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Wednesday, 6 June, 2007 2:24 PM
Sports Column: End of an Era
Over the past five seasons,
Pistons fans have been treated to a truly special run of excellence.
Since the NBA/ABA merger, only the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s
reached more consecutive conference finals than the five in a row
these Pistons got to.
Unfortunately, all good
things must come to an end. With their defeat at the hands of the
Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pistons must find a new way forward. Now
that the conference title is in the hands of a rising opponent,
they must reload if they are going to contend again.
Last year, when the Pistons
were defeated by the Miami Heat, the argument could be made -- quite
convincingly, it turns out – that the Pistons didn’t
need to reload, because with Shaquille O’Neal’s increasing
age, the Heat were due for a drop-off.
This year, there are
no such silver linings. This Cavs team is far from a finished product
(as the Spurs will likely expose,) destined to get much better.
They weren’t even supposed to compete with Detroit this year.
With a number of their
most influential pieces – Drew Gooden, Daniel Gibson, Sasha
Pavlovic and Anderson Verajao are all 25 or younger – still
figuring out the game, the Cavs stand to improve vastly. Oh, and
that LeBron James guy? He’s still only 22.
If the Pistons feel that
the window of opportunity with this core is still open, they are
only kidding themselves. And if there is one guy that never kids
himself, it’s Joe Dumars.
I remember watching an
interview with Dumars right after he was hired as the Pistons top
dog, describing his philosophy toward building a team. He said that
you can’t stand pat with the roster until you know the team
can win a championship, and you can’t know that until they
do it.
Well, after letting Larry
Brown and Ben Wallace defect in successive years, we no longer know
that these Pistons can do it. In fact, we know that they can’t.
These Pistons didn’t show the same kind of resiliency and
heart that the 2004 Champions and 2005 Finals team showed.
Over the last two seasons,
when teams hit the Pistons hard, Detroit staggered, and rarely seemed
capable of returning a knockout blow. I don’t want to blame
Flip Saunders, but they just haven’t played as hungry under
his direction.
But after firing Rick
Carlisle after 2003, and Brown after 2005, Dumars can’t afford
to fire Saunders. He has thrown his hat in with the players too
often, and to instill the proper accountability throughout the organization,
some players’ heads will need to roll.
So the question becomes,
what to do this offseason? First of all, I think that the Pistons
need to do some major overhauling, which means breaking up the remaining
four stars.
Richard Hamilton is the
next Reggie Miller, which means he will be doing what he does at
a high level until he’s 64 years old. Plus, his ability to
work without the basketball is the perfect compliment to just about
every other guard in the NBA. Throw in an incredibly reasonable
long-term contract, and I’d be shocked to see him moved.
Tayshaun Prince has continued
to get better every year, despite the fact that he has been pretty
good for a couple of years now. Plus, with the conference likely
to be dominated by LeBron and Dwyane Wade in the coming decade,
it makes no sense to get rid of the guy that defends them better
than anyone else in the league.
Now, Rasheed Wallace
is an interesting option. Because he will be entering the final
year of his contract with a cap number of $12 million, he would
be attractive to a team looking for salary cap relief. In the NBA
offseason, however, hope springs eternal and most GMs don’t
start looking for cap space until the trading deadline. Expect Wallace
to start the season with the Pistons.
That takes us to Chauncey
Billups. Mr. Big Shot. The face of the franchise. Billups brings
certain things to the table, or at least, he was thought to. Clutch
shooting. Great defense. A wonderful assist-to-turnover ratio.
After the series with
the Cavs, it is unclear what exactly he does bring to the table.
The Pistons best hope might be that some team is still high enough
on Billups to offer him a max contract. That way, the Pistons could
make a generous offer and not take the heat when he leaves for more
money.
With youngsters Jason
Maxiell and Carlos Delfino showing that they are ready to be a part
of the rotation, and Amir Johnson burning up the D-League and forcing
the Pistons to find some way to keep him and get him minutes, the
Pistons have a good mix of veteran pieces and youth with upside.
Dumars has a chance to
reload while keeping his team in the playoffs. But he’d better
start soon, because a couple more years with this same core, and
the rebuilding project will have to be done the traditional way:
from the bottom of the standings, hoping for some lottery luck.
Just ask Boston Celtics fans how much fun that is.
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