A Piston-Mortem
Six straight years to the Eastern Conference Finals and only two trips to the NBA Finals. Only one of those two ever resulted in a won championship... Really it is a story that many say would be one of not trying too hard. However, one cannot really fault the Pistons for that. Look at the second round of the 2008 play-offs! After losing their All-Star Point Guard (PG), they came back, rookie in hand, to close off the series in five games. It says something about what this team can achieve if it rallies. Then again, one only has to look at Game 3 against the Celtics to see just how complacent the Pistons have gotten with their success. They fought hard, tooth and nail, to win in Boston's home, a sacred sanctuary where the latter had conceded no ground in the play-offs. However, with their moment of glory the Pistons do what they always do, they grow complacent in their game and ensconce themselves in their egos. The problem is there has been no one to violently jar them out, to keep them on their toes and maybe after a dismal loss in 2008 a violent shake-up is essentially what they need.
The Coach Must Go
It really is unfair. No, it truly is unfair that a coach can get blamed for underperforming players. Then again that is the job a coach is saddled with. That large salary comes at a very definite price, the buck as it were. No matter the prowess displayed in the regular season, a trip to the Finals is the only measuring stick for a Pistons coach. Quite frankly, anything else is just sub-par. Flip Saunders knew this coming after Larry Brown's illustrious reign at the Pistons. The players hated Larry Brown, but they absolutely respected his reign over them. Yes, Brown made some poor choices and left the team in disgrace. However, there was no doubt, even among the players, that he was necessary for their trip to the Finals.
So how did Flip fail? Mainly, because he did not have the respect of his players after three years with the Pistons. Mostly, because he spent too much of his time and energy trying to gain their respect. This meant that he did not get up in their faces and did not dress them down. Moreover, the lack of respect translated into a disconnect between the coach and his players. This manifested itself in the ugly tirade by Rasheed Wallace during the final minutes of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals. However, though things quieted down significantly in the last year, there was still those captured glimpses where the players were just not listening to what the coach had to say. A lot of this stemmed from his first season at the Pistons. His focus on offense with a defensive minded team naturally played over badly. His choice to run his starters over a significant majority of the forty-eight minutes meant that the bench rarely got a chance to flex their muscle. Yes he rectified all of that in his last year at Detroit, but the obvious question is should that matter? Of course it should, especially when the problems of the last series stemmed more from the players and less from the coach. Still, Flip had plenty to be blamed for. He rarely put the correct rotations in the game at a time. Detroit usually found itself missing a man or vastly underpowered when it came to standing in the paint on either sides of the court. So yes, Flip needed to go, but with four coaches in ten years, just changing coaches was not going to be the fix that Joe Dumars (Pistons' General Manager) needs to re-invigorate the team.
Age Is Hard
The Pistons are an older team. Only one of their starters is under 30 (Tayshaun Prince). Moreover, they have become an increasingly complacent team, happy to sit on their laurels. It is telling that in one of the "Wired" portions of a telecast, Flip Saunders was standing in the Pistons' locker room trying desperately to motivate the players. This was game six, potentially the last game for the Pistons. A team should not need motivation to get up, walk out there and win on their home court. The fire from the Pistons' belly was lost.
It is easy to understand in some respects. The aforementioned Prince has been to a Conference Finals every year that he has spent in the league. Something like that has got to go to a person's head. Moreover, all five starters, while not super-stars, have been All-Stars and have a defined note when it comes to the Finals, "Been there, done that". The only force pushing and prodding the Pistons was Antonio McDyees. McDyees was garnered after the 2004 win and he has yet to get a ring on his finger. Pushing towards thirty-four, he has only so many more years in the league and only very little time to get his ring. However, McDyees' urgency and pressure was a negative one, as he constantly exuded worry. To counter him, there was no positive force of encouragement. Then again, to be a hungry team and to be a team that gets a title, you need to have that hunger within you and not forced upon you.
Thus it was only inevitable that with the fire gone, a complacence reaching over the team and a general malaise and ego towards any coach that dared to tell them what and how they should do, that Joe Dumars got pissed. It is easy to get pissed too. After all, when you are up by ten points in the last ten minutes of a game there should be no reason to lose it! Particularly not with the methodical precision with which the Pistons play. Then again, those ten minutes were quite frankly sloppy. There is also that tired Pistons' mantra, that if it ain't hard, it ain't worth it. That has gotten the Pistons into most of its big binds and with its back against the walls. Sometimes they perform great, other times even the best performance is subject to a losing luck. However, for such a good team, they never should find themselves in that position, at least not willingly.
What should be done?
The removal of Flip was an obvious answer, but it will do far little to obviate the ingrown malaise. So Joe Dumars has done the unthinkable, to some, and given an open call for trades on his five starters. The only one who is not on the chopping block is the new protégé Rodney Stuckey. Many have bemoaned the unnecessary change to a good team, but the point is there needs to be change to keep this complacence at bay and this is something that will assuredly do that.
So who to get rid of? Really all out starters are All-Stars, but there are a few who have regularly under-performed in the Play-offs. Chauncey Billups comes to mind and with a rising Stuckey this could be a valid time to get him off. However, we just gave him a rather hefty contract and so losing him might not be the best time. It is also important to note that he had a positive influence on Stuckey's game, even from the sidelines, particularly during the series against Orlando. Tayshaun Prince is another candidate, who under high defensive pressure absolutely crumbles in his offense. Moreover, Parker utterly dominated Prince in the last series, offensively and defensively. Then of course there is everyone's scapegoat, Rasheed Wallace. Here is a man who wears his emotions on his sleeve, in a good and bad way. However, he has also been underperforming greatly. For his size, the man is rarely in the paint and his anemic three rebounds and 2-for-12 shooting in the last game demonstrate that he might be far enough past his prime. Moreover, much like Saunders, he has one year left on his contract and this would be a perfect time to trade him.
The fact is that while each of these players are good, none of them are super-stars. They are consistent, but they have no flash. So the most mileage that Detroit can get out of them is to trade them as pairs. The two together could possibly garner a big enough man for Detroit. Who do we primarily need to replace? I would say that a Rasheed Wallace is what we need. Someone big in the paint, not afraid to get rebounds and post-up, but also someone who can take the elusive jump-shot. That would indeed be a lethal combination. However, those are few and far in between. That would be why trading an aged version of this player, plus a youngster with versatile skills would work best. 
Of course, you can see where I am going with this. The best two to trade would indeed be Wallace and Prince. This would pack size, offense and defense in one package for any team that can give us a younger and more malleable Wallace.
What about our five? Well with two starters gone and the arrival of only one from a trade, that leaves an important and size-able gap. Who can deliver? Why none other than our Stuckey! See, Stuckey can easily substitute in for Prince on defense and has shown he can be more consistent on offense. Moreover, being on the court for long stretches of the game will allow him to get acclimated and eventually take over from Billups. There is real potential here and it would be a shame not to use Stuckey even from this young age. In other words, it would finally give Detroit an infusion of new blood and at the same time keep the old guard that have done well by us. With the infusion it might be possible to see a re-invigoration within the team, provided they had a good hand guiding them.
Change is hard, for those affected by the change and for those watching it from the outside. Detroit has had six good years, but they have not been six spectacular years. The unfortunate part is that there is no reason they should not have been spectacular. This season showed everyone that there is indeed enough blame to go all around and it is good to know that Dumars sees this as an opportunity for change. He might be fed up, he might be mad, but he knows that this team is still a contender and it needs the push from all the right directions to get there. That does not mean tearing down the team, but instead giving it a correct infusion in coaching and players. If pulled off correctly, we in Detroit might only have to wait a season to see our Pistons back in a Finals again.
