The way this team has been built since we won is a 5+1, man philosophy. The starters and Dice are all that matters, everyone else gets scraps. We don't adjust, we don't change minutes.

We didn't win a title this way, and ever since we got Dice, and switched to the 5+1, we've gotten worse and worse in the post season, even though our reg season record has gotten better.

This tells me two things, one, in a regular season game, playing our 6 best players for the almost all of the minutes will win. Two, once the playoffs start, our top 6 are now exhausted, and teams have time to adjust, equalling early exit.

Compare this to Dallas, 9 deep. Able to change starting lineups on a whim, and match up with anyone.

As Stern speeds the game up, having rested players becomes more important than ever. Should we change? If we do, is Flip willing to? And, will our 5+1, be able to deal with playing less minutes, high 20's low 30's, while other bench guys get more playing time (Delfino, Amir, FA to determined, DD)?

And my biggest fear, is the only way to get more people playing is to trade one of the 5+1, so that we have role players starting (a la Michael Curry) that only play 10 -15 minutes, so the coach can sub whoever he wants depending on the game.

Joe is working on this, but it will take 2 years.

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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 firmly believe we need a bench.

The best Pistons team ever is the '89 squad, and they played 9 guys 19 minutes or more in the playoffs. After Mahorn was snagged by Minny, we only went 8 deep, but each of those guys played at least 22 minutes in the playoffs.

In '04 we still had an 8 man rotation, although none of Corliss, Memo and Lindsey averaged more than 15 per in the playoffs. In '05 and '06, Dice got 20, Lindsey got between 10 and 15, and everyone else got scraps.

The issue isn't so much one of being tired -- although that is a factor at the end of a long season -- it's more being able to throw different looks at different teams, or even at the same team in order to keep them off-balance.

Dallas has demonstrated their versatility; they've got a little bit of everything -- muscle, shooting, speed -- and AJ has drawn on all of it in varying ratios as the situation has demanded.

The Bad Boys were similar in a way. The 3-guard rotation, coming at you with Aguirre/Mahorn in '89 and Rodman/ Buddha in '90, with Lambs knockin' 'em down -- opponents in the paint and bombs from outside.

We need a bench, bad. Whether that means bringing people in or developing what we've got is an open question.

We do need more of a bench and we need more size. I love Dyess and all but this 3-pf rotation is not getting it done. Last year they got into foul trouble in game 7 and this past series Shaq was just too much. Kind of painfull watching Dallas make these simple adjustments by throwing some size at Shaq. Not exactly rocket science here.

We need 6 more playoff victories next year.

The Mavs bench is a bit overrated. Look at it this way... Is Adrian Griffin that much better than Delfino? Both bring the same thing, D and rebounding with little offensive contribution (at this point). Is Diop that much better than Dale Davis? Hardly. He may look like it because Dale hasn't played, but Dale is just as good if he actually got the minutes.

The difference is that the "quality" is more spread out by having two of their "top-5" come off the bench (Stack and Damp). Terry, Dirk, and Howard carry the first group and Stack/Damp come in and carry some of the load when a starter or two goes to the bench.

This would be like us going with...

PG- Billups | Hunter
SG- Delfino | Rip
SF- Prince | Mo
PF- Dice | Sheed
C- Ben | Dale

With everyone playing around their normal minutes.

Our bench would look dominant as well. Sure, the Mavs is still better, but you can't look at it like Stack and Dampier as bench points. Those guys play more minutes than the starters.

If we gave our bench a damn chance it could be the best in the league. Micro thinks it will take 2 years, but it might take only until next year. LB was not going to change his ways because he was a proven coach. On the other hand Flip knows very well he'll have to change.

We'll probably get rid of Mo, and Dale. maxiell, Amir, and a free agent will likely be on the bench and I think thats better. Joe D. had to of told Flip a thousand times since we lost to play the bench next season.

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

JOe told flip to surf every pistons forum and figure out what the rest of the world knows.

FP: our line up looked more like this

Billups | Hunter
Rip | Billups
Tay | Rip
Sheed | Dice
BBen | Sheed

Dallas'bench is not overrated, we give them props cuz ours is under utilized

FP was saying that if we played like Dallas, thats what our rotation would look like. having 2 legit starters coming off the bench.

And you made 1 mistake, at the SF it should have been:
Tay | Tay

heh.

true..we are talking different sides of the same coin....damn you flip for forcing this division among us!!!!!!