The Pistons post-season was disappointing. A failure is too harsh of a word, but disappointing seems to hit the nail right in the head.
Some fans and sports talk radio show hosts want to call this the end of the Pistons’ championship runs. Everyone is upset and ready to show why this team is no good. I guess that is the sports culture right now: obtuse knee jerk machismo reactionism.
However, before the Detroit basketball fans burn down the Palace in a fit of rage let’s remember another overachieving Detroit sport team and their history: the 1995-1996 Detroit Red Wings.
That year the Wings set a NHL record for most points and wins and during the regular season everything just clicked. Hell even Chris Osgood scored a goal. After an easy first round victory, the Wings were flying high and ready to take on the St. Louis Blues. The underdog Blues out-played the Red Wings for much of the series and it took a double overtime game-winning goal by Steve Yzerman for the Wings to advance to the Western Conference Finals. There Detroit met the evil Colorado Avalanche with their veteran all-star, Joe Sakic and young superstar, Peter Forsberg. After the Avs split at the Joe, they won both games at home. The Wings fought off elimination in game five, only to succumb to Colorado in game six.
Sound familiar? It should. The Pistons breezed by the Bucks, had to go to game seven against an overachieving Cleveland team and then lost to Miami in six in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Certainly hockey and basketball aren’t the same, but the reactions by fans were similar. The Wings were called soft and unable to win important games.
But what happened to the Wings after the disappointment of 1995-1996? The organization pulled off a blockbuster trade for Brendan Shannahan and Detroit won back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships.
Could the Pistons get back on track next year and then win back-to-back NBA titles? Should Joe Dumars make a blockbuster trade to shake things up a bit?
The former could certainly happen. The Pistons are still young and have cap room to resign Ben Wallace and maybe bring back Detroit favorite Grant Hill. Make no mistake, Cleveland will get better next year, but the Heat had to win this year or they would lose their opportunity. Shaquille O’Neal is just about done and when he’s gone Dwyane Wade will be just another talented guard. The NBA really wants LeBron to get to the Finals, but that’s still some time away. In the west there is no better team than Dallas and Phoenix will be scary once Amare Stoudamire returns. The Spurs are solid, but old and the Clippers are still not ready to contend for any Championships. So the Pistons are still in the upper echelon of teams in the NBA.
As for the latter, Joe Dumars can tinker with the Pistons, but they do not need any dramatic changes. Flip Saunders may not be the right fit in Detroit, but this group of players are close on and off the court and have great chemistry. To disrupt it drastically would be wrong, but certainly a couple of new faces, players who can score and aren’t just defensive gurus and a stronger emphasis on defense would make this already solid team championship contenders again. Also, Flip needs to use his bench more effectively in the regular season and post-season. I’m sure Hubie Brown could give him some advice.
So Detroit Piston fans need not freak-out. This post-season is hard to stomach, but just look back to ten years ago when the Wings had their successful regular season and then flopped in the play-offs. If history repeats itself (in a different sport of course) things will be pretty good for the Pistons.
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9 comments:
I don't think Pistons fans are frustrated by their playoff run ending. The more frustrating thing is that the Pistons didn't look like the Pistons. They weren't playing together and they were griping about the coaching. It just didn't seem like the same Pistons who have been so tight for the past few years.
I think Dwyane Wade is more than just another talented guard. Granted, once Shaq retires, defenses will be able to concentrate on him a little bit more. But regardless of who's on the court, Wade was shooting around 70% for most of the series - that's an amazing percentage for a guard.
i don't know morgan. the people on i heard on the radio were talking about how flip was a bad coach, the team can't win with ben wallace and a poll on detnews.com asked if this season was a failure. 74% said yes and most of those were because they didn't win a championship. so i think you're right that people were frustrated with the pistons not playing like they normally do, but i also think that there are a lot of fans who are mad because they didn't win it all.
wade may be more than a talented guard. kobe bryant is more than a talented guard, but since shaq has left the lakers have fallen off a bit. shooting 70% is beyond amazing especially considering how well he was defended at times. but it's not just shaq leaving. it's coupled with alanzo mourning getting close to retirement, payton is 100 years old, walker will demand too much money and probably won't be resigned and jayson williams is still a turn-over prone guard. so in a year or two, the heat will have only wade and some solid role players. he won't be as effective then. he is a very good player and will always be a very good player, but he looks amazing right now because he has the supporting cast. my point was that in a couple of years none of that will be there and he won't be able to dominate the way he is now.
Yeah...well...there certainly is trouble with knee-jerk reactions when it comes to sports. I'm not denying that. I think things will calm down in a few weeks when they sit back, look at the whole season, and realize the team has performed extremely well. I do think some changes need to be made to get a wing player who can score and get some scoring on the low block, whether that means trading Rasheed, promoting McDyess, or letting Ben Wallace go (the last of which I can't foresee).
Wade might not be as effective in a few years when Shaq and Zo are gone. But in an SI poll of 248 players around the league, Miami was second to San Antonio (11% to 13%) in Most Desired Playing Destination. When Shaq and Zo retire, other high-profile low-post players will want to go to Miami because they've seen how unselfish Dwyane Wade is. I'm thinking of Kevin Garnett, Yao Ming, Chris Kaman, etc. (One of those was a joke - can you guess which one?)
i will give my best guess as to the joke, but garnett is an all right player (that's a joke too).
i agree completely. a wing who can score and someone for the low block. i'm not up for promoting mcdyess and i think the pistons are much, much better with sheed than without him. so i don't know.
that's an interesting poll. i wonder why miami is so high on the list? san antonio is a team that is just slowing down and miami isn't as big of a market as new york or even chicago (who will be pretty solid over the next 5-10 years). and if you want to go to a winner and a championship contender, look no farther than detroit. but then again, no one respects detroit. interesting.
that last comment was from me.
morgan you're smart.
Detroit wasn't one of the Top 5 destinations, but it wasn't one of the Bottom 5 destinations either. As far as I know, the real reason that Miami is such a favored destination is just because of the weather and the night life. There's a lot of the glitz and glamour, but not as much pressure to perform (i.e. New York, Los Angeles, even Chicago).
I'm not up for promoting McDyess either. I think he's found his niche as a sixth man. Besides, he's proven too fragile to count on him as a starter.
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