Human Victory Cigar

With so many Pistons’ fans coming back into the fold as the season kicks off, there is a certain catch up period for the folks that had been following the Tigers or just plain resting from what has been an exhausting Pistons run over the last several seasons.

Gone are familiar faces Ben Wallace and Darko Milicic, players who at one time represented the personality and future of the franchise. For some this may detract from the sexiness or familiar comfort of the Pistons. For others, it heralds a new and uncertain beginning with players and coaches like Jason Maxiell, Flip Murray, Nazr Mohammed, Terry Porter and Dave Cowens ready to add their own contribution to the legacy of the NBA’s most blue collar franchise.

At pistonsforum.com, we’ve got the usual fans with an opinion. But our members also have an interest in the finance, history, technique and spiritual personality of Detroit basketball.

Like TJ Hooker tasting a powdery white substance off his pinkie finger, Griffin, mercury, max and BillLaimbeer “do the knowledge” to whet your appetite for the Detroit red, white and blue.

Meet the Coaches

FLIP SAUNDERS

Age: 51
Position: Head Coach
Tenure: 2nd Season with the Pistons
Known for: Franchise best record with Pistons (2006) and Twolves (2004)

Coaching Experience:

• 9+ years as Twolves Head Coach, 8 consecutive playoffs.
• CBA coach for 7 seasons, 2 championships, 2 coach of the year awards

Playing Experience: Played with Kevin McHale at University of Minnesota.

Misc trivia: During his senior season, 1973, he was named Ohio’s Class A High School Basketball Player of the Year after averaging a state-high 32.0 points a game.

Family: Married, 4 kids (Ryan, Mindy, Rachel, and Kimberly)

TERRY PORTER

Age: 43
Position: Assistant Coach
Tenure: 1st Season with the Pistons
Known for: Outstanding defender, 3-point shooter, and free throw shooter.

Coaching Experience:

• Led the Bucks to 41-41 and 30-52 records in 2004 and 2005.
• Was an assistant coach for the Kings (2003).

Playing Experience:

• 24th pick of the 1985 draft.
• Scored 15,586 points (83rd)
• Played for Saunders (1996-1998)

Misc trivia:

• Holds the NBA Finals single-game record for the most free throws made, none missed — 15 (June 7, 1990 at Detroit)
• In four seasons at Stevens Point, Porter averaged 13.5 points and shot an astounding 58.9 percent from the field

Family: Married, 3 kids (Brianna, Franklin, and Malco)

DAVE COWENS

Age: 58
Position: Assistant Coach
Tenure: 1st Season with the Pistons
Known for: Can help the Pistons with rebounding and points in the paint.

Coaching Experience:

• Was player-coach for the Celtics in 1979 (27-41).
• Led Hornets to two 50+ win seasons.
• Went 25-80 (23.8%) with the Warriors.

Playing Experience:

• 4th pick of the 1970 draft.
• 2 NBA rings.
• Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996 and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990.

Misc trivia:

• Shares the NBA record for most defensive rebounds in a postseason game (20 on two occasions).
• One of 11 players in NBA history to have won the regular-season MVP and All-Star Game MVP in the same season (1973).

Family: Married, 2 kids (Meghan and Samantha)

DON ZIERDEN

Age: 46
Position: Assistant Coach
Tenure: 2nd Season with the Pistons
Known for: This past summer, was in charge of the Pistons Vegas Summer League team.

Coaching Experience:

• Worked with Saunders at Tulsa, in the CBA, and with Twolves.
• Head coach in CBA for 2 years.

Playing Experience: None

Misc trivia: Worked as video coordinator and director of player development with Twolves

Family: Married, 2 kids (Isaiah and Rachel)

RON HARPER

Age: 42
Position: Assistant Coach
Tenure: 2nd Season with the Pistons
Known for: Before a knee injury with the Clippers, was a talented scorer with great leaping ability.

Coaching Experience: None

Playing Experience:

• 8th pick in the 1986 draft.
• 5 NBA rings (2 w/ Lakers, 3 w/ Bulls).
• Great defender and floor leader with the Laker titles (2000, 2001).

Misc trivia: Has been immortalized on the Oxford, Ohio campus of Miami University. A local restaurant, Lottie Moon’s, serves the Ron Harper All-Star Burger, a cheeseburger topped with a fried egg, as a tribute to Harper.

Family: Unknown. Taught how to play basketball by his mother.

IGOR KOKOSKOV
Age: 35
Position: Assistant Coach
Tenure: 4th Season with the Pistons
Known for: Runs some practices, prepares game plans, and works with players one-on-one.

Coaching Experience:

• First full-time, non-American assistant coach in NBA history (LA Clippers, 3 years).
• Was assistant coach of Serbia and Montenegro 2004 Olympics.

Playing Experience: Became the youngest coach in Yugoslavian basketball history shortly after suffering serious injuries sustained during an automobile accident that ended a promising playing career.

Misc trivia:

• Coached in Yugoslavia before moving to the U.S.
• Was first European to serve as an assistant coach in D-I when University of Missouri hired him (1999).

Family: Unknown

BILL POPE

Age: 41
Position: Assistant - Advance Scout
Tenure: 3rd Season with the Pistons
Known for: Helps with training camp and post season.

Coaching Experience: Head Coach at Division II Lincoln for 6 years.

Playing Experience: None
Misc trivia: Served as the student manager for Kansas under Larry Brown.
Family: Married, 2 kids (Ryan and Hallie)

Ben There Done That

What has most of the Pistons faithful dazed and confused is not knowing the true effects of Ben’s departure.

Exactly how many points are those hustle backtaps worth? Those blocks and steals translate into how many transition buckets?… and would someone please explain what the intimidation factor is worth?

Some day they’ll be passing out the Wallace Golden Fro award to future Mr. Intangibles.

One thing we know for sure is that no one on our roster can cover two men like Ben did…. Did I say did? Hmmm… maybe we are visiting the past too much in regards to any future contributions from Big Ben. Our return on investment is no longer a given as the bargain basement value we received from the Fro’d One.

Most intelligent Piston fans understand the importance of having a dominant defensive force patrolling the paint but are his best days only a fond memory? There was becoming an increasing trend of opponents going directly at Ben… the best way to defeat his lateral quickness is to put a bigger body on him and get him on his heels. Opposing bigs were scoring above their average against Ben at a substantial rate. The “No Fly Zone” was quickly becoming a B52 landing strip. There was also concerns about his legs taking on the stress of trying to move bodies that were often 30+ LBS heavier… this ailment was humorously labeled “the mysterious Leg Fatigue Syndrome”. Some of that extra burst seemed to be missing. Could it be that Ben’s declining production was a factor in letting him walk to one of our rivals?

There is a legitimate argument that the Fro was being excluded from the offense. Less touches = lower numbers. In Larry Browns eyes tossing Ben some bones would eventually result in having to play less 4 against 5, thereby forcing teams to play Ben honestly. This experiment had mixed results but you can’t argue with the trophy occupying shelf space at 5 Championship Drive. Make no mistake about it Flip was the anti-Ben. His approach was to utilize players that gave the team the best chance to score. The team did indeed score at a more efficient rate.

Living for Today or Tomorrow?

So where does this leave us moving forward? It’s certainly conceivable that the team will take a step back this year. Exactly who is Nazr going to stop inside? There’s talk out of camp about going more to the Georgetown press this year. That’s all fine and good but don’t you need a mobile big man covering the backside? Ok so the defense will not be as proficient and it’s highly likely that our transition game will suffer from Ben’s absence. It’s equally probable that the offense will run like the machine that we’ve envisioned with a five man unit that has skills unmatched by any other team. If you want to double down on the Pistons you will pay the price.

Joe has mentioned frequently that he wants to build a team for today and the future. Was this the primary reason for not backing up the Brinks truck? Or was it simply another case of our tight fisted owner putting the kibosh on entering the dreaded Lux tax threshold? Those sinister Bulls played a shrewd game of front loading the contract offer knowing that it would push Mr. Davidson over the financial cliff.

By not giving into the high dollar demands Joe Dumars is in a better position to pursue free agents and re-sign his own talent. It’s certainly conceivable that there would have been a choice between retaining Ben or Chauncey. What would happen if some of our young talents had breakout years as their contract expired? Given Mr. D’s tight fisted history we should be able to answer this ourselves. This begs the question, do we have an owner committed to long term winning?

We’ll save that question for another rant.

With the assumptions that the Pistons will never be free spenders we have to consider the real impact of re-signing Ben. No signing Mid level free agents. Losing some of our youth. Potentially not re-signing Chauncey. Losing some trade flexibility afforded by being around the soft salary cap. Even adding minimum salaried players would become difficult. How about when Ben reaches 35 years old? Would we be burdened by a boat anchor contract with no way out?

Some might say hey, just play for today because there are no guarantees that there will be a championship window down the road.

Just like there are no guarantees that retaining Ben would put us over the top again this year.

Cheap is as Cheap Does

An interesting side plot will be how Ben is received in Chicago. There will be a Palace sized microscope in Chi town on BBW. Just wait ‘til Sam Smith gets hold of his production per salary contributions.

Underneath the Hulkish frame is an ultra sensitive man. He doesn’t take criticism well (case in point his seething comments after Larry ripped into the team’s lack of effort or refusing to enter the game in Orlando) what happens if the fans turn on him because he’s not putting up big dollar numbers? It’s always greener on the other side of the septic.

How will our fans respond to Ben visiting the Palace in MJ colored unis?… Maybe they’ll be sporting some Big Ben fros made out of dollar bills.

Here in Piston land tracking our once promising centers (Ben, Darko & Memo) has our heads on a swivel… My how quickly things can change. We went from a team nationally recognized with the best combination of bigs for the foreseeable future to rolling with Nesterovic’s backup… whether Nazr likes it or not he’ll be in the spotlight. Might as well get it out of the way “that’s not how Ben would have done it” simply cut and paste for future reference. Nazr better be ready to bring it when Ben rides into to town. The calendar is already marked for November 6th, February 25th, March 29th and April 4th. Got my eyes on you Foker aka Mr. D.

Central-izing our hopes

One of the big questions going into this new season is regarding Chicago and Cleveland. One team made major changes and the other stood pat. The question is how good have these teams become? And should Detroit be worried?

Let’s start with Cleveland.

Here’s a team brimming with confidence coming off last year’s near upset of the Pistons. Whether Cleveland was really that good or Detroit was really that bad is yet to be determined. But what’s important is that Cleveland thinks it’s good now. Confidence is a lethal component in someone like LeBron’s arsenal.

Nonetheless, the players around him still look like a bad match. Larry Hughes looks worse alongside LeBron than his cheaper backup did - Flip Murray - who now resides on Detroit’s bench. I’m much more curious to see the likes of Varejao and MSU’s Shannon Brown running with LeBron than Eric Snow and that giant oak tree known as Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

All things considered, this is a team that looks primed to take a step backwards this season (which means Cleveland will probably win the championship this year). Their coach isn’t very impressive, their lineup has little chemistry to speak of, and LeBron just ain’t enough to hold it all together.

Chicago, on the other hand, has become a team I do not look forward to playing. They were already tough and pesky - very Goin’ to Work - and with the addition of Big Ben the question isn’t whether they’ll be good anymore. Because they will be.

Prognosticators worry about their offense. Maybe that’ll be a concern deep into the playoffs for Chicago, but during the regular season I wouldn’t be concerned about that. They’ll find a way behind that defense. We know about that. We’ve been there.

Here is the truth: the city of Chicago is going to have the best defensive teams in both the NFL and the NBA. And starting this season we get to see how special Ben Wallace really is.

They may not pass Detroit for the Central crown as they spend time learning how to play with Ben, but they will not be fun to compete against in the playoffs. The sky is the limit for this team and Detroit should be plenty worried about them.

And don’t sleep on Indiana. They might be dysfunctional, but they got better this off-season. Questions about health and leadership make this team easy to write off. But I wouldn’t be so quick to do that.

Overcoming the Heat

Miami is coming back with virtually the same team they had last season so the same questions remain. Can Wade avoid injury and can Shaq still play at a dominant level for one more season? When healthy Shaq and Mourning form the most dominant frontcourt in the East. Add in Walker and Haslem and they will be tough to beat. Wade will be Wade but Miami’s greatest question will be how that frontcourt holds up.

The Pistons are going to have to develop some frontcourt depth which is something they have not had since the championship year.

If Flip simply subs in Mohammed and goes with a 3-man set then it will not be enough to beat the Heat. Someone else will have to step up. Dale Davis will have to be used for the role he was originally signed for and one of the young guys will also be needed. Maxiell has hit the ground running in the pre-season and is showing a lot of promise.

The Pistons will have to start pressuring Miami in the paint with more players.

Polling the weather

The Pistons will win 53~56 games this season, make it at least as far as the Conference Finals and Chauncey Billups will be the team MVP.