Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon are Detroit Pistons... Ersan Ilyasova VIDEO and bandwagon

re: Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon are Detroit Pistons... Ersan Ilyasova VIDEO and bandwagon

Dan — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:31:59 GMT

Remember it too well. Bill Laimbeer pushed him from behind as he went down the lane for an uncontested dunk, Krystowiak landed badly and screwed up his knee. Took him over a season to come back, iirc, and he was never the same after that.

I thought TC was a 3 too, but I was watching some of their playoff game vs the Celts on Youtube, and it was when Pressey was "point forward" and they still had Moncrief and even John Lucas later. But I'd have to check on that...

re: Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon are Detroit Pistons... Ersan Ilyasova VIDEO and bandwagon

J.D. Mo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:38:55 GMT

And yes, most definitely jinxed. Krystowiak practically had his arm ripped off vs. the Pistons.

re: Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon are Detroit Pistons... Ersan Ilyasova VIDEO and bandwagon

J.D. Mo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:37:46 GMT

TC played some PF but he primarily ran Marques Johnson's sets in Nellie's offense, and guarded both small and big forwards (Doc and later Barkley). He was definitely more of a PF than Marques, but still not the kind of banger the contending teams had in the 1980s.

Remember, the Bucks went out and acquired Larry Krystowiak to man up with bigs like McHale and Rich Mahorn. Sikma-Krystowiak-Cummings was the starting frontline on the Bucks last solid team of the 1980's, which fell apart in a heap of injuries (to both Cummings and Krystowiak) against the Pistons in the 1989 playoffs.

re: Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon are Detroit Pistons... Ersan Ilyasova VIDEO and bandwagon

Dan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:32:29 GMT

Ah, yes, the jinx. Sorry, The Jinx. Not to split hairs, but didn't Terry Cummings play at power forward? In the late '80s? He was an all-star and probably their best player, tho of course no rings. But is that jinxed?

re: Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon are Detroit Pistons... Ersan Ilyasova VIDEO and bandwagon

J.D. Mo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:21:38 GMT

Ersan's certainly not the banger the Bucks need at PF to help Bogut anchor the D and crash the boards. But Amir Johnson and Luc Mbah a Moute should fill those roles, freeing Ersan up to help the guards stretch defenses. On paper -- and as Dan points out -- Amir and Ersan look very complementary. I'm no big fan of the RJ trade for many reasons, but so far this summer, the Bucks are in great shape to upgrade at power forward.

Given the Jinx from which this blog derives its name, however ... it's probably a good idea to knock on wood.