If Brown Was Such A Great Coach

How many times did ESPN run us as the lead basketball story during the last year?

Everyone knows that what ESPN says is the gospel so if they aren't putting us as their lead story very often what does that say about our chances of getting back to the Finals?

After all, ESPN is already putting Boston into the Finals and a lot of hoops posters on the web seem to agree with that assessment, so ESPN must be correct???

I rest my case.

stuck in between some teeth along with left over corn beef and rye with mustard and pickle.

clearly NY

I'm sorry, but there's no way you could convince me that this year's Eastern Conference road was tougher than 04 or 05. There was no reason whatsoever for DET NOT to make the Finals this year, even if you can use Wade as an excuse for 06.

What I expect from a NON-HOF coach is at least the very results you EXPECT to get from him. Not a vastly underachieving result. Especially when you "Mariucci" the guy into the job and then manage to sell fans, media, and your team that this guy is the answer.

What are you talking about? I got beat all to hell in here for telling everyone this team had no shot at the Finals without Big Ben. Hell, even the "genius" Flip Saunders talked about how they would actually be "better" in a lot of ways.

All I heard about was.....no missed FTs....no more hack-a-ben....no more playing 4 on 5. Are you kidding me? 80 - 90% of this forum swore up and down they were better now without Ben.

Now, you're telling me that no one expected this team to be better sans Ben Wallace? Really?

Because then you'd have nothing to whine about.

DET never played 4 on 5 on offense the whole time the defensively minded pound for pound was the coach. I don't care if LB could only stay awake 1/2 the game he'd still be a better coach the Flip. I think maybe our memory blurs the fact that because they have the same players that they are the same team. The LB teams would destroy the Flip version in every phase of the game.

Their's the answer!

Yeah Flip and LB had the same players, but LB got the best out of his players. That is why he is a great coach.

The Pistons almost won a 2nd championship without the two guys you just mentioned. The 05 team is almost the same as the 06 and 07 teams.

The players ego's are the only thing that changed from 2004-2007. Coaching was never the problem last year. These guys just plain quit against Cleveland. Cleveland wanted the series more than the Pistons.
Interesting how most pro sports players deflect blame away from the coach when expectations aren't met. Not these guys though........

Their is my answer to you Nemo. If guys like CB and Tay were not playing with hunger play guys like Maxiell who was producing and going after it. That is what Flip should of done. Whenever Chauncey would make a bad decision LB would at least scream at him.

Not good enough. LB wore out the "let's yell at the guys" routine, and Flip wasn't going to win the series by going to the bench. The bench didn't have the players and the starters were not hungry enough. An overused gradeschool tactic wasn't going to work with these guys. The reasons we lost the series were psychological. Had nothing to do with Maxiel. Problem is this forum has too many members who would rather blame the coach. Looks like Joe didn't though. Figure on about 40-45 wins this season, and Flip Stays for next season.............

And our veteran Pistons got completely owned by a simple tactic as well. Give the ball to your best player and just watch. LeBron single handedly owned us.

The tactic of using the players that are playing the best for you is not overused. Maxiell played well in Game 2. In Game 6 I see Flip panic and throw in Nazr Mohammad. Who is quite good, but he did not play for 40 games in a row. Why not throw in Maxiell if Sheed and Webber are in foul trouble? Sometimes I don't understand the moves he makes.

Again Flip is very good, but he is not good enough.