I disagree. 3 times to the ECF with the team we had is the bare minimum.

I mean seriously, we went to the Finals 2 years in a row, and basically kept the exact same team afterwards... how do we come up short?

He single-handedly ran Ben Wallace out of Detroit (which is good or bad, depending how you look at it. Hindsight is 20/20)... he turned Chauncey Billups from the elite PG that LB transformed him into, into just an above-average Point Guard.

He tried to make Rip Hamilton a 3-pt shooter (remember in '06?), and he did not have the respect of this team.. No one one that team looked to him for guidance or inspiration, he was just a suit on the sidelines.

The players could not have had a coach on the sidelines and they would have made it to the ECF 3 years in a row. Billups, Wallace, and Hunter basically coached the team themselves. And look at it like this, was Miami, Cleveland, and Boston really better than us?

You can give a good argument for Boston, but I will never believe that Miami and Lebronland (err, Cleveland) were better teams than the Detroit Pistons. We were outcoached, overplayed, and could not come up with answers when the pressure was on. During the Brown years, when we needed a big play after a timeout, he always provided one... whether it was an open screen & curl for Rip, a 3-pointer for Billups, or an alley-oop to Big Ben/Tayshaun... Flip just basically threw his hands in the air and let the players decide what to do.

Glad he's gone. Time to start a new chapter and work our way back to the Finals the same the way we got there the first time, working hard, doing the dirty work, and executing our plan.

Joe D said that he wants to break up the core guys.

Joe, you should have seen the pattern at least 1 year earlier.

He said he wants to change "a major portion of the core" players.


Supposedly just as high on Amir as he has always been.

Asked a question about Rasheed, his answer was "If he's here, we'll have that conversation....if he's here."

"I just think this team became wayyy too content and did not show up with the sense of urgency to get it done"

"Those other three teams (in the playoffs) were playing harder than us"

"When you get game 2 and come back home and lose game 3 like that, theres no sense of urgency"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIj1QpZMlPE

Joe not BS'ing AT ALL.

Wow.

the way he talked about rip, tay, and sheed, i'd say sheed is gone for sure, and chauncey is the next likely.

he also mentioned stuckey and amir as guys he considered to be (or could become) special players, while maxiell and afflalo are guys you have to have on your team to compete (i took that as role players).

either way, great stuff from joe, and i think we're headed for an (if nothing else) exciting summer.

You need a coach with some war stories. You need some one who can coach the mind and put some fire under their collective arses. You need someone who knows the right buttons to push. You alsop need that general on the floor who will keep everyone straight. Can C-Biscuit do it?? Or is it time for someone else t step up.

oh he also said that they will move quickly for a head coach. he said he doesn't want a long, drawn out process...that he'll talk to a couple guys this week and then he'll make his decision.

"There are no sacred cows." - Joe Dumars.