The losing saga began when A.I. came to Detroit or another way of saying is when Billups left Detroit. It's all relative, the chemistry, the time that's needed to restructure the team, who's starting, who's sitting, is the coach good enough to carry on the traditional success. Also, the ups and downs are completely untrue. The fact is, the Pistons has been down, way down there. The wins were not merely an indication of consistency and definitely not a sign of being contenders. In fact, they're not even close as the gate keeper of the Eastern Conference Finals path, if its any consolation, they are the runner up for the playoffs.....sad, but true. Lets look at this in a reasonable way.
Joe D in bringing in A.I.
One thing for sure is, if Joe D didn't pull the trigger to trade Chauncey for A.I. and let's say they happen to be on a No. 2 spot in the East, do you really think fans would be happy about it? Offcourse not, people would be complaining that he should've done the deal and he didn't. But hey, he did, not because he listen to what the fans cry about, but that's how he sees fit. The fact is that Chauncey had 6 chances to run this team and that should be more than enough. However, this doesn't mean that Joe D made the right move although, it's time for someone or a different team (with A.I.) to get their chance to see if they can compete for the championship. Joe restructuring the team is fair, not very ideal, not even close, but its fair.
Denial on Rasheed Wallace
We all know how great Rasheed is, the defense, the post up offense, the only PF/C who can shoot above the arc, the energy he brings, all those has been acknowledge. The truth is, its been overblown and at this point, its been overrated. Yes, he can guard Timmy and KG pretty well, but can he really do that for 4 quarters? If so, can he do that 2 consecutive games? There's always that excuse that always comes up, his toe, ankle, he's technical, and my favorite when he gets the technical, he'll be a threat to the opposing team. It's funny to think how a person can get motivated with the expense of the whole team, by letting the opposing team shoot a free throw, but that's just what a lot of the fans think, maybe not him. Rasheed's era is done, as much as when Ben Wallace were headed for the exit.
Same O'l Tayshaun Prince
Another overrated statement that's being made in the PistonLand is Tayshaun. He's consistency on both ends of the floor describes him as the good soldier of Michael Curry. Whatever is ask him, whether to defend, play on the 4 position, score, hustle, and anything a coach may command, he's there, no question ask. So how is it overrated to consider him hes one of the prime/key player of the Pistons. These are things that he has been doing already in the past six season, so theres no surprise. Although his stat has been improving year after year, he's performance against Lebron and Pierce is nothing but Same O'l.
A.I. Offense does not matter one bit
I don't care if he scores 50 points every night, well maybe I would if it guarantees a win, but that would not happen even in basketball heaven, because in order for a team to win, you've got to get stops, you can't just trade baskets. A.I. scoring ability and mentality is worthless, because every single opposing teams runs their offense through the person whom A.I. is guarding. I'm not talking about A.I.'s effort of playing defense, I'm talking about the reality of him being barely 5 foot and not mention his weight. Even a skinny Barbosa could take advantage of A.I.'s frame. Consequently, this became a domino effect. This has forced the frontcourt to provide help defense almost every single time the opposing team run their offense, commonly on pick and roll. A.I.'s defense became contagious that Pistons defense became stale, and its worst knowing their coach has a strong pride about playing defense.
Michael Curry Defense-Offense
The expectation when Curry step up on taking the leadership of a successful team was pretty simple. Get rid of the complacent and emphasize defensive intensity to the guys. Well, its fair to say that those were achieved, the problem is, those things were the things missing during the Flip Saunders era and there's more things missing in this era, for example, offensive efficiency, which was not lacking during Flip's time. When offense is a problem, this could usually get resolved by focusing on the defensive side, which is what Curry emphasize, but once you see your team getting lost and eating up 20 seconds of the shot clock then it's pretty obvious they have no clue what to run. Defensive effort that converts to offensive efficiency only works on Larry Brown's playbook. But Curry, might want to give Flip a call or maybe Larry Brown. Does he even have a playbook, that people may want to see in the 4th quarter when the team has lost it.
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