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There is no mystery in building a contender... the proven formula has been repeated consistently since the 60's.
82games does a nice job of backing this up statistically...
How about starting with a lock down defender...
An excerpt from the article (older write up)...
"81% of NBA Champions had a recent All-Defensive 1st Team Selection
Does defense win NBA championships? All-Defensive teams were first named following the 1969-70 season. Since that time, 29 of 36 NBA champions had at least one player named All-Defensive 1st Team during the 4 seasons prior to the championship season. When All-Defensive 2nd Team selections are considered, the percentage jumps to 89% of NBA champions.
Even the 7 teams without an All-Defensive honoree had All-Defensive caliber players on the roster. Players on five of these championship teams were named All-Defensive 1st Team in a subsequent season, and the other two championship teams, the 1974-75 Golden State Warriors and the 1980-81 Boston Celtics, included at least two players who were named All-Defensive 2nd Team in a subsequent season.
The defensive player of the year (DPOY) award is usually given to an All-Defensive 1st Team selection. Since the DPOY award was created, 12 of the 22 NBA Champions had a previous DPOY winner on the roster."
http://www.82games.com/dennis.htm

So, your recipe is get a perennial defensive player of the year?

You've got a long way to go before you've built a legit contender than one defender.

ImHeisenberg wrote:So, your recipe is get a perennial defensive player of the year?

You've got a long way to go before you've built a legit contender than one defender.

unless that defender is Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwan, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, etc..

Timmaytime wrote:

ImHeisenberg wrote:So, your recipe is get a perennial defensive player of the year?

You've got a long way to go before you've built a legit contender than one defender.

unless that defender is Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwan, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, etc..

Well....maybe not Dwight Howard.

Speed, Length, Shooting, Rebounding & D are the ingredients for a championship.

A lot of people would argue a dominant low post scorer should be included but one could claim that in today's league having 2 guys who consistently require double teams is the equivalent.



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ImHeisenberg wrote:

Timmaytime wrote:

ImHeisenberg wrote:So, your recipe is get a perennial defensive player of the year?

You've got a long way to go before you've built a legit contender than one defender.

unless that defender is Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwan, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, etc..

Well....maybe not Dwight Howard.

SVG did it, apparently all you need is Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis, oh, and don't forget JJ redick!

ImHeisenberg wrote:So, your recipe is get a perennial defensive player of the year?

You've got a long way to go before you've built a legit contender than one defender.

Reading is fundamental.

A solid defensive philosophy can transform athletic freaks into lock-down defenders. Detroit might want to invest in a HC that doesn't sound like a complete idiot like Mo Cheeks, or is a jackass like Lawrence Frank. Drummond is on the cusp of becoming an anchor like Dwight or Hibbert soon, however it all depends on who has a plan the team can buy into.

"81% of NBA champions have a recent All-Defensive First Selection".

All that indicates is that NBA champions tend to have players that are, yah know, good at stuff.

There is no deep revelation here. I'm certain are a million other metrics you could look at and say that a similar percentage of NBA champions have one player that fits that metric.

It starts by trading Grant Hill for Chucky Atkins and Ben Wallace. If we can do that again...

It starts with a strong vision in the front office.

Way back when Joe knew what he wanted to build...and he got players that fit the mold

When it started falling apart his vision was blurry: "rebuild on the fly" = try and not suck!

It's no surprise we got stuck on the treadmill to Mediocre-ville

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Timmaytime wrote:SVG did it, apparently all you need is Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis, oh, and don't forget JJ redick!

SVG did it. Once.

Their biggest competition was LeBron James and his terrible Cavs team, and the aging Celtics team who I believe were without Kevin Garnett that year. That's a relatively easier road to the finals than it is today. Well, maybe not this season!

I think the Magic got hot at just the right time and made it out of the east. And, yes, Howard was a beast that year. Lewis was playing great (also tested positive for steroids that summer) and Nelson actually didn't play until the finals. Even then, they were plowed over by the Lakers.

Regardless of how they made the Finals they still made it.

Believe me there are still Laker fans whining about how the only lost (in 5 games, their lone win coming in OT) because Malone got injured!

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Pharaoh wrote:It starts with a strong vision in the front office.

Way back when Joe knew what he wanted to build...and he got players that fit the mold

When it started falling apart his vision was blurry: "rebuild on the fly" = try and not suck!

It's no surprise we got stuck on the treadmill to Mediocre-ville

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True, He wasn't willing to accept that he didn't have the roster to just retool... I believe he was too much influenced by the "no touch" rule... he started stocking the team with one dimensional offensive players and ignored defensive talent..
Our current roster only has one player that currently fits the proven winning formula mentioned in the article... Dre is highly efficient... IMO KCP is the only other player with the potential to meet any of the winning criteria.

If we could just learn to play a little team defense, we'd be in the playoffs. If we could replace Jennings with a better D PG, as well as a great 3D guy, led by a coach (Thibs=dream), we'd be in great shape.

In Joe's defense:

Jennings career shooting numbers aren't terrible snd he's got good speed

Smith's D & athleticism historically have been pretty good.

Where Joe went wrong was in his choice of coach

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Pharaoh wrote:In Joe's defense:

Jennings career shooting numbers aren't terrible snd he's got good speed

Smith's D & athleticism historically have been pretty good.

Where Joe went wrong was in his choice of coach

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I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

where joe went wrong was pigeonholing himself into making a splash last offseason by giving up a 1st rounder in the ben gordon trade

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Kinda being sarcastic

Jake: can we stop with the first rounder/BG stuff?

The problem isn't that we gave up a first to get cap space. The problem is what Joe did with it!

I don't think Joe really valued draft picks anyway. How many extea first rounders did he acquire as GM?

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Pharaoh wrote:It starts with a strong vision in the front office.
Way back when Joe knew what he wanted to build...and he got players that fit the mold
When it started falling apart his vision was blurry: "rebuild on the fly" = try and not suck!

My theory is still that Joe made solid moves but got very very lucky--like luckier than any GM in the past couple of decades. Chauncey and Ben got flat-out better when they came to Detroit, went from being some guys with some skills to all-around brilliant players. I don't think that was really due to the coaching staff (though Carlisle and Brown were great those couple of years) or the FO's vision. Joe deserves some credit for seeing that they were good, but the players deserve the credit for improving as much as they did that late in their career.

And Tayshaun was a great pick, but everyone had him rated about where the Pistons picked him (in the early/mid-20s). It's not like Joe plucked him from obscurity or something, he just went with the consensus. He was better than anyone forecasted, but he was more or less an obvious choice at #23 that year and again Tay deserves credit for proving 22 other GMs wrong.

And Rasheed was a great move but still not a crazy or original one considering that the Pistons were that close to contending. Joe had plenty of other nice little moves--Okur, Amir Johnson, Corliss, Chucky Atkins, McDyess, Delfino--but he missed a lot too. Overall, I just think he was a good GM who set the right tone and made smart moves... but that he became a legendary GM because some players put work in to make themselves elite.