| An Early Offseason For Pistons Authored by Curtis A. Clark - June 3, 2006 - 11:37 am
In a strange twist of fate a regular season of unprecedented success in Pistons history will leave the team with more questions than ever before.
After 64 wins, an overall number 1 seed going into the playoffs, 4 all star players, an MVP candidate, and 2 coach of the month awards, Detroit settled for a resounding defeat in the conference finals to the Miami Heat, a team they beat 3 of 4 times in the regular season.
So what happened? Was it the coach? the egos? The lack of a superstar? The players complaining? The new offensive focus? The lackadaisical playoff effort? Or the uncharacteristic internal blame game?
Actually it’s was all of the above and more.
The guy taking most the heat so far has been head coach Flip Saunders. Saunders regular season charge and invigoration of the Pistons offense caused fans to revel in every regular season win. However no one was looking ahead, everything was going so well that no one wanted to be the guy that pointed out Flip Saunders terrible playoff history. That history caught up with Detroit as Cleveland’s Mike Brown and Miami’s Pat Riley out X and O’d Flip Saunders at every opportunity.
A few simple examples being Cleveland switching high pick and rolls and making a 4 game series into a 7. That and Pat Riley turning hack a Shaq into hack a Ben because of Flips insistence of leaving Ben Wallace on the floor in the last 4 minutes of game 3. While Shaq sat Ben missed 4 free throws and 2 Miami field goals later the game was over. Whether Flip actually thought it was a sound strategy to leave the offensively challenged Ben Wallace on the floor when trailing, or was afraid to offend Ben by benching him to avoid hack a Ben, he made a mistake. One that let a 6 point hole in a pivotal game with 4 plus minutes left, turn into down 10 with 2 left and Shaq re-entering the game. Mistakes like these prevent good regular season coaches like Mike Dunleavy, George Karl, and Flip Saunders from ever winning a title.
But what about those Piston ego’s? Throughout the course of the successful regular season Detroit built quite a swagger. That was good because they play with confidence, but bad because they also feel they can turn it on when ever they want. When you are down 3-2 to a young and hungry Cleveland team and your team leader Chauncey Billups dismissing the situation by saying “I am not concerned” to the national media, then your ego has gotten out of control. Detroit won the Cleveland series, but having that mindset cost them against an equal opponent like Miami.
Worse yet has been the players bickering with the officials. Players would spread their arms in a gesture of disbelief as they did not receive the call they felt they deserved. Meanwhile their man would hustle down court and get easy transition buckets as the Piston’s players jogged to stare at the official. Detroit’s feeling of being disrespected has gone to far.
Fans can understand the team being frustrated as star players get the calls and Detroit’s team approach is not rewarded with easy free throws. But Detroit committed the least amount of fouls all regular season, their reward was on the other end, where they were allowed more privileges with physical defense. Referees got sick of hearing the Pistons complain after every miss and every opposing hoop. We can all picture Tayshaun’s spread arms, Ben’s hook and over the back motions, and of course Rasheed’s antics. Using the feeling of being disrespected as a motivator is great, losing game because you are complaining about it is not.
The public complaints may have been even worse. The team’s blame of their poor performances on the poor officiating just motivated the opponents. Opponents saw Detroit cop out of poor play as they shied away from elevating their game past their officiating gripes. The officials also own televisions, when they see a player blame them for his teams loses they are even less likely to reward players game time complaints.
Shifting focus’s though…
Following the 2004 championship campaign I never again would say you can’t win it all without a superstar. I will however say that this 2006 Detroit team may have needed one. The 2004 Pistons won their title because of defense, you can win a title without a superstar when you play as one on the defensive end, but the 2006 Pistons seem entirely to fixated on their offense. That offensive focus requires a player who can carry you when the other team hits runs. Detroit doesn’t have that one guy who can go basket for basket with a team when their defense struggles. The old Piston’s solution was never to let the defense struggle, but much to the ire of Ben Wallace this 2006 Piston’s defense does. Following the Miami loses all the talk was that Detroit needed to get its offense in gear, well the tell tale sign should have been that Miami’s two superstar were shooting just a tad under 70 percent against the “tough” Detroit defense. No matter of execution will overcome the demoralization of seeing two guys score 2 of every 3 times down and get to the line every other.
This demoralization has also lead to Detroit uncharacteristically pointing the finger at each other. Rasheed Wallace’s refusal to join a team timeout in the Miami series was the first glimpse into a large part of what caused him to be traded from Portland. Ben Wallace has repeatedly stated his distaste for the offensive focus to the national media. When asked about why he has been offensively uninvolved in the Miami series Rasheed Wallace suggested that reporters ask “the coach” that question. Detroit’s starting five has been based on chemistry, to see it splinter would also see it lose its effectiveness. Those 5 players are not good enough individually to get the job done, if not working as one they wont be working at all.
So where to then?
With no draft pick this season and the re-signing of Ben Wallace to see to Detroit has limited opportunities to change their team. The only solution can come in the form of philosophy and coaching. While it would be rash to change coaching staffs for the 4th time in 5 years Detroit might consider it. More likely however will be a sit down between Dumars and Saunders in which Dumars informs Saunders that Detroit will only have success if the team re-commits to its defensive roots. A defensive minded assistant may need to be added, now that the flex has been installed more practice time should be committed to defense, and most importantly Saunders will need to grab a hold of the team and hold them accountable on that end.
Dumars summer will be filled with convincing Ben Wallace that Detroit is still the place for him and that defense will again be paramount next year. Dumars will also have to field a familiar question more than once this off season. That would be questions about now former Piston Darko Milicic. With his recent productive second half in Orlando and the fall off of effective play of Rasheed Wallace, Detroit is bound to be burned with questions of moving Darko. With a projected 2007 stat line looking better than Rasheed Wallace’s, some may wonder if Detroit had sat on the solution to a few of their new question for 3 seasons.
But as always Pistons fans should feel comfortable knowing that the franchise they love is in the hands of the best general manager in professional basketball. The summer message boards will be filled with lopsided trade ideas from fans with a what have you done for me lately mentality, trades for super stars such as Kevin Garnett. Realistically however expect Dumars to be far more patient with his core players and look to revert the team mentality back to their defensive glory days. If Dumars does pull the trigger on a trade it will be with role players and no starter other than possibly Rasheed Wallace. Look for Dumars to look to get younger up front if he does, New York’s Channing Frye comes to mind as well as rumored to be available Charlie Villanueva.
Still though fans should not be quick to punish their Pistons for not returning the title to Motown. Detroit may have been looking past the Eastern Conference playoffs and towards their vendetta in the finals, but unfortunately for them they ran into a team with a vendetta of their own to settle. However Detroit was still one of the 4 best teams in basketball and for most of the season gave us all a reason to cheer. Miami though was the better team in the 2006 playoffs, Detroit should not shy away from this fact. If they do they will be looking for answers to the same questions next season as well. Fans will need to be supportive over this summer of uncertainty, Detroit will again field a contender next year, and fans will once again have a championship caliber team to cheer for, a luxury that many fans and many cities will not.
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