Post#4 » by HeartBreakKid » Sat Jun 5, 2021 3:47 pm
1) 2005 Rasheed Wallace - I actually realized that Rasheed may have been the best Piston of his era during the top 100. Prior it was always Ben Wallace to me with Billups as a close 2nd. I think the reason why I and many people assume this is because Rasheed simply doesn't have great boxscore stats - he locks the blocks and rebounds to get the credit as the defensive anchor, and his scoring is nowhere near high enough for any type of offensive credit. When it comes down to it though, not only is Rasheed conceptually better than Ben (he can score, create his own shot, hit jumpers, not an offensive liability), but impact stats suggest this. I was rather surprised but I just double checked and Rasheed Wallace not only tops Ben Wallace in their championship season, but every season they've been in the league - and they're often not close in rank either. In fact, Rasheed was top ten nearly every season I checked, and top 5 quite a few times. I looked at RAPM from 2002-2007, it seems like to me no matter where you put Rasheed he makes a huge impact. Also, I think it makes sense his scoring went down a bit - prior to that Pistons trade he was still putting up like 18 PPG in Portland, his role simply was different in the Pistons as they were a different team from Portland. I grow much bigger on Rasheed as more time passes by, he really is the perfect example of a player who the boxscore has a hard time capturing how good he is. He likely shot the Pistons from an elite defense to a GOAT level defense. I don't see what makes him much worse than Scottie Pippen, and I think saying Pippen > Thomas wouldn't be a hot take.
2) 1985 Isiah Thomas - It seems like Isiah was more effective in his early days when he was more pass heavy. He had anchored the #1 offense before this in 84, but I don't think it makes sense to say that he was worse in the following year. He had a good playoffs showing in 9 games, and was his most efficient post season run. I'll take him over everyone else because his offensive game is very complete and certainly all-nba caliber. Ideal point guard. I originally had him at #1, but my gut and brain says Rasheed was better if we look away from name recognition.
3) 2003 Ben Wallace - No real reason for this particular version, I'd expect his championship version to get the rub. I still think Ben is an all time great defender, and probably a half a tier above Rodman on that side of the court. Him vs Billups is close, but in most eras I think Ben Wallace might have more additive effects to contending teams. Perhaps in the current NBA his offense might be too crappy though. As for when they played, it seems like the Pistons won because of crippling defense.
4) 2007 Chauncey Billups - Not only did he shoot better as he got older, but I thought his playmaking was much improved.
5) 1990 Dennis Rodman - A DPOY candidate (and the actual winner), and he stayed with in himself on offense as opposed to 1991, and didn't rebound hawk like his later years. This is a bit similar to Ben in that he's such an outlier defensively while all the other Pistons are flawed without being as elite in their "crafts". Someone like Dantley is a bit too one dimensional on offense, I could see guys like Rodman and Wallace making up for the chasm in volume scoring.
Lanier and Yardley (2 time finals player, lead the league in scoring) are a snub for me. Also, Blake Griffin had a very overlooked year in Detroit because no one really cared about Detroit that year - that might have been his best season. My guess is him or Adrian Dantley would the 6th place vote.
EDIT: Decided to put Rasheed above Thomas. Like I've said, I get Scottie Pippen level vibes from Rasheed and that is probably more than enough to be the PEAK Piston. Before I wrote and thought this post out I had Rasheed at #5 lol.