Pistons look forward to next season as they pack up and go home
By A. Sherrod Blakely

AUBURN HILLS -- One by one, the Detroit Pistons left the team's practice facility on Saturday with bags and boxes filled with shoes, sweat bands and other basketball paraphernalia, all collected over the course of a long season. One by one, they jumped in their luxury automobiles and Sports Utility Vehicles and headed to parts unknown, a common destination for players on teams eliminated from the playoffs.

McDyess downcast over wasted opportunity
By Bill Khan
MIAMI -- For Antonio McDyess, the 2005-06 NBA season was another wasted opportunity.
A 31-year-old veteran who has been plagued by injuries during his 10-year career, McDyess felt the pain of losing to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals perhaps more than any other member of the Detroit Pistons.

It was time for Pistons to move aside for the surging Heat
by MITCH LAWRENCE

MIAMI - Flip Saunders might want to do what his friends and family suggested during the Eastern Conference finals, now that the Detroit Pistons' reign in the East is over and their 64-win season has officially been committed to the junk pile.

"Take cover," they told the Pistons' first-year coach.



Days of outdated Pistons' dynasty are over
Change could be on the way in Detroit after the Pistons bow out to Heat
by DOUG SMITH

They don't make dynasties like they used to.

The Detroit Pistons played in each of the last four NBA Eastern Conference finals, winning two of them along with one league championship. They head into this summer with the invincibility vanquished, their defensive-first philosophy an abject failure at the moment and facing serious, franchise-altering decisions.

A day after their dismissal from the NBA's Eastern Conference championship by the Miami Heat in a six-game series that sounded an awful lot closer than it actually was, the Pistons are a dynasty if not in ruin, at least teetering on the brink.

[Doug Smith is one of my favorite Canadian sports writers.]

Excerpt from ESPN.com, Page 2, Bill Simmons, sports columnist

In case you're scoring at home, we're still running down a dream. Here are 12 burning questions as we head into one of the more fascinating weekends in recent NBA history ...

Question No. 12: Are the Pistons done?

Let's rephrase the question: How are the Pistons still alive? The Cavs should have finished them off in Game 6 and lost because Detroit banked home two lucky shots and tipped in a couple of rebounds. Truth be told, the Pistons haven't played a quality, all-around game since Game 1 of the Cleveland series, when they annihilated the Cavs and apparently decided that "we can turn it on and off whenever we want."

You can do that if you have a great team. But as we're learning, this isn't a great team anymore. First, Joe Dumars did nothing to help his bench other than sign Antonio McDyess two years ago -- none of the draft picks or trades helped, and the Darko debacle, from beginning to end, ranks among the most mishandled personnel sagas in the history of the league. Second, you can't grind out those 72-70 wins anymore, not when the various rule changes reward teams that can shoot 3s and attack the basket, and it's just too much of a chore for these guys to score against good defensive teams (especially when they're playing four-on-five with Ben Wallace). Third, they have the wrong coach -- it's obvious now -- and it seems like he's getting more overwhelmed with each game.

But here's the biggest thing: These guys played with a collective chip on their shoulder for two solid years. Nobody thought they could beat the Lakers -- they crushed them. People wondered if they could defend their title -- they made it to the last game of the Finals. Nobody respected them as much without Larry Brown -- they rolled off a 38-6 streak to start the season and crushed the Spurs twice. And everything was going great, and they looked unstoppable ... and then the All-Star picks came out. Billups, Hamilton and the Wallaces all made it. They spent a weekend in Houston getting their butts kissed. And then the wheels came off. It was like the scene in "Rocky III" when Mickey tells Rocky that he needs to retire, that the worst thing happened to him that could ever happen to a boxer -- namely, he'd been civilized. And I think the All-Star Game civilized the Pistons.

In their heyday, they resembled one of those boxers who overpowered opponents simply by outpunching them, by knocking the crap out of them, by coming forward again and again and breaking their will. Since the All-Star Game, they morphed into something different, more of a finesse team, definitely more inconsistent, the kind of team they would have gobbled up two years ago. The wakeup call happened in Game 4 of the Cavs series, after Rasheed guaranteed a victory, when they squandered a winnable game against an inferior team. Great teams show up for those. Even during Game 5 of the Miami series, a deceiving double-digit win for the Pistons at home, the Heat were in striking distance despite shooting an abysmal 6-for-20 from the charity stripe. Six-for-20! And they still had a chance to win?

Sure, the Pistons still can salvage the Miami series. But Young Flanagan taught us that everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end, and this Pistons team reminds me of some other fading powerhouses that were symbolically blown out in a series to end their reign (the '88 Celtics, '91 Pistons and '04 Lakers, to name three). I don't think they have a chance tonight.

More importantly, I hope they get knocked out -- not because I'm tired of watching them, but because I'm bored by the whole we're-trying-harder-tonight-because-our-backs-are-against-the-wall mind-set. Is that an acceptable excuse anymore? Just look at the Western Conference, where the undermanned Suns have been killing themselves for 19 straight playoff games (and counting). No excuses, no empty promises, no tough talk ... just a gritty team that loves playing together, keeps showing up and seems determined to keep winning or go down fighting. And you thought Detroit was the tough one.

Bill Simmons is a columnist for Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine.

Note: I read this guy alot. Entertainment. He never has liked the Pistons, but I thought he made some interesting points so I added it to the article list. He dates our demise this season to the All-Star Game and how it impacted our players. Not sure I agree, but I do notice that Tay had the best post-season of the starters. As we say in the 12-step world "Take what you want and leave the rest."

Parker: Saunders will be back, despite the blame he's gotten
Flip Saunders isn't going anywhere. Despite the Pistons' ugly, unexpected playoff collapse, suggestions by NBA writers and analysts that he was outcoached by Miami's Pat Riley, and Pistons players openly criticizing him, Saunders will return for a second season in Detroit.


DREW SHARP: Pistons need to flip script

Perspective is mandatory when assessing where the Pistons go next, after visions of grandeur crash-landed in the moist heat of south Florida. Before bowing to anger for how the season ended, there first must be appreciation for the arduous road traveled for four years.

KRISTA JAHNKE: Bad ending didn't ruin ride
As a rookie NBA beat writer this season, I often found myself watching Pistons games while silently reminding myself how lucky I was.

Wallace wants to return to Pistons, but who knows?

AUBURN HILLS -- Moments before departing the Detroit Pistons practice facility this weekend for the official start of his offseason, Ben Wallace was asked about possible changes the Pistons may make in order to get back to the NBA Finals.
"I'm a free agent," Wallace said with a chuckle. "I might be one of those changes."

Where do you go from here Joe?
“You keep adding, really. You look at your team and what you don't do is just evaluate your team over the last 2 weeks or the last few weeks. You can't build a team like that. You can't build a special sports franchise by judging a team just over a 2 or 3 week period. I have to judge the team from October 1st until this past Friday night. And I'm looking at our team, even when we're winning 64 games, I see holes. During the regular season I see holes. So when we get to this point at the end of the season, it's summertime now, it's not like all of a sudden I'm looking and saying, 'Okay, what do we have to do now?' I've been looking all year, and the holes that were there during the regular season are still there. So that doesn't change for me. The changes or whatever we need to add, didn't just come to me over the weekend because we lost Friday nlight. I saw them in February, in March.”

NBA Comix: The Mystical Powers of Dewayne Wade’s Shiny Ball

I don't normally post farlane, but he's an ok cat.




Dumars could have helped more this year
by PAT CAPUTO

The common thought, at least around these parts, is that Steve Yzerman skates on ice and Joe Dumars walks on water.

Dumars did take the Pistons from the bottom of the barrel to four seasons of bliss, during which they at least made it to the Eastern Conference finals. He did restore the glory of the Bad Boys era by making several astute moves that led to the 2004 NBA championship.

But getting the Pistons to the mountaintop and staying there have been two different matters. Dumars hasn't made the right moves to keep the Pistons in first.





There's plenty of blame to go around Detroit
by Charley Rosen

Throughout the regular season the Pistons gleefully championed their new coach, Flip Saunders. Contrasting his regime with that of Larry Brown, the players talked about "freedom," and "having fun." However, once Detroit began stumbling in the playoffs — having the mediocre Bucks extend them to six games, needing seven to overcome the Cavs, and finally losing to Miami — several Pistons began to sharply criticize Saunders.

So, then, what did happen to the brief Pistons' dynasty? And how much of their unexpected downfall was Saunders' fault?

In truth, Saunders was guilty of committing several unfortunate turnovers.





What's next for the Pistons?
by Warren Blatt

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Detroit hit a bump in the road when it was eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals by the Miami Heat. The Pistons had represented the East in the 2004 and 2005 NBA Finals and have appeared in the conference finals four straight years.

The Pistons, who captured the Central Division and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs because of their franchise-best 64 victories during the regular season, seemed to lose something in the conference semis. They were pushed to seven games by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and even though Detroit won it took a lot out of the Pistons.





Confidence cost Pistons
by Larry Lage

DETROIT — What made the Detroit Pistons a championship team also led to their downfall this season.

Confidence.

The Pistons believed they could overcome any obstacle because history showed them they usually did.

Detroit overcame a 3-2 deficit four times the past four postseasons, including last month against Cleveland, but couldn't do it a fifth time against the Heat.

"We got a little too comfortable with all of the comebacks we had in the past," point guard Chauncey Billups acknowledged Friday night in Miami after being eliminated in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. "It blew up in our face."




Pistons showing mileage
Barbara Barker

Here's the good news for the Pistons: Joe Dumars is one of the best general managers in the game. Here's the caveat: He'd better be, because he has his work cut out for him this summer if he doesn't want this to be the end of Detroit's great run.

The first order of consideration is what to do about coach Flip Saunders. After establishing what seemed like a lovey-dovey relationship with his team in the regular season, Saunders lost his players in the playoffs. Everyone knew the Pistons were toast when Ben Wallace started pointing fingers so early in the Miami series.

Dumars hopes to keep Pistons' nucleus together
by LARRY LAGE

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Joe Dumars hopes to take his chances at competing for a title next year with the top six players the Detroit Pistons have had the past two seasons.

If Detroit is able to re-sign Ben Wallace, an unrestricted free agent, the Pistons president of basketball operations said he expects to keep the team's nucleus intact to make another run after falling short of the NBA finals for the first time since 2003.

Ben Wallace key to Dumars' plans
AUBURN HILLS -- In his annual postseason state-of-the-team address Monday, Pistons president Joe Dumars said there was only one way he would overhaul his roster this summer -- if free-agent center Ben Wallace chose to sign elsewhere.

Dumars: Saunders' status is 'nonissue'
AUBURN HILLS -- Flip Saunders isn't and never was in danger of losing his job, Pistons president Joe Dumars said Monday.
"He did a good job," Dumars said. "It's a nonissue as far as his job here. He's as safe as anybody here. That's a nonissue and now we can get past it."


Dumars plans no overhaul
If team president Joe Dumars has his way this summer, the Pistons won't look drastically different in the fall.
At his season wrap-up news conference Monday, Dumars laid out a plan that called for only minor adjustments, not a major overhaul.

DREW SHARP: Joe D knows Pistons must regain hunger
When assessing the reasons for the Pistons' stunning playoff collapse, team president Joe Dumars repeatedly came back to three primary points: focus, commitment and hunger.
He wasn't interested in rationalizations. One of his former Pistons head coaches, Ron Rothstein, tried consoling him last weekend. He assured Dumars that if Rasheed Wallace hadn't severely twisted his ankle in Game 4 against Cleveland, the Pistons might have seriously challenged Miami for the Eastern Conference throne.

Dumars says Flip will return
AUBURN HILLS - Just like every Pistons fan, Joe Dumars has a feeling of emptiness. He anticipated that this week his team would be preparing for the Western Conference champion in the NBA Finals, not scattered about the country wondering what went wrong with the season.

Dumars doesn't see need for major changes
AUBURN HILLS -- Although it may appear as though the Detroit Pistons are regressing -- NBA championship in 2004, NBA Finals in 2005 and Eastern Conference finals this year -- Joe Dumars doesn't foresee the need to make a major change to the team's nucleus.

Smith: Nothin' But (Inter)Net
by DOUG SMITH

After Detroit's ouster from the conference finals, and amid reports there's growing dissatisfaction over the coaching of Flip Saunders, Wallace may in fact be in play when the free-agent signing period opens in mid-July.

Should the Raptors, one of a few teams with money to spend, be interested?

Again, this is why I like Doug Smith. Carlos Rogers sighting in Detroit with a Bob throwback on.