http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/truebluepistons.htmlIn 4 months, not 4 years, Joe D can reshape the future
Disappointing. Mystifying. Lifeless. Keep going? Dispirited. Lethargic. Unpardonable. Have we about covered everything? Anything else that needs to be said about Sunday’s crushing defeat at Cleveland, when the Pistons – despite the incentive of national TV in the house of a division rival – didn’t put up much of a fight in falling 33 points down by halftime? When somebody asked Michael Curry after the game if such a slap in the face might “open the eyes” of his team, Curry, now clearly perplexed by the lack of fight his team is showing – the very characteristic that enabled his entire NBA career – answered about as honestly as he could: “I mean, how much more open do the eyes have to be?” Make no mistake about it, when Joe Dumars pulled off the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade, he knew there was a possibility it wouldn’t yield immediate benefits. Iverson, for all his wondrous talents, is one of the more difficult players in the league to just drop into the middle of your lineup. So Dumars understood the potential to struggle was there. But it’s a fair guess to say he never imagined the struggles would last this long, or become so formidable. And fans are reacting in force to the worst stretch of basketball this team has seen since the first year of the Dumars reign, when he inherited a team practically devoid of assets. Accustomed to extraordinary success – seven consecutive 50-win seasons just isn’t the norm – Pistons fans are openly questioning everything from Dumars’ vision to Curry’s coaching to the team’s collective will.
But let’s take one step back and look at the big picture. What’s the worst-case scenario here? Well, at 27-27, and having lost 15 of their last 20 games since beating Denver on the road without both Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace on Jan. 9 to reach 22-12, the Pistons are in some danger of missing the playoffs altogether – almost unthinkable even a week ago. Let’s start from that worst-case premise: The Pistons miss the playoffs. What keeps a fan base going in difficult times? Easy: The belief that the future will be brighter. Do Pistons fans have to engage in self-delusion to swallow that medicine? Not even a little bit. Rodney Stuckey’s current slump aside, he gives the Pistons a 22-year-old building block at what has become the most important position in the game. Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton, both affected by the adjustment to playing with Iverson, remain in their primes. Arron Afflalo, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson are young players with value, whether used here or in trade. Miss the playoffs and they’d have a lottery pick – not to mention three more picks in the top half of the second round. And those are only the appetizers. Ninety percent of why Pistons fans should believe better days are coming, and soon, is tied to their cap standing. With more money to spend than anyone this side of Oklahoma City come July 1, Joe Dumars is going to aggressively remake this team. Probably by July 15, he will have added at least one and, quite possibly, two major pieces.
The phone calls he took leading up to the trade deadline give him even more reasons to believe the possibilities around draft day and into free agency can dramatically transform the Pistons over the summer. And dramatically isn’t too strong a word. There is a scenario out there that could see the Pistons landing two All-Star types, for instance, one with their free-agent booty, one via a trade that will be judged to be decidedly in their favor. That’s the outlook as of late February. There are going to be plenty of other scenarios that present themselves in May, June and July, as teams dropping from contention start fixing their gaze on next season and beyond. GMs more desperate to remake their teams than Joe D, and dealing from far less favorable conditions, are going to be calling him based on the Pistons’ standing under the salary cap. The opportunities those GMs have to move good players they can no longer afford are few – the Pistons are going to be one of three or four teams with the space to accept an eight-figure salary, and not all of those teams figure to be willing recipients. How attractive those offers eventually get, Joe D can’t fully appreciate now. But what he’s heard already assures him this much: His phone will be ringing early and often. And in that alone, Pistons fans can at least know that as tough as the present is to endure for a franchise accustomed to unusual sustained success, the future – and we’re talking about four months from now, not four years – looks very bright, indeed.
