Quickie: All star reserves

Eastern All Stars

Millsap
Horford
Teague
Kyrie Irving
Chris Bosh
Jimmy butler
Drummond

Western All Stars

Harden
Klay
Lillard
Monta Ellis
Chris Paul
Tim Duncan
Kevin Durant
Russell Westbrook
DeMarcus Cousins

NBA: Detroit vs. Everybody–A Smoove transition

 

“We are shifting priorities to aggressively develop our younger players while also expanding the roles of other players in the current rotation to improve performance and build for our future. As we expand certain roles, others will be reduced. In fairness to Josh, being a highly versatile 10-year veteran in this league, we feel it’s best to give him his freedom to move forward. We have full respect for Josh as a player and a person.” – Stan Van Gundy

And then Detroit unleashed absolute terror on the league.

Ever since trading away Josh Smith, Detroit has gone undefeated, winning more in the six games since the trade than they had in the 28 games that they had Josh Smith this year when they went 5-23. They best divisional foes Indiana and Cleveland. They knocked off the dregs of the East in Orlando and New York. Then they went west and dismantled Sacramento. All of these games were double digit wins. They saved their best work for tonight, when they knocked off the defending champion, San Antonio Spurs. This isn’t quite revenge for Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals, but it’s a quality win for a team that absolutely needed it.

Tonight, Detroit was down by 18 points against a Spurs team that will probably win 50 games this year. Andre Drummond had another monster game going for 20 points and 18 rebounds. Where they otherwise would have wilted down the stretch, the Pistons kept fighting until they were down by 1. The Spurs had possession of the ball with 8 seconds left, up by a point. The Spurs inbound the ball on their side of the court. All the Spurs have to do is make a successful pass and the game is pretty much over. Tim Duncan’s inbound pass is thrown a bit behind Patty Mills.  The pass bounces off of Mills’s hands where Andre Drummond retrieves it. He passes it away to KCP. KCP gives it to Brandon Jennings who, with no Josh Smith at the 3 point line to pass it to, drives to the basket. Danny Green loses Jennings temporarily only to find him again as the game winning layup is headed towards the rim for 2 points. Pistons win.

This is how I imagine that most Pistons fans pictured the post- Josh Smith era going. Of course, depending on how you look at it, there is precedent for this. In 2004, the Pistons made a trade to help bolster an already strong lineup. Detroit traded a 1st round pick to Atlanta in a three team deal that allowed them to obtain the services of Rasheed Wallace. Giving up that pick helped them achieve championship contention for the next few years. I’m not going to as far to say that this is where Detroit is headed (they still need to solidify their wing scoring and figure out whether Greg Monroe is part of their future or not), but it’s certainly possible that waiving a player might have been the first step to the return of Detroit Basketball in the playoffs.

If you were wondering who the Atlanta Hawks drafted with that 1st round pick, it ended up as the 17th overall pick in the 2004 draft. The Hawks drafted a young forward directly out of high school named Josh Smith.

Find the Others

“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…” – Timothy Leary

For whatever reason this quote spoke to me. Law school has largely been a how to guide in how t be a more boring person. A lot of the training in law school comes down to “How to take less risks.” The only good advice I’ve ever given 1L’s is “don’t stop doing what makes you the person who you are.” Do well, get good grades but don’t eliminate the things that make you interesting. Because if you do, you stop being the person who was worth admitting in the first place.  

(Written 3/27/14)