Pistons Reloaded: Can They Play Spoiler?

C: Kwame Brown/ Chris Wilcox/ Ben Wallace

PF: Charlie Villanueva/ Jason Maxiell/ Jonas Jerebko

SF: Tayshaun Prince/ Austin Daye/ DaJuan Summers

SG: Richard “Rip” Hamilton/ Ben Gordon

PG: Rodney Stuckey/ Will Bynum

Coach: John “Q” Kuester

Rookie ---- New Addition

A Summer Of Change:

When the Pistons walked off their home court losers of a 78-99 tussle with the Cavaliers, everybody knew change was coming. An off-season of change brought three new rookies, three free agents new to Detroit, one former Piston, and a brand new head coach. Every fan happily sent off players Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace, as both players had worn out their welcome in Piston red, white, and blue. Head coach Michael Curry also got the boot despite only holding the job for one year due to his inability to connect with the players (mainly Hamilton) the way he had during his tenure as assistant coach.  The Pistons also bid “Au Revoir” to many “promising” young players with the departures of Walter Herrmann, Amir Johnson, and Arron Afflalo as well as veteran Antonio McDyess to complete one of the largest off-season turnarounds in the Joe Dumars era. Even with all the movement, most media outlets do not see the Pistons returning to royalty in the Eastern Conference, with some outlets eyeing the possibility that the Pistons will not return to the Playoffs.  There are not too many that doubted the Pistons’ need for changes and subsequent applause for the moves Dumars has made (outside of bitter Chicago sportswriters), but the Pistons are on the wrong side of the fence of an NBA moving away from parody. The Pistons now see themselves as spoilers rather than royalty of the conference.

New Look East: Limited Top-Tier:

            The NBA has five teams competing for the finals this year. The incumbent Los Angeles Lakers (plus Ron Artest) will be joined by the San Antonio Spurs (plus McDyess and Richard Jefferson), the Orlando Magic (plus Vince Carter and Brandon Bass), the Boston Celtics (plus ‘Sheed and Marquis Daniels), and the Cleveland Cavilers (plus Shaquille O'Neal). The reality is, on paper, these are the only teams seriously in the hunt for a ring this year, which means that the other 25 NBA teams will have virtually no media fan-fair unless they can surprise one of the “big boys.” This puts the Pistons back into a role they enjoy, spoilers. The Lakers were heavily favored when the Pistons beat them in five to clinch the 2004 NBA Championship. Nobody thought they could return, but they once again shocked the world when they returned to the Finals the following year to push the favored Spurs to seven games. The Pistons “underperformed” in the eyes of many the following three years, but each time managed to return to the Eastern Conference Finals. Even last year, many viewed the Pistons as a lottery team when Iverson, Hamilton, and Wallace went down due to injury, but somehow the team scraped into the Playoffs. Once again this year, the Pistons will have to win important games if they want to see themselves back in the second or third round of the playoffs.

What Has To Go Right:

             The team has a lot on their shoulders this season and if a return trip to the Eastern Conference Finals is the goal, there has to be many pieces that fall into place. Kwame Brown and Chris Wilcox will fight to start at center for the team, who has not had a dominating, pure center in the Dumars era. The man who attempted to fill that role, Ben Wallace, is back, but he has always truly been a defensive power forward who had to play center because the team had nobody else.  His return should bring a tougher mentality back to the team that left once he bolted for “greener pasture$” in Chicago three years ago. Some fans are still mad at him for the departure, but realistically he did the team a favor by leaving because the team was set to pay him 11.5 million a year, a move which would have financially brought a quicker end to their run of six straight years in the Eastern Conference Finals. Wallace’s return might reignite his passion for the game, and it will have to; the Pistons need him in the way they needed Theo Ratlif, Mehmet Okur, and Elden Campbell in the past as a body that can be used to “bang with the bigs” of the east. Big Ben’s problem has always been on the offensive end, but for the first time since he has been on Detroit, it will not be an issue because he will not be starting and the team can be based around offense. Which leads back into something the Pistons need to go right; the Pistons have never really got offensive production out of center position. That will have to happen this year (which is why Wilcox might have an inside track for the job) because with how this team plans on scoring is Stuckey slashing to the hole and dishing the ball out if he faces trouble. The center is going to need to be able to score and be a viable option to finish the drive-pass-shoot offense the Pistons will run.

            Tayshaun Prince is at a crossroads. For the past seven years of his career he has been the glue that has held together the All-Star-studded Pistons, but last year the glue looked dried up.  This year the pressure is on him to perform, because if he does not, his backup is already on the team. If you put the pre-draft notes of Austin Daye directly next to those of Prince and cover the names and colleges, you will have a difficult time deciphering the differences. Dumars basically re-drafted Prince this year, which serves the team for two purposes. First, it provides the best small forward option the Pistons have off the bench since the days of “scoreless” Corliss Williamson. Secondly, Dumars has insurance that just in case last year was more than just a down year for Prince, the team is prepared. While fans may view Prince as superfluous, Prince’s play will be vital to the team’s success. We are unsure how good Daye will become, especially defensively. Daye will need at least a year to learn from Prince, who consistently guards the other team’s best player with great success. The team is now built around offense, but will need Prince to play the best defense of his career, especially when Ben Gordon is on the court. Price’s value to the team past this season may be more about what he can be traded for, but this year we need him to be the best he ever has her in Detroit.

            The most important piece of the Pistons’ puzzle this year is not one of the new additions, or even the turnover at coach. This year will hinge directly on how well Rodney Stuckey can lead this team in his second year as a starter. The point guard is the central position of any basketball team and prior to last year, the Pistons had one of the best in Chauncey Billups. The heavily criticized Billups trade not only brought the Pistons much need cap relief, but it also paved the way for the emerging star of the 2008 Playoffs, Rodney Stuckey, to start. Stuckey started off hot, including his peak where he dropped 40 on the then unsuspecting Chicago Bulls, but it went downhill from there. As the injuries piled up around him, Stuckey found it difficult to compensate and eventually lost control of the team to the internal mayhem that was the 2008-2009 Detroit Pistons. He returns this year knowing he has no more excuses. “Baby Wade” will have to prove his worth as a point guard, something even his biggest cheerleader, Joe Dumars, now questions if he can play full time. If Stuckey can keep it together and get to the hole, the Pistons might just have enough magic to recapture conference royalty and even knock off Boston or Orlando when they least expect it. Who knows, if Stuckey plays at the All-Star level that he has flashed, the Pistons could represent the East in the Finals. As good as this all sounds, if he fails, the Pistons are almost assured another dogfight for an eight seed finish. Stuckey has the keys (with no Billups or Iverson to question his readiness to drive), the coach who has a history of offense, and the player who can score from anywhere on the court with or without the ball in his hands the whole time (Gordon). Stuckey has no excuses now and the weight of the team, is now on his shoulders, Joe Dumars is banking on his ability to handle it.

The Message:

            The Pistons do not boast the Eastern Conference’s most feared team on paper, but honestly how many “paper champions” have been able to fly into the Finals without a little fear of being ripped up by the other teams in the conference.  The Pistons will once again be the underdogs as they were back in ’04 when nobody saw the “blue collar” players forming into champions. The Pistons do not have to win it all to be successful this year, and maybe it’s just the return of Ben Wallace, but there seems to be a little bit of magic in the air in Detroit that could be found in the Tigers in 2006, and the Red Wings in 1997, and the Lions in … uh … well, um … 1957 (its training camp season, I had to get one Lions reference in). Whether it’s in the air or just in the Kool-Aid, the Pistons know what they need to do to take the magic from the Celtics and defeat the Cavaliers to be re-crowned the gems of the East.