Flip Saunders Must Stay with Pistons, Team Must Find a Center

Another season has ended in disappointment for the Detroit Pistons. For the third straight time they finish in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Boston Celtics put the kibosh on the Pistons’ season with an 89-81 victory on Friday, earning a showdown in the NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers.

For the sixth year in a row the Pistons have showed up as one of the best in the East, yet they’ve only had two Finals appearances and one championship to show for it.

During this span they’ve gone through three coaches and a variety of roster changes, but managed to maintain a standard of excellence, relying on tough, stifling defense and a multitude of offensive weapons. Still for all their success, they’re sitting at home again wondering what went wrong, and what they can do to fix it.

An easy solution that’s been suggested many times is to fire head coach Flip Saunders. After all, his predecessor Larry Brown was here two seasons and led the team to the Finals both times, coming within three minutes of back-to-back titles.

In three years, Saunders has never gotten beyond the third round of the playoffs and has had problems with personnel. A coaching change might bring a new attitude to a team looking to maintain its conference dominance as teams like Orlando, Cleveland, and Boston have become legitimate threats to their success.   

While dumping Saunders is an easy fix, it might not be the best one. In three seasons he’s won 176 games, finished first in the Central Division three times, and coached the All Star team.

Unfortunately, his squads have run into hot teams for three years, whether it was this year’s Celtics, LeBron James’ heroics two years ago, or Shaq and Dwayne Wade leading a resurgent Miami Heat team three years back.

Saunders has a pedigree, but hasn’t been able to take the next step, despite having the teams to do it. Other Detroit teams have had the same problems but have gotten through it, i.e. Scotty Bowman, Larry Brown, and presumably as of Monday, Mike Babcock.

It took all these guys some time to establish themselves, but in the end they led their teams to titles. Saunders deserves that chance too, if only for another year.

If Saunders goes, who becomes the replacement?

Rumors say that assistant and former player Michael Curry might be an option. But aside from Curry, who else do the Pistons have in mind? Curry played under Rick Carlisle and Brown, but who knows what kind of coach he’ll make? Maybe he’ll be another Avery Johnson, but maybe he’ll be a flop.

At this stage, a veteran coach seems a logical choice, but whom? I doubt they’ll be able to lure a big name coach away from a good team, especially now that Mike D’Antoni, the biggest coaching free agent of the offseason, is in New York.

How many more successful coaches do the Pistons need to sack? Carlisle was fired after a few successful playoff runs because Brown became available and Brown was bought out. Is it right that Saunders might be tossed for maintaining success in Detroit?

Instead of firing Saunders, Detroit might want to tweak its roster, as has been suggested for the past few years. Yes, this team is still good. But the core has stayed the same and their opponents for the East crown have made upgrades.

For starters, the Pistons need a center. They haven’t been the same since Ben Wallace left, and all his successors have been good but not great. They need a center who can give them at least 10-12 points a game to take the pressure off of Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton.

Amir Johnson is one choice, and having Chris Webber for another season might have helped this year, but the Pistons might have to look at free agents.

Indiana’s Jermaine O’ Neal is worth looking at. While O’Neal’s history with the Pistons is less than pleasant, it’s hard to overlook his 14.4 point career scoring average and he’s got lots of playoff experience. Fans might object, but maybe O’Neal will become what Chris Chelios became to the Red Wings.

In looking for a center the Pistons will have to delegate someone to the bench or trade a player. If someone absolutely needs to go, it must be Rasheed Wallace. He’s a great player and provides a lot of offense for this team, but he was almost non-existent on the stat sheets during the Celtics series and his mouth gets him in trouble.

He’s been a tremendous asset, but he’s not a natural center and even if he’s not traded, he’d be a great player off the bench. Another option is to delegate Antonio McDyess back to the bench and give Wallace his spot.    

The Pistons had an answer at center until they traded it away. I’m speaking of course of Darko Milicic. By now everyone knows the superstars the Pistons passed up to get Milicic, only to have him sit on the bench and never become a star. 

He got chances under Brown and Saunders and then was traded away, but who knows if he would have become a star when the Pistons needed a center of the future?

Seven feet tall and only 22 years old, Darko is young and athletic and could have blossomed were he given a starting role. Instead the Pistons will probably make minimal roster changes and cross their fingers.