Detroit Pistons' Cleanup Time: The Key To the Team's Season Is Moving Forward

What a week it has been for the Detroit Pistons.

There were the trade deadline mishaps, the shootaround debacle, the iron man game, the subsequent coach ejection controversy, the dreaded endorsement of the coach by the team president, the repudiation of national punditry and finally the obligatory kiss and make up report.

Most Pistons fans have each other to console and commiserate with. Not me.

As a displaced Detroit fan, I am the face of all Michigan sports to those in my life out here on the West Coast. So when an issue springs up, from Miguel Cabrera's exploits to this week's controversy surrounding the Pistons, I have dozens of people coming to me and asking what the heck is going on back home.

For writing purposes, I held off on jumping instantly into the fray. Personally, I like to hear all sides of the story, ruminate on it for a day or two and then comment on it. In today's instant gratification society with tweeting and the like, this may be out of vogue.

But too often I hear pundits putting their feet in their mouths, and nobody calls them on it. National pundits have the luxury of being wrong on one issue and then having another situation arise that effectively lets them off the hook.

Yesterday I heard Ryen Russillo on Scott Van Pelt's show condemn the Pistons and in doing so lump Ben Wallace into the mix. He said he had some sort of personal thing. Will anyone call him out on the fact that Wallace was dealing with his gravely ill brother, who subsequently died? Is that enough of an issue to miss a shootaround, Ryen?

But I digress.

The point of this article is to address the past week of Pistons basketball.

First off, the trading deadline. Team president Joe Dumars blew it, and only part of that is his fault. His hands are tied, and he is even admitting that publicly. But there were two moves he could have made, and one of them he had full control over.

The Rip Hamilton deal was out of his hands. The Cavs offered to buy out Hamilton's deal, but Rip balked, so he remains in Detroit.

But why exactly did Dumars elect not to deal Tayshaun Prince? The Dallas Mavericks were offering Caron Butler's expiring deal and a first-round pick. Dumars has said that he felt Prince was worth more than that.

But now the deadline is over, and he didn't get anything for him. Prince has an expiring deal himself and will likely walk away after the year. Did Dumars think he would have a better shot of re-signing Prince if he didn't ship him? Personally, I think Prince would have been more likely to re-sign if Dumars gave him a shot at winning this year.

Next was the shootaround mess. Okay, we will never know exactly what happened there. All we are left with is conjecture and speculation.

If I am guessing, I would say there was a combination of things at work. Hamilton is beyond malcontent, and he probably said that he was skipping it. Not a smart move, but not entirely unexpected either. He hasn't played in forever, and he was fed up. Add to that the fact that he knew he was going to remain in this situation, and it is an easy leap to make.

Wallace gets a pass on this. Secondly, the team did change the time that the bus took off from the hotel from 11 am to 10:30. This could have added to the situation, but my guess is that Austin Daye and Rodney Stuckey were contemplating skipping the shootaround but came to their senses late.

Chris Wilcox has always had issues with sleeping in, so he probably was an accident. Prince and Tracy McGrady both should be smarter than this, so their sick calls should have some credibility. But more than likely they didn't want to implicitly endorse the coach by showing up, but they didn't want to be seen as malcontents either.

The strange thing about the whole matter is the fact that coach John Kuester decided to bench them all. This suggests that he thought it was a boycott, so he lumped them all in together.

Make no mistake about it—this is a man in over his head. Because of this action, however, the team now has no choice but to endorse him and play out the year. He can't be fired now until the season ends.

As a result, Dumars came out and endorsed his coach, always a sign that that coach is dead as disco.

The real interesting part of this is what happens heading forward. All players have handlers. They have their agents, publicists and entourage. If any of these guys has at least one smart person in that bunch, they will have some sense talked into them.

This whole episode crushes all of these players' values. Nobody wants to sign a player that has quit on his coach and his team.

I think McGrady and Prince know this, and I think Hamilton is finally figuring this out. That is why Hamilton came out yesterday and said that he and Coach Kuester made up. That is also why you will hear similar things from McGrady and Prince, and the franchise will come out swinging in defense of Wallace.

Daye and Stuckey are good kids, but they are followers. They will follow the vets, and right now the vets will get this ship under control.

That is why I think this team is going to go on a nice run right now. They all had their voices heard, and they got to throw a fit. They saw where that got them—front and center on the national media's radar—and it wasn't pretty.

But the media loves a redemption story, so look for the players and Kuester to make lemonade out of the proverbial lemon of a season they are in and make a serious push for the playoffs.

Rip will get off the bench and log some minutes, as will Prince and McGrady.

Again, Kuester will ride the vets at the expense of the young guys.

Personally, this type of redemption story is terrible for the long-term prospects of this team since it sacrifices the future for a first-round exit. But that is what will happen. There is just enough talent on this team to make a strong push for the eighth seed.

Sadly, that will not make this team better, but it will put a band-aid on this situation.

Overall, this is another sad chapter in a very sad, wasted season.