One need only look to the decisions Flip Saunders made to determine why the Detroit Pistons are sitting out these finals. He took what was under Larry Brown the best defensive team in the NBA, and ruined them with his offense-first philosophies, trying to turn them into the sort of team he had in Minnesota (as if that were to be desired). The most telling moment was last night, game 6, as the Heat were up 13 at the half. The interviewer said that Flip Saunders stated that he "didn't know what to say," that they "weren't hitting shots," an "just needed to start hitting their shots." First of all, an NBA head coach not knowing what to say to a team down 13 at the half is ridiculous, but what he apparently did tell them speaks to the problem. When you're trailing by double digits, telling your team "you have to hit more shots" isn't intelligent coaching philosophy. Comebacks are always waged on the defensive end, converting off steals, blocks, or defensive stops. It's something that Golden State Warriors analyst Jim Barnett mentions constantly (although, much to my chagrin, the Warriors don't seem to get it too often). Looking at the eastern conference, and indeed even the Heat, it should've been a complete cakewalk into the finals, and Flip Saunders still managed to foul it up.
If you actually watched this series it was as simple as that. They missed their shots. Im sick of all these theorys of why the Pistons lost, and that they got over there heads and all that junk but there is only one real reason why they lost. Because they missed too much shots. It dosent go much deeper then that in this series...
Flip didnt make them bad at D, the piston players stopped cairng about D. Saying a coach makes players that a year ago were great at D bad now because of his philosophys is rediculous.
Flip addressed the lack of freedom that Pistons players and fans complained about under Larry Brown and now he's getting bashed for it. There's quite a few reasons why the Pistons lost and I consider Flip to be a smaller part of it. 1. Overconfidence - This, IMO, was the most surprising part of this Pistons team. In fact, it's an attribute that is opposes the reason why I originally enjoyed watching them. Detroit came in with a mentality that the East was their's to lose. That kind of confidence is great, but when they suffered setbacks against the surprising Cavs and the Heat, they tried to find excuses instead of banding together and stepping up. Ben Wallace's comments pretty much summed it up. It seemed that the Pistons never really considered that their missed shots and lack of intensity was allowing teams to beat them. 2. Lack of depth - This has been a feature of the Pistons for the last few years, yet they've usually been able to work around it. Really, Mcdyess and Hunter were essentially their only options off the bench. Against the Heat's depth, Detroit's own lack of it was especially exposed. 3. Exhaustion - This is related to the Piston's lack of depth and is where I can see Flip taking some blame. Saunders played his starters constantly in during the regular season. There was no point in chasing a regular season record, when the real goal should have been the playoffs. Detroit's management needs to recognize that the roster can and needs to be improved. The players need to come back next season with the type of desire and intensity that surprised the world when they knocked off the Lakers.
^ I agree, but i think the real reason was they got cocky against the Cavs. And Cleveland knocked them of there game. That's the reason why they lost this year in the playoffs. They think with the highest record in the NBA, they can overcome any team. But they are wrong...don't worry we'll come baack next year.
yea yea yea sure sure blame the coach, who else?? of course blame the coach for everything blame the coach for losing game 6, not the players..... GROW UP
Chutney is pretty much spot on. As slpnsld23 said, it was pretty much as simple as that, we wernt hitting shots, the whole Miami series we shot under .500% and under .400% in some of those games. Our free throw shooting was also very poor. Thats not Flips fault, that we couldnt shoot, thats on the players. You cant blame the coach for everything.
Im just tired of everybody throwing the blame around at every one, trying to find excuses why we lost. Its simple really: We didnt hit our shots.
Yeah Why blame coach when it's actually the players who go out there and have to make shots. Pistons missed a lot of open shots. Sheed was no where to be found, Billups couldn't even make that lay up, Hamilton only shone in Game 6. Only Prince and Big Ben played good. But Big Ben couldn't hit free throws but it's his D that makes up. Hunter played great D on Wade as well. If anyone has to be blamed, I would blame Sheed and Hamilton. Not the coach.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting WadeDynasty:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah Why blame coach when it's actually the players who go out there and have to make shots. Pistons missed a lot of open shots. Sheed was no where to be found, Billups couldn't even make that lay up, Hamilton only shone in Game 6. Only Prince and Big Ben played good. But Big Ben couldn't hit free throws but it's his D that makes up. Hunter played great D on Wade as well. If anyone has to be blamed, I would blame Sheed and Hamilton. Not the coach.</div> And Chauncey. He didnt show up in the 4th quarter in one game like hes supposed to. And even Prine played terrible on the road. and Ben had only 7 rebounds last game. Not one player was consistent
And thats Detroits biggest problem, we dont have any consistancy, if its not one player firing, its another, we dont have a player that will go out and put up 20+ a night garunteed, such as a Paul Pierce or T-Mac.
Well I thought Prince was outstanding. I actually became very fond of this young player. Sure he didn't play well in Game 4 and 6, but in every other games, he was the main threat.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting NTC187:</div><div class="quote_post">And thats Detroits biggest problem, we dont have any consistancy, if its not one player firing, its another, we dont have a player that will go out and put up 20+ a night garunteed, such as a Paul Pierce or T-Mac.</div> Thats what made them so great. They play team ball, and it takes all 5 of them to win a game. If Prince is off one day, someone else has to step up...If Ben and Prince are off, then 2 others have to step up big, if those 2 and Chauncey are off then their is pretty much nothing you can do. After Rasheeds cocky ass said the Cavs would be swept, yet it went to 7, I think they became insecure and some players (especially Billups) tried not to take as many shots. Then Saunders told him he needed his offense, so he started forcing a lot of shots. Well as everyone has been saying, they didn't knock down their shots. They lost that certain "swagger" they had all year long (until game 3 against the Cavs). Before, if they went down by double digits, Saunders would call a time out and they would be up by 2 within the next 3 min. This wasn't the case this series. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting WadeDynasty:</div><div class="quote_post">Well I thought Prince was outstanding. I actually became very fond of this young player. Sure he didn't play well in Game 4 and 6, but in every other games, he was the main threat.</div> Well said.
Flip didn't adjust quick enough, simple as that. He also didn't put his fist down when needed. Just imagine what Greg Popovich wouldve done if Horry or Parker sat on the score's table during a timeout, it would've got very ugly. Instead, Flip went and patted Rasheed on the shoulder and said something "nice" to him. I sat and watched for my own eyes. Flip is a good coach, but doesn't have enough toughness to handle a team with so many different ego's.
On Account there of, maybe the Pistons simply don't deserve the crown. Rasheed Wallace had said, game 4 would be the last home game the Cavs Played. They took that to heart and played their butts off and IMO DID ELIMATE the detroit Pistons in the playoffs. You guys gotta shut up and play ball, simple as that, if the fans nor players understand that, I feel sorry for Detroit.
