I 1st want to point out that this is not the end of "Deetroit Basketbaaal"
You are not going to win it every year. Its a different situation than back in 91 when the team walked off knowing they were done. Prince gave a great interview with Jim gray on how confident he was that the team will be back next season for another crack. You want to blame gremlins then blame the lack of depth and how we gambled everything on the starting 5 remaining in perfect health throughout the run. Lost a lot with Sheeds injury.

Odd Stat. The last time the Pistons had homecourt in the East finals was the 0-4 sweep to the Nets. In the 2 trips to the Finals the Pistons were the underseed for both 3rd rounds and Finals series. In a way the road team has an advantage of not having the pressure of having to start the series with 2 consecutive wins. Road team only has to win 1 of the 1st 2 and take it from there. So why kill yourself working for homecourt? Homecourt is nice but it should not be sought at the expense of not improving your team during the season. Here the post-season inexperience of Flip was a factor.

I want the starters back for the most part but some things have to change. I did not aknowledge it much during the season but we do need more off the bench. And we need a coach willing to take a step back during the season to make some investments for the post-season. Perfect example is Carlos Delfino. If Flip had gone through the growing pains with Delfino for a couple of months then we would have had a fine reserve player able to chip in 20+ mins off that Piston bench. A player like that could have made a difference tonight and could have made enough of a difference in the prior series for it to not have to go the distance. Instead he went with Evans who came pre-packaged with a jump shot and some rebounding ability but where was he in this series?

Flip went the easy route concentrating more on winning 70 games than developing his team for the post-season. What about Davis? Fine rebounder/defender. Could have made a difference this series. At least been able to spot the Wallace's some as Ben had his hands full with Shaq and Sheed with the ankle. Maxiel? How big would it have been if Max had played enough during the season to be ready for primetime?

The bench is important. Not so much the physical fatigue factor as much as the mental fatigue of knowing that no one on your bench has your back if you are having a bad game. You need that spark. That lift. We used to knickname the 04 bench. We have had no bench for the past 2 seasons - just basically 2 guys called Dyess and Hunter.

A lot of questions need to be answered but before you guys come up with 500 different trade scenerios ask yourselfs if its going to get us back for another chance in the Finals. We already know we have a team capable of getting this far so perhaps its better to improve the depth and not tax the starters as much. And hey - we all knew 1 injury to a starter could doom us.

I'm really proud of all of the folks who contributed to this forum during the season. We are 100% fan driven, no sponsorship, no official affiliations, no blackhat marketing techniques. We did it "The Right Way". Detroit Pistons style. Hard work and tireless effort.

Folks naturally have scapegoats picked out. Some have had them all year, some are just searching for answers. Did the players come up short? Yes. Did management not move aggressively? Yes. Was the coaching sub standard for a team with playoff aspirations? Yes.

We can pick any one scapegoat, but as Detroit fans, proud people representing a proud franchise, we take our lumps as a team. The number of pieces not pulling their weight can be found everywhere. Needless to say, this will all shake out, and right or wrong, some parties will suffer the consequences of an early and unplanned playoff exit. Irregardless we'll be back chomping at the bit to start next season.

By no means a final thought, I will drop this a few times over the next few days because folks have asked. This forum is not closing, nor will it be closed during the offseason. It's your home for Pistons basketball. Our mission never included a Finals or bust clause. The Low and I have been scheming to provide you with some decent Summer League coverage, and there are literally dozens of improvements planned for next year.

Your participation and feedback as always are key. Once things settle down, we'll be looking to solicit ideas, opinions and volunteers.

Thanks for riding with me.

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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."

Micro - thanks for clarifying that. I by no means meant finals thoughts as a sign off until October. I meant finals thoughts about the Piston season we just saw come to a close.

I think I'm speaking for many of our members when I say that the pleasure has been ours, and that we should be thanking you, micro.

Thank you sir. It's rubbing elbows with intelligent and passionate fans such as yourself that makes this rewarding.
Finals thoughts on this stuff we witnessed?

The Heat took the Pistons to the woodshed, tied them to a bench with coarse rope, and beat the franchise's collective asses with Pat Riley's belt.

For the first time in 3 years, I felt that we rolled over. The team, the coaches, and the front office. We just reached deep into our pockets, and couldn't pull the lining inside out fast enough to give the bullies our lunch money.

We fought back like some 98 pound weakling against a professional wrestler.

I'm not mad. I'm disappointed. Whatever pieces return, this was the end of an era when Detroit Basketball meant teams having to match our intensity to win. An era when opponents would have to get lucky, help from the refs, have games of their lives to beat us by double figures.

I was raised on the brand of Detroit Basketball where you don't stop fighting. Where you punch first, second and last. Where failure is not ignoble if it comes from leaving it all on the court.

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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."

Micro - welcome to the real world. At some point humans reach their limits. You cannot keep putting yourself in elimination games and not have in eventually wear you down. In game 5 the team played great. Tonight was the 4th elimination game in about a 2-3 week span.

And I cannot emphasis more how huge Sheeds injury was. And it coincides pretty much with the team slumping. Last year we used to talk about if Sheed scored 20 we win. We all knew the thin ice we were on comming into the post-season if one of the starters got hurt.

I don't think Dumars should give away perfectly good players for some of the garbage trades that have been proposed around here. We have some fine players that we can work with and tweak around. This is kind of like what the 04 Spurs went though when they lost to the Lakers in the 2nd round. They did not go out and trade Duncan for the hell of it.

The hardest of the hardest workers in my opinion was the 01-02 team because they won on hard work and grit, lost bad to the Celts in the 2nd round due to lack of talent.

Nothing is guaranteed. All you can hope for is to have a valid shot every year. Pistons should continue to strive to be the best and always improve the team but giving away perfectly good players is not the answer.

It feels like there are 4 of us posting. Hopefully people come back after a night's rest with some fresh minds tomorrow.

The starter injury deal is just as precarious with most teams. Houston's season folded between Yao and T-Mac being out.

The Spurs never hit their stride with Ginobili missing time and Duncan playing injured.

The Suns would have run the West this year if Amare was healthy.

I don't think Sheed was a factor when it came to lack of execution or heart. I don't think the MVP (sic) disappears and starts losing his AST/TO edge because Sheed is on a bad wheel. I don't think Ben misses FTs or loses his energy due to Sheed. Or that Rip couldn't find his jumpshot or that Dice became a reluctant scorer.

Yeah, I agree that the 01/02 team was a truly hard working squad. And that they lost on talent gave us all hope as Joe started making moves.

I'm not sure that minor tweaks will be enough, but that's something for the articles section.

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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."

Final thoughts?

Enuff of this win now crap and start winning at the end of the season. Sacrifice a little at the beginning to get your guys playing their best at the end.

No more Michael Curry Clones. No more Darvin Hamms, and please no more Maurice Evans. Energy players do not help. Is there a single energy guy on any of the teams left in the playoffs? Flip called White Chocolate a role player that played well, please, JDub is an almost allstar pg, where's the suprise in him doing well.

Actually to be fair Evans did play well in the previous series. I just feel as though we had several assets on the bench that could have helped us if they were given some development time and perhaps some of the Starter woes were due to the fact that they did not have much to back them up and knew they had to do it alone.

Flip managed somehow to come into this series with an even thinner bench than we had last season. Thats not progress.

The times they are a-changing, and the Pistons must change with them. Incredibly high shooting percentages by the Miami backcourt (what was Williams, 10 for 12 last night?) are just one symptom of a leaguewide trend toward guard penetration. This team needs more lateral quickness on defense and a dribble penetrator off the bench who can get his own shot and make it. It is unrealistic to expect both in one player, so we've got pieces to acquire. And an attitude to shed.

At one point, I wrote that the current crop of Pistons had reached a position like many of us do in our careers. We work, we achieve, we get older ... and suddenly we we expect a little more, yet want it a little less. But in this world you have to keep re-inventing your hunger.

Maybe the Pistons needed this. Correction: they obviously did. Even after last year's loss, they always talked about being "one quarter away," as if that entitled them to three-fifths of the championship or something. But now everything is open to question. No sacred cows. And no more half-hearted efforts should be tolerated. I look forward to seeing how Joe evolves the Pistons model.

On a personal front, I'll only contribute an occasional post or article link at this point. My wife and seven-month-old baby are going to get all that time in the wee hours of the morning, as they should. But I'll still be around. My deep thanks to micro and Roscoe and the staff, who are far too thoughtful and gracious to exist on the Internet. Their knowledge and maturity actually make this feel like a professional gig, yet they still bring the passion of true fans. So give them a round of applause. They've earned it, day and night in ways that many of us never see.