I still stick to my previous post that the Detroit Lions are the worst organization in all of sports.  I have been looking forward to sharing my opinion on the Pistons so here goes.

The Detroit Pistons are a bad organization; plain and simple.  Yes, they won championships in 1988-1989, 1989-1990, and 2003-2004 – which is nothing to be upset about.  The 2004 run was fantastic to watch.  Most if not all Pistons fans loved “D-Troit Basketballlllllll” – which other teams, national tv analysts, and writers around the country hated.  The Pistons played as a team. They played tight defense and their offense was just good enough for them to win.  Joe Dumars made some of his best (although luckiest) moves in order to set up that run.

Since that time, the Pistons have done nothing but gotten worse.  Bill Davidson never wanted to spend any money, and Joe Dumars has drafted a grand total of 3 players in the past 10 years that you could say “panned out,” and one of them is putting up 20 and 10 over in Utah.  Tayshaun Prince was a good pick and turned out to be a hell of a player.  I still think the jury is out on Stuckey until we figure out exactly what he is, but so far I’ll give Joe credit for taking him at 15.  He has been productive, he works hard, he drives the lane, and he can shoot.  However, he doesn’t do anything to make the players around him better.  He is not a leader on the floor and he doesn’t do well distributing the ball around.  Basically, he’s not a point guard.  It’s obvious to most of us, but not Joe.  Throughout the carousel of coaches the Pistons have had, their only real point guard was Chauncey Billups, who really deserves the credit for the championship.

Rodney Stuckey is a combo guard.  He can bring the ball up the floor, but he’s better off just playing the 2 spot.  Yet for whatever reason, Stuckey is untouchable, Joe thinks he’s the future of the franchise, and we’re stuck with him as our starting point guard.  How is a coach going to be expected to win when he’s forced into a situation like this?  Michael Curry was thrown in, handed Stuckey as his starting point guard, and then asked to work Allen Iverson into the mix, both in the locker room and on the court.  Dumars and Curry made the wrong call when the time came and Rip Hamilton was the one who got sent to the bench.  Really?  Your most consistent scorer over the past few years? The guy you just signed to an extension after promising to keep Chauncey around with him?  How many times can we screw this guy over?  No wonder he had no love for Curry and probably has similar feelings for Joe D and the ownership.  The plan was to sell some tickets and see what A.I., a “superstar” could do in Detroit.  “The Answer” was not much.  The Pistons had a terrible season, Iverson was hurt for most of it, and they got swept in the playoffs.  The message was clear as day – our run was over.

Sure, the Pistons had won a championship in 2004 and made the conference finals every year before losing in the semis to Boston and then getting swept by Cleveland as LeBron embarassed them.  They weren’t even competitive. It was clearer than ever that the Pistons’ model of teamwork could no longer be successful in the NBA.  We all knew that a “superstar” had to be brought to the roster if they were ever going to get back to the finals and win another championship.  The setup was there.  Iverson’s $23 million contract was coming off the books, along with Rasheed’s $11 million.  This was going to leave the Pistons with the most cap space of any team, giving them their choice of the 2009 free agent class – with only one problem – the 2009 free agent class is full of bench players.  No big deal right?  Sign a couple role players, get a high pick in the draft, and start the spending in 2010.  Sounds good.  What did Joe Dumars do instead?  He signed Ben Gordon to a 5 year $55 million contract, and Charlie Villanueva to a 5 year $35 million contract.  Both are good players….at about half the price that was paid for them.  Neither one of them can play defense or rebound: fantastic.  “Flash” Gordon will replace Rip Hamilton leaving us with exactly 0 guards that can play defense.  Gordon will shoot 3’s and maybe drop 30 here and there – but when he does, the guy he’s guarding is going to score 37.  Same goes for Villanueva.  Without a real center next to him (maybe Tyson Chandler?) Villanueva is a complete liability on the defensive end.  That leaves fans asking many questions that all start with one word: why?  Why spend so much money on bench players?  Why sign them on the first day of free agency when there are no other teams with the cap space to offer them anything close to what they wanted?  Why not just bring in a couple of mid-level role players for $3-$6 million a year, give the new guys and our young guys some experience in 2009-2010, and then go out and bid on whoever we want in an offseason LOADED with talent?  Instead, we get to sit back and watch a team that will be decent, maybe even good if Joe pulls off a trade involving Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince so we don’t have to watch an $11 million Ben Gordon come off the bench.  We’ll see a team that’s good enough to make the playoffs and if they’re lucky they might win a few games and maybe even the first series.  Although, they won’t make the conference finals, and they absolutely won’t be a contender for a title.  That may be good enough for the ownership and Joe Dumars – but it’s not good enough for me.  It’s not good enough for hard working Detroit Pistons fans.  People shouldn’t be paying good money to watch a team play that has no shot at a title, knowing that their organization had the chance to put them near the top of the list by bringing in a superstar.   In this NBA, you cannot win without one, and it appears we won’t be seeing one in a Pistons uniform anytime soon.