<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Unlike college basketball, coaching isn?t supposed to mean so much when it comes to the NBA. But try telling that to those betting on the Detroit Pistons against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Wasn?t Flip Saunders a respected head coach coming to the Pistons from the Minnesota Timberwolves? Perhaps so, but he sure has been disappointing in the postseason. I don?t see any adjustments by Saunders that a good coach would be making with the Pistons having dropped three of their first four games against Miami, while failing to cover all four. The Pistons were nearly upset by the Cleveland Cavaliers, a 12-1 underdog in their semifinal series. Since taking out the Milwaukee Bucks, a bogus playoff team, the Pistons have been outscored in the fourth quarter in 10 of their past 11 playoff games and have been outscored by 50 points during the final quarter in these last 11 games. We know Larry Brown; we watched the job he did with Detroit. Flip Saunders is no Larry Brown. Brown knew how to get the Pistons to peak when it mattered most. That hasn?t been the case so far with Saunders. ?Saunders played his starters too long during the season,? Covers Expert Dave Malinsky says. ?He was just so excited to work with this kind of talent. ?They thought they could flirt with the all-time win record, which has come back to haunt them. This is a very tired basketball team.? The Pistons exemplified unity and team basketball under Brown. How do they look now bickering with officials, discombobulated on offense, and unable to stop either Dwyane Wade or Shaquille O?Neal? That`s not to mention taking verbal shots at their head coach. Following a Game 3 loss, Saunders was criticized by Ben Wallace for spending too much time coaching offense at the expense of defense. Saunders also was taken to task by Tayshaun Prince for not playing Lindsey Hunter more. Whether these criticisms are justified or not, the point is you didn?t hear any of this garbage from the Pistons when Brown was in charge. Maybe Detroit?s talent is a little overrated, especially now that Brown no longer is around orchestrating things. ?This really wasn?t a great team,? Malinsky says. ?This was a team that had some gritty chemistry, but a lot of it was Larry Brown bringing them together as a team and working game plans they could execute with their chemistry. ?How many of these guys are really All-Stars? Richard Hamilton is a nice role player. Tayshaun Prince is a nice role player. Rasheed Wallace is not an All-Star at this stage of his career. Ben Wallace is a good defensive player, who in this particular series isn?t a good defensive player. ?Chauncey Billups is really the only All-Star.? For the Pistons to look this bad losing and act this un-classy, though, Saunders has to take the fall. Saunders never seems to be at his coaching best during the playoffs. Under Saunders, the Timberwolves reached the playoffs eight straight seasons. However, they only advanced past the first round once. For the first seven years, from 1996-2002, Saunders? Timberwolves went 7-22 in the postseason. They finally made it out of the first round in 2003 going 10-8 in 18 playoff games. ?Even though their talent wasn?t great, you can?t look back at any of the Minnesota playoff series and say, ?hey Saunders did a great job in this series,?? Malinsky says. Oddsmakers are giving full credence to the zig zag theory. They?ve set Detroit a 6-point home favorite for Wednesday?s matchup. ?As bad as the Pistons have been playing, how can you lay 6 with them?? Malinsky says. Sure it?s a given that you figure the Pistons to play with fire and desperation facing elimination. Just don?t forget this is Flip Saunders? team not Larry Brown?s. </div> link: http://www.covers.com/articles/articles.as...rt=80934&tid=25
The fact that the pistons only have 5 players that can actually play and have been played all year long shows that they may have run out of gas. The coach isnt to blame
I think that flip didnt do anything to hurt or help you guys. He just let u do what worked while trying to add some more O, too bad you guys forgot how to play D.
We don't know what he did during timeouts and stuff, but it looked like some of the players didn't respect him like some reports said. The players didn't play their best either, Billups and Rasheed disappeared. Hamilton went on and off in different games. So I'd have to blame most on the players. Can't really blame Saunders because I have no idea what happened off the court.
Flip to blame? That's funny stuff. I remember before the season began and during the season people were saying that Larry Brown got too much credit for the Pistons success. And that the players should be getting the bulk of the credit. But now that the Pistons have been eliminated the coach is to blame? It isnt Flip's fault. The Pistons just ran into a better team and lost is all. Anyway I think Isiah Thomas should be fired.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheFreshPrince:</div><div class="quote_post">I think that flip didnt do anything to hurt or help you guys. He just let u do what worked while trying to add some more O, too bad you guys forgot how to play D.</div> I don't think defense was the major problem for the Pistons. Looking at points allowed per possession for each team in the playoffs so far, they were second amongst all the teams: <div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><br/>teamDef. Rating<br/>DenverNuggets101.6<br/>DetroitPistons104.7<br/>MiamiHeat104.9<br/>ChicagoBulls107.1<br/>NJNets107.6<br/>WashingtonWizards108.4<br/>ClevelandCavaliers108.5<br/>DallasMavericks109.1<br/>IndianaPacers110.1<br/>LAClippers110.2<br/>PhoenixSuns112.0<br/>SanAntonioSpurs112.9<br/>LALakers114.7<br/>MemphisGrizzlies115.1<br/>SacramentoKings118.4<br/>MilwaukeeBucks122.3<br/></div> Against Miami, it was their offense that stunk.
I just meant that the players didnt have the aura on D at all this year. They got way too cocky and stopped feeding of each other and instead became selfish.
It's no ones blame, flip did a good job. And i think that the pistons only lost because there shots weren't going down for them at all.
If anyone is to blame, it is Joe Dumars for not getting a solid bench to help out the killer starting 5. Flip is and will be a great coach and it wasn't his fault at all. What are you suppose to do when Rip is tired? Put in Delfino? Nope.
Blame the players, not Flip. Flip wasnt the one out there taking the shots, we shot under .400% for most of the series. I think its a joke saying "fire Flip" or blaming this on him, he still managed to help take the Pistons to the Eastern Conference finals, there is only one series better than that, and the Pistons have been there the last 2 seasons in a row, we can't be there forever. And the fact that our tiring, under performing team still managed to take a full strength, deep Miami team to 6 games is a great achievment. We had a great season, EC finals is a fantastic effort, its not Flips fault the media were tipping Detroit to take out the finals.
Start blaming, sooner or later, the Pistons dynasty will collapse. That's exactly what the other teams in NBA want to see.
Blaming. Im sick of it. We lost. Period. Ive repeadetly said im tired of the blaming and its true. You guys that watch the Pistons once in a while, no the least about what happened....
Wade has improved alot since last seasons eastern conference finals. IMO the pistons couldn't handle wade and the other players that the Heat added in last summer.
The Miami Heat Outplayed Detroit, out shot them, whatever you'd like to say. But Pat Riley did the most damage on that night, outcoaching Flip Saunders like the Phillies would've been dominated by the CHI WHITE SOX. Knowing that Detroit's offense basically runs through the success of the jump shot and Chanucey Billups and Richard Hamilton, Pat Riley told his players to leave Ben Wallace. To rotate on shooters and forced them to take (While they were wide open) Mentally tough shots. Detroit choked and couldn't knock them down. Pat Riley destroyed Detroit, just like Larry Brown destroyed, the Pistons died and it's time for my 76ers to take the throne.
