<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Ever since winning the NBA title in 2004 the Pistons have entered each season with extraordinarily high expectations. “Championship or bust” has been the mantra among the fans and unfortunately, the team has busted in the Eastern Conference Finals the last two years. This year expectations from around the league have begun to wane. The core players left over from the championship run are now three years older while a sudden influx of young talent has taken over the second half of the roster. Four rookies (Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo, Sammy Mejia and Cheik Samb) will join the team this year, and two third-year forwards (Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson) are expected to play major roles in the rotation. Assuming the young players get their fair shake there will be growing pains this year, and any early struggles might ultimately cost the Pistons their fourth consecutive division title. In addition, the starting lineup once again has a big question mark in the middle. Nazr Mohammed, signed last summer to replace Ben Wallace, never quite fit in as a starter. Even before Chris Webber arrived last season, Mohammed rarely played even 20 minutes a game. Now, barring an unexpected development such as Rasheed Wallace embracing a move to center, Mohammed is once again the most likely candidate to man the middle. But perhaps more than anything the biggest reason the attention has shifted from Detroit being one of the favorites in the East has been the complete makeover of the Boston Celtics. By flanking Paul Pierce with Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, Danny Ainge has made the Celtics relevant again. Yes, the moves may have come at the expense of Boston’s future, but in the short-term there’s no denying the Celtics are a new powerhouse – certainly the team to beat in the Atlantic Division, if not the entire Eastern Conference. So does this mean that Detroit’s championship window has officially closed? Not exactly.</div> Source: HoopsWorld.com
Given that the Pistons have lost the last two year looking very unmotivated in their final moments, and the Celtics likely being nearly desperately motivated, I suspect problems for Detroit.
I don`t know if Detroit has too much to worry about. They still have a solid core in Rip, Prince, Sheed, and Billups. The Pistons may wanna start looking down the road towards new moves though...
Detroit is done, they need to tinker with the line-up to get some excitement back. the "core" is still a good bunch of players, they're just jaded and apathetic.
They need to get Flip outta there. That's the biggest prob we had. That and the fact we dont have a real center, but we have 5 guards
