It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

There were a coach with a large jaw and a general manager with a plain face, on the throne of San Antonio; there were a coach with a small jaw and a general manager with a rotund face, on the throne of Detroit. In both franchises it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.

It was the year of Our Lord two thousand and five.

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(Ed. note: March Madness continues tonight with the Sweet 16. Of the four games being played, BYU and Florida tip off at 7:27 PM -- and if watching a future lottery pick in action isn't enticing enough, keep in mind the game will be called by Gus Johnson. Many thanks to DBB reader Shinons for the Jimmer Fredette scouting report, which I hereby dub tonight's official open thread.  -- MW) 

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Would there be any interest out there in a DBB Fantasy Baseball league? That's really all I care to write...but it's supposed to be 75 words. More in a second.

Got a bunch of words to kill. Hm. I suppose we could also make this a MLB preseason open thread, right? I presume most folks around here are Tigers fans, anyone else have alternate loyalties?I like the White Sox and thin mints.

Now your thoughts!

What a weird first three weeks. Since we have a day off today, and what with Tay and Kuester's public feuding and players anonymously telling the media how bad our culture sucks after every loss, it seems like a good time to suggest a game I've been thinking about for a little while now. Pretend you just bought the Pistons. Or seduced Karen Davidson and convinced her to give you the team. What changes do you demand, from front office to leadership to personnel?

I'm wanting to leave the rules broad, so run with it however you choose. I'm looking forward to seeing your ideas...

So Rip and Maxiell for Elton Brand. Yeah, underwhelming I know. I wasn't really even digging the idea, was just curious how bad Rip's contract was and how close his pay is to Brand's, and one thing led to another. These things happen when you're bored at work, amiright? Anywhoo, turns out this trade is the most mutually beneficial thing ever:

I know the cap's not super easy to see. The link above takes you to the real live thing, and is more fun anyways.

***Edited - I pulled out the numbers so that the punch line is a little easier to catch...****

I was comparing numbers to figure out where we were falling short compared to our previous squad, looking at the 2005-2008 years as a baseline. I personally like looking at the differentials since it gives an idea of an overall performance level and you can look at the totals to provide a context within those numbers. I found it really interesting, interesting enough to write a post on it, as it confirmed some of our thoughts but also debunked some. Assuming improved chemistry and that Jod doesn't blow the last big personnel decision, I'm hopeful this squad could work out. Since 2005, here is how we look on some key areas:

I take away that:

·       Rebounding and turnovers aren’t really our problem

·       Fixing our defense starts with protecting the paint

·       Our offense will get more efficient with more and better threes, and getting to the line more

Remedies?

Take back the paint

Our team fg% isn't much off what it was when we were winning, but our opponents' % went from one of the best to worst. Similarly, we've gone from one of the top shot-blocking teams to one of the worst. Makes sense. When you’re blocking shots, everyone’s defense looks better. You’re forcing more jumpers, more lower percentage shots. We can turn that around real quick with a Next Ben Wallace. This year’s draft class has guys with shotblocking potential in all shapes, sizes, ages, and experience levels. Everyone has a favorite (mine’s Favors), everyone’s lukewarm about the guy we’ll probably get (Davis), and everyone hopes we double down with Varnado in the second round. Yeah, if Varnado’s there in the second round and we pass on him, I fully expect the DBBcalypse. But if Jod whiffs or the pick takes too long to develop, we're not going to be able to compete with this squad - and it's not too unrealistic considering there are big question marks with all the guys in this draft. I'd rather see us package the pick for a guy ready to contribute right away like Gortat. Last thoughts: I wonder what it'd take to get Oden...?

Prescription: For the love of God, just don’t take a small forward

Our current personnel isn’t terrible – we just need to chuck it

I was really surprised to see how many more threes we shot than our opponents when we were winning. It didn’t really feel like we did, considering they mostly came organically as the result of good ball-movement. We carried a low team field goal percentage, but made up for it with more threes. This roster is set up to get us back to that point. Rip and Gordon shot career lows from behind the arc plus losing Tay for half the season and relying on rookies as deep threats plus Stuckey not being a shooter equals the worst three point percentage in the league. Gordon and Villanueva both have skills to be elite three point shooters, and Jerebko and Daye look like great contributors. A return to average for Rip and a return to health for Tay, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect big strides in percentage and volume. It’ll just be up to Kruester to make the most of it.

Prescription: Improved ball-movement

Stuckey’s the Answer...to upping our free throw attempts

He’s a lousy finisher and probably never will change that, but it doesn’t really matter. He just needs to turn those drives into trips to the line. He averaged 4.9 free throw attempts per game this year, way up from 3.7 last year. Chauncey averaged 7 attempts per game, even though (according to Hotspots) Chauncey only took 236 attempts at the basket while Stuck took 490. When you turn contortionist to avoid enough contact to get off a decent shot but still get hammered, you don’t get the call – see: Rose, Derrick. If he focuses on drawing more contact than avoiding it to attempt a circus layup, he’s got the size, strength, and style to become elite at getting to the line – which is going to pretty up his stat line as well as put pressure on defenses. Considering he only turns the ball over twice a game (partly a product of the system, granted), he is not far away from becoming a very efficient point guard. Giving up on him at this point for the likes of Felton or Foye would be a huge mistake.

Prescription: Reggie Miller Acting Classes

Looking forward to seeing some better ideas than mine on how we can turn these numbers around in the comments.