I know I speak for all piston fans when I say I miss the days of yelling "DETROIT BASKETBALL" at the top of my lungs at the Palace. I miss seeing the "detroits goin to work" commercials. Hearing "yes sirrr" everytime Rip comes around a screen and swishes a mid range shot. The bell sound everytime Big Ben made a defensive stop. Or everytime Mr Big shot came through in the clutch. I miss the atmosphere of 20,000 plus fans every single night (259 straight sellouts). The Wallace brothers patrolling the paint, when OUR team used to be built around Defense. Six straight conference championships, 2 straight NBA final appearances, 1 championship, and the respect of the rest of the NBA. So how could a dynasty rise and fall so fast in a sport where teams stay on top for many years...
How Detroit Piston Dynasty started...
The Detroit pistons were a team that was all about effort. One thing we knew forsure of each and every time we turned a pistons game on was that each and every player would leave it all out on the line whether we were playing the Los Angeles Lakers or the Clippers. This team all got started by luck, a throw in in the Grant Hill trade. Ben Wallace was one of those "players to be named later" you hear about in baseball. Someone you just throw in to make the money work out. He couldn't score, airballed free throws, an undersized center without any offensive skills whatsoever. Little did the orlando Magic or even Joe Dumars know, Ben Wallace changed the Detroit Pistons from a lottery team to a championship contender for the next decade. He never learned how to play offense or anything that has to do with scoring (other then an occasional put back dunk) . But What Ben Wallace did was bring back what the Detroit pistons used to be during the bad boy era. He demanded respect, controlled the paint, and put fear in any player that wanted to drive to the basket. Wallace became the new face of the franchise, and with little help (stackhouse, williamson, Joe Smith etc) got the pistons back into the playoffs.
Joe Dumars knew that Ben Wallace was a starting piece to a championship caliber team and started making some moves. The team flip-flopped there record from 2001 (30-52) to 2002 (52-30) and Dumars knew a couple more pieces would take this team to the next level. He traded Jerry Stackhouse to the Washington Wizards for Richard Hamilton and signed an up and coming PG that just played his best playoff series for the Timberwolves, Chauncey Billups. He also had his best draft and picked up two key pieces in Tayshaun Prince and mehmet Okur. They were starting to be known as a powerhouse in the NBA, a team built on defense and hard work, but couldn't get over the hump in the playoffs when every other team also turned their switch on.
Before the 2003 season, Coach Rick Carlisle was fired and he brought in one of the most respected coaches in all of sports Larry Brown. Pistons were coasting through the NBA season while NBA bad boy Rasheed Wallace was wearing out his welcome in portland. The man we all know as "sheed" was being thrown around during the trade deadline for whoever was crazy enough to take on his personality. Dumars saw he had a veteran team, his coach Larry Brown is from Rasheeds alma matter North Carolina, and took a chance and traded for the highly talented, nuisance Rasheed Wallace. Rasheed meshed in perfectly with the Pistons. His high basketball IQ made the Pistons an even better defensive team, and now they finally had a low post big man they were always missing.
The playoffs started and the Pistons cruised passed the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Had a couple bumps against the Pacers but also advanced to the 3rd round against the 2 time defending East champion New jersey Nets. Dominated a game 7 holding Jason Kidd to 0 Field Goals and made it to the NBA finals for the first time since the Bad Boy era. Pistons were at least a 5-1 underdog going into the finals against superstars Shaquille O'neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Detroit showed that team chemistry beats talent, and that 5 good players will always beat 2 superstars. Detroit when on to win the 2004 championship in what some people call a 5 game sweep! soon there after Kobe and Shaq broke up, Pistons nucleus stayed together and they were ready for another run at the championship
Pistons finally earned the respect by the national media and were favored to win the east in 2005. They made it right back to the NBA finals and were a Robert horry 3 pointer away from winning back to back championships... and this is when it all started to SLOWLY crumble
Fall of the Detroit Pistons
Larry Brown gave up on the team, and Joe D turned to offensive minded Flip Saunders to be the new coach. It worked out in the regular season as the Pistons finsihed with 64 wins and atop the eastern conference. Problems started in the playoffs as Lebron james almost pulled off a big upset in round 2 of the playoffs. Pistons made it back to the conference finals, but weren't enough for the Miami Heat and lost in the conference finals.
Ben Wallace openly criticized Flip Saunders lack of installing the defense that the Pistons were accustomed to and ended up leaving for the Chicago Bulls. Although this was a good move financially for the Pistons (Ben Wallace was a declining veteran and received a max contract from the Bulls), we lost the respect and the high energy of our defensive leader. Ben was replaced by many different centers, and Antonio Mcdysse became the closer for the pistons in close games.
The Pistons stuck with the same nucleus and gave it another run in 2007. Another good regular season for the pistons, and all the problems seemed to go away. Pistons made the conference finals again and met Lebron James Cleveland Cavaliers. Evenly matched series, but in game 6 with Mcdysse ejected, the Pistons didn't have enough big men to stop Lebron James from doing whatever he wanted in the paint and the pistons lost again in the conference finals.
Talks of splitting up the nucleus started to come but decided to give it one more chance in the 2008 season. The same season Boston came out with their new "Big 3". No one thought Boston would have good enough chemistry to win the east and the Pistons were still the favorites. Pistons made it to the conference finals for a 6th straight year but came up short again! Flip Saunders was fired shortly after, and talks of splitting up the nucleus became more and more promising.
How it all fell apart
The Detroit Pistons were still a powerhouse team with 3 of there main guys still in there prime. Winners of countless central division titles, 6 straight conference championships, highest attendance every year in the NBA, and were a player short of getting back to the championship.
So what happened...
1. The rise of Rodney Stuckey
Stuckey showed flashes of stardom when Chauncey Billups went down for a couple games in the playoffs. What Dumars didn't know is the opponent knew little about him, and never cared to try and stop him in those 2 games. It's like when a new QB (any rich Rod quarterback) has a couple good games, then they start looking at film on how to actually stop him, and that same qb becomes average at best. Dumars was so caught up on Stuckey being the future, he traded his floor leader, his clutch 4th qtr player, Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen iverson (uhhhh ohhhh).
2. Allen "cancer" Iverson coming to Detroit. What Dumars thought was a way to save money and get a veteran with hunger to win a championship turned ugly fast. you can play with one distraction (Sheed), but it NEVER works out when you put 2 distractions on one team (ask the cincinatti Bengals). Iverson quickly started gambling every night (kicked out of 2 of the 3 main Detroit casinos), had many run ins with coach Curry, and before the end of the season he was kicked off the team.
3. Hiring of Flip Saunders, Michael Curry and john keuster. It's hard enough to coach a team with a bunch of egos, but when you coach a team that already thinks they've got it all figured out, it's nearly impossible! You CAN'T go from larry brown to Flip Saunders with the same veterans the pistons had. Ben quickly called his offensive first coaching out and Sheed was calling his own plays out of timeouts. Flip was followed by Michael Curry, a rookie coach. Curry's only chance of suceeding was if every single veteran was either bought out or traded. Then came keuster who still has to deal with hamilton and Prince delaying the progress of Daye and monroe.
4. Signing RIP a day before he traded his butt buddy Chauncey Billups. i've honestly seen Hamilton shed tears when watching Chauncey play in a nuggets jersey, he hasn't tried since.
5. Signing ben Gordon and charlie vilanueva to lucvrative contracts. I have never in my life seen a 6th and 7th man make more money then the whole sarting lineup, although i believe the whore owner we now have forced Dumars to make a couple signings so detroit would have a respectable record to make it easier to sell the team.
6. Drafting Darko over Carmello, no need to get into this, we all know what happened
7. Bill Davidson died (nothing Joe D could do about that)
SO WHAT HAPPENED...
The Pistons gave the Boston Celtics a tougher series in 2008 then the lakers did. The lakers went out and picked up a couple final pieces, while Detroit dismantled there team. Chauncey, Hamilton, and Prince were all in the prime of there respecatble careers while Sheed still had a few good years left. A new veteran coach combined with a Tyson Chandler would've brought the Pistons right back to 2004. Even if it didn't work, what's wrong with selling out your arena every night and losing in the conference finals? It's much better then being the laughing stock of the league that we are today. The Pistons only once lost to a team that they should've beat (Cleveland in 2007) and every other team they lost to ended up being the NBA champions. Detroit is a big enough market to lure a free aganet, so please don't make that excuse up for joe D, as he hasn't done much to help the team
What Joe Dumars did as Pistons GM
1. Got lucky inheriting Ben Wallace as a throw in during the Grant hill trade
2. Traded Stackhouse for Hamilton (Jordan needed a veteran who can create his own shot)
3. signed Chauncey Billups. Before you think of this as an accomplishment, it took Dumars weeks to sign Billups over Jeff mcinnis, the same jeff mCinnis that was out of the NBA a year later (my 6 year old cousin Bigz at the time could've made that decision)
4. Drafted Tayshaun prince and Mehmet Okur (good job) but also drafted Rodney White (9th pick) Darko Milicic (2nd pick) Mateen Cleaves (14th pick).
5. Traded absolutely nothing and took a chance on Rasheed wallace that ended up working out. Joe Dumars best move as GM of the Detroit pistons. Way to go Joe D
6. Signed ben Gordon and Charlie Vilanueva to be our 6th and 7th men off the bench, i don't know how to explain these signings other then what I said earlier. Even Dumars isn't dumb enough to make those decisions the year before the biggest free agency in NBA history.
7. Keeps the final 2 guys from our dynasty on the team instead of buying them out. This makes it tough to see how daye, jerebko, stuckey are g oing to develop. Tayshaun is a good player in his final year of his contract while Rip isn't allowed to play???????? Why havn't you traded prince and bought out hamiltons contract, it's not rocket science!
The Future...
Dear future owner of the Detroit Pistons whoever you may be...
Get rid of joe Dumars, get rid of John keuster. Find a GM that will either keep our dynasty alive or start fresh, not neither one. A GM that wouldn't miss out on a franchise player for a 17 year old from Serbia that hasn't proved anything. Stop drafting players that barely make the league weight limit (Daye, monroe, prince, White). Stick with what's made Detroit Detroit in everything we do. Strong hard working people that command respect, put fear in our opponent's eyes and know how to play as a team.
Best of luck to you,
Jobz (the next Bill Simmons)
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