The End of an Era - The Detroit Pistons' Story

¹²³ · Feb 27, 2009

Remember the old days? Well, not that old. In fact, I am only talking about the early 2000's. Sure seems like a while though. That is, if you're a Pistons fan.

Remember the beginning, as the Pistons slowly starting creeping up on the NBA, under the guidance of Rick Carlisle? And then, the glory days, when they won the 2003-04 NBA championship under the famous Larry Brown. Remember the three start Conference Finals under Flip Saunders?

Remember the dominance of Ben Wallace? Remember the backcourt featuring the all-star point guard Chauncey Billups and the all-star shooting guard Rip Hamilton? Oh, and you can't forget Rasheed Wallace, who spent half his time banging threes, and half his time racking up technicals. Remember the up-and-coming Tayshaun Princess? Whoops, I meant Prince.

We could go on and on and on, but the main point is: yeah, they were GOOD. Now? Lets just look on the bright side. If the season ended today, they'd be in the playoffs! But where will they be at the end of the season? Is it possible, that the old powerhouse of the NBA, will miss the playoffs? Of course it's possible. With AI though, you can never predict anything.

But WHAT happened? I mean, in a few short years, the went from being on top of the world, to coming close to rebuilding mode. I mean litterally, these guys were in championship contention year after year for quite a while. So how did it all far apart. Who's to blame? Who left? Who came? Time to analyze.

Rasheed Wallace went from being a great winner to a great loser - Rasheed Wallace was a guy who might not have been fully focused all the time, but you could tell he wanted to win. Rasheed was always a guy who got T'd up, game after game. Why? Because he couldn't stand when one little call would change the game. Change a game that his team could have won, but lost. This year and last? He hugged Kevin Garnett before every ECF game, in what should have been an epic battle of the two forwards. Instead? Yeah, basically what happened was KG went off on him. After the game, Wallace didn't seem embarrassed, he didn't seem humiliated. In fact, he shrugged it off like it was it was nothing.

Joe Dumars tried to change the look of the team - I think he accomplished that one. The answer Joe Dumars gave the press after the game was essentially saying that he was trying to change the face and look of the team. Well, instead, he shipped out the heart and soul of the team (Billups) and brought in a guy who just doesn't have the winning attitude. You know what I am talking about. The old Pistons swagger. Yeah, AI does NOT have that. Really, I don't think Iverson will ever have complimentary players that will fit around him. Without sidekicks, you will never win. Yeah, great job Joe. You certainly changed their look!

They put Rip Hamilton on the bench - That'll do the trick. Hamilton might be one of the best teammates you can have. Not only that, the kid has some skill in the shooting category too. Great package huh? Now, this really makes no sense to me. Hamilton needs a good point guard to feed him the ball in the right spot exactly coming off the screen, like their current starting guard Rodney Stuckey or ex-guard Chauncey Billups for example. Then, your second unit would be revamped with a scorer like Iverson leading them off the pine. God, who runs this TEAM!??

Michael Curry has lost control of the team - Or so it seems. Ever notice how when they run out on floor, they kind of just...like...don't seem to care anymore? It's like they don't seem to care whether they are running the defense or not. They don't really care if they play defense or hustle the floor. They really just seem to give up when Billups left. It's like it was a paper mache project and Billups was glue. After that, it's seems like in their minds the season had ended with an abrupt, rather disappointing halt.

Will we see the old Pistons ever again? I can't yet say. One thing I can tell you though is that this 2008-09 Pistons team won't be seen again. At least, in full form. Meaning that they'll lose some players to free agency, and most others will be traded away. Those are Joe Dumars' plans anyway.
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Flow · Feb 27, 2009

Yeah the old Pistons team was awesome. I remember how pissed off I was when they won the 2003-04 title over Lakers.

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