I don't know who'll be gone, but I still don't want the starting 5 to leave. We're not done yet and we'll be back next season, but we need to make some moves. First off Flip will stay as head coach. Joe Dumars will try solving his problems, but I heard him once say in an interview that he never tried to tell a coach what to do in the middle of the season. I hope next season we fly under the radar because for some reason this team can't win when it has the advantage. No 60 win season I'll be happy with a 50-32 season as long as we win the championship. I hope every starter plays only 30 minutes in the regular season because these starters have played a lot over the years and it caught up with them. I hope we get a great bench. In 04 we had a great bench and I remember the bench about every other game would help get us out of halftime holes and do better than the starters to help the Pistons win.

Who'll be gone next season though?

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"That's the end, man." Rasheed Wallace

I'd be happy with any of these guys coming off the bench if they don't ask for too much money: Sam Cassel, Mike James, Marcus Banks, and Jason Terry (Free agents).

I love what Ben and Sheed have brought to the team, in the 2004 and 2005 playofff runs, and during the regular season this year. But I am not sure they are quite the same players today that they were in 2004 or 2005. Ben actually made a few jump shots in the 2004 finals and in the playoffs last year. This year, that did not happen (as far as I know), and it is hard to even imagine it happening. His trademark blocks and steals seemed to be down in the playoffs this year as well. His free throw percentage was about half of what it had been in the prior playoff runs, and for the first time I really felt that his poor free throw shooting hurt us badly in a playoff game or two. Is it possible that Ben and Sheed's skills have diminished a bit as they have gotten older? If so, then maybe we have to think about moving in other directions.

This playoff run certainly proves that though our Finals run may not have been all about Larry, it wasn’t as much about the player as they they wanted to believe. Each of them ought to be phoning LB about now with heart felt apologies. This playoff run should provide healthy servings of humble pie across the board.

Looking at the key part of our roster one must ask are we stocked with a top 15 player in each starting position. Do we have at least two who are top 6. Can they still grow and improve. Are there signs of physical deterioration. Our personnel ranks as one of the best groupings in the Association and it would be foolish to go about the task of dismantling then hoping to squeeze more from the bastardized result.

Sixty-four wins was no aberration, and strongly indicates something very right happened. Under Larry Browns system, our modern day yardstick, could we have done the same? Probably not. Though it will be argued that Browns system was a better tool for postseason preparation.

Flips calling card, improved offensive production, while prolific during the season was ultimately as lasting as a wisp of smoke. Most disturbing was how easily it was solved & disrupted, by a novice head coach none the less.
On the positive, the team enjoyed and responded to more offensive freedom. It allowed them to coast on D during the season while winning. It also seems to yield fewer injuries. Lesson learned ??

When taking the time to listen, virtually all of our most basic shortcomings have been openly highlighted in various criticisms and commentary. Both our successes and failures fall where the pressure was placed all season, squarely on the shoulders of our top six. The remedy however goes much farther. I like nearly everyone see issues with productive depth but more importantly a weak organizational structure.

DEPTH:
Barring Dice our best tradable asset is the 07 Magic pick. It can be coupled with another bench player (Davis, expiring contract ??) to get a shot at a key acquisition. That leaves us having to become committed to accelerating the rooks development and wise use the MLE.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:
Quote The Oracle June 3, 2006 Det News Forum
“The coach is there to provide a special kind of leadership, that the floor general can't even see.”
I add, the sideline general needs a similar over the shoulder cross-checking pair of eyes.

A review of our assistant coaches resumes would lead one to believe Flip is surrounded by very inexperienced YES men who wouldn’t voice a good or dissenting idea if one came to mind. After reading the media guide I wonder why Ron Harper is on the staff. He has no specific duties. To the point.
Miami shooting 60% from the floor, FOR THE SERIES, is sufficient evidence to amply support dismissal of Kevin Wilson.
From Piston Media Guide: Kevin Wilson is serving in his first season as special assistant with the Pistons. In his current position, Wilson will assist the coaching staff during game preparation and practices with special emphasis on zone defenses.

I believe we need to make sure the replacement for Sidney Lowe is a highly regarded, dues paid, ready to take the reins, man-to-man defense specializing, first chair sitting assistant. Someone who takes the pressure off of Flip to be something he is not. Not another arms folded, manicured hand resting on chin, unconsciously twitching kind of guy. But someone that appeals to the roughneck spirit of our team, maybe with a linebacker mentality. This team has only known one way to succeed and our playoff failure further supports that basis. Like children they crave a firm hand.

The second assistant position should be filled with a BIG MAN coach to help build a playoff ready post game in ALLof our 4s and 5s, young and old. We need an offensive PLAN B for the eventual jump shooting droughts. The bigs need to develop as a more cohesive subcomponent. Think of it as FLEX’ing our MUSCLES.

Lastly Flip needs to take his backcourt aside and teach them the intricacies of running a transition game. There is no excuse for pissing away a point and a half for each fast break point scored.

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Bye Ben...................sigh ................HELLO MAX !!!!!

Great post lemon. I like how you address that the bench weaknesses are not exclusively on Flip but also the men who assist him.

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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."

Hmmmm. This is all pretty hard for me, especially as I have a hard time distancing myself from my emotions with respect to certain issues or players. I'm not even sure where to begin.

As I think Micro has posted: the NBA has changed significantly in recent years, especially in the past couple of years (since our title). Rules changes obviously have favored offensive production and specifically those offensive teams that have at least one quick perimeter player capable of attacking the basket off the dribble with an eye toward finishing. We obviously can't roll back the clock on the tendencies the league is taking. We didn't win the title with Larry last year, and we wouldn't have won it with him this year, in my opinioin.

In fact, I must say that, on balance, I'm glad that Flip was hired and glad that he opened up the offense. Of course, I'm certainly on board with those who have provided balanced critical diagnoses of his weaknesses during the playoffs (especially as regards in game and game to game adjustments). I do not, however, personally, make too much of some of the flap in the media during the playoffs. Everyone was frustrated, surrounded by dozens of media guys asking the same question 30 different ways in order to get a usable morsel. That is, I don't think he's "lost" the team.

So I don't think the solution lies in getting rid of Flip. And I don't think the solution lies in altering or changing the offensive personality of the starting 6. Playoff problems notwithstanding, I believe those 6 are very good at what they do. Nothing, of course, works 100 % of the time. But what these guys are good at worked throughout the regular season and through 7 playoff games. I do think it hurt us that when the open shots weren't falling, we had no scoring alternatives -- that is, scorers whose specialty lies in high percentage shots. Which leads me to think that part of the solution lies in developing and diversifying even more aggressively the offensive personality of this team. I don't believe we need a superstar scorer. I see 3 needs, two of which are primarily aimed at developing the team's versatility offensively, and one of which also would bear some defensive plusses.

1) I believe we need a player coming off the bench who can substitute at the 2 and the 3 and score points by going to the basket aggressively. This could be Delfino, but I doubt it (doubt he has the confidence at the moment, doubt that Flip has the confidence in him). It can't be Mo, not because I don't like Mo, but because that's not Mo's game. It could be Johnson, I just don't know cause i haven't seen enough of him.

2)I also believe we need a player coming off the bench at the 4/5 who can score points with his back to the basket. Both players would complement the skill sets of the starting 6 and put a different kind of pressure on teammates. Is this j-max? Again, I haven't seen enough to know. I think it could be, one day, but I'm not sure he can fill this role already this year. It's not Dyess, in my opinion, though I love him, because his (besides an excellent rebounder and occasional shot blocker) main offensive weapon is a fade away baseline jumper from 15-18 feet. In the Miami series time and again he showed an unwillingness to challenge Miami's bigs when he got the ball back to the hoop in close. That's okay, he serves a different purpose. But we need someone who can score (20 minutes per game or so, maybe a little more) in the pivot.

3) back up point guard. I love lindsey, especially the defensive energy and the aggressiveness on offense. I want a player like Lindsey, with those qualities, but better and younger. Lindsey's quicker than chauncey and quick for an old guy, but he's still not quick enough on defense for my taste, and not reliable enough as a penetrator on offense. Is this Acker? Again, I've no idea.

It goes without saying that Flip would need to be willing to use those players. To this end, I also like Lemon's idea of getting as a first chair assistant a linebacker mentality, toughness type coach (if I caught his meaning); someone to see what Flip -- not because of any deficiency, but just because he's finite in his abilities, like all coaches -- can't see. Obviously, it would have to be someone that Flip himself respects and indeed, this would depend upon Flip seeing the need for a divergent pair of eyes.

If we keep our starting 6, then I guess I'm thinking these three imaginary players I just described could round out a very nice 9 deep bench. Our starters could do what they do for anywhere from 25-35 a game (let's see that's around 125 to 175 minutes) and the other four guys could share the remaining 73-133 minutes (playing each of them anywhere from around 18 to 30 minutes; obviously depending on situations.

I am just ready to see how Dallas handles the heat. I believe detroit was just tired. They looked tired. They shot like they were tired. I felt deflated after the game six loss. I felt like we were on a serious decline. But, looking back on the regular season, they were looking better than last year. Detroit has the ability to remain an elite team as long as Dumars is around. Detroit and indiana has made the east look formiddable again. I do not expect the Heat to be Dallas, unless Dallas lays down like Detroit did.

Who knows a quick gaurd we can get this offseason? That would be so useful off the bench.

Proff - good post. I agree with the need for a slasher and a 3rd big who plays big and hopefully has some size. Unfortunately J-Max did not play enough to get a good read on his game. I do believe that Dyess is not the answer, he is mainly a jump shooter and that game 6 performance ranks up there with Uncle Cliffy in 03. I would like to see a valid Center as the 3rd big, something like what we had in Zelly or Okur. Dumars used to be good at finding those kinds of players.

Backup 1/2 could be the slasher. We need a slasher and also a decent backup point. Acker I do not believe is the answer. Johnson is supposed to be tailered as more of a SF with some PF skills. He looks to have potential and I do hope that we do not blow it with him. No more human victory cigars are needed on this team. Ideally we can find a decent backup 1/2 and give Johnson a shot backing up Prince.

Dumars has some work to do. Hopefully Ben will be reasonable because I cannot see how we can replace him in the short term unless Dumars pulls off one of those near miracles that has made him famous.

I would not be totally against trading one of the starters but make sure its well thought out and will improve the team. If they are tired after 4 years of the post-season then perhaps we do need to bring in someone who is hungry for advancement. Many players out there are still dreaming about getting out of the 1st round and would leave it all on the court for the opportunity to get as far as we have been getting. Our team considers it their birth right now.

We will see. Dumars used to bring in a lot of talent in the offseason so lets see what he has in store for us.

Speedy Claxton. But some say he will be too expensive.