Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Vanishing: Detroit's Bench.

When the Detroit Pistons won the NBA title in 2004, they did so, largely, because they had one of the best bench groups in the entire league. With Mehmet Okur, Mike James, Lindsay Hunter, and Corliss Williamson coming off the pine, the Pistons would send in some mighty contributors to sub for the starters: James and Hunter pressuring the ball full-court, Williamson a low-post offensive hub, and Okur a pick-and-roll nightmare. Yet, by the time Detroit showed up for their title defence, Okur, James, and Williamson had all been shown the door. That next year, the coach once known as Pound For Pound —Larry Brown!— decided to do without a bench, pretty much.

In the seasons since, be it under whiny-faced Larry or Flip Saunders, that’s been the way the Stones’ve rolled. But, after successive postseason flameouts to lesser teams, a mass-cultural shift was planned in Detroit. From Joe Dumars on down to buying-it beat-reporters, all we heard out of Auburn Hills was that this year’d be different; that Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson and newly-inked Jarvis Hayes were ushering in a new era of bench productivity. It was, really, the only story from Detroit this summer.

This had a trickle-on fantasy effect: guys like Johnson and Jason Maxiell went from being statistical curiosities to cult-like sleepers, and former Wizzle Jarvis Hayes was —despite a career of tantalising preseason productivity— a favoured flyer in deep fantasy leagues. Yet, as the season’s marched on, some promising early season production from Maxiell and Hayes has ended up amounting to not much.

In two of Detroit’s last four games, Flip’s fallen back on old habits. Against Chicago, all five starters played at least 35 minutes, and only one reserve (Hayes) got on the court for more than 11 minutes. The five bench-guys (Hayes, Maxiell, Flip Murray, Arron Afflalo, Nazr Mohammed) combined to play 50 minutes, score 13 points, grab 6 rebounds, and dish out a mighty 1 assist.

In Portland last night, the same five-man-unit came off the bench for 55 minutes, totalling 18, 8, and 4. Meanwhile, 33-year-old Rasheed Wallace posted his second game of 40+ minutes in the space of five days. In early-November. So much for conserving the starters.

At this rate, not only will hustle-stat machines like Maxiell and Johnson never be fantasy contributors, but they won’t even be given the opportunity to effectively spell the aging starters. If so, will Detroit offer the exact same excuse come Spring 2008, when they lose to the Celtics/Nets/Raptors/etc in the playoffs?

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