate.

Exactly, Huddy…If Drummond keeps progressing into an elite defender, they will be fine together.
Monroe should grow into a guy who takes up space and alters shots, grabs boards, etc. He just needs to be coached up.
The perimeter defense is probably the biggest issue right now. Jennings is rarely interested in staying with his man. Once that breaks down, Greg and Drummond slide slightly out of position and it ultimately makes them look worse.
You see the same thing when Smith has to guard a quicker SF and things aren’t going to get better with Singler starting when he’s matched up against a quick SG.
Hopefully Loyer can implement a scheme where the paint is packed and everything funnels to either the middle or to the baseline. They need to stay home on the corner 3 shooters and perhaps just sag off most teams on the perimeter in general. We’ve got rebounders, so unless you’re playing teams with more than one solid shooter, why not pack the paint? They could easily run a hybrid zone (essentially a lot of man-to-man, but strategically sending the offense in a certain direction) of some kind. It can work. Right now, there’s never any cohesiveness.

@oats, My original post spoke to Monroe’s rim protection abilities or lack there of.
You said, “Rim protection defined that way is impossible to evaluate without using camera tracking data, and even that is hard to say is all that accurate.”
I was just pointing out it could be evaluated and a study has shown Monroe ranked 50th out of 52 interior defenders.
You say, “So no, I don’t care that much that he’s a bad shot blocker.”
So we agree, Monroe offers no rim protection.
You say, “My point is simple, I don’t see the need to have two shot blockers in the starting lineup. Every team should have one, and Detroit has Drummond. Yet the most important thing by far in terms of playing interior defense is what the team can manage as a unit.”
I’m not sure where you’re coming from. You seem to be saying say the Pistons have Drummond, but he’s not as important as playing as a unit? If this is what you’re saying, it’s wrong. The most important aspect is not the “unit,” it’s the shot blocking big man (Hibbert, Sanders, Ibaka, etc.). You really should read the study by Kirk Goldsberry and Eric Weiss. It may give you a little insight.
I didn’t address your other point because it had nothing to do with Monroe.
BTW, the Pistons have 2 rim protectors in the lineup. Drummond and Smith.

We need a like button here! Enough said!

Not true lately. He’s been dominant on defense since moving to the 4. And his shot selection and shooting has been a lot better the past few games.