Since adding Wayne “Beef W” Ellington, the Pistons are 12-5. Their recent push to cement themselves in the playoff picture shouldn’t be attributed solely to the efforts of the man they call Waynemaker, but it actually should because Ellington’s spicy shooting of screens allows Blake Griffin to operate in pretty much exactly the way he wants.
For reference, the Pistons had literally not won a game before Ellington came over from Miami. They were 0-bajillion in wins/losses. Not only had they not won a game, but Griffin had punched out every single trainer on the team, and Andre Drummond was bringing cheeseburgers in his pockets to eat at halftime in direct defiance of Dwane Casey’s “no pocket cheesburgers” rule. The Pistons were a rudderless ship navigating stormy seas before Ellington came and slapped a rudder on there and then took the ship’s wheel and sailed it straight to the goddamn playoffs.
When I think about how bad Coach Spoo in Miami was misusing this guy, I get irrationally angry towards Filipinos. Luckily, he is being used correctly in Detroit, so all my spare rage can be directed at more appropriate subjects. Such as how there’s no way to heat up a Hot Pocket without still having parts of the filling be cold. Not even my illegally-overclocked microwave can completely penetrate the depths of a Hot Pocket.