Pistons Central

After choosing DJ White with their first pick and then doing a trade with the SuperSonics to get Walter Sharpe, I already didn't like how the Pistons drafted was going. Especially since they passed up on Chris Douglas-Roberts and DeAndre Jordan. Then with their other two picks they get Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington. Did we really need to draft all forwards in the draft?

My overall grade would be a D-. If they would have kept White I would have put it at a B-, but the Sharpe pick was horrible. Don't know to much about Plaisted, but Washington wouldn't have been that terrible of a pick if we wouldn't have drafted 2 other forwards already. 

Category: NBA

What do the Detroit Pistons need to do this offseason to be sucessful NEXT season? That is indeed the question that needs to be asked in trade talks.

Before I discuss any move I want to make sure everyone know this: If the Pistons are not sucessful next season, whatever they do now willl be scrutinized and criticized all year. With that in mind they need to not only be completely positive that the move will be an immediate improvement, but also that it is the ABSOLUTE best move that could be made. If they mess up either way, it will be looked at as a failure and a mistake on the part of the franchise.

Moving on, I feel that there are three reasons we lost three straight Eastern Conferance Finals.

1. We do not have a star player that can get the calls everyone else can get. That is how the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers beat us. Everytime we would get a little physical with Dwayne Wade or LeBron James, the refs would call a foul. We were beat from the beginning.
2. Rasheed Wallace. He is usually out of control, ridiculously inconsistent, and, worse of all, he is our team leader. That means that we take after his attitude, not good. In the end he hurts us more than he helps us.
3. We no longer have a sense of urgency. It seems like Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billiups were our veterans that played that last game like it was their last. They played like they NEEDED the win, while everyone else played like it was game one of the first round.

It is pretty clear that we need to get rid of Rasheed. Granted, it will not be very easy considering he is 33 years old, in the last year of his contract, and inconsistent. I say we try to get a young star such as Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Al Jefferson, etc. If we can't get a young star, we need a star under 31 will do. If THAT cannot happen, we need a big man that can play on the post on offense and defense.

Possible trade baits could be a Rasheed, Tayshaun Prince, and Antonio McDyess. You might be able to put in RIP or Billups depending on the players we would recieve, although I am not very keen on breaking up the best backcourt in the NBA. If it means the difference between a very good trade and a good trade throw RIP in. If it means the difference between a terrific trade and an average trade throw in Chauncey. I personally think that Chauncey Billups is the key to our team, and getting rid of an all-star point guard in an MBA where consistent point guards are hard to come by would be a bad move. Rodney Stuckey will more than likely develop, but how long will it take. What happens if we trade Chauncey and Stuckey moves into the point guard position but isn't developed and immidiately struggles? We are stuck with an undeveloped player at the most important offensive position. That would be the one position a needy team doesn't want an undeveloped player. Because mistakes will come in bunches and he might not be able to develop because he was fed to the dogs at a bad stage.

We lock up Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, and possibly Arron Afflalo, Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, and Amir Johnson. We try to dish Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess and possibly Tayshaun Prince. We try to get a star shooting-forward or power forward/center.

 

Category: NBA

Here is my beef with our current Pistons roster...

1) We dont have a guy that can drive the lane consistantly.  Rodney Stuckey has shown signs of this but he is out of control sometimes.  Rip tries but usually turns the ball over.  Tayshaun does sometimes but most of the time he just stands around on offense.

2) Richard Hamilton... He is a SHOOTER and that's it!!!  He cannot handle the ball to save his life BUT he always tries to.  He cant pass, dribble, or drive and that is a problem when you are a SG. 

3) Dissapearing acts...  I hate the "flip the switch" attitude.  A lot of our guys do this all the time.  To win a championship you need to bring it hard every night.  They all do this.  Sheed, Tay, and Chauncey the most.  Rip is our most consistant scorer but all he can do is shoot.

What we need is a SG that can drive the ball to the lane and score. 

Let's see what Joey D is going to do...

Category: NBA

We have a lot going on already in the beginning of the off-season for the Pistons, and it is sure to get even more crazy after the Finals and during the summer. We have already had Flip fired (hooray!) and are now introducing one of our assistants, Michael Curry, as the new head coach. We lost Terry Porter to the Suns, as he becomes their new head coach. Now that's just what's happened so far (not to mention with all the conspiracy/Donaghy stuff going on).

Joe D has already said that no one is safe this off-season and "everyone is in play." So we could be seeing any of our player being traded sometime this summer. The more obvious choices would be Rasheed and Chauncey, but rumors of Rip and Tayshaun being traded have come up as well. The most common rumor is a trade with the Nuggets where we would get Melo and possible Camby by trading Rasheed and Tayshaun. Another rumor was a deal involving Rasheed and STAT from the Suns. These are just the more popular ones, and we should see others popping up throughout this off-season until Joe makes a trade. That's even if he does a trade.

Two topics to discuss:

1) How well will Curry do as the head coach this year?

2) What is the best/most likely trade Joe D will pull off in this off-season?

Category: NBA