Piston's Window is Closed

For 4 NBA teams, the window has closed. Hard.

Which NBA teams are posers? Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, and.... Detroit.

Why are these teams suspect? Because of one, ever important stat.

Defense.

Not overall defense, field goal percentage defense.

Why this stat? Offense is usually a very context sensitive fact, mostly dealing with pace of play and the types of shots a team generally likes to take. Defense generally gets a team to the finals and wins championships. This very stat was the stat that I relied on so heavily to predict that last year's winner of the Eastern Conference would dominate the finals, despite the changing west.

Basically, all these teams have fallen greatly in this stat from last year's ranking. Detroit has fallen the hardest, from 3rd to 21st. The others have fallen significantly, but not nearly as hard.

While earlier I predicted that Detroit would improve with the addition of Allen Iverson and eventually Antonio McDyess, I will admit my folly. Detroit's window is closed. They can't play defense anymore, they can't run with the offensive juggernauts of Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando. They have faded away.

The question is, was Chauncey that important on the defensive end? I say no, he was a solid defensive player, but he cannot contain quick point guards. Rajon Rondo's performance in the ECF last year was proof of that. Especially considering that Rondo had no business being a factor in that series as anything more than a turnover machine and choke job. Instead, he used quickness to get around Chauncey had create. The loss of Chauncey is not the problem.

Age, and possibly coaching is the problem. Certainly, the addition of another year is turning out to be the nail in the Piston's coffin. We all can see it on the court; the Pistons just can't run with this good teams anymore, except in short spurts. They still seem to get up for big games, like the Lakers and Cleveland games earlier in the year. But, this year instead of being able to play without giving 100% does not result in wins over easy opponents.

Which brings me to my next point. Wasn't Michael Curry supposed to be THE guy who could get 100% effort out of this team? Wasn't he supposed to be the coach they all respected? Well the record and their continued bad play against mediocre teams is a reflection on the coach. Plus, the worst knock against him is that he has been outcoached by DOC RIVERS, not once, but twice! Curry had better learn on the job in a hurry, or pray for a miracle because he looks like he could possibly be the weakest link on the team.

But, it is really too early to judge Curry, and he probably walked into this coaching job a few years to late to really maximize this group's potential. So, I will wait to really criticize him until later in the season or even after.

The truth is, we have all knew the window closed. The fact is, it closed 3 years ago. Joe Dumars may have realized before the rest of us realized that it closed this year, but the truth is, he realized 2 years to late. This team of complacent. This group of elderly teammates stopped becoming relevant when Lebron realized he could single handely win an Eastern Conference Championship. At that point, Joe should have given up his hope of multiple championships with a bunch of average players and made that big splash.

Instead our "big splash" involved a player who was WAY past his prime. Plus the move appears to have made the Pistons worse, not better.

I may be a Joe Dumars hater, but the results of this year (just wait until our second round exit from the playoffs) prove this team should have been blown up long ago. If he had blown this team up 2 years ago (buy low, sell high?), we might have Chauncey, Carmelo, Stuckey, and ***insert your "favorite big men." A team that might have had a chance to at least challenge the Celtics, instead of make them laugh every time they hold us under 80 points.

Joe better have a few tricks up his sleeve or next season will be another disappointment. Lucky for him we are also Lions fans, therefore, expectations are very low.