Nazr loses starting job

[ploto]

Another team
Same song

Saunders moved Wallace back into his usual starting spot for Friday night's game in Atlanta, and moved Nazr Mohammed to the bench.

Center Dale Davis started in Mohammed's place Friday and likely will do the same tonight against Boston.


...As for Mohammed, Saunders said he thought he might be more productive off the bench.

"He is what he is," Saunders said. " ... We're tinkering with maybe seeing if he's a guy who can go to that second unit and bring him off the bench, because with some of our main guys out, he'd get more touches and be more effective."

Saunders has rarely played Mohammed with the reserves this season; Mohammed has typically been a first- and third-quarter player, and the first man subbed out as well.

He sounded frustrated when asked about his role Friday morning.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Mohammed said. "It hasn't helped me talking about it before, and it's not going to help now. Coach knows how I feel about it. Everybody does; it's not like it's a secret."

The Pistons offered Mohammed a five-season deal in the summer to fill in as a starter in Ben Wallace's absence. But Mohammed has not had the offensive impact the Pistons predicted.

Part of that is because of his limited minutes, a sore subject for Mohammed all season.

"I'm just going to try to go out there, play hard and be positive and do whatever I can within the minutes I'm given," Mohammed said. "I think, for the most part, with playing the type of minutes I've been given, I'm doing a decent job. ... I can definitely make improvements. ... I'm playing 18-19 minutes and I'm surprised I'm even able to score seven or eight points. It's tough ... but so what?"
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...701130366/1051

What about Mohammed, whom the Pistons signed last summer to a five-year, $30.2 million contract? It appears, 33 games into this season and even without confirmation on Webber, that the Pistons have come to the same conclusion the Spurs did last season -- Mohammed doesn't provide enough of a presence at either end of the floor.

Coach Flip Saunders has, for the past two weeks, been searching for stability in the post. Mohammed, who played 11 minutes Wednesday against the Bobcats, has seen his role shrink steadily.

"Sometimes it's not the five best players who play," Saunders said. "It's the five players who play best together. We said we would give it 30 games to see how things worked. Now, as a staff, we will get together to see if there needs to be some changes made."

There is a good chance Mohammed will be benched, starting tonight in Atlanta. The Pistons are expected to start Dale Davis and Wallace in the front court. If that's the case, you would expect Mohammed would be out of the rotation completely, because the Pistons would first use Jason Maxiell and Antonio McDyess off the bench.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...701120332/1339

[td4mvp21]

If he wants minutes, then he needs to ing do something with them. Catch the ball, don't pump fake a million times, make shots, and rebound.

[wildbill2u]

"He is what he is" --an underachiever who will always be a bench player.

Props to the FO and Pop for analyzing this guy and getting rid of him. They got what they needed--a release of Malik's contract, an unexpected dividend during the championship drive, and an expiring contract.

Does anyone remember those Spurstalk fans who lamented his leaving? What song will they be singing now?

[NBA Junkie]

He would have lost his starting spot anyway once Webber signs with the Pistons.

[angel_luv]

I wonder what it would take to get Nazr to drop his complaint- not much I would imagine.

[td4mvp21]

I wonder what it would take to get Nazr to drop his complaint- not much I would imagine.

Nice.

[ABDENOUR POWER]

Its not that Nazr has played horribly, he just hasn't really done.... anything. He's almost invisible when he's on the court. He's a mediocre center, plain and simple.

[angel_luv]

Nice.

[ploto]

Props to the FO and Pop for analyzing this guy and getting rid of him.

You do remember that the Spurs offered Nazr a lengthy contract extension thinking that they could turn him into something else-- Spurs got lucky he turned it down or they would be the ones with Nazr for 4 more years and about $25M.

[joeyjfive]

Does Nazr ever work on his hands, I mean damn it has to get to a point where he realizes "I cant catch the ing ball, I should work on it". Just do the same thing wide recievers do, get the ball thrown at you from a close distance till you learn to catch it.

[TDMVPDPOY]

pistons should charge him a buck for every pumpfake.....

[VaSpursFan]

the dood, quite plain and simple, is a back-up center with a diva mentality. at some point he has to look in the mirror and say, i'm not good enough to be a starting center and work his ass off to become with. his sense of en lement is quite comical.

[T Park]

Its a shame.

Hes very talented, and if he had the work ethic, he could be a 10 and 10 guy.

He shows it often enough. heck he had a 20 something and 15 game not too long ago.

[leemajors]

Does Nazr ever work on his hands, I mean damn it has to get to a point where he realizes "I cant catch the ing ball, I should work on it". Just do the same thing wide recievers do, get the ball thrown at you from a close distance till you learn to catch it.

what popeye jones did with dampier would be better - a basketball half filled with water that wobbles and is heavier. , have dude practice catching chest passes with a medicine ball.

[picnroll]

... and in other news Rasho has been about as impacting a player for the Barney's as he was for the Spurs. So much for Duncan holding him back.

[angel_luv]

... and in other news Rasho has been about as impacting a player for the Barney's as he was for the Spurs. So much for Duncan holding him back.

What are you talking about?

[boutons_]

Rasho is starting, but only averaging 20 MPG.

I guess Rasho has the output in TOR as he did in SA.
Looks great in the first qtr, then disappears.

[picnroll]

What are you talking about?

Check the stats. Minutes, points, FG%, rebounds, blocks, etc., etc., etc.. Nothing stands out. Even with Bosh missing for a chunk of the season.

[angel_luv]

Nesterovic a consistent pro for Raps

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.–There was a time when Sam Mitc thought he'd tweak his starting five every now and then to find matchups he thought benefited the Raptors.

Rasho Nesterovic changed all that.

The veteran centre's play of late – at both ends of the court – has given Mitc no reason to make any changes to a starting group that includes point guard T.J. Ford, guard Anthony Parker and forwards Jorge Garbajosa and Chris Bosh.

"It would just be tough to take him out," Mitc said of Nesterovic. "He's given us more offensively than what we expected but it's his defence and his rebounding, presence on the court. He just knows how to play."

With everyone back from various injuries and Garbajosa seemingly over a flu bug that kept him out of Monday's practice, Mitc is sending out his now-constant starting five against the New Jersey Nets tonight with first place in the Atlantic Division on the line.

Nesterovic contribution comes in deflections, one-on-one defence and weakside help defence rather than in any usual statistical category. He does nothing flashy but everything consistently.

"I played with Rasho (in Minnesota) so I knew he knew how to play and what a pro he was but coaching him now, you come to appreciate what it is to be a professional in this league," said Mitc .

Mitc had originally thought his only constant starters would be Ford, Bosh and Parker. But Garbajosa's ability to guard small forwards who might be smaller and quicker and Nesterovic's solid play all around have changed that idea. It's given the coach a chance to also develop a consistent rotation which, if the last two games indicate anything, will include Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani, Joey Graham and Morris Peterson off the bench.

"If I didn't do it against Phoenix (remove Nesterovic to avoid a matchup with Amare Stoudemire), which would have been the game to do it, it's tough to do it against anybody in the East," said the coach.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/169283

_____________________________________________

Mitc sticks with Rasho

Primiarily because of injuries, Raps head coach Sam Mitc has not been able to form a starting five he can send out there night after night. That is no longer the case.

Following an all-hands-on-deck morning shootaround yesterday at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Mitc said he has pretty much settled on a starting five of Chris Bosh, Rasho Nesterovic, Jorge Garbajosa, T.J. Ford and Anthony Parker that he expects to stay with for the rest of the season, health permitting.

Nesterovic's presence is the only one there that might raise a few eyebrows, but not after you look at what he has done over the past month.

In the 14 games since a Dec. 10th loss in Portland, Nesterovic is averaging 29.8 minutes, 10.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

"Rasho is playing so well right now it would be tough to take him out," Mitc said. "Not only is he giving us more offensively than we expected, but then there's also his rebounding presence on the court. The kid knows how to play.

"He's really playing well and I think he's having fun. I joke with him all the time, 'When was the last time you had eight, nine, 10 shots a game.' He just laughs."

Mitc said were he going to change things up he would have done so last Wednesday against Phoenix. The Suns have a small starting five by NBA standards but anything they give up in size they more than make up for in speed.

Mitc stuck with Nesterovic that night, though.

"If I didn't (sit him down) against Phoenix , it would be tough to do it against anybody especially in the East," Mitc said.

Asked to stay with a more fleet-footed Amare Stoudemire, Nesterovic gave it his all.

"To Rasho's credit, when we ask him to do something that is tough for him, he busts his hump and tries to do it," he said.

http://torontosun.com/Sports/Basketb...76772-sun.html

Coach Mitc seems to like Sho; He's earned the approval that matters.

[exstatic]

Hes very talented, and if he had the work ethic, he could be a 10 and 10 guy.

Actually, he's talented enough to be a 20/10 guy. He just doesn't seem to GAF. WTF do they do to these big guys at KY to make them so ing unmotivated? Magliore is another one cut from the same cloth.

[picnroll]

January. Five games. The mighty Rasho

MPG - 20.6
PPG - 4.4
FG% - .400
Reboundss - 5.4
Blocks - 0.6
Assists - 0.4

Mitc must be easy to please. And to think we get on Oberto and Horry.

[MannyIsGod]

I don't like Nazr, but I find some comments in this thread interesting. Why do you think he has the talent to be a 20/10 guy? Why do you think he doesn't work hard?

[SenorSpur]

It's obvious Nazr thinks that he is MUCH better than he really is. He provided very servicable minutes, scoring and rebouding for the Spurs during the '05 championship run. Personally, I'll always be grateful to him for that.

I simply cannot understand why he's not continued to improve. Awful hands, too many pump fakes, bad defensive rotations.

As most players take 3.000 jump shots a day during the summer, he should catch 3,000 medicine ball passes.

[Kori Ellis]

I don't like Nazr, but I find some comments in this thread interesting. Why do you think he has the talent to be a 20/10 guy? Why do you think he doesn't work hard?

He doesn't have the talent to be a 20/10 guy at all. He works hard. He just isn't that great. As far as his hands, he could probably do football drills for catching better, but I don't know how much he'd improve. He might just have bad hands by nature. He is what he is. A guy who can produce about 6/6 or 7/7 in 20 mpg. Defensively, he could probably improve but he's SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW, so it's not going to get that much better.

Ploto ... you took a month and half off from posting and just came back to bash Nazr/prop Rasho? I was getting worried about you.

[ducks]

i bet he demands out
pistons sign a fa last year and does not even give him minutes
why would another fa want to go there