"What do we have here?" - The first iteration

[Phenomenonsense]

I thought about calling this a lot of different things, "Diagnosing the Pistons," "Potential future plans," "Funbananza 3000," but I think the title I used was the most apt: What do we have here? The majority of this forum has devolved into a ruckus of angry banter between users about how much one player sucks, or another is the best, but that's all tertiary to the goal of the forum. It's sad to see the Piston's forum so similar to what I would call the epitome of the "Bulls Fanbase." This term I use for fans of teams that are so rabid they cannot distinguish from a good play, not even a good game necessarily, and a good player, and vice versa. What I hope to accomplish with this piece is to exam some of the more "hot button issue" players offer, and some potential options for us in the future.

Players

Knight
32 mpg/14 ppg/3.6 rpg/4.4 apg/3.0 Turnovers/12.7 PER

Knight is probably one of the most "in flux" players we have, at least as far as fanbase goes. I have never been high on Knight, but he gets entirely too much flak in my opinion. A few points: Knight is learning the PG position, which is a fancy way of saying he isn't a natural playmaker. The best Point to play for the Piston's since Billups left has been Tracy McGrady, and that's just because he was a natural playmaker. While Knight is only a meh player in most aspects, with as many ill-advised/missed shots as good plays. Understand, however, that this is probably as good as Knight will get while Frank is here. Knight may hit a higher percentage of his shots, pass a bit better, and lower some TOs, his ability to play the point and run an offense will simply not get better under Fank.

This is not a knock on either person. Frank is a great coach when it comes to TEACHING DEFENSE. Our offense is stagnant, and it actually hurts our defense. (Just as easy offense comes off of good defense (transition points), good defense is easier when there is good offensive execution. (Transition defense)). The point is, Knight suffers the most from the composition of the team, having a starting C with little help defense, a SF that does not take open jumpshots, and an undersized PF that can't palm the ball. This, on top of the sluggish offense that simply has not gotten better since last year (outside of easier points coming from our improving defense), dooms Knight.

What do we have here? We have a player that is smart, but probably too smart to just play the game. Knight spent the first 10 games of the season overthinking everything, trying to do nothing but pass the ball. Knight really will, and needs, to learn when to shoot and when to get assists (if he ever wants to get better that is). He has shown flashes of killer instinct, something this team is completely devoid of, but about as often as a Monroe dunk. What we have here is a PG that will not reach his potential for many more years, and hopefully he will be a useful trade chip if nothing else.

The bottom line: Knight has shown twice as many TERRIBLE turnovers as he has great passes, but the great passes are there. His 3 point shot is decent to good, but his shot selection is neither. He loves to attempt the dagger, but needs to be more consistent. He is terrible in transition, moves too fast for his own good, and hasn't adjusted to the NBA speed yet, even after playing for more than a year.

I don't feel like wasting time, so if people would like more, please comment and give feedback on what you think we have here with Knight. Monroe will be the next player I do this with, unless popular demand wants someone else.

[Blink]

Ive been as hard on knight as anybody but i realize he is playing with a SG that cant consistently shoot in Singler, I'll just pump fake Prince, I'm a 6'5'' PF Maxiell. He needs shooters around him.

Still needs to cut his turnovers wayyyy down

[shyfly24]

Knight

I will never forget everyones analysis on Knights defense in the bulls game. It just goes to show you how these people know nothing about the game and only stat watch.

How they miss Hinrich and robinson blow past knight every chance they got blows my mind. Hinrich was missing shots cause of maxiel, drummond and they fact he is HINRICH!

[Phenomenonsense]

Is Knight playing poorly? Yes and no. Has he improved from last year? In certain areas, yes. Is his growing process especially painful for Piston's fans to watch? Certainly. Is he the reason the Piston's are losing? No. I don't think that's even remotely on him. The Piston's are losing because of Monroe, at the end of the day. I guess I'll talk about why that is later on.

[jlisec01]

I don't know, I would like to see his turnovers go down first of all, forgot which game it was but it was recent he had 7.... Also I would like to see his assists go way up, but I would like to think that hes still in his first year since last was half a season. It sucks that he has to be such a poor defender but I think he can still improve that aspect of his game. As long as hes scoring more points than the guy he defends, then I'm fine with that, lol.