Detroit Pistons Prepare for Seventh Eastern Finals, Second Title in Six Years

"Detroit’s window has closed. Detroit’s too old. Detroit’s not hungry enough. Detroit’s too predictable."

I have been hearing these arguments for three years now, and I still fail to understand how people across the league consistently count the Detroit Pistons out of the championship talk, year after year, despite overwhelming success and an incredibly well-constructed team. This is my first article, and I hope it is strong enough to help answer some questions people may be having about the ’09 NBA Championship.

I hear these arguments every year and hold the people who make them in the highest respect, as everybody is entitled to their opinion and the reasons for the development of said opinion, especially seeing how the Pistons did eventually falter in the end.

However, this is one year where I cannot even begin to agree with any negative talk about how far this Pistons team will go in 2009. This team has the potential to be an even greater team than 2004, and the last few teams they have had did possess the capability of bringing home the trophy.

This year, like ’04, belongs to Detroit.

Sure, there are plenty of other contenders out there, but how many with the defensive capabilities, coupled with the offensive arsenal, of the Detroit Pistons. This year, it is not going to come down to individual accomplishment. It will come down to the compilation of straight skills and oddities that are quite difficult to predict or prepare for.

Take the main unit of the four consistent starters, along with the flavor of the week at power forward or center. Tayshaun Prince is the most underrated small forward in the game, with his ridiculously long wingspan and recently developed ability to cut to the basket.

Currently boasting a breakout year, Prince has been put in charge of running the offense many times, and is expected to hold a large role as point forward, which is dangerous for other teams due to his odd array of abilities and great basketball intelligence.

A team with this type of offense is more difficult to defend, because defenses are built to stop a traditional point guard, a position which can be quite predictable at times, even for the great point guards of the league like Chris Paul.

Allen Iverson has a game unseen in the league before him, with a nearly unstoppable crossover and ability to draw defenders in groups, leaving open other good shooters. It is true that he is more of a shoot-first, pass-later type of point guard, but with Prince’s ability to run an offense from the 3 position, this will not be much of an issue in time.

His backcourt mate, Richard Hamilton, is still the best in the league at moving without the basketball, and even though his timing is off so far this year, when his game is on, Rip is quite dangerous.

Few teams in the league have a player with his ability to catch and shoot almost simultaneously, which decreases the effectiveness of the shot clock on your team’s offense.

Rasheed Wallace, when his game is on, is arguably the best player in the league. He can shoot from downtown with great success, but his true magic comes from when he is actually motivated enough to play down in the post.

His passing abilities, as well as his on-court awareness, add more of a threat for any defender to worry about, but when he posts up with the ball in his hands, nobody (including Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett) has the ability to stop him, at which point you may just want to count the bucket before he even shoots.

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