PISTONS STATUS REPORT

I'm starting to get a bad feeling about the Iverson trade. The Pistons lost by 20 to the 2-9 Minnesota Timberwolves today, bringing their record to 4-5 since the trade. This was the 4th double figure loss of the 5 losses.

But I don't want to overreact to a couple of crappy shooting games (by everyone, not just AI)--they had plenty of those games with Billups too, and every jumpshooting team looks awful when 2-3 of the main guys go cold. And this trade wasn't meant for the regular season, I'm prepared for the team to win fewer games than usual and we'll see what AI can do against Cleveland and Boston in the playoffs.

Furthermore, they've played a brutal schedule in this stretch. Today's game was a terrible loss, and they also lost @New Jersey in their first game with AI, but the other losses were more understandable: @Boston, @Phoenix and home to Boston. Plus they've beaten the Lakers in LA and Cleveland at home, two impressive wins.

One area where I definitely think they're down and are not gonna get it back is perimeter defense. Iverson gets a lot of steals, 2 per game since he got to Detroit, but his man defense isn't nearly as good as Billups'. Look at the opposing PG performances in their 5 losses:

Devin Harris 38 pts
Rajon Rondo 13 pts & 5 ass
Steve Nash 17 & 7
Rondo 18 & 8
Randy Foye 25 & 14

Iverson needs to make up for that defensive deficit by being a solid upgrade over Billups on the offensive end, and so far he hasn't done it. Bottom line, Iverson has played poorly since he got to Detroit, he was better in Denver and will probably begin playing better for the Pistons soon. His jumper hasn't been falling, his turnover rate is up, he's taking too many shots (at 15 a game) and he's having trouble deciding when to push for his own shot and when to create for his teammates. And his teammates are having trouble knowing when to defer to AI and when to force their own offense. Those are the kind of things that can be easily improved upon with time. I still expect the team to bounce back and win 50-55 games, but I do acknowledge there's a small chance this trade results in outright disaster. And if it does, well, the other big reason the deal was made was to clear up cap space for the 2010 class of Lebron/Wade/Bosh/Amare/Joe Johnson, so at least there's that potential quick fix hanging out there.

The one really disturbing thing to me about this team is that not only hasn't Rodney Stuckey made the big leap forward I was expecting, he's actually regressed a bit from where he was late last year and in the playoffs. He still can't hit a goddamn jumper--I thought he'd make a huge improvement there--and he's suddenly turning the ball over like crazy. That was one of his best qualities a year ago, he really took good care of the ball for a rookie guard. This year he's turning it over 4.0 times per 36 minutes, that's atrocious. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.3:1, which is awful for even a pseudo-PG.

Stuckey was shaky in the early season last year too, but that was after coming back from injury. I guess it's only been 12 games, but I expected a breakout year from him and frankly so far he's been easily outplayed by journeyman Will Bynum. Combine that with Amir Johnson's demotion to the bench--for Kwame Brown--and Jason Maxiell averaging just 6 & 4 thus far, and this hasn't been the start Joe Dumars wanted for his young guns.