Here's a nice Free Press piece on Charlie Villanueva to counter my prediction of his pending amnesty earlier in the day-
Something from the Pistons media day in 2010 has always stuck with me. Someone asked Villanueva what he thought of the perception that he is "soft." Now, if a stranger asks anyone a rather insulting question, it’s likely to elicit a defensive or snarky retort. Villanueva, though, seemed to think about it briefly. Then, although I don’t remember his exact words, he basically responded that it is impossible for anyone who is "soft" to even make it to the NBA. I thought that was a very fair and intelligent response to a demeaning question, and I’ve always respected that. In fact, Villanueva, who occasionally is a target of trolling fans’ derision on Twitter, always seems to respond politely. He just seems like a nice person and a good teammate, and I have no problem rooting for someone with those characteristics to succeed, even if he hasn’t lived up to the contract Detroit signed him to.
Amen to that. He's a nice guy and Detroit's used to bigs with a nasty streak.
Behind Monroe and Drummond, the Pistons have a versatile energy guy who crashes the offensive glass in Jonas Jerebko, a young, unproven shot blocker in Vyacheslav Kravtsov and a beefy rebounder/shot blocker/dunker/baby eater in Jason Maxiell.
Noticeably absent from that list is "stretch four." Guards Rodney Stuckey, Brandon Knight and Will Bynum love to attack the basket. In order to do that more effectively, they need perimeter shooters who can keep extra defenders from sagging far into the lane.
Until Joe Dumars can come up with someone else to fill the roster spot, they could do worse than have Charlie V come in, drain a couple threes and give the starting bigs a breather, especially if they could use his size off the bench in a match-up.
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