Mid-season Grades: Detroit Pistons

Well, we were all wrong about the Pistons at the beginning of the year.

After threatening to break up the roster for a superstar, it seemed that Joe Dumars had settled on his old core. Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace all came back.

The only off-season acquisitions of any import for the Pistons were Kwame Brown and Will Bynum: a situational big man and a guard who figured to be third off of the bench. The big news was the firing of Flip Saunders and the subsequent hiring of Michael Curry.

How quickly things change.

After two games, it was announced that Detroit had traded Billups, Antonio McDyess, and Cheikh Samb to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson.

The Pistons looked to be a much different team. Instead of playing a predictable, highly efficient half-court offense, the Pistons became a full-court, freelancing team.

So, how have they fared in their rebuilding process? Here are the grades:
 

Guards: C+

Individually, each guard has played extremely well. Iverson has been in a shooting slump since the beginning of the year, but this has not curtailed his still freakish ability to get into the lane.

He seems to have accepted his more limited role in Detroit well, although the aforementioned shooting slump may be evidence of the difficulty he has had with rhythm.

Rodney Stuckey has been easily the biggest surprise of the season. Since posting mediocre numbers off the bench, he was added to the starting lineup with AI and Rip Hamilton, and immediately improved, posting his first 40 point game, and one 38 pointer.

His jump shooting has improved enough that he is able to keep defenses guessing and hit contested shots.

Rip Hamilton has had some well documented issues with gelling with Iverson and Stuckey, with a groin injury that further curtailed this process by keeping him out for two weeks.

He has been asked to play the three in Michael Curry's small ball lineup and has managed it reasonably well.

The addition of a Hall of Fame caliber player would seem to be just the thing to spark the Pistons backcourt, and indeed, the guards have shown flashes of greatness while playing together, particularly while defeating the Lakers and Cavaliers.

In general, however, the guards have been inconsistent. This is a huge departure from last season, where Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton could be counted on for at least 30 points a game.

Curry has insisted on playing a small ball lineup, with Stuckey, Rip, and AI playing the point, shooting guard, and small forward positions, which has undoubtedly contributed to the shooting slumps of Rip and AI, both volume scorers.
 

Frontcourt: B+

The two players starting in the frontcourt at the moment, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince, have been by far the most consistent starters this season.

Tayshaun has become more assertive and is getting more rebounds, although Curry should be concerned about Tayshaun's high minutes at a physical disadvantage.

Rasheed is, of course, being Rasheed, leading the league in technical fouls and hanging around the three point line more than we would like.

The bigger issues for the frontcourt occur when Curry goes big and plays either Kwame Brown or Amir with Rasheed. Both starters have had good nights and bad nights.

Amir is a much better starter when he can avoid picking up fouls in bunches. It's hard to tell if increased, constant playing time would help alleviate this problem.

Bench: incomplete

I don't know if I can give these guys a grade. Nobody has been getting particularly consistent minutes, apart from Antonio McDyess, who must be loving the reduced minutes, as he is gathering a team high 7.7 rebounds and still remaining a scoring threat.

Aaron Afflalo is the other consistent bench player. When getting minutes during Rip's absence, he showed us why he was drafted in the first round last year. Turning into a fairly good three-point shooter and defender.

Kwame Brown and Amir Johnson start some nights, but don't see the hardwood the next. Amir has flashed some talent, but is still not good enough to be relied on in crunch time.

Kwame is about what we thought. A big body who can sometimes play good defense, but can't hold onto the ball for anything.

Jason Maxiell has not played nearly as often as he should. He is a good defender who plays with lots of energy, and it must be hard to keep him on the bench.

Unfortunately, playing Tay at the Power Forward spot has limited all of the backup big men's minutes, and Maxiell is not getting the minutes he deserves.

The problem with the bench is that the starters have not played well enough to give anyone off of the bench consistent minutes, other than McDyess. And with Rip back in the rotation, Afflalo looks to be spending even more time on the bench.

The bench players have had an understandably hard time playing well offensively with limited minutes.
 

Coaching:

I get Michael Curry's plan to stick to small ball starting, I really do. He's trying to experiment, knowing that the Pistons' place in the playoffs is virtually a lock. It's definitely hard to watch though.

Curry came into a hard situation, first being a rookie coach with one year of assistant coaching under his belt, and then being asked to assimilate a star player who practically demands a new system.

Questions are arising about how capable he is of handling the egos in his lineup, his supposed strong suit coming in.

But Rasheed's tech count is rising and Rip has voiced his unwillingness to play off of the bench (promptly followed by his reinstatement as a starter after his injury).

 

MVP: Arnie Kander

With so many players ailing (because of Curry's ultra hardcore practices?) and so many players over 30, the strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander has been the Pistons' most important asset.

The Pistons have had an astounding run of good health over the last several years, which is definitely coming to an end. In fact, he has said that this is the worst run of injuries he's seen in the Pistons in all his 17 years.

 
Why are we still watching?

Same reason we watched the Lions the beginning of the year- its rough, but you keep hoping that this time it will happen.

The drama is enticing. Didn't we all love arguing about who the Pistons should take off the bench once Rip came back from injury? Hearing about AI skipping practice, again? Or guessing which big man would get the start?

This may not qualify as drama for teams such as the Knicks or Suns, but for the Pistons, the team that has ended every season for the last three years in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Finals and has returned four starters since the 2004 season, this is an exciting season.

Finally, we are not just waiting for the Conference Finals to roll around again.

Playoff chances?

They will go until they hit either the Cavaliers or the Celtics.

After that, its all up to how much they improve during the second half of the season. Their ceiling is darn high, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were better than the Celtics at the end of the season. Definitely not a given though.

They should still be able to beat the improved Magic, whose over-reliance on Dwight Howard makes them vulnerable to Rasheed and McDyess' defense. And once the playoffs roll around they should be able to beat the Hawks consistently as well.
 

What should Joe Dumars do?

Every sports fan's favorite question. I have advocated for a Rip trade, but now I am not so sure.

As constructed, I still feel that the Pistons are wasting too much money in the shooting guard spot, especially with a competent Aaron Afflalo able to back up Iverson. Two volume shooters who will spend much of their time together seems like too much.

BUT. When those guards are all hitting their shots, its a beautiful thing to see. Its good. Its been good enough to beat the Lakers and the Cavs.

I guess, in conclusion, I would do what Joe D is doing. I would wait, see if anything comes up, look for an elite three point shooter or a consistent big man.

I would be willing to take a downgrade in talent in order to add smaller pieces that that the Pistons are missing.

Someone should move, though.

Between good big men who are getting DNP-CD's (Did Not Play-Coach's Decision) on a consistent basis, All-Star talent backing up All-Star talent at shooting guard, and STILL no reliable backup for Tay, it seems that a reallocation of resources is in order.