Posts tagged Allen Iverson at FanHouse

A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Magic on Dec. 29.

Integrating Allen Iverson into Detroit's offense is an ongoing process that hasn't been easy, and Michael Curry isn't done trying new things. Earlier this month he seemed to settle on a "smallball" lineup featuring three guards and Tayshaun Prince playing out of position at power forward, but that's left the Pistons exposed on the defensive end.

More recently, injuries to both Iverson (who missed the second half on Dec. 23) and Rip Hamilton (who's sat out the last two games completely) have forced the team back to a more traditional lineup, and considering the Pistons have responded with four straight wins, including Monday night against the Magic, Curry seems ready to explore moving one of his established perimeter players to the bench.

"The big lineup makes us better defensively," Curry said. "And at the end of the day, we're going to have to make sure we're good enough defensively."

With Jordan Farmar out for the next couple of months after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus, there have been discussions about whether the Lakers will look to make a move to bring in a backup point guard. The pickings are pretty slim out there at that position -- just ask the Suns. But if this rumor is to be believed, it would appear that the Lakers are trying to deal for a warm body nonetheless, and it's a familiar one: former Laker (and two-time NBA champion!) Tyronn Lue.

While Bell and Ridnour have health and injury issues, Tyronn Lue doesn't have either. But Lue's status appears to be up in the air as well. It is believed the Bucks have an offer on the table from the Los Angeles Lakers for Lue, with the Bucks receiving veteran big man Chris Mihm in return.

Most Laker fans remember Lue's time in Los Angeles fondly for some reason, but all I can remember is Allen Iverson stepping over him in disgust after hitting what was effectively the game winner in overtime of Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals. It's not like he'd be expected to play extended minutes though, and in fact, it's possible Lue would never see the court.

The Lakers are still a solid eight players deep (nine if you count Vladimir Radmanovic) even with Farmar sidelined, so this would only be an insurance move in case another guard were to go down with an injury. The Lakers are loaded with semi-serviceable bigs Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga, so dealing Mihm for a guard to sit on the bench seems like a logical move, and a harmless one at that.

When you're winning, you can rack up technicals at a record pace and no one will complain (see: Celtics, Boston). But when you're hovering around .500? All of a sudden it seems kind of silly to be giving the other team extra free throws. Ladies and gentleman, your 2008-09 Detroit Pistons!

Rasheed Wallace leads the league with 10 techs while Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson each have four. Michael Curry has implored his team to leave the refs alone, but it hasn't yet worked -- the Pistons have picked up a tech in each of the last nine games. Will the message sink in coming from a teammate? Tayshaun Prince hopes so. From Chris Lau of the Detroit Free Press:

"Them dudes, they off the chain," Prince said. "I can't help them. I talk to them as much as I can. I can't do nothing. You know what? There's been plenty of times where we've been aggressive going to the rim, couple things don't go our way, then a couple ticky-tack calls and the next thing you know, we start to yell at the refs."

Trash talk is part of the game, right? Kevin Garnett has one of the biggest mouths in the league and he's celebrated as one of the league's golden boys. But while the league looks the other way when KG harasses an opponent all the way up the floor, it draws a hard line when players start interacting with fans.

Allen Iverson was reminded of this lesson on Tuesday when the league handed down a $25,000 fine for comments directed at a fan near the end of the third quarter in Saturday's win in Charlotte. It's unclear what exactly AI said -- the incident went unreported in the media until the fine was announced -- but I'm guessing it likely included some profanity.

Personally, I think it's refreshing to see the NBA crack down. I know for a fact that fans in Charlotte never, ever use profanity in their own conversations, and it's absolutely unheard in this day and age for fans at any sporting event to taunt or instigate a shouting match with a rival player.

Iverson is making nearly $22 million this year, so truth be told, he might not even notice $25K missing from his paycheck. But still, it's important for the league to at least make a symbolic statement: salty language is 10 times more egregious than skipping practice. Yes sir, the NBA has its priorities straight.

After hinting as much yesterday, Michael Curry confirmed today that Rodney Stuckey will join the starting lineup. He's replacing Kwame Brown, bumping Allen Iverson to off-guard, Rip Hamilton to the three, Tayshaun Prince to the four and Rasheed Wallace to center.

I'm not sure a three-guard lineup will work on a regular basis, but it's certainly worth a shot. Stuckey has turned the corner in his last six games, averaging 12.5 points (.476 FG) and 6.5 assists in just under 25 minutes a game. The offense seems to flow better when he's in the game as Iverson can focus on scoring and Prince doesn't have to play out of position.

Offensively, Hamilton's role shouldn't change, and in fact he may have an easier time shedding bigger players trying to keep up. The same goes for Prince, who should have a mismatch drawing bigger defenders out to the wing. The concern will be on the defensive end, though it's worth pointing out Prince has already had a career year crashing the boards with 6.6 rebounds a game.

On Friday, the Pistons let the 76ers score 38 points in the fourth quarter, losing the game after leading by as many as 15 points late in the third. On Sunday, the Pistons never had a lead to squander as they let the Knicks score the first 10 points of the game, trailing by as many as 29 in the first half before ultimately losing by 12.

Losing any game is disappointing, but losing like the Pistons have this weekend is downright embarrassing. Sadly, though, these types of performances have become routine. Despite impressive wins over the Lakers, Cavaliers and Spurs, Detroit is just 9-8 since Allen Iverson joined the lineup. Everyone expected a few bumps as the team adjusted to A.I.'s presence, but the reality is that the team seems to be regressing.

I suggested a couple of weeks ago that the Pistons should move Iverson to the bench, allowing the rest of the starters to regain their rhythm while giving Iverson a chance to dominate the ball with the second unit. With Rodney Stuckey thriving both as a scoring threat and playmaker in the last several games, I asked Curry in his pre-game meeting with the press on Friday if he ever thought of swapping the two in the starting lineup.

Curry was blunt with his response, looking perhaps a bit confused why I even asked the question: "Nope." Six seconds of awkward silence followed before another reporter changed the subject.

If he didn't know it before, Michael Curry is learning that being an NBA coach is as much about massaging egos as it is drawing up X's and O's. In his comments following Detroit's loss to the Trail Blazers on Sunday, Curry was blunt with his criticism about Tayshaun Prince: "Tay didn't play well tonight."

Prince, who's rarely one to give a juicy post-game quote, was clearly surprised by Curry's assessment. From Keith Langlois of Pistons.com:

"Huh? Wow. I thought I was playing pretty good, if you ask me. ... I was upset I came out in the first quarter, because I thought I started off the game well, trying to get guys into the flow. It's always tough for me because I'm in a position where I'm put at the point guard position and I'm trying to make plays for (teammates). Sometimes I'm going to have a good night and sometimes it's going to take me out of my rhythm.

"I don't know what's going on. Hopefully, (coaches) could have said something after the game and let us know what was going on. They didn't do it, so I don't know."

Allen Iverson became a virtual caricature of himself yesterday, when he chose to skip out on an hour long workout that Pistons' coach Michael Curry had scheduled. The man who turned the word "practice" into a punchline returned today, and while he didn't provide an explanation for his absence, he did deliver an apology.

"I don't have no excuses," Iverson said. "I apologized to my teammates, first and foremost, coaching staff, the organization and definitely our fans. It's something that shouldn't have happened. And it won't happen again."

Iverson will be fined and held out of the starting lineup for the team's next game, and all the hard feelings will supposedly end there. But honestly, how can they? As Matt Watson pointed out yesterday, AI is the reason the team needs the extra practice time, so the fact that he left his teammates holding the bag yesterday had to be more than a little irritating, especially to a veteran squad that likely knows their system inside and out.

I'm guessing that Iverson had at least a little more of an explanation for the people in the organization than the public one we're getting here. Still, it's hard to believe that he simply didn't blow off the Thanksgiving Day practice simply to stay home with the family, given his history of not thinking all that much of "practice" in the first place.

A young lady named Alana -- who you may remember from around these parts -- did an interview recently with Rasheed Wallace about his nicknames for various members of the Detroit Pistons. And he has one for everybody (although, oddly, I feel like they all either involve "dark" or "thin", but that's neither here nor there). The highlight of the whole thing though, is when Miss G asks him about Allen Iverson loving Michael Jackson and 'Sheed rips off a "hee-HEE".



I mean, really, that was good enough to qualify for a South Park episode. And it's worth noting too that Wallace really and truly does sound like someone who will end up coaching in the NBA, his reputation be darned. Also, someone loves Kwame Brown? Surely you jest, Sheed.

Obviously the Lakers were going to lose a game at some point this season, it was just a matter of how soon. In a look at the Lakers' schedule earlier this week, I said that the Lakers' match up with the Pistons would be their toughest in at least month, and that if they were able to get past them unscathed they would have a chance to build a crazy winning streak. Well, the Pistons came into Staples Center and quickly extinguished any thoughts of the Lakers going undefeated in November.

Going into last nights game I was a little bit skeptical about the Pistons chances. They did win in Golden State the previous night, but it wasn't like they played great basketball up there. Until last night it was obvious that the team was still adjusting to playing with Allen Iverson. As well, Rodney Stuckey would be playing for the first time in a while after sitting out the last few games after his dizzy spell last Sunday. There would surely be some rust there for him. Despite all this, the Pistons came out and played an almost flawless game, showing what the Iverson acquisition could mean for them.