Hughes was a (1st) NBA All Defensive team member before, I don`t think West nor Smith ever was.

I believe the Cavs gave up some rebounds also losing Gooden and Hughes.

Hughes was a lot of things.

That is how he ended up with that huge contract.


It's tough to compare these things because they are getting more rotation players than they gave up. All these guys played different minutes per game and it was under very different circumstances. It's like comparing apples and bananas.

I agree.

You started throwing out the stats, not me........

I just don`t think the Cavs will be a threat to the Pistons, with or without their new additions.

You would have said the same thing last year at this time too, I would imagine.

The trouble with the Cavs is that they have that one really good player. It is very tempting to look at all their other pieces and see that we have the advantage. But, the tough part is figuring how much you are going to allocate to Lebron and how he is going to make these new guys better than they really are.

Agreed TaS. I was thinking the same thing.

This current Pistons team will do what it did last year and flame out. When the going gets tough Flip will lean on the starters for heavy minutes. None of the bench guy's with the exception of Max have playoff experience. We need a slasher/ scorer or a low post presence that can gets some boards.

the biggest threat in the cav/detroit series last year was detroits mindset..... not the the cav team.... sorry they weren't any good and we saw that in the finals...

this year there still no good, doesn't mean we'll beat them because till we show that our mind set is "right" in the playoffs we just won't know.

On paper though, I like our team alot more then I did 12 months ago.

Till the playoffs starting I am a boston fan though i want them to have that number one seed and let the media keep putting our guys down... they must be humbled daily is seems

I certainly would have said the same thing last year and I am sure you and almost every other Piston fan would have also.

I believe the Pistons learned from last years debacle and would never repeat the same mistakes by letting that really one good player beat them. It was a fluke last year, that is why the Cavs made this move because they knew they couldn`t get by Detroit or Boston with their previous roster.

Have the Cavs improved? Yes. Are they now a championship team? IMO, no, not even Eastern Conference champions.

I am not sure Cavs improved against Pistons. Hughes caused lots and lots of problems for Rip and Chauncey defensively, Gooden was good on the offensive glass (I know Ben is probably going to hurt us there too, but Gooden is a player that requires defensive attention and Ben is not really, in addition Ben can't guard Sheed). Wally is a liability defensively, and Chauncey is going eat up West alive. Yeah, Cavs add some offense, but their defense is not going to be as good, and that is a huge benefit to Pistons.

Dlev,
Let's hope you are right.

I'm just trying to stay within the pessimistic name of this thread.

You seem to be making posts for the "Yet another championship" thread.