All about the acronyms

Note, I first got the idea to poke around with this while looking at this, which I was looking at because I'd noticed some blogs I read (Knickerblogger, Bulls Blog, Forum Blue and Gold, etc.) mentioned their own teams' stats on the same nature. The thing that seemed inconsistent to me is that the Pistons' SG's PER was lower than the Pistons' SF's PER. I figured, "This can't be right, Hamilton and Prince are about equivalent, but Delfino and Hunter are better than Dupree!". I decided to look into it... I knew Lindsey was declining (9.67 offense, 18.4 defense, yet he's played 27% of the team's minutes... yuck) and I knew Delfino was having a rough time, but this is ridiculous! His offensive PER is about 9.43 and his defensive PER is about 19.45. I knew his D was brutal but I figured he at least offered something offensively. I know he's a rookie, but they did leave him in Europe and Argentina for an extra year. Plus, he is playing behind some talented guys and in only 8% of the team's minutes. Both guys aren't even in the double digits on offense and on defense they're almost to 20. As for Dupree, he's not much better (10.9 and 16, 11% of minutes). I guess I'll be happier to see Dupree on the floor than I was previously now. It's pretty clear that the team needs to sign/draft a competent 2 or 3 (or 2.5, as they say) and get rid of Lindsey after the year. NBAdraft.net has them taking Rudy Fernandez, a Spanish SG who is 6'5, 180. I think larger (like Delfino's 6'6, 230 size) is more fitting, personally.

Another interesting thing I found on that stats page is that the Pistons have a 11% higher iFG at the SF spot than their opponents do, while they have a 10% lower iFG at the PF spot than their opponents do. I know McDyess (44% of PF time) often nails a mean 15 footer, but think this is more indicative of the fact that a 6'9, 210 guy (75% of SF time) known for being shrimpy and long is in the post far more often that a 6'11, 230 guy (47% of PF time) who has a reputation as a wicked post player. Also note that the 6'9 guy has a 47.7 FG%, while the 6'11 guy has a 43.4 FG% (McDyess has a 51.2%). Thus, Rasheed should get inside more and Tayshaun should keep up what he's doing, as he's doing swell.

The team has the Kings in Detroit on Wednesday as their next game, that preview comes tomorrow.