New era in Detroit since the Billups-Iverson trade.

Pistons franchise has a lot of history. There was a time when bad boys pistons ruled the NBA and 2 NBA championship banners were raised to the rafters in Detroit. Then if we take a look at the past decade the Detroit Pistons was probably the 3rd most successful team in the NBA during these 10 years. They were an example of consistency throughout the early years of the 21st century. They won a championship in 2004, lost to the Spurs in the 2005 finals and went to the Eastern conference finals for 6 consecutive times. That by the way is second most in NBA history behind only the LA Lakers of the 80′s. Some would argue that in the playoffs Pistons faced weaker opponents because East was certainly much weaker than the West but still Pistons have played great basketball this decade.

It was never a one man show in Detroit and Pistons roster was very balanced. It also didn’t change much during the whole decade. Tayshaun Prince, Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace formed the core of the team for many years.

Detroit was a serious championship contender as recently as 2008. 59 wins in the regular season gave them high expectations in the postseason. In the third round of the playoffs Pistons faced the new-look Boston Celtics and they lost. They lost but it was a close battle and even though Pistons main players were getting older no one thought that this is the end for this team model.

At the beginning of 2008-09 season everything changed because of the Billups-Iverson trade. Chauncey paired nicely with Carmelo Anthony in Denver and immediately after the trade Denver started to improve it’s record. This Nuggets-Pistons deal had the exact opposite effect for Detroit. Iverson couldn’t fit in and it resulted in Detroit barely making the 2009 playoffs as the 8th seed. They got swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers and it marked the first time the Pistons had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs since 2000.

Pistons franchise has experienced some more changes since the end of the last season. Sheed signed with Boston and McDyess signed with the Spurs so Detroit’s roster is now quite different from their roster before the Billups-Iverson trade. Where does this franchise go from here?

It’s start of a new era in Detroit. Pistons signed two relatively young but experienced guys in Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva during the off-season and they’re decent players to build around. Pistons could continue to build team the way they have done it before – that means build a balanced team with no real superstars but with many borderline All-Star type of guys. They have the shooting guard and power forward positions covered with Villanueva and Gordon. They shouldn’t worry about the point guard position either because young Rodney Stuckey is showing

big potential. By the way he’s quietly averaging 19.3 points per game this season. In fact Detroit’s roster is full of quality guards. Besides Gordon and Stuckey they still have Hamilton (31 years of age – still not very old) and Will Bynum who has also been productive this season. Also they have a great small forward in Tayshaun Prince and a promising rookie forward in Jonas Jerebko (8.5 ppg and 5.5 rpg). A lot of quality players but we all know that in order to go far in the playoffs Pistons must add a good big man.

It’s obvious that Detroit has to make some moves if they want to bring back the glory days. They should sign a very good big man but obviously in order to get him they must give something back. They could trade a package of players which may involve Hamilton or/and Prince but the question is are these players going to be attractive to other teams. However one thing is for sure – Pistons have too much good guards to keep them all.

Right now Pistons are in the middle of the pack in the Eastern conference but they have potential. They are not the bad boys Pistons or the Billups-Sheed Pistons but their future could be bright if Joe Dumars makes the right moves. Detroit is rebuilding and if they do it the right way then in a few years the Pistons could become a perennial championship contender again.

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