The Pistons Offseason So Far

As expected, there have been major changes to the Detroit Pistons this summer. Just like clockwork, there have also been portions of the blogging community that have glanced at the situation and shrieked failure.

First off, it is way too early to tell how truly successful Joe Dumars has been in the off-season, but for the sake of balance I would like to present a counter viewpoint to all the negativity surrounding this off-season.

Let’s start with the coaching fiasco. After having a disappointing season, Michael Curry was fired one day before free agency began. In all honesty, I believe the firing was justified but Curry was not given a fair shake. That’s another article in itself.

Then Dumars began his search for a new head coach, publicly stating he wanted a coach with experience. Very early on the media pegged three candidates that Dumars was contemplating: Doug Collins, Avery Johnson, and John Kuester. Later Tom Thibodeau was added to the list.

Some report that the first choice was Collins. I have also heard accounts that Collins was never a serious candidate and pulled out early to save face.

He might not have been a serious candidate because besides being known as a perpetual burn out, he apparently broke down in front of his Pistons team that included Dumars as a player. 

Granted that was over 10 years ago and Collins might have matured his coaching ability since then. When asked about the possibility of Collins coming to Detroit when Dumars first took over as GM supposedly Joe just rolled his eyes.

I was never sold on Collins, while he might be an offensive guru he has a repeated history as being more trouble in the locker room than Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson. To me that doesn’t sound like someone I would want to mentor such a young team like the Pistons.

Next up was Avery Johnson. The former Dallas Mavericks coach with a very good, albeit short, resume. Johnson, a former NBA champion for the Spurs, took over the Mavs job from Don Nelson.

Johnson was handed the reins to a very talented roster that included Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, a young Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, and Josh Howard. I feel pretty confidant in saying that Johnson was in an enviable position.

His first full year was a resounding success, capturing second in their division with a 60-22 record and making it to the finals were they eventually lost the Miami heat 4-2. After that playoff wins became hard to come by.

His second year the Mavs lead the league with a 67-15 record, but as high as that achievement was his biggest low followed shortly after.

Going up against his former mentor, Nelson, in the first round Johnson could not make the correct adjustments to counter Nellie’s high octane offense. Johnson's almighty Mavericks were ousted in five games from the big show by an eighth seeded Warriors who barely made the playoffs. 

That might have been a bad match up for Dallas and Nelson reportedly had a grudge against his former team based around payment issues, so maybe Don was pulling out all the stops in order to gain revenge.

It's more likely though that Avery was just in over his head against his former mentor. 

The next year is even more telling, as the Mavs stumbled even farther finishing with a 51-31 record and a seventh seed playoff spot in the west. During this season Dallas made a blockbuster trade that sent Harris to New Jersey for all-star Jason Kidd. 

Avery was always known as being controlling on the offensive side of the ball with Harris running point, but that could be forgivable since Devin was so young. The way he tried to control Kidd though baffles me. It's reported that Avery would try and call every play down the court.

I'm not a huge Kidd fan, but even I know that Jason absolutely doesn't need or want that kind of micromanaging stifling his game.

Needless to say, Dallas made an early exit in the playoffs by the Hornets in five games. There seems to be a trend there.

After their trouncing by Chris Paul and Co. owner Mark Cuban fired Avery saying he had no choice as there was a mutiny brewing that could only end with the release of Johnson.

Getting run out of town is not a good way to leave a team, especially if the primary reason was your personality not your record.

I do like Avery and at the right price he might have really helped Detroit. He was not looking for a fair price though. Not only did he want a hefty contract, which wasn't absurd, he wanted personnel control, which is absurd. 

Dumars is a very involved GM and has a clear vision of how he wants to build a team. So giving that kind of control to any coach for him would be incredibly hard.

Besides, there are very few coaches who get the kind of roster editing powers that Johnson reportedly wanted, and those are the proven greats like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich.

Although Mike Dunleavy Sr. is the GM and coach of the Clippers, but look were that got them last year, 19 wins. Even though that 19 win record got them Blake Griffin I doubt Pistons fans could endure that type of season considering half of our heads exploded after a 39-43 season.

That left Kuester and Thibodeau. Kuester has history with the Pistons winning a championship as Larry Brown's main assistant. He also was Brown's assistant during Brown's 76ers era.

Not only that, but Kuester has a 19 years coaching experience in the NBA. Yes, that was as an assistant, but that's still time served. Johnson only had four years experience total as a coach, 3.2 years as a head coach and .8 as an assistant (numbers not exact). Curry for those who want to compare had one year as an assistant and one as head coach.

My point is Kuester has been around the block, plus he is a good x's and o's guy. He boosted the Cavaliers offense significantly in all categories. Granted the Cavaliers did add Mo Williams but I doubt his 17 points and 4 assists per game was the real reason for jumping so many other teams in offensive potency.

Honestly, I didn't know much about Kuester before the hire but the more I hear the more I like. 

That brings us to the free agency acquisitions. Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva both agreed to sign with the Pistons on the first day of free agency when Detroit had no coach.

In case you didn't catch that last part THEY HAD NO COACH, and yet these top tier free agents had enough faith in Dumars to agree to deals without talking to anyone else. 

That is incredible. 

Besides the good faith in Dumars' ability, these players are going to bring a whole heap of talent to this team. 

The combo of Stuckey driving to the basket for a lay-up only to kick it out to Gordon or Chucky V. for a smooth trey is going to be a great sight compared to the bricks we were throwing up last year from beyond the arc.

That three-point shooting is also going to do a lot more than put three points on the board, it's going to force defenders off the double teams which should open up clearer paths to the basket. We didn't get that benefit last year.

Gordon has only been in the league for five years, but already he is shooting a higher career three point percentage than Reggie Miller, 41.5% to 39.5%. On top of that, he is a 20 point per game scorer.

He might be a defensive liability considering he is only about 6" 2' in shoes. With Stuckey being 6" 5', we can mitigate some of that by having him guard the taller shooting guards leaving Gordon to the point guards. 

Another point to note is that this signing creates a very crowded backcourt with Bynum, Stuckey, Hamilton, Gordon, and Afflalo all competing for two positions.

The Pistons camp has said repeatedly that they are moving forward with this current backcourt. I believe, however, that a trade is coming.

Recently, the Pistons offered a guaranteed contract to Deron Washington before even seeing him play one game is the summer league. This is unusual because they had no pressure to sign him blindly as Washington cannot sign with anyone else even after summer league. Also deals like this are often used to make salaries match according to league rules. 

Even if we signed Washington to be the fifth in line for shooting guard or third or fourth in line at small forward (doubtful), I still see a trade in the future of Detroit. 

While I think Villanueva has the potential to be a great power forward, his stats per 36 minutes 21 points and 9 rebounds, he needs some help defensively. The only way we can get him a defensive partner, who would complete the emulation of the two Wallace's, is to trade for one at this point.

This isn't bad because the Pistons have a couple bargaining chips to work with.

Hamilton is a likely candidate with the addition of another high scoring shooting guard, as well as Prince with his much more attractive contract. I think Rip is more likely to go from a Pistons point of view as I don't believe Dumars has confidence in starting a rookie or Rip at small forward.

There have been a few names kicked around, Tyson Chandler, Chris Kaman, Emeka Okafor, even Samuel Dalembert. 

After unloading Zach Randolph to the Memphis Grizzlies the Clippers freed up time and cap space for the young Blake Griffin, making it unnecessary to trade the big Chippewa.

Chandler is still a possibility if the Suns can find another taker for Ben Wallace's contract. Although Chandler has a bad injury history, he would provide some much needed shot blocking and physicality in the post.

The Okafor rumor is admittedly a fringe rumor but might be intriguing given Emeka's defensive and offensive prowess would mesh nicely with Villanueva's.

Lastly that leaves Dalembert. The 76ers have reportedly been shopping him hard, and they probably should by just looking at his contract. Dalembert is not known for his offensive capabilities but is an accomplished defender. While he is overpaid he might make a nice compliment to Villanueva, each players strength would help hide the others flaws. That contract is a killer though, $25 million over the next two seasons.

A trade might not come this summer but by the time the trade deadline comes around in February I would expect that someone is headed out of Detroit and a new face and a big new body is coming in.

Overall Dumars has made some impressive moves that gives the Pistons a lot of potential. Detroit doesn’t have all the pieces yet but the mechanisms to get them exist and Dumars is well aware of that.