Mind of The Big B : CBSSports.com Blogs

Bismack Biyombo has arrived

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:20:17 EDT

Before the season started I was very high on Bismack Biyombo. I'm sure there was plenty of people who thought I was even too high on him and had some kind of crazy man love. I said he was one of the Top 3 best players from the draft and predicted him to be a Rookie of the Year candidate at the beginning of the year. I predicted a 8 ppg 10 rpg and 2.5 bpg from him for his rookie season. Well needless to say, earlier on in the season my predictions looked way off base. Bismack was getting 4-10 minutes a game and just doing very little statistically. It could have been influenced by him joining the team late as he had to get his contract overseas bought out, but the Bobcats were content with B.J. Mullens getting all the minutes at the time.

Paul Millsap: I'll say it again.........

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:56:13 EST

He's a Top 10 PF in the league and maybe a Top 5 PF by next year. Everyone called me crazy in the off-season threads for saying Millsap would be this good, but each game he plays he is proving me more and more right. People thought I was crazy for saying he's better than Carlos Boozer, but that's looking more and more spot on as each game is played. Paul Millsap started out the season almost splitting minutes exactly with Derrick Favors, but since he's started to get the majority of the minutes at PF, he's exploded into the player I've always said he's capable of being. He's been averaging nearly 20 ppg and 10 rpg over his last 13 games (19.7 ppg 10.6 rpg). Here is Millsap's numbers on the year:

Millsap: 16.8 ppg (13.2 shots/game) 52.6% FG 78.9% FT 9.5 rpg (3.3 offensive) 1.9 apg 1.5 TO/game 1.5 spg 31.3 min/game

Cam Newton's Future

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:30:06 EST

Everyone knows Cam Newton is a special player, has plenty of talent, and will win the ROY this year. Everyone knows he's got plenty of talent with his feet piling up over 600 rushing yards and a record setting 14 TDs rushing TDS (most for a QB ever). Now that we've got all the obvious out of the way, let's get to what everyone doesn't know (or at least doesn't believe in): Cam Newton has the ability and will most likely become an elite passer.

I know everyone is always saying he still isn't a great passer and has just racked up lots of yards by being down so far on a crappy team getting beat by other teams. They call him "Stats Newton" as they think he's only a guy that pads his stats on a bad team and his numbers are empty as he can't win; although he might be changing some people's perception by winning 4 out of his last 5 games. I don't think others realize either that he's lost 5 other games by a TD or less and couple of those were against the top teams in the playoffs for the NFC (Saints and Packers). The biggest thing I find strange is why this doesn't to be a problem when talking about other great QBs when they were young and/or rookie QBs in the NFL. They all started on bad teams and none of them led their team to a championship right of the gate or even the playoffs. The biggest example to me seems to be Peyton Manning.

2011-2012 NBA Awards Predictions

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:54:18 EST

With only a few days until the NBA season starts, I felt like getting my predictions out now. So instead of wasting time trying to talk them up, here they are:

- MVP -

Kevin Durant

Durant is primed to have his best season yet and I think everyone seen it coming as early as watching him light up the summer leagues. No, I'm not naive enough to say that is the reason why he's going to win the MVP, but if you can't tell his best overall scorer in the game, you just haven't been paying attention. KD can score from anywhere on the court and just continues to improve on defense each year. This should be the year he explodes for well over 30+ ppg 8+ rpg 1.5+ spg 1.5+ bpg and finally over 3 apg this year (improving his passing, which has really been the weakest part of his game). He's going to put up the stats and he's likely going to lead his Thunder to a top seed in the West and contend for a title.

Heisman: Montee Ball over Trent Richardson

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:28:55 EST

I'm finding it very hard to understand why I see Alabama's Trent Richardson always put among the top Heisman candidates and Wisconsin's Montee Ball never mentioned. I know Alabama has been a better team and I know Richardson has been a big time NFL prospect since he was a freshman, but I don't see how you can argue with the production they've put up so far this year. I unds erstand Alabama has only lost to the #1 team in LSU, but while it's not debatable that Alabama is better than Wisconsin, it's not like they are some scrub team or face easy opponents all the time. Both of their losses have also come in last minute comeback TDs from Ohio St. and MSU and neither has been a scrub team this year either.

For those that don't know the stats, here they are (games include today's games stats):

Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, John Wall,......

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:48:24 EDT

..........Brandon Knight? Am I getting ahead of myself? Probably, but with how bad the Pistons have been the last couple years, I haven't had much to be happy about lately so I'm going to live in the moment with this one. Calipari has been a point guard guru and has produced some of the best young point guards in the NBA right now (looks even better with Derrick Rose winning the MVP this past season and leading his Bulls to a #1 seed). They all left their freshman year after just one year under Coach Calipari and Knight has done the same after just one season with the Wildcats. Everyone expected Knight to go in the Top 5 picks but somehow by sheer luck he dropped all the way to the Pistons at the 8th.

While Knight did struggle in the beginning of the NCAA season, Calipari's coaching of him started to pay off as the season went on as he got better and better. He started making better decisions with the ball, was able to run the pick n roll well, was hitting shots off the dribble or off the ball, and got Kentucky into the tourney after leading them to an SEC title. No one was expecting them to do a whole lot, but Knight ended up leading them all the way to the Final Four. They went on to lose BY ONE POINT to the eventual NCAA national champs in UConn. Even as just a freshman Knight was already progressing fast and showing his potential to be another star PG from the Calipari tree.

Detroit Pistons Draft Outlook

Sun, 22 May 2011 1:46:31 EDT

Well I was hoping to see the Pistons get lucky and move up in the draft from their originally slotted 7th spot, but instead it was the Cavaliers that got the lucky draw and the Pistons went the opposite direction and moved down one spot. With this draft lacking alot of potential huge stars, it's likely the Pistons won't be getting any player that is going to be able to be a future leading star for them. So the most important thing will be to draft a guy that not only has talent, but also can impact their team and be a great role player right off the bat. There are a few options, but I think it clearly comes down to two guys: Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo.

When Chauncey Billups was at the PG helm for the Pistons leading their offense, they were contending for the East title each year and always at least in the ECFs. The won a title and went to back to back Finals appearances in the Billups era, but since trading him to the Nuggets they have dropped off significantly and that's really an understatement. Allen Iverson was one of my favorite players of all time, but that experiment failed miserably. They had picked Rodney Stuckey in the 2007 draft and had hoped he was going to be able to step up and be Billups understudy and eventually take the starting job once Billups got too old and had to step down. He showed flashes of amazing talent and ability to get to the lane and create offense; even in the 2008 NBA playoffs where he was penetrating the Celtics defense very well at time (and I remind you this was the #1 defense at the time that went on to win the title).

Andrew Bynum - A Disgrace to the NBA

Mon, 09 May 2011 12:45:06 EDT

I can't hold my tongue, what Andrew Bynum just did sickens me. I haven't bothered posting here or reading much of anything during the playoffs but this is just plain out disgusting. I know it's shocking to watch the Lakers get swept in the 2nd round by the Mavericks and this 30+ (currently) beatdown is just a bad way for the Lakers to end their season (and most likely Phil Jackson's career, which is sad it has to end like this), but for guys like Lamar Odom and Bynum to intentionally try to hurt their opponents out of frustration is stupid and embarassing not only for the Lakers and their fans, but for all NBA fans. Now Odom's wasn't really much, just an elbow to Dirk while both were at the top of the key, but what Bynum did, and for a second time might I add, was unbelievable. It's one thing to play physical and two big guys bang in the post and give some hard fouls, but to throw an elbow into the ribs of a defenseless player in mid-air is not something that should be tolerated in the NBA.

Joe Dumars, What is Wrong With You?!?!?!?!?

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:50:36 EST

After watching all these go on over the last couple days before the deadline today, I can't believe not one deal was done by the Pistons. What was Joe Dumars doing, just sitting back and twiddling his thumbs? Was he expecting someone to come drop some great deal in his lap? It's very frustrating as a fan to watch all this activity go on and the Pistons just to sit back and do nothing when it's obvious they need to do some work to this team if they expect it to start improving and getting back to contending in the playoffs again. Why is Richard Hamilton just going to sit there and rot on the bench? Why is Tayshaun Prince's expiring contract to being used to entice some team into a deal? Why are they just going to sit back and hope it all magically works out and the team just transforms back to the 2000s Pistons?

Blake Griffin - The Art of Passing

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:14:22 EST

Blake Griffin missed his entire first year out with injury and many were already calling him a bust. He then began his rookie year a season late in this current 2010/2011 NBA season. He began to turn some heads with his play. Now of course ESPN was all over him the minute he started throwing down highlight dunks, but alot of knowledeable NBA fans still weren't impressed. Then Griffin started owning the boards and has got himself on a 27 game streak of straight double-doubles. It began to peak the interest, but still wasn't enough. After Blake Griffin's monster game where he dropped 47 points against the Pacers , there has been quite a bit of buzz about how good this guy actual is. With a couple impressive wins and big games against the like of the Heat and Lakers , that helps draw more attention to this guy.

The Miami Heat Go as Dwyane Wade Goes

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:41:36 EST

Like everyone, I've been paying close attention to the Heat to see how their much anticipated season goes. Of course it's not been living up the hype obvious, but most knowledgeable NBA fans would have seen this coming and would not have expected a team of 3 stars to just mesh right off the bat and dominate, at least against good teams. But they have been looking very good as of late and I think it's also fairly obvious how they've been so successful...........Dwyane Wade is in charge.

Before the season started, one of the many debates about the Heat was who was going to be in charge and who's team this was going to be. Would it remain Dwyane Wade's team as he's been here his entire career and won an NBA title with them? Or would LeBron James come in, take over, and lead this team into a dynasty of many titles? Well to start, it was definitely LeBron's team. He was leading the charge, the team, and the offense. He was the primary playmaker as well as being the primary scorer, just like he was with the Cavaliers. But as we all know, the Heat had a very slow start going 9-7 through the first 16 games.

Big B's Early 2010 Defensive Highlights

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:37:11 EST

I figured with everyone raving over the amazing offensive skills being displayed early on in the season with guys like Kevin Durant, Monta Ellis, Dwyane Wade, Rudy Gay, and Derrick Rose lighting up scoreboards; or Celtics fans going insane about Rajon Rondo dropping almost 15 assists a game so far; or guys like LeBron James and Pau Gasol putting up triple doubles; I thought how about we talk about the other side of the ball and give some love to defense being displayed so far this year. Now I know it's early so this is not a "top defensive player of the year candidates" list. This is just a place to shine the light on some great defense being played so far this season. I'm going to touch a few players a teams, but feel free to give a shout out to a guy on your favorite team for his defense.

Paul Millsap > Carlos Boozer

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:45:51 EST

Yeah, I said and I mean it. Paul Millsap has had to sit on the bench behind for 3 years but this year he is finally the starter with Carlos Boozer going to the Bulls . I've said before that if Millsap was a starter he could be a Top 10 Power Forward and I will stick with that statement going into his first year a starter. Watch and see this guy become better better the Boozer was for the Jazz . You may not think much of him because he's only 6'8", but the guy has athleticism, strength, and hops to make up for not having the size that Boozer did. He has proved to be just as good or better of a rebounder than Boozer, so I guess his stature isn't a problem.

Millsap has already started off this averaging 21.3 ppg 12.3 rpg 3 apg 1.3 spg 63.4% FG after having a monster night for the Jazz tonight putting up 30 points (12-19 FG 6-8 FT) 16 points 6 assists and 2 steals in a win for Utah over the Thunder . It's not like this guy hasn't shown he had this potential before; he's given us plenty of flashes in the last two seasons of how good he could be. Do you remember back in the 08/09 season when he became the starter for a stretch when Boozer went down with an injury and went on to post 19 consecutive double-doubles and finished with 29 double-doubles on the season? How about last year when he had a few huge games when Boozer didn't play or had limited minutes? The guy has shown when he gets starter minutes, he produces like a damn good big man.

Pistons Ownership: Past, Present, and Future

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:02:54 EDT

In 1974, William Davidson bought the Detroit Pistons from his neighbor Fred Zollner, the founder of the team. In 1978, Bill Davidson moved the Pistons to the newly built Palace of Auburn Hills, which became the NBA's first arena that was entirely financed by private funds. Davidson was able to keep the blue-collar feel to the team, but improved their facilities and gave a breath of fresh air into the franchise.

In 1989, The Detroit Pistons won their first NBA championship in their NBA franchise history. They would go on to win in 1990 as well giving them back to back titles under Bill Davidson's ownership. The Pistons would go on with many other successful season, but never achieved another title again in the 90s decade due to the dominance of Michael Jordan.

ATMD IV Official Rosters

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:59:27 EDT

Phil Jackson's Dream (The Big B)

PG - Chauncey Billups

SG - Michael Jordan

SF - Jamaal Wilkes

Detroit Pistons Draft/Off-Season Outlook

Fri, 21 May 2010 12:31:07 EDT

The Pistons didn't get any luck like the 76ers and Wizards to move up in the draft and are stuck at their 7th overall spot for the 2010 NBA Draft. Things would have been much easier if they could have moved into the Top 5 and had a chance at DeMarcus Cousins or Derrick Favors, but considering how the Pistons season went this year, I guess it was foolish to expect any kind of luck for the MoTown boys this year. If only they could have actually lost more games instead of deciding to win 4 of their last 6 games to move them out of the bottom five and get stuck with this damn 7th overall pick!

So the consensus is to grab a big man, and even though they won't likely have a shot at Cousins or Favors, they are predicted by most analysts to go after Cole Aldrich or maybe Greg Monroe (if Aldrich is gone). This seems all fine and dandy on paper and makes perfect sense considering the biggest weakness of the Pistons is their lack of post scoring or overall post depth. However, when you look at their draft history with big men, it makes me a little afraid to take a big man with this pick. Here is the Pistons 1st round draft picks for the last decade:

The Spartan Battle Cry!

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:48:26 EDT

Why do you all consistently and constantly underrate and root against the Spartans? Has nothing over the past decade showed you that it's foolish to doubt Coach Izzo and the Spartan ballers? Of course you haven't learned anything, and that's why the keep getting underrated by fans and sports analysts, and are always picked against.

This year was just a perfect example of how the Spartans continued to prove the doubters wrong. First, their opening game against 12th seed New Mexico State was being seen as of the "big upsets of the first round" with NMS being one of the teams to upset a higher team in the first round. That was foolish, and of course the Spartans made it seem that way when they took them down with Kalin Lucas dropping a career high 25 points.

NBA Member Mayhem Standings

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:11:29 EDT

NBA MEMBER MAYHEM SCORING RESULTS WEEK#1

Lakers - 43points

Grizzlies - 43 points

Thunder - 42 points

NBA Member Mayhem Home Page

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:26:00 EST

The NBA Member Mayhem is a contest designed to show your off your knowledge of NBA basketball while competing against fellow NBA fans. It also gives you a chance to represent and show how much you care about your favorite team. For anyone that is familar with how other Member Mayhems have worked in the past (NFL Member Mayhem, NCAA Member Mayhem), except with an NBA theme. Starting right after the NBA All Star Break Weekend, we will have questions for our participants to answer. They will give a response in an essay format (350 word limit) and it will be then evaluated by our judges and given a score. We will also have the responses put up for everyone else to vote on in a poll. Two representatives (one per each 30 teams of the NBA) will be matched up (based on actual NBA schedules of the teams) and whoever has the most total points (from the judges score and the poll combined) will win the matchup. We will have an entire "regular season" which will last from the first day after All Star Break Weekend (Monday February 16th, 2010) that will last all the way until the end of the NBA season. Follow the "regular season" we will have playoffs (seeded by records and points in the regular season) and go through those to find our eventual champion.

NBA Member Mayhem Participants

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:15:24 EDT

Team Representatives:

Atlanta Hawks - GTucker

Boston Celtics - nighthawkace444

Charlotte Bobcats - mckrackin

NBA Member Mayhem Schedule

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:20:30 EST

Team Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9

Rockets : Jazz Hornets Raptors Pistons Nuggets Knicks Wizards Pacers Suns

Magic : Pistons Mavs Heat Bulls Bobcats Hawks Nuggets Grizzlies Cavs

Pistons: Magic Spurs Celtics Rockets Knicks Pacers Bulls Hawks Raptors

NBA Member Mayhem Rules and Regulations

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:02:10 EDT

Rules & Regulations: Intro: The goal of this contest is to show your knowledge of and passion for NBA basketball. You will demonstrate your skills with formal writing in essay format.

Section A - Team Representation: 1 ) Each team must be represented by at least one participant, but multiple teammates are allowed to represent a certain team as a group.

2 ) Teams that have multiple representatives must submit their list of team members prior to the start of the contest.

3) Only team members listed on the official list of participants may submit responses.

CPMD Official Rosters

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:18:01 EDT

Mother Lover's (Mighty Mouse)

PG- Tony Parker

SG- Kobe Bryant

SF- Tayshaun Prince

Allen Iverson: The Answer is Retirement

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:03:18 EST

Sad to see The Answer hang up his sneakers. I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence or call anyone an stupid, but if you don't think Allen Iverson deserves to be in the HoF you need a serious mental evaluation and should consider checking yourself into a psychiatric hospital.

The guy gave us the greatest crossover of all time and broke countless ankles. He is one of the greatest scorers in NBA history: he is tied for 4th all time in points per game with 27.0 ppg (tied for 5th if you count LeBron James, but I don't) and 17th all time in total points. He's ahead of guys in scoring like Charles Barkley, Elgin Baylor, Adrian Dantley, Clyde Drexler, and even Larry Bird. Explain to me how those guys deserve to be in over him (except for Bird, Baylor, and Drexler; but how does Barkley and Dantley deserve to be in?). And I don't see how you can say he's only a scorer? The guy has a career average of 6.2 assists per game and has proven to be a very good passer. Yes, he takes a lot of shots but when you're one of the greatest scorers of all time then I think you should take a lot of shots. And if you know you're history well, I'd like to see you show me someone on those 76ers teams in AI's prime that should have got more shots because they could score good and be worth taking points from AI. He can penetrate the lane just as well as LeBron can now and he's about 8-9 in. shorter and almost 100 pounds lighter. He was able to draw a lot of contact and get a lot of FT opportunities which he knocked down at a good percentage.

Ben Wallace - Still a Top Post Defender

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 9:10:01 EDT

Yes, you heard me right and now that he's back with the Pistons he's proving it. He wasn't be used correctly on the Bulls and Cavaliers who tried too much to play him out of position (PF) and never let him roam like he could. He's old now, so I won't argue he's better than Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett but he's still in that upper group of post defenders. He can still go one-on-one with any post player and slow them/shut them down. He can still get up (though not as well as he use to) and block shots or get rebounds. He is also still quick enough and has quick enough hands and feet to press players after the throw in and still can step out on players and get some steals. If you need any proof, go watch the last two games for the Pistons and you will see plenty of proof.

My Thoughts on the Pistons Opener

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 9:49:31 EDT

For the most part, I loved what I seen in this game. Love seeing Big Ben Wallace back on the Pistons , and I love his defense even more! He had Zach Randolph frustrated all night long and had him shut down. I think I only seen Randolph score once or twice on Big Ben, with the rest of his points coming on FTs or on Kwame Brown /Charlie V. At 35 he can still play very good defense and rebound well; his hops aren't what they once were but he's no chump. He's still the best defensive prescence they have in the paint and is the best they've had in there since he left before. This is one of the better games on defense I've seen this Pistons play in a long time (maybe all the way back to when he left before), and it's no coincidence that they do it with him back. Anyone that has ever doubted or hated Big Ben just was shown what he's still capable of even though he's no where near his prime. For a long time now haters have said it was Big Ben who was made by the Pistons, but I think all us Pistons fans know and anyone that watches him play knows it's the other way around. He might be having them hold teams up 90 ppg all year long like in his prime days, but he can make sure they are still a formidable defense. He with Kwame Brown and Jason Maxiell can lock down the paint on defense. Now of course we need to see them against a real threat down low first before this is proven, but I think we'll get to see what they're really made of against the Magic on the 3rd (next Tuesday).

NBA boards: All NBA Decade Teams

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:50:50 EDT

We, collectively as the NBA boards of CBS, have gotten together and had a voting process in which we have decided on who the best players, coaches, and teams of the this past decade were. This is what we have come up with:

1st team:

PG - Jason Kidd

SG - Kobe Bryant

DeJuan Blair: The Next Spurs Star?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:00:18 EDT

I know what you're thinking: "Blair? Seriously? This guy was drafted in the second round of the draft for a reason." However, maybe we should take a closer look before completely dismissing this guy just because he dropped to the 2nd round, is undersized (in terms of height), and has had "injury problems" (I put that in quotations for a reason).

Let's start with his so called "injury problems." Everyone's first response to dismiss Blair is his previous injury past with him tearing both ACLs in high school and having them both surgically repaired. However, that was back in high school and he played two full season for Pittsburgh in college and did very well (winning the Big East Player of the Year last year and getting Pitt a #1 seed in the NCCA tourney). Now sure, he could possibly having some problems 5-10 years down the road but why judge him before you see him play? Just because he might have injury problems as he gets older doesn't mean he can't have a successful start to his NBA career does it?

NBA Member Mayhem 2009/2010

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 9:29:26 EDT

I know I've mentioned it a few times, but the more I think about it the more I realize I want to try and get this going again this year. However, this time I want it to be more organized, planned out, and prepared so that it will not fall apart. Before I start working it though, I want to know from all you guys on the NBA boards if there is enough people out there to make this work. I will need at least 30 people (one person for each NBA team) that will participate in this, and will stay in it all the way to the end and not give up. Here's an early idea of how I think it will go:

We will have 15 "games" each week where I will put two of the teams (or posters representing their team) against each other. If anyone is not familar with how Member Mayhem works (just like CBS's NFL and NCAA Member Mayhem) I will select a question for everyone to answer and you give me a response based on the requirements (might be limited to 300-500 words or something like that) and then I will judge who's response was the best; also we will have a poll up for everyone else to vote on who they thought was the best. I will rate each response on a 1-10 scale, and you will get the amount of points based on my "grade." The poll will also give you points based on percentage; you will get a point for each 10% of the poll voting you get. So all together there will be a possible 20 points for each team to get, and whoever has the most total points at the end of the week wins that matchup.

NBA Southwest Division Preview - 2009/2010

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:57:30 EDT

The Southwest division has become the best division in the NBA. There seems to be a lot of rivalry games and tough competition mainly to due the fact that 3 of the teams are located in Texas (San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston). They've had four of their teams making the playoffs for the last couple years now, all four of those teams constantly flirting or reaching 50 wins in a season. The division is filled with some of the best players in the game with Duncan, Nowitzki, and Paul. For the last three years, at two of the top three seeds in the West have come from this division. The division is filled with legends like Timmy D, J-Kidd, and AI, but it also has young stars that will be among the best players in the NBA for years to come in CP3, Tony Longoria, and possible Mayo. There are also three MVP candidates (two of which have won the award before) in Paul, Dirk, and Duncan.