1 Year in Disarray or 7 Years of Futility

With only 3 games with a complete roster; how can you classify the team as a failed experiment?? Actually we are still missing WB which would be a lot better option then Chucky. Seems way too early to declare that. As a matter of fact; if you look at the progression in play from our first game with all our guys back to yesterday; we are improving by leaps and bounds in a short timeframe.

(1) Because Rip and Tay are on the other side of their peak years, all down hill from here, not drastically, but well....can sail a ship forward by looking back.
(2) Because they have 8 figure salaries that can yield lots of cap spcae or a really good player.
(3)I agree, everyone is expendable, there's not one player untradeable IMO, I'd give up any 2 for Chris Bosh, Wade, LeBron etc etc

Prince is only 29 years old. The next 3 years might be his apex. Besides, his contract expires next year. We have no viable backup SF that does half of what he does.

Ben Gordon is on the books through 2014... 4 more seasons after this one at a price that is about the same as Rip.

We have $38M committed in 2013 and $25M of that is comprised of current bench players. That blows.

JJ's on a rookie contract so you won't get equal talent back when you trade him. The only way he'd be part of a trade is as a sweetener if we're having someone take over a bad contract.

We've been saying that for what 5,6 years now, 'Next year is going to be Tay's BREAK-OUT season. You know as well as I do we have seen that best Tay has to offer, and it ain't gettin' no better.

I'll concede that, but not in a way that speaks to how "good" Tay is, but rather to where JJ, Daye and Summers are in thier NBA progression.

Dude ben gordon is only 26 compared to a 32 year old Rip, don't even go down that road.

Not really, remember when the Knicks were a lottery team with a $200M payroll....NOW THAT BLOWS!

OK. We, as the pistons fans, are spoiled over the years to think that the entire roster will stay healthy through out the season. Arnie Potter can only do so much magic. Injuries are part of this 82-game season league. I wouldn't call them leaps and bounds, there were flashes of progress. 1 step forward 20 steps back. I really hope I am wrong.

I would rather call them veterans than old players. According to you, KG and Ray Allen should've been coaching Celts when they became part of the "big-three" instead of playing. I didn't see RIP or Tay showing their age. I believe they are conditioned athletes (at least RIP). Just assuming that they will run out gas due to age is prejudice, just what Joe D did with Big Ben. That man is 35 now and still hustles like a 25yr old.

Exactly. Sweetener and a really good one. We can unload one of our big-contracts with JJ as a sweetener.

I don't see difference on the court, do you? the 32yr old and 26yr old got back on the court around the same time. The 32 yrd old is running around the screens scoring 29pts, while the 26yr old is shooting air-balls, or passing to opponents while hanging in the mid-air. I am not dis-respecting Ben Go. I am sure he will be up to par, when he recovers from his injuries completely.

Didn't Hamilton just have a stretch of shooting 13 for 54 (24%) recently?

Since Hamilton has come back, he's had 3 really awful games, one good game and one very good game.

Yeah I see a difference, about 40 more minutes on the court and at least that many more shot attempts to "shake" the rust off, imagine if Rip had to get his shot back under the same conditions as Bengo.......The rest of that stuff you wrote I won't even bother with, because we're definitely looking at the same thing from 2 different angles.

I can see the team improving with additional reps together.
Much better?... nope...
Playoff better?... hell no.
Screw your lotto chances better?... sho nuff

The bigs are what we said they'd be... below average... only CV can use the injury scuss.

Steadfastly stick to not improving for this year... while looking for expirings....
If we can convert Rip/Tay into Oak, Kaman or an up-n-comer 5... then that's fine too.

By my measurements, we are into our second year of disarray, as last year really wasn't that good (I don't know who would disagree with me there).

By Joe D's measurements we are looking at the 4th or 5th year of disarray because he didn't like almost all of those flip saunders coached teams, and really started changing things back some where between not signing ben and putting michael curry on the coaching staff. This might mean that Dumars is beginning to become a desperate man, needing to do despearate things to make some kind of change (ben gordon's contract). After seeing how the desperation has gone so far, and how little success he has had, I can see how Dumars might want to pump the brakes a little bit with the team change up.

In my opinion, the team should start playing good team basketball, pistons basketball, for four quarters every night before anything happens. I think we need to do a trade to make that happen just to clear up the log jam at "point" guard with stuckey, gordon, and bynum, but relax on the bringing some "stars" in to save the day. If they are not playing like a team now, they won't start playing like a team because some star shows up. Aside from the trade that needs to happen with the guards, the pistons need to settle down and start playing like a team and winning some games the old fashioned way.

Problem is we don't know what is good Piston Basketball anymore.
The roster doesn't reflect any particular style of game, except maybe small ball.
The team will just continue to evolve as Joe continues to make moves.
My concern is that we may actually be closer to the 7 year mark rather than just last year's disarray.

I'll answer questions #2 and #3 on the next pf.com Podshow.

Sure...take the easy ones.

I think he believes in BG's future.

The real good one question is..

Why did Joe sign Charlie Villanueva? I mean.. the guy doesn't have eyebrows!!!..

I don't know what i just said that :D lol..

It's really creepy.. I was looking at him tonight when the camera came close to him and I felt that there was something missing.. :D

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I'm already checking which players (of the 2010 Draft) could be better for us..

We'll have a top 5 pick for sure (at least before the lottery)