In the beginning I truly believed that the Pistons bench would be awesome. I think Microwave was one of the ones who was truly pissed that Dumars had allowed all the good free agents to get away (signed with other teams).

By the time every other team finished shopping, we were left with all the others, Mo Evans, Dale Davis and Tony Delk who was let go.

We decided to gamble and get some players on the cheap in order to preserve money for Ben's signing?

I continue and will always believe that with a better bench we would have done much better with Cleveland. If the starters could not get it going then the starting unit would come in with the energy ala the Alternatorz.

Dumars will break up this core next season, I am pretty sure he is taking notes. Who will be the one to be released? That is the question for the next thread.

Believe me, this is one time when I wish I was wrong.

I think that Joe has been "playing it safe" since the Sheed trade and Dice signing.

He gets a pass because we love him for being the face of the franchise after Zeke retired, but just the same, he hasn't produced a draft pick that contributes since Tayshaun in 2002. Memo, Darko and Arroyo (via trade for this year's 1 st rounder) don't count. They are all gone with less than 3 full years on the books.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

I thought the Pistons were shopping for big names (Finley, etc.). You can't force a guy to sign with your team. With the CBA rules, I thought the Pistons did fine in the off-season. They surely have a team good enough to win the NBA Championship.

Management got cheap on the fans.

Dumars was trying to reserve some PT for Delfino and Darko. For whatever reason things did not work out for them with Flip.

Ask me again when its all over. If we win the title Dumars is not breaking anything up.

We can't throw huge money at free agents, and they know they won't get much playing time. Is Joe supposed to hold their families hostage until they sign? And only fans buy into that "Well, who wouldn't want to play for the Pistons" stuff.

The bench should have been developed more, absolutely. But I'm not going to blame management for running the team sanely.

Flip went stupid. Maxiell can obviously contribute (I know I know, Flip would hate it if we had a paint scorer). Delfino with a couple months of consistant playing time under his belt can be a big factor defending, slashing, and creating. Darko could have been a huge factor blocking shots and hitting jumpers (anyone who saw him in Orlando can attest to this. That horrible team became nearly unbeatable with him playing 25 mpg, so don't tell me it would have cost us tons of games).

I still think we need a quick backup PG in the vein of Devin Harris, Tony Parker, Barbosa, etc. Someone who can chance the tempo of the game. But if the guys we currently have were properly implimented during the season (instead of freaking out over getting HCA), our bench would be very good anyways. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Dice and Lindsey are the only 2 guys on the bench that the starters will even pass to. Unfortunately for us, Lindsey loves to shoot (But sucks at it), so that only leaves Dice. But don't get it twisted that guys like Max, Delfino, etc can't play because flip doesn't play them. He just doesn't seem to know how to use them. Just look at Tayshaun's season. It took Flip months to realize he couldn't just have Tay camp at the three point line. He still hasn't gotten to that point with most of the guys on the bench.

Running a team sanely can go hand in hand with good FA signings. The Palace is almost always sold out and the team is making $$. Nobody is talking about a mega $$ player. They can afford to pay a small luxury tax to improve the chances of winning the big one.

You mean like signing Michael Finley? Or Jerome James? Or Damon Jones?

Who was the guaranteed stud that could make a difference for us? We've seen most of the usual suspects fall during different rounds of the playoffs, which would indicate they weren't quite the cure-all you're looking for.

The only candidate I can think of is Tim Thomas, who yours truly brought up some months ago. He's playing great for Phoenix, but the guy is such a head case I can't blame anyone on the Pistons for keeping their distance. He and Sheed together would scare anyone.

Really talented bench players, like a Devin Harris, were in fact high first-rounders. That goes back to the issue of developing your young talent, which is a perfectly valid one. But Mark Cuban spent a lot of money for a lot of years cramming his roster full of name players, and it wasn't until they got bargains like Howard and Daniels that they really started going places. Checkbook management shouldn't impress anybody.

Absolutely it was slim pickin's last year when all you have is the MLE... gotta keep in mind that defense is also a prerequisite...
Not that Mo is even decent in this area but he was the last man standing that was wouldn't hurt the team long term.
Please name a couple FA's that was available for the MLE that could have helped.