Lack of enthusiasm poll

I don't see what logical reasons there are to think the team will play better in the playoffs next year, unless you think it's a coincidence that our 4 best jumpshooters went cold for ten consecutive games. Unless our coach learned some lessons, and it's pretty clear he didn't, he will fail to put our players in position to succeed.

Sounds like you have given up on the season already. Why not find a new team?

I understand your feeling, but this is why I created the Lack of enthusiasm thread. I gives those of us not thrilled about the coming year a place to vent AND it keeps us from hijacking the more prevalent positive threads.

We CAN still like the Pistons, but not be happy about the direction they are going in.

i don't share the feelings you have Low, but I totally dig what you are doing with them -- the thread is a good idea, and i could not agree more with your statement that you CAN still like the Pistons and not be happy about the direction they are going in.

(Kind of like I like the USA but I'm not happy about the direction they are going in. Doesn't mean I need to move.)

Anyway, hang in, and maybe you'll be pleasantly proven unprophetic for the upcoming campaign.

What spoiled brats we are. We go to a few ECF win a ship and darn it, we expect nothing less each and every year.

There is nothing wrong with that, however, it`s not realistic. We are due to hit a few bumps in the road, either by bad decisions by management, poor coaching, and the loss or lack of quality players.

Looks like we have experienced all of the above recently! As I said earlier in this thread I am taking it as a wait and see attitude this year, not expecting a championship, but looking forward to a very competitive Piston team.

Now, if we win a championship, I would be very surprised, but not stunned. A year of not being competiitve, (finishing in the top 3 of the ECF, with at least 50 wins) I would be appalled.

Our championship history includes names like Thomas, Dumars, Laimbeer, Daly, Wallace, Billups, Hamilton, Brown. Saunders is not a name that belongs on the above list. Many fans have been around long enough to intrinsically understand what ``Pistons DNA'' is, even if it's a hard thing to put specifics on. We've seen what works, and we can see how what Saunders wants to do is very different. As long as he's here, wasting the prime years of a championship core, Saunders is a stain on the franchise.

Well said sir.

I second that well said.

However, I had a friend say yesterday that there's a difference in realizing when your run is over and forcing it to be over just to "make a point/save cash/promote your guy/fire the other guy's guy, etc."

I think the Pistons fell into the latter category and that's what upsets me the most. Heck, if they won a title with this gameplan and roster, I would have to change religions...

That`s a valid point, however, we have to wait and see what happens this year. I am by no means expecting a championship, but if we make it to the ECF this year is the run over? If our defense improves this year and the offense suffers some, is that progress?

What exactly has to happen for "the run to be over"? And what has to happen for the Pistons to still be "running"?

I would feel better about our chances if I knew they were working hard at improving their games this summer.
There hasn't been any reports of scrimmages or offseason conditioning in the local rags (our crack beat writers sleeping at the wheel again).
The Raptors have 12 guys practicing together... the Nets and Magic have had informal mini camps... and the Pistons??? anyone?...someone lift a dumbell this summer?
Geesh I hate our writers... can we trade them for some nachos and a slurpee... maybe that's too much (the 25% rule)

I would say failure to make the ECF or a 2nd lackluster performace and subsequent bouncing from the ECF would denote the run as "over."

We've lost in the playoffs two straight years. Our run is over already, and we have a different team now. If this group wins a ring, it will be for a different reason and with a different set of factors.

Had we sandwiched the finals loss with rings, the run wouldn't have been over. Had we repated, lost this year and won again, one could argue that the run is continuing -- people called the Pats a dynasty for winning 3 in 4 years. However, now we just haven't won in two years. That's different, and IMO, at run's-
end status.

wow, this gets really baffling when you think about it. Using this logic, have the spurs, for example, actually had any runs at all? Intuitively, I'd have said yes. But i think if I follow your reasoning here, Hack, it seems they haven't. Is that right?