Maxiel, Johnson, Acker, Blalock...will they actually get a chance to play?

They may not say it now, but by the middle of the season it will become clear that the goal of the season is really to get the youth involved, develop the bench and build a team identity. At the beginning you will here, "we think we have an opportunity to be more solid offensively" as the spin. After the losses pile up, then they will talk about how they are doing "pretty well considering they lost a 4 time defensive player of the year" and that they "think we will be better positioned for 2007-2008".

Hey, I'd love to win a championship this coming year, but most likely we are simply looking at our best opportunity in quite some time at getting our new talent involved now with the goal of making another run in the next coming years. Flip will ultimately be evaluated on how successfull he is in that endeavor rather than how far he advances in the playoffs this season.

If we don't give Jmax, acker and delfino serious floor time to develop, I am going to personally fire flip.

Motown, I think you're spot on.

I think we'll be seeing davis ahead of Nazr until NM can take the job away from him. Overplaying Mo Evans was dumb and it was made worse by getting rid of the guy. We needed delfino to step into a solid backup role. Instead he's at roughly the same place Acker is. Too many guys are left underdeveloped if we are trying to make a youth movement.

What Pistons fan or person vested in the Pistons wouldn't want them back in the NBA Finals? Again, the original spin will be that we think we have a shot, of course. But honestly, the identity of this team is going to change dramatically with the loss of Ben. We have no idea what we are going to see on the court. Hell, the players don't even know. This isn't a matter of replacing some pieces with younger parts.

The point I'm making is that if Flip flops in the playoffs again but the youth become an integral part of the team, I don't see Flip being fired. He can always fall back on the fact that he loss an all-star center. But, we ARE attempting to predict the future here so I could be wrong...I highly doubt it though. Just don't be shocked when you here the masters of spin, Joey D. and Ole' Bill explain away a season where we will be less competitive than last year.

I can't say with a sound mind that we are actually better right now or will be better than Cleveland, Miami or even New Jersey. New Jersey owned us in the regular season as well.

By the way, if you think Flip can develop our youth AND win a championship then you have a helluva lot of confidence in a guy who hasn't proven he's good at either. I see a man, who took one of the most well-rounded teams in NBA History and turned all of them into one dimensional players.

WHAT!!! That's it! I guess delfino is really out of the rotation...at least in your mind

I'd think there would be Palace rebellion if at least some of these guys don't play, but it's tough to see how to fit them in.

Up front...

Sheed, Dice, and Nazr tag team the four and five spots. If you only wanted the three of them, they could average 32 minutes each and you're done. Assume Dice stays in the 25 range and Nazr between there and 30. That leaves somewhere around 10-12 minutes a game for a fourth big to fit in, down to five or six in close games when Sheed's minutes go up. If Nazr can't play that much, then there is more time for a bench player.

In the back...

If Davis were to be traded for Knight then hopefully you would see CB getting around 32 and Knight around 16. CB may not be interested in dropping any minutes in a contract year though. Hunter sits on IR until playoff time. Without a PG backup, CB gets 36-38 and we see if Hunter than take the long season. Flip will never go for what I see as the obvious move which is to play Prince at point foward for a couple of short spurts along with two shooters.

Maybe there would be a three man rotation around the two and three spots with Rip, Tay, and Delf - same idea as above. Acker could get some spot minutes, but 3's are hard to come by on the bench. Delfino seems like the first guy off for both positions.

Barring injury I'd say that only Delfino gets a decent chance.

My bad, I thought that was his job. To keep the guys motivated and help expand their games.

By the way, to say I've given Joey D. a free pass is highly inaccurate. Please refer to virtually all of my posts on the subject of losing Ben Wallace. They have not been flattering to Joe Dumars (although I wouldn't trade him for anyone in the league) or Bill Davidson at all.

So, I guess you subscribe to the belief that if a teacher takes over an honor class and the entire class underachieves. Shame on the students. Poor helpless teacher must have had all the students quit on him/her. Let me make it plain for ya. If Flip couldn't motivate these guys, its because he probably wasn't qualified to do it in the first place. If you think I'm too harsh on my criticisms, I also invite you to read DBA's article which does a statistical comparison of the players before and after Flip. The numbers, results and loss of a starter speaks to my point loud in clear.

There is no lack of uncertainly around Defino. 75% of the time I think he can play and will be effective at least off the bench in this league. The other 25% of the time I wonder if I've just mixed him up with Manu. :fingerscr

Well, Toot, Toot!

I was an honor student too. LOL!

I can definitely see your point regarding self-motivation...but the entire team having a letdown???? I don't buy it. I think my analogy stands. If the ENTIRE team underperforms you have to point to something else. We are talking about players who had to scratch and crawl to get to where they are at. Perhaps an overemphasis on one area (**cough**, offense!) caused the students to become weaker in other areas and more importantly unprepared for the Final Exam. Again, I think the team took on Flip's persona over time. It took half of the regular season to happen, but the transformation DID happen. The Pistons spent the whole entire year working on a knockout punch, just to forget that bobbing, weaving, guarding, and throwing combinations (**cough**, bench!) are just as important to winning a fight. Bad training, Bad coach, Bad Ending!

Throughout the entire season all we heard from the players was that they had their fire back and they felt they had something to prove. Motivation was not a cause of concern for the majority of the season. It only became a point of commentary when we needed an excuse to justify playing so poorly. Rubbish.

Superior coaching, one dimensional/predictable play, and a lack of identity were the causes. Uninspired play was merely a symptom. It's what was left from a team that had no answers and were mentally defeated 10 mins into a battle against a hungrier, more focused opponent. Flip taught our boys how to lose a fight, and they followed the gameplan to a tee. So now you can add an additonal action item to Flip's list of objectives.

Flip needs to convince our players that they can ultimately win with "Flip Ball" when he has had nothing but modest success with it in the playoffs.