It is the impossible world of exhibition basketball where teams have veterans with years of pounding on their bad knees that won’t bother to really run up and down the floor and teams also have rookies just dying to make a big play or provide some extra hustle.

Yesterday we discussed how Dwyane Wade lead the Miami Heat in scoring against the Detroit Pistons, but we failed to go into a play that made Detroit Piston’s rookie Austin Daye’s day.

The Heat star had just taken an outlet pass and was going to glide in for an emphatic dunk late in the second quarter of the exhibition opener for the Pistons and Heat.

But midway through the glide, Pistons rookie Austin Daye came over to block the dunk and knock it out of bounds, eliciting a cheer from the sparse Palace crowd.

Wade looked around and grinned.

Later in the possession there was a Pistons foul, and Wade just joked and laughed with the Pistons’ bench — particularly Tayshaun Prince — telling it that it was a great play.
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Dwyane Wade is a superstar and does not feel the need to be offended by Daye’s’ block of his dunk, so he took it in the spirit of fun and gamesmanship. Meanwhile, Daye could barely contain himself knowing what he had accomplished. If he wanted to be noticed, it worked.

Dwyane Wade laughs and has fun with Pistons Austin Daye

The new Pistons are a younger group with a long way to go to win anything and just don’t seem to be as serious as the old Pistons. It remains to be seen if that translates into victories.

Dwyane Wade is probably in the same boat, just waiting for the players to arrive to give him a good enough supporting cast.

Image: Zuma Press

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

The Detroit Pistons are the Joe Dumars Pistons and Joe Dumars has kept the Pistons at the top of the heap for a long time, until last year and the Allan Iverson cap clearing deal led to an eighth place finish and quick sweep by Cleveland in the playoffs.

Next year will be different, because Joe Dumars wanted it to be different. He already had traded Chauncey Billups for Allan Iverson, and then he released Iverson. Rasheed Wallace signed with Boston and had very little left in the tank. Antonio McDyess signed with San Antonio to clear more cap money for youth. In a final blow, Coach Curry was let go to convince free agents to sign with Detroit.

Rodney Stuckey will have a new cast for support

Joe struck quick with the long shooting Ben Gordon and multi talented Charlie Villanueva. Rodney Stuckey, the future star at point guard was already there.

If this was everything, Piston fans would have been hopeful, but disappointed. More is expected of Joe Dumars and more there was. The draft came and the Pistons were rewarded richly.

With their three selections the Pistons invested in Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, and Jonas Jerebko. At the time it was thought of as a solid draft for the Pistons, but after summer league it was evident that it was even better than that.

Daye was a curious pick for the Pistons because he’s so undeveloped physically and really struggled during pre draft workouts. Everyone realized what the Pistons saw in him though after he averaged 17 points and eight rebounds in Las Vegas. Daye was by far one of the best players at the camp and what’s most intriguing is the fact that he’s so far away from maximizing his potential. Come three years from now it would be no surprise if Daye is one of the top ten players from the class, but he’s probably only going to help in spurts during his rookie year.

Summers on the other hand looked ready to contribute now and his coaches said as much. He’s got a lot more strength than Daye does at this point and just as much versatility. Rather than settling for the long ball like he did at Georgetown Summers was aggressive, always looking to attack. When it was all said and done in Vegas he was thought to be the biggest surprise and an absolute steal for the Pistons.
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Watch out, the Pistons are on the rise and may surprise!

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

The Detroit Pistons face the ultimate test of the Joe Dumars regime. How about we get rid of every big guy around and then go find a friend for Tayshaun Prince?

Draft day came around and Blake Griffin went to the Clippers and will never be heard from again. He almost made the NBA, too bad. That is a joke, but then, so are the Clippers.

Anyway, back to that friend for Tay. When the 15th pick rolled around the Pistons picked 6′ 11″ and 191 pound Austin Daye. That’s right, 191 pounds. Arnie Kander will have to put some beef on that guy, because right now he looks like Tayshaun’s little brother.

Austin Daye better not be late for dinner

AP writer Larry Lage writes that Joe Dumars remarked that Austin Daye is skinnier that Tay, but that he likes his skill set.
Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed