***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

[redsrule]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Well see...who is he going to build around?

That is the first question that needs to be answered.

Greg Monroe & Drummond are great young big man.

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Build around Larry Brown would be my vote....

Short of that, I concur w/ l3ulvl and reds. Still a lot of pieces that need to fall into place, though - we are a lot farther away than I thought coming into this year, and I thought we were light years away before this season started.

[EAGLESFAN10]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

We have the potential to have a very good frontcourt with Drummond and Monroe

We NEED to upgrade the SG and SF positions and our bench if we even think about contending in the next few years ..... also another solid PG would be nice !!

We NEED some athleticism and speed also and we need to play better defense

We need to be smart this year and draft players who can HELP the team and also players who can be productive

[redsrule]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

If you're looking for smart, you are a fan of the wrong team. Did you forget Joe Dumars is in control of this team!?

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

If you're looking for smart, you are a fan of the wrong team. Did you forget Joe Dumars is in control of this team!?

I know we've gone back-and-forth about Joe D as an executive here for the last few years, but he has hits and misses. Certainly not the best GM in the biz by any stretch, but probably not the worst either. Real good early (drafting Tay, drafting Mehmet Okur, trading Stack for Rip, signing Chauncey, getting Wallace as part of the Grant Hill deal, snagging 'Sheed at the trade deadline) pretty big misses in there as well (Darko, but that wasn't as bad at the time as everyone says now in retrospect - see my rant about that from 20 pages back or whatever, Ben Gordon and Charlie V signings - although those made some sense at the time as well, a bunch of lost drafts, later round draft picks, dumping Chauncey and Aflalo for Iverson, signing of C-Webb, the T-Mac experiment)...it's hard to say he's a complete idiot, but he also isn't the genius he appeared to be when we were going to 6-straight Eastern Conference Finals.

I think he deserves another year or two to try to turn this back around, especially given his prolonged success earlier, and the fact that he had 2+ seasons or so where he was completely handcuffed and unable to do anything with the team while Karen Davidson held out for Dallas Cowboys-like money for the team and let the franchise wither on the vine...but another season like this one and we'll have to re-consider his continued leadership of the team.

[redsrule]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Don't forget as recent as this year them trading a first round pick for Corey Maggete who didn't play much at all. If we were a top team still, that might make since, but that pick could turn into a top 5 pick in a couple years.

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Don't forget as recent as this year them trading a first round pick for Corey Maggete who didn't play much at all. If we were a top team still, that might make since, but that pick could turn into a top 5 pick in a couple years.

Yeah, that was bad...not sure what the thinking there was. I can't explain that move at all.

[redsrule]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

I could sort of understand it if there was a great free agent class this summer, because Maggete's deal is off the books this year. But there isn't, so they gave up a first rounder for ****.

Also regarding the draft this year, I hope we can get Victor Oladipo. Even though he is a 2, I think Knight could shift back over to the point, since he is an undersized 2.

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

I'm not that sold on Oladipo...I mean, before this year he was kind of just a guy....

We need some more perimeter scoring and at least another PG. But again, I'm not sure any of that matters until we get a real head coach. I'd even be willing to take a flyer on Bill Laimbeer at this point.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Random Question: Does anyone know why exactly Rick Carlisle was fired in Detroit? Was there anything behind the scenes(such as not being liked by anybody)that led to him being dismissed?

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Random Question: Does anyone know why exactly Rick Carlisle was fired in Detroit? Was there anything behind the scenes(such as not being liked by anybody)that led to him being dismissed?

I think Dumars just wanted Larry Brown and didn't care how successful Carlisle was. Otherwise it made no sense to get rid of him right after turning the franchise around.

http://www.pistonpowered.com/2011/06/deservedly-rick-carlisle-wins-the-nba-title-he-never-got-in-detroit/

edit: actually now that I read some of the comments on that article I guess there was more going on behind the scenes than I realized

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Random Question: Does anyone know why exactly Rick Carlisle was fired in Detroit? Was there anything behind the scenes(such as not being liked by anybody)that led to him being dismissed?

Yeah, apparently there were some rumblings about him being brusque or not well liked or whatever...the bottom line is no one other than Joe D and the departed Mr. D know why they canned Carlisle. I would say that in retrospect, it was probably the wrong move, since Carlisle could still be our coach and may have won another title in there somewhere along the way, whereas Larry Brown was gone in 2 years as is his MO. On the flip side, maybe we don't win that '04 title with Carlisle (although I seriously doubt that). Having said that, if you have a chance to get Larry Brown as your head coach, I think you owe it to your organization to try to do it, and the one guy (maybe in the world) you would get rid of a great young coach like Carlisle was at the time for would be Brown - maybe one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time.

But in sum, if you look back, we basically traded the next decade of the franchise after Brown left for the 1 title in 2004, and I'm not sure it was the right move. Of course a title means everything and you do whatever it takes to get one, but looking longer-term, I'm not convinced at all that we wouldn't have won in 2004 anyway (with Carlisle as head coach), and we may have gotten another title in the subsequent years with Carlisle since we were still good for another 4-5 years after that title. Instead, we got Brown for 2 years (and a title, and what should have been another in '05...grrrr....), then Flip Saunders (who I hated long before he came to Detroit), Michael Curry (if Joe D had one fire-able offense, hiring Curry would be it), John Kuester (never had a chance with those spoiled-a** teams), and now Lawrence Frank (who I don't think is a bad guy, but is not the guy to bring this squad up from the squalor). Basically, a completely lost decade after the '05 finals loss, during which time we had at least 1 team capable of making another title run. I would prefer we would have kept Carlisle and have him as our coach to this day. I mean, who cares if he didn't say "hi" to the owner or whatever? As much as I respected Davidson as the heart-and-soul of the organization, I always felt like he made too many decisions with his heart rather than his head. That may have cost us at least a few results over the years.

[redsrule]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Frank is officially out as head coach now. Will be interesting to see who they bring in to replace him.

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Frank is officially out as head coach now. Will be interesting to see who they bring in to replace him.

Good. Kinda funny he pulled that "pick up my 4th year or fire me now" stunt, can't say I blame him. Too bad Gores stuck his nose in the hiring in the first place, otherwise we'd have Woodson.

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Good. Kinda funny he pulled that "pick up my 4th year or fire me now" stunt, can't say I blame him. Too bad Gores stuck his nose in the hiring in the first place, otherwise we'd have Woodson.

I'm not a fan of Woodson - basically, he runs an AAU club, and his X's and O's knowledge boils down to "get the ball to the star and have him do something". Which, to be fair, is basically the NBA in a nutshell, but when he was in Atlanta - if he could have - he'd have Joe Johnson inbound the ball to Joe Johnson, who would pass the ball to Joe Johnson, who would dish to Joe Johnson for a dunk. His success w/ the Knicks this year seems fishy to me; like 'Melo is just having a good year and the pieces were jelling around the right time. Maybe I'm wrong and they win the title, but if they weren't playing in the East, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Knicks go down in round 1. If I cared to watch any NBA hoops, that is...

I can't say I'm happy Frank is gone, because I think he generally seems like a decent guy, and I wish him and his family the best, but I didn't want him to be the coach of the Pistons anymore. We need someone that can mold a team out of anything, like a Larry Brown or Carlisle or early Doug Collins. I don't know who that guy is, but we have to get it right this time - the revolving door that is the Detroit Pistons head coaching position is getting to be a laughingstock. I would say Joe D lives-or-dies by the next head basketball coach of this team.