A tangent and a W

I didn't rag on Mejia too much before, but I will now. He recently put up the column Davis has them playing like, well, Warriors again. I don't know how many times I can stress that this guy HURTS teams, not helps. I admit he has the best Roland Rating on the team (other than Flores who played 69 minutes for them), but realize that Derek Fisher is behind him. Yes, he has been playing good recently, but it doesn't really make up for his first few games (where he shot terribly) or the fact that he has $62.46 million over four years left on his current deal. This team is REALLY crippled, finanicially. After the year, Richardson has starts his 6/$70 extension and Murphy starts his 6/$60 one. Davis's money is above. Adonal Foyle still has 5/$44.5 on his deal. Derek Fisher still has 5/$31.65 on his. Not only are they hurt there, their roster is also terribly unbalanced. I mean, they have five guys that are about 6'10, 240 (and white, not that it matters). Murphy, Dunleavy, Biedrins, Cabarkapa and Tskitishvili. Skita's gone after the year (presuming they don't resign him), but they still have too many big men. They're worse off than the Knicks, because the Knicks may be more unbalanced but escape from their salary woes in 2007 (Penny, Tim Thomas) and 2008 (Ex-Piston Houston and Taylor). The Warriors? 2009 for Davis, 2010 for Foyle and Fisher, 2011 for the two talented guys (J-Rich and Murphy). Yikes. What's even funnier about their unbalanced roster is that NBAdraft.net has them slotted for a power forward (6'10, 230 Fran Vasquez of Spain) at their five spot at the moment. I know that site only slots by their opinions of overall talent and not by team need, but I wouldn't put it past Mullin to take a PF there... I mean, he did take on all of the contracts mentioned above, right? There's a reason these guys have the longest playoff drought in the league.

I'll tell you about team that doesn't have a playoff drought though. With their W tonight against the Clips (who were sans Simmons and Maggette), the Pistons clinched a spot. Ex-Piston Zeljko Rebraca got the start at the five spot for the Clips, which was weird, as it was his first start of the year. What was even more weird was that ex-Piston Mikki Moore got 34 minutes against his old squad, his second highest mark of the year (highest was 47 against the Lakers on 12/11). Meaningless statistics are fun! Anyway, for more meaningful stats, the Pistons did pretty much everything well aside from that Hamilton shot 5/15. Not a whole lot to say here. Pistons beat a team without their two best perimeter players... at home. You'd have to think that's expected, wouldn't you?

The team's going to have to go on a pretty large tear to match their 54-28 mark from last year. You might notice a small new thing in the top right corner of the site, which details what could've been if they hadn't been so mediocre to start the year as well as projected marks for reality and reality after 24 games. Not that important, but something to keep in mind. In related news, the Pistons take on the Raptors in Toronto on Sunday for their next game. More on that later.