OT-Started a Pistons Blawg

Submitted by gajensen on

I was very encouraged by the kind words that some of you have given in my Pistons/NBA update threads, and have decided to be impulsive and heed the suggestion that I create my own blog.

In light of my favorite message board (wtfdetroit) suffering from a dearth of posters, the biggest message board (realgm) being plagued by an influx of n00b posters and power-tripping mods, and some unsatisfactory writing by the newspapers, I feel confident in the decision to get my opinions out there.  and to write run-on sentences.  and fragments.

It does turn out that there are existing successful blogs that all seem to be friendly with each other.
www.pistonpowered.com has about seven writers at their disposal and are an ESPN affiliate site, with every NBA franchise having a sponsored blog.
www.detroitbadboys.com has good content as well, with two professional writers and a web developer on staff.
www.need4sheed.com is operated by a girl who started the site mainly as an outlet for her visual talents, such as wallpapers, cartoon, and highlight videos.  She hasn't updated in two weeks, last I checked, but I know she's made a living off the site.

***So, fellow MGoBloggers and Wolverines, I ask for your HALP!  What are you want for that those blogs and the writers you frequent aren't giving you in regards to the Pistons and the NBA?  What are they doing right, and what are they doing wrong?  What do you want more or less of?  What MGoFeatures would you like to see on a friendly site?***

www.getsomepistons.com

His Dudeness

June 21st, 2011 at 11:25 AM ^

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.  

mds315

June 21st, 2011 at 11:32 AM ^

Day to day updates are good, those are not extremely prevelant on the other blogs you mentioned.

As long as you put in the effort and try to release content nearly every day you should be good.

Good luck and can't wait to be a reader!

Go Blue! and Go Pistons!

TRIPP3

June 21st, 2011 at 11:33 AM ^

cool, I work all the  Pistons  games  for FSN. I will check it out. I am working the draft party. It should be fun. I have no idea who they will pick. Good luck with the site. Go Pistons Go Blue!

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^

That's awesome!  What do you do for FSN?

I don't have any idea, either.  This is the first  year in a while that the Pistons haven't broadcasted who they're interested in.  Stuckey, Daye, Cousins-if-he-fell/Monroe were all obvi.  The only conclusions I can draw are that they are underwhelmed with the available talent at #8, or it is too close to call between a couple of prospects 

TRIPP3

June 21st, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^

I am a camera op. I work all the pistons games. And half the redwing and tigers games. I also work alot for the BTN. Once you get the blog going you should check into getting a media pass, for some of the games. When ever they start playing again. If you live in the area. Good luck with the site.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^

You have it made, I'm super jelly.

I do live in the area.  I'm from Rochester Hills and it's a 10 minute drive to the Palace for me if I hit all the lights.  Getting a press pass would be wonderful, and I know that  at least the need4sheed writer has had some access to games and press conferences.

mds315

June 21st, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^

Did you see the report that we might have made Leonard's promise? 

Houston continues to offer the 14th and 23rd picks in the draft to move into the top 10, and could have a willing partner with the Detroit Pistons at No. 8. The Pistons have told teams they won’t trade down until they see who drops to them on draft night, sources said. In what could be an interesting window into the Pistons’ preferences, San Diego State forward Kawhi Leonard worked out for Detroit on Monday, and shortly thereafter cancelled his Wednesday workout with the Milwaukee Bucks, who have the 10th pick.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski_josh_smith_hawks_nba_draft_062011

I like Leonard and he would be a great fit for us.  I think it's down to Walker, Leonard, and jonas valanciunas, and if those guys aren't there I expect us to trade down.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^

Yeah, I saw that.  I'm against making promises to draft picks on principle.  You can't discount the possibility of a can't-miss prospect falling, and there have been instances of such broken promises.

I understand leaking interest to a player and to other organizations if you're hoping to drum up trade interest in that player, hoping that somebody falls because a team jumps ahead of your pick to grab that promised player.  For example, teams trading up because they are afraid of Sacramento at #7 or Utah at #11 taking Jimmer Fredette would only help us.  Another reason to feign interest in a player is that you hope to trade out of the pick entire because nobody stands out at that spot.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^

Yeah, it's silly to me how worried general managers are getting about Jonas Valanciunus' buyout situation and him taking a year before entering the NBA.  It may be a shortened season!  Mehmet Okur worked out for the Pistons after waiting a year.  Hell, so did Carlos Delfino.  

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^

Exactly.  Valanciunus reminds me an awful lot of Andris Biedrins of Golden State, a player I would be interested if it weren't for his persistent injuries and consequential bloated contract (27 million over next three years).  I won't complain if he's the pick, as I think his floor is similar to a Chris Mihm.

jethro34

June 21st, 2011 at 12:04 PM ^

I think it's not that they're necessarily underwhelmed as much as picks 3-7 are still much of a mystery.  I think they would love a guy like Kanter, who some think will fall, but the Pistons are pretty confident there's no way he makes it that far.  Also, guys like Knight and Walker have some appeal but they already have guards somewhat covered.  I think a lot of teams refuse to accept Walker is a PG simply because he's the size of one.  I see a gritty undersized SG, and Ben Gordon is already a Piston.  Knight would be a nice compliment with his size and he is more of a PG, but then you introduce PT issues once again with the guard rotation.

So that leads everyone to talk of bigs and aside from TT they're foreigners, and that has been more hit-and-miss than anything.  They probably like guys, but who will be there?  Valanciunas may be there, but maybe not.  He just might be the best fit next to Monroe, but he's raw still.  Vesely has the length but isn't he a taller Jerebko? 

I think Thompson was the pick until Biyombo picked up steam.  Personally I feel more confident with Thompson. 

Personally I like the idea of trading down with the Rockets and taking Vucevic at 14 and a certain Darius Morris at 23.  I think Morris is a great fit for the Pistons because he brings size to the backcourt and is the truest PG there is, so a team with issues over who gets shots out of the backcourt could benefit greatly.  As far as Vucevic, he also has great size and can rebound.  He's not an embarrassment at the free throwe line the way some bigs are.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 12:34 PM ^

If teams actually follow their needs the lottery should play out predictably.  There's a lot of smoke being blown, and a lot of the confusion is being caused by Cleveland at #1 and #4.

I like Kemba Walker, but my reluctance to welcome him to the Pistons is a matter of fit.  The Rodney Stuckey PG experiment will not end unless we find a true PG with range.  Just like Jameer Nelson and Ty Lawson, I expect Kemba to exceed expectations and surpass his draft position. 

Tristan Thompson is a solid player, as he's fundamentally sound player that can get to the FT line (a quarter of his possessions resulted in fouls!).  However, he's not a great finisher, not a good jumpshooter, and needs some work on his back-to-the-basket game.  He's not good enough offensively for me to forgive him for not being a center/stellar defensive rebounder.  He pulls down 7.8 a game and 10.2 per 40 minutes, but when you factor in pace he leaves a lot to be desired.

I'd entertain trading down, as well.

Cromulent

June 21st, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^

I would love to see a Pistons blog named in honor of one of the toughest, least skilled players ever to don the uniform: Ron Lee.

Or, how about the classic journeyman Edgar Jones, he of the new-nickname-a-week club?

 

MattisonMan

June 21st, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^

Detroitbadboys used to be my go-to pistons blog, but now it's got nothing interesting going for it. There's definitely room for a good pistons blog - I'm always on the lookout for pragmatic opinion much like Magnus or Brian or tomvh provide. My best advice would be to have an opinion and remember that people want both the info, and some help digesting it.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 1:47 PM ^

What did you used to like about it and what changed?  I've noticed a lot of their posts are comprised of comments on/critiques against/supplements for articles written by others.  While I fully intend to cite sources whenever necessary, I would rather post something that's entirely my own opinion than resort to Peter Vecsey articles.  Ick.

Artermis

June 21st, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^

at WTFDetroit. 

I used to hang around there when the people at the Scout.com pistons board became dead and a member (name long forgotten) got me to come over to that board. 

jethro34

June 21st, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^

I was at realgm and wtfdetroit for a long time.  The NBA board at wtf got too big for me and I couldn't keep up - didn't have that many hours in the day.  The NCAA board was the biggest draw for me and that turned into a pissing war, plus I would rather be waterboarded than read Zip Goshboots or bukdow.

The Shredder

June 21st, 2011 at 1:16 PM ^

Ill link you on midnight maize and my bulls blog dabullcrap. I find the Michigan blogosphere much more united in helping each other out. the bulls/nba blogging has been a more every man for them selves experience. good luck, post the url and ill add.

also I suggest Blogger for a new Blogger. its more user friendly but word press is more control on your code and how you want your blog to look. I use a custom word press code/layout for my blog. best of both worlds imo.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 2:10 PM ^

Wow, thanks a lot.  I plan on posting some general NBA commentary and will focus on the Central Division, so the Bulls are certain to come up.

I'll link you too once I figure out a good place to put friendly/support sites.  All I know how to do so far is post and add links, pictures, and video.  I'm going to delve into it when I get home from work.

 

Artermis

June 21st, 2011 at 1:18 PM ^

Artermis. 

It has been a while since I hung out over there.  I liked them for the most part but I lost interest in Piston basketball 5 or so years ago. 

And the fighting gets kind of old. 

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^

The fighting DEFINITELY got old.  At RealGM I couldn't debate with somebody without the mods overreacting and stepping in, and I couldn't post a trade proposal at WTFDetroit without getting flamed, hard.

I'll try to get your interest back up.  Hopefully the team throws us a bone in this endeavor.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 2:34 PM ^

I plan on having the following tabs:

Roster-Position; College; Age; Years Pro; How Acquired

Statistics-All the basics.  Are there any statistics people are interested in?  PER36?  PER48?  Other advanced numbers?

Depth Chart-I'll keep this thing more accurate than yahoo or ESPN care to.

Salaries

Schedule/Results

Anything I'm missing?

 

jethro34

June 21st, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^

In the salaries it's always nice to have details about how long guys are under contract, when they're going to be UFA or RFA, and if there are any restrictions for trade purposes (BYC, etc).

I've never seen a site that has done this, but I would like to see, sortable by date and player, any trade rumors that have been associated with them in the past 2 years or so.

gajensen

June 21st, 2011 at 4:22 PM ^

You mean like this?

 

Player 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 Total
Richard Hamilton $12,500,000 $12,500,000 $12,500,000 N/A N/A N/A $37,500,000
Tayshaun Prince $11,148,760 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A $11,148,760
Ben Gordon $10,800,000 $11,600,000 $12,400,000 $13,200,000 N/A N/A $48,000,000
Charlie Villanueva $7,020,000 $7,540,000 $8,060,000 $8,580,000 N/A N/A $31,200,000
Jason Maxiell $5,000,000 $5,000,000 $5,000,000 N/A N/A N/A $15,000,000
Will Bynum $3,250,000 $3,250,000 $3,250,000 N/A N/A N/A $9,750,000
Chris Wilcox $3,000,000 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A $3,000,000
Greg Monroe $2,798,040 $3,007,920 $3,217,680 $4,086,454 $5,479,934 N/A $13,110,094
Rodney Stuckey $2,767,126 $3,868,443 N/A N/A N/A N/A $2,767,126
Ben Wallace $2,080,000 $2,246,400 N/A N/A N/A N/A $4,326,400
Austin Daye $1,803,720 $1,929,600 $2,958,077 $4,135,391 N/A N/A $6,691,397
Tracy McGrady $854,389 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A $854,389
Dajuan Summers $762,195 $1,059,293 N/A N/A N/A N/A $762,195
Jonas Jerebko $762,195 $1,059,293 N/A N/A N/A N/A $762,195
Terrico White $473,604 $788,872 QO N/A N/A N/A $1,262,476
Total salaries: $65,020,029 $47,862,792 $47,385,757 $25,866,454 $0 $0 $186,135,032

:-P

I Bleed Maize N Blue

June 21st, 2011 at 4:40 PM ^

Check other browsers to see if your layout works in them.  I hadn't known about PistonPowered, so I took a look.  In Firefox 4.01 and 5.0 (since I just upgraded), the main background is all red.  Hard to read - especially the post titles, which are in red, so invisible.  Works in Chrome, but I mostly use Firefox.

Good luck.