Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy took the first tentative steps in removing his head from his own butt by playing Boban Marjanovic 13 minutes tonight. That’s still way fewer than he should be getting, but at least it was more minutes than Eric Moreland got. It’s a start.
I had been giving Can’t Van Coach a pass earlier in the season for not playing Boban, as the Pistons were winning and Andre Drummond was looking like a beast. Don’t mess with success, as they say. But now, any success the Pistons had is quickly evaporating under the harsh sun of a 7-game losing streak, and things need to change. Marjanovic is a known, certified beast whenever he gets minutes. Now is the time to unleash him, and his unleashment started tonight, with 14 points in 13 minutes and the best plus-minus on the team.
Why he didn’t play in the fourth quarter tonight is anybody’s guess (probably has something to do with Can’t Van Coach’s inability to frickin’ coach his way out of a paper bag). It seemed like primo Boban time, the crowd wanted it, the people with the Serbian flag REALLY wanted it HARD, I wanted it, everyone wanted it. Was he tired from dominating so hard? Make him play anyway. He’s a big boy getting paid big boy bucks, he can handle it.