What the hell happened to these guys? If they clean house this offseason, I wonder if Morey can pick up a Rasheed or something.
A number of things. 1) Bad trade. 2) Curry is a bad coach. 3) Team pretty much has quit on Curry. 4)They play as individuals. 5) Curry is the Coach. 6) Michael Curry.
Age. Age, the realization that they overpaid Billups when they extended him and the complete disaster of firing Flip in favor of Michael Curry have all been the keys to Detroit's imminent implosion. Say what you want about Flip's inability to win big, we're talking about a guy who coached for three years and had three Conference Finals appearances to show for it. Flip would have this team winning at least. Sure, they would be toast again against Boston or Cleveland but at least they would have had a shot to get there in the first place. That's not quite the case with Michael Curry.
i agree with you that flip would have taken this team farther than curry, but i disagree that billups is overpayed. he's only payed $10 a year, and that's the standard market value for a top 10 point guard (look at the contract jose calderon signed this summer for example). considering the turnaround the nuggets have had with him (commentators no longer speak of them as first round fodder), and the extent to which the pistons have suffered without him, you have to look beyond his stats to see his value (plus 18 ppg and 6 apg are nothing to sneeze at).
Gotta agree with curry being the coach as the problem. I also could not believe they benched Rip. But, they have some money coming off the books so they may be able to make a few moves without totally rebuilding it.
I'm not doubting his value in the short-term. Denver's turnaround and phase II of Detroit's meltdown are both evidence of this. $11-12-13-14/M a year for Billups and he's approaching his mid-30's. That's a lot of money for a player whose play is likely to start declining and whose body is likely to start breaking down. Dumars likely felt he overpaid and saw his opportunity to essentially hit the 'reset button' with Sheed and AI's deals both coming off the books. It's a great strategy for turning the page on that core.
if there was a chance sheed said okay to a vet minimum i would be stupid not to take it unless we got the idea to play ron more at the four
Dead on! I've disliked the Pistons for many years, but Chauncey and Rip were my favorite 2 players on their team. When they traded Chauncey, I wanted them to fail in the worst way. When Curry benched Rip (a disastrous move), that was the last straw. That put them in Mavs territory for me. But it's gotten to the point the Pistons are so irrelevant that I really don't care if they lose now. At best, they are 1st round roadkill. At worst, they will be in the lottery. The biggest question left is will Curry be allowed to finish the season if they stay completely in the tank.
They are not going to make the playoffs this year. Chicago is now a better team than them and only 2 games behind.
I disagree (seriously). AI is the problem. I like Iverson, but his teams generally underperform (with the obvious exception of the title-contending 76er team).
