<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Magic Johnson:</div><div class="quote_post"> Pistons, they truly proved defense wins championships, teamwork is real important and that a star isn't needed to win. They probably wouldn't have gotten here had they picked 'Melo. </div> I have a thought on this. I personally, don't think it would have mattered had they drafted Melo or not. If they'd have done that, it is likely, I think, that he'd have gotten a lot more playing time then Darko and possibly be a 6th man for them due to the fact that he had that 1 year of college experience and he was ready to contribute early. I think what lifted them to becoming a champioship team was getting Rasheed Wallace. They were much better after getting Rasheed, I believe 31-10 or something along those lines. Some people may say that he didn't contribute huge and what not. Well, just because he isn't a huge offensive factor, doesn't mean he's not contributing. He was like Ben Wallace once he arrived. He was brought there to help that defense. And that he did. He was a defensive contributor once he arrived, and that's what they wanted out of him. And, personally, I don't think they'd have gone or made to the Finals had they not gotten Rasheed Wallace. He was a huge help to Ben in the middle and he provided an extra defensive and offensive spark. Without him, I don't believe Pistons make the Finals.
Biggest surprise: Utah They not only lost their top two players in the history of the franchise, they also lost their leading scorer Matt Harpring to a season ending injury early in the year. Only two active players on their roster made over 2 million dollars a year (Ostertag and Gugliotta) and no starter on their team, outside of Kirilienko, were ever full time starters. They were one game from making the playoffs when there were many people who didn't think that they would win 10 games. Jerry Sloan deserves much of the credit, but Carlos Arroyo, Raja Bell, Gordan Giricek, DeShawn Stevenson (before he was traded), Jarred Collins, Sasha Pavlovic, and all of the other unsung Jazz members all deserve a lot of credit as well. Biggest disappointment: Phoenix Many predicted that this team would even get home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. After an ankle injury to Amare Stoudamire this team went into the tank. With a core group of Steph, Joe Johnson, and Shawn Marion you would think that the Suns could weather the storm of a short absence of Stoudamire. They didn't, Frank Johnson was fired, Steph and Penny were traded, and the Suns went on to be the second worst team in the Western Conference. This team shouldn't be down for too long, but this year definitely was a big disappointment.
