Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am  |  137 responses

The Mess in Detroit is in Search of a Scapegoat

by Marcel Mutoni

For better or worse, it’s the way things work in sports. When teams fail to meet expectations, someone needs to take the fall (or at the very least, accept blame for all that ails the organization.) In Detroit, things obviously haven’t gone according to plan. So, who’s to blame? Let’s find out, shall we.

Coach Michael Curry’s job appears to be safe, one of the tenured vets says there’s a lack of leadership, and according to some, A.I. is clearly the problem, not the answer:

What they couldn’t have known was that it just wouldn’t work. And it doesn’t work, as the present six-game losing streak and the freefall back to .500 (27-27) attests. Even when Iverson plays his best, like he did against San Antonio, the rest of the players on the floor with him become statues. They stand around and watch Iverson skittering all over the floor, probing for a shot. They’ve never had to play that way. They aren’t very good at it and they don’t like it.

So down the stretch, the Spurs, like all good teams will do, forced the ball out of his hands and no other Piston could make a winning play. It’s worse on defense. The Pistons built their foundation on trust and accountability at the defensive end. They have run a lot of good players out of here (Maurice Evans and Jarvis Hayes to name two) because of their inability to hold their own defensively.

So here comes Iverson, who because of his offensive production has never been held accountable defensively. He’s a bad on-ball defender who tends to follow the flight of the ball and lose his man off the ball. Every time the opposing team needs a score, they go at Iverson with a high success rate.

Hey, when do the Lions start putting their pads on again?

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  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    …

  • http://slamonline.com Ben Osborne

    I guess Marcel knows the candidates based on the Tags he gave this story…here’s the thing, I’m surprised and a bit saddened by how bad the Pistons have been and I admit that getting more than one Playoff round win is all but impossible at this point. HOWEVER, this trade was about this year as a chance. They weren’t beating Cavs or Celtics with the old roster. They took a chance on AI; maybe it worked and they could contend again. If it doesn’t, his and Billups’ contract are both of the books, not to mention Rasheed’s, and they can retool. While it’s never fun for fans to see a season go down the tubes, to me the end result is just one less round in the Playoffs (and a drastically reduced free-agent market for AI this summer). What should worry Piston fans is that while AI is being blamed and will be gone, Curry will be back with the jury still totally out on if he’s a good coach. If they retool their roster next year and have the talent to contend, I can’t see him lasting past Christmas if the Pistons get off to a slow start.

  • http://www.twitter.com/mansonovic Andy

    Has Curry ever come out in defence of Iverson? I just cannot believe the heat that one guy is taking. Especially when he’s being badly let down by his team-mates.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Eboy

    I blame TADOne.

  • jay

    I don’t know about this one…They are just a bad fit together…and I think the Pistons are very overrated. Every year since their championship they are picked as one of the top teams but I just don’t see anyone on that squad that could put the team over the top. Rasheed, Prince, Rip…all great roleplayers, put together even formidable but you’ll still need a kobe/paul/james/pierce/garnett/duncan/parker/roy/anthony/harris/wade/bosh/nowitski/you get the point
    type of player to put that team over the top. So I can understand the move for iverson…then it turns out that they end up spectating ive as he plays…damn put iverson with the sixers/knicks/boston or cavs and watch them go…as for the pistons, they are about 5 or six years away from contending again….sorry motor city. You’re ova!

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Ben is smart. However, i’m not sure Curry holds onto his job into next season. As bad as things are now, they could get worse. If the Pistons miss the playoffs entirely, the players that stay better have Michael’s back in exit interviews or he could be sent packing. Highly unlikely, but still likely.

  • http://coco-vents.blogspot.com Co Co

    What Ben said.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/officerbarbrady what

    Or… maybe… Rodney Stuckey is just not that good? Wasn’t the whole point of trading Chauncey (other than cap space) to give Stuckey the starting PG job?

  • http://shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Cheryl

    AI’s game has been the same since he came in the league, more or less. The person responsible for the “mess” as you say, is Dumars. If you’re gonna mess with chemistry, do it all the way. My sense is that he was told to prepare to cut salary and rebuild. Trade Tay and Rip for some good young players and draft picks–that’ll cut your budget and start the rebuilding process. Just a thought…

  • http://slamonline.com Russ Bengtson

    I’m sort of surprised Curry hasn’t been fired already, to be honest.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Eboy

    Uhm…..let’s not let the blame fall too far from Joe D either. He built a solid core seven seasons ago. They won a title and were ultra competive for a few more seasons. It has since gotten older, complacent, finally disassembled and now the poor roster moves (especially Darko. Do you think the Pistons would be struggling so much if they had a 6th season player like Melo, Bosh or D-Wade?) he’s made in the past are coming back to bite him in his very bulbous buttocks. Michael Curry is obviously not the solution. Sorry. And if rebuilding is the order of the day next season….a former player who seems to have little in-game managing ability isn’t the ideal guy to be overseeing the young talent the Pistons actually have. A young coach with a really young squad is just not going to cut it. Oh yeah…FREE WILL BYNUM.

  • http://coco-vents.blogspot.com Co Co

    The Pistons won’t miss the playoffs because the bottom half of the East is just that bad. I understand the players grew close and it probably hurt to lose Chauncey, but my goodness don’t sulk about it. It’s over and it happens. I think the rest of the team is just as much to blame as Iverson and Curry.
    And as far as Stuckey, maybe he was able to play well because the pressure wasn’t squarely on him. Now he’s the man and there’s no Chauncey there to right all of his wrongs. Maybe he just isn’t ready.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Hey, if Dumars is to blame, I would love to be in his blame shoes. Thing is, the Pistons have been in an enviable position for the last 7 years by pretty much any teams standards. Now, if they had made some different choices along the way personnel wise and coaching wise, then there was a good chance they could have kept it going. They didn’t and you have the normal down time that follows the normal up trend for teams across the NBA and any other sports league. The only continued success over more than 10 years for sports teams I have seen has been in baseball, where there is no salary cap. Any other league with a salary cap and competitive balance, there is guaranteed to be a down period for a franchise. It is just the way it works.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Eboy

    Well the Spurs have been pretty consistent…..

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    True enough E. But where exactly were the Spurs right before they lucked into Duncan?

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Look, i’m not saying teams can’t stay at or near the top, but overall, the stats are against them achieving that.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    As for Curry not being fired yet, the reason for that is quite simple: money. The Pistons owner Bill Davidson is still paying off Larry Brown and Flip Saunders, as well as most of Saunders assistants. He quite simply doesn’t want to fire Curry and incure another bill for someone who isn’t around. I don’t blame him.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Besides that, he isn’t entirely to blame.

  • http://hibachi20.blogspot.com/ BETCATS

    every thing in detroit underachives, and old stars are always the problem. Dotrelle Willis, Daunte Culpepper, and now Iverson’s legacy’s are all tainted from Motown.

  • http://www.nba.com iLL wiLL

    AI needs to be coming off the bench, real talk. Then he can skitter around and prob all he wants with the scrubs.

  • http://coco-vents.blogspot.com Co Co

    I’m obviously in the minority, but I don’t think Joe should have any regrets for taking Darko over the others. They won a championship and almost repeated. And, they’ve been in the ECF like every year since then. His reason for drafting Darko was something to the affect of because they already had Tay right? I’d say it worked out okay.

  • WhaHuh

    Rasheed Wallace is the starting, PF/C. He hasnt played well in 3 years

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Agree CoCo.

  • http://allanzuss@yahoo.com Mendel

    Oh well. Iverson is free after this year and going to showcase his scoring with statues with people who will know how to be statues in Charlotte. Aint no s at the end of this Piston. This is a one cylinder show.

  • http://hibachi20.blogspot.com/ BETCATS

    next year, the bobcats Okafor-Rasheed-GForce-Iverson-Raymond Felton lineup will win the whole damm thing.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Um, so where does that leave Augustin, Diaw, and Bell?

  • http://docfunk.blogspot.com Doc Funk

    It’s not AIs fault. It’s the absence of Billups.

  • Fat Lever

    Why isn’t Curry using AI as a 2 guard that pretty much exclusively comes off of screens? That’s when he was most effective in Philly. I mean can’t you curl Rip on one side and AI on the other and have Stuckey decide where he wants to go?

  • http://ittakesanationofmillionstoholdthissac.blogspot.com ciolkstar

    I had underestimated Chauncey’s worth to that team, but its clear that without his steadyt hand tilling the point, no one knows where to be or where they’ll get the ball. Sheed looks like he’s already retied, and Stuckey looks like he’s deferring to Iverson (which I comepletly understand, but is a terrible idea for them as a team)

    They’ll be in rebuilding mode by next season.

    I have no idea how people say that darko over over Melo/wade/Bosh wasn’t one of the biggest draft busts in the last decade.

  • SK

    I agree with Ben. But are we sure they’ll look to retool? Will they replace Rasheed and Iverson with 1 or 2 star players, or 1 star and a role player? With the announcements that the Salary Cap is going down and teams having trouble breaking even I don’t think the Pistons will look to spend that much more even with Cap space in this CBA’s Cap structure.

  • Michael

    aside from the holy trio, darko was also drafted over kaman, hinrich, ford, west, pavlovic, diaw, josh howard, barbosa.

    hell even nick collison and pietrus would have been better picks.

  • SK

    And the CBA runs out in the summer of 2011 right? One year after the free agency of summer 2010. So why would teams load guys up with 4 or 5 year deals now when in 2 years the cap structure will probably be a harder cap, a lower cap, and with shorter contract lengths? It’ll be interesting to see which teams stay away from the free agent frenzies of the next two summers and wait for the new CBA, and maybe position themselves better to retool their struggling or successful teams.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Izzo

    Uh,I thought Curry had already gotten fired and was just about to blame AI…..

  • kingofsota

    the trade of billups was a terrible decision on the part of the pistons. yes stuckey is a great backup and should be starting which is why they traded billups but they should’ve traded him for a pf or center to help out sheed mcdyess and maxiell.. then again they also have hermann and amir johnson.. idk they have the most talented team in the league but when iverson’s on the court you might as well put 4 middle schoolers out there. I think iverson needs to come off the bench for scoring runs and not start. they will be better with rip in the starting lineup, as he has great defense and work ethic

  • Wayne

    The fact is that any one of those three superstars would have been riding the pine just like Darko did. Larry Brown doesn’t play young players. We would have drafted them, they wouldn’t have played, then we would have traded them. That’s how it would have went down with Bosh/Wade/Anthony. We’ve got our shot at Bosh in the next couple years anyways, I’d love to see him in Detroit.

  • Michael

    darko rode the pine because he was basically useless. I am sure wade or melo would have done a lot better as a scoring threat off the bench even if larry brown was coaching. dj augustin seems to be getting some minutes this year, no?

  • CHE

    What is up with Sheed, Prince and Rip? I understand Iverson doesn’t play defense but what about them? Just because another player comes to your team and doesn’t play defense doesn’t mean they gotta stop playing defense. Prince needs to be traded to another team so he isn’t ruined by the pistons cancer.

  • http://ittakesanationofmillionstoholdthissac.blogspot.com ciolkstar

    You’re out of your mind Wayne. Tayshaun was still a fairly “young” player at that time and I think it would’ve been pretty obvious that HE was the guy to move in a trade. If the Pistons had Wade, Melo or Bosh they’d be much better off at this point. I’m not sure thats even debateable.

  • Michael

    i think what waynes saying is that if they had picked wade he would have rode the pine and disappeared into irrelevance whilst darko would have won an nba finals mvp guiding miami to the 06 chip and now be amongst the top 5 players in the game.

  • Wayne

    I never said they wouldn’t have ever been great players, I’m saying they wouldn’t have stayed in Detroit long enough for them to realize it. Darko sucks, I never said otherwise. The fact of the matter is that most GM’s would have picked Darko over all of them with maybe the exception of Carmello Anthony. Joe D was just the unfortunate one who did pick him. Nobody thought he would be as big of a bust as he was.

  • Michael

    when its all said and done i think its chad fords fault

  • Mike Schumann

    AI is the man. Ur crazy, Rookie head coach, Rip used to play on smelly washington, he is a ben gordon type streaky scorer .. dima a dozen there, but AI is the best 6′ guard this league has ever seen. He beat kobe and shaq 1 game in the finals with no cast… no other team beat LA that year. So AI i hope you leave in the summer and sign with a contender and ride a good 2 , 3 years with lebron, wade, kobe, find someone , Holla at your boy!

  • doyouwantmore

    Iverson will do this to every team he’s on until he retires. Too bad he has too much pride to come off the bench. He’d have rings.

  • http://myspace.com/yungjames187 Smoovetendo

    still cant believe they drafted darko

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Ok, some perspective: when the Pistons were looking at a player to draft the year of Darko, pretty much any scout worth his grain of salt gave Milicic great grades. Granted, the league was in the middle of their European kick, but the other players weren’t enticing enough to Dumars. The only other player Detroit was even giving a second thought to was Carmelo, but Tayshaun had already cemented his place on the team at the SF spot. Bosh was intriguing but still very raw. Wade was only looked upon highly by Pat Riley. No one else in the top 5 even remotely considered Dwyane.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Again, this by no means excuses Dumars for passing up on these players, but lets not make the mistake that Dumars was simply throwing darts at a board of pictures either.

  • kevin

    tayshawn is soft, r.i.p. is upset,
    sheed is lazy, stucky sucks ,A.I. is the only one tryin. oh how can you respect a coach who was a BUM AS A PLAYER?

  • Wayne

    Thank you TADOne…that’s my point exactly.

  • Caleb

    “He beat kobe and shaq 1 game in the finals with no cast”

    MUTOMBO!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://coco-vents.blogspot.com Co Co

    If Bosh and Melo were consistently leading their team’s to championships this would be a great debate, but they aren’t. The Pistons won a championship and have been as good of a team as any over the past several seasons. It’s not like they drafted Darko then fell out of the playoffs.
    Let’s be reasonable people. Over the past decade + there have been like 2 teams who have won a championship that didn’t have Shaq or Tim Duncan on them and one of those teams was the Pistons. It’s hard to win and win consistently in this league without a once in a lifetime type of player yet Detroit managed to do so sorta. No disrespect to Melo or Bosh, but they aren’t that type of player. They are really good though. That’s about it. And like someone mentioned, Larry wouldn’t have played them anyway.

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