Not exactly disparaging the Pistons' accomplishments. And the East was embarrassingly bad.
I never am happy with the hiring of an assistant coach after you fire the head coach. Most likely, the guy will be a poor player manager, or if he isn't that, he won't have the leadership and brains that a head coach needs. I was not happy when I found out Curry got the job, and I actually liked Flip Saunders. So Flip takes us to two straight conference championships (correct?) and we turn around and fire him, only to get kicked out of the playoffs in round one (you know, this season). Recently, the Pistons have run coaches out of town (see Larry Brown and Flip). We go through Coaches like underwear (everybody else's lasts two years right?). I really hope they find a guy they like.
I still don't know why they "fired" larry brown or whatever they did. make him resign or fired, they still let him go. now he's back to coaching just fine again for the bobcats and almost pulled a miracle last year. he almost got the BOBCATS into the playoffs! he only coached for 2 seasons and got us a championship and a championship runner up and we let him go because of fears that he was going to go to the cavs! that was the dumbest thing ever and if we had kept him, would have been an almost unstopable force. now we are right back at square one.
Fact. Larry Brown is a Dick
Fact. Larry Brown has 1 NBA Title to his credit
Fact. Joe Dumars has 3 NBA Titles
Fact. Larry has sucked since he left Detroit.
Fact. I could care less if he is a dick
Fact. That team was amazing and was playing out of their minds
Fact. 2 were won as a player not GM
Fact. He has almost got the bobcats in the playoffs. They are only 5 seasons old!
The point is, they were having their most successful seasons since the 1989-90 teams under larry brown and they let him go. dumb move.
Bringing up the fact that since Larry left he has almost made the playoffs once, is not very inspiring.
Larry Brown wasn't fired for basketball reasons. He was fired because he was a complete asshole to everyone (including his boss) off the court, conveniently found time to talk to other teams when he was supposed to be medically incapacitated, and continued talking to other teams while the playoffs were going on. His conduct was so unprofessional it was almost comical.
Well stated. Bravo
Thank God. This guy sucked.
wouldn't have happened if billups was not traded.
Forget Darko, as someone else said earlier, almost every GM that year would have chosen Darko at #2. This continues a pattern of coaching hires and fires that are starting to look Yankee-ish. I'm not saying Curry was the answer, but Joe is responsible for hiring the wrong guy, just as Flip was the wrong guy, and he felt Carlisle was wrong. IMO without Flip (who didn't have the respect of the players but was kept for three years) the Pistons would have won one more championship.
And beyond the failed draft picks there was the critical decision that led to Flip's hire, and IMO cost one other championship: Joe decided that after the NBA changed the hand-check rules, that the Pistons wouldn't be able to play the tough defense that was the identity of the squad. He hired a bright offensive mind in Flip, and the team shifted the emphasis of how they played. This was a critical error that not only changed the team identity, but brought in a coach who lost the respect of the players after year one. and led to Joe this year saying the team had gone soft mentally. That fault was his.
Joe decided that after the NBA changed the hand-check rules, that the Pistons wouldn't be able to play the tough defense that was the identity of the squad.
Or maybe Saunders just happened to be the best available coach in the 2005 offseason? There was no way Davidson would allow him to bring back Larry Brown, so his hands were a little tied.
Yes, the owner wanted Brown fired so he had no choice. But the next choice was his: he picked an offensive coach specifically because (according to his interviews then) he felt that the Pistons couldn't be the tough defensive team and win another championship given the rule change on handchecking. That was an error, first, because Saunders was the wrong coach, and second and most importantly, the Pistons lost their defensive identity.
In Flip Saunders first year, the Pistons had the best record in the NBA. He guided them to 3 straight conference championships. He was not a bad coach.
he was just the wrong coach for that team.
If no Piston's coach has the respect of the players, maybe the players are the problem?
Rasheed in particular, because anyone owes their boss respect even if they don't feel it. But the fact of professional sports life is that once a coach loses the respect of the players the team is done, because there's no way to get rid of half of any pro team in order to fix that. And this was known after year one and still nothing was done. I feel bad for Flip, not the players, but that was a problem that needed fixing.
This is the second step to Bill Laimbeer taking up the post
(him quitting the Shock being the first)
Ok, so Joe D. got lucky and he sucks - who are we arguing is so much BETTER than him in the NBA?
Ainge? He got 'lucky' one year with Garnett/Allen/Pierce if we're saying 04 is 'luck'. Then they almost got bounced in the first round.
Colangeo? Oh yeah, the Suns won a TON of titles. And the Raptors are killing it.
Kupchak? Are you going to call Joe D just 'lucky' and then try to say Kupchak is some sort of genius for having Kobe and Chris Wallace handing him Pau Gasol?
Buford? Ok - he's pretty good.
Joe D. isn't perfect. But compared to the rest of the GMs in the association he's pretty solid. Only 8 NBA franchises have won a title since 1980 - you have to be crazy to discount 04 as an accomplishment. And they were 6 minutes from winning two.
So, again, if not Joe .. who? Who would have been better?
quit asking tough questions
hopefully we go after avery johnson. He really stresses defense.