Dynasty in Flux - In Joe We (Still) Trust

Published by Austin Kent on June 5, 2008

On the eve of basketball’s final series, I sit in a dark, depressed room dealing with demons who’ve haunted me and others like me since the perennial fall of the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals last week. In the days following the defeat I travelled across Ontario not once but twice, searching for either a) an answer to the painstaking struggles this team, my team, had endured over the previous few days, or b) a means of letting them slip my mind all together.

Following the Game 5 loss in Boston, I put together what I felt, at the time, resembled a rational outlook on a gut wrenching defeat. The defeat on that Wednesday night, as you likely know, was the type that reverberated so profoundly in one’s mind that it was surprisingly easy to overlook the brain splitting pain that sporadically returned in excruciatingly sharp increments over the course of the evening. In other words, it was the type of loss that hurt so much that it didn’t even really hurt, the type that numbs the mind to a level of calm indifference.

For Pistons fans, our wits and senses were overwhelmed by the paralyzing loss, but only when reminded of the context in which the defeat was dealt. Like the tides of the ocean’s coast, the pain would rise with expressions of angst and frustration, before falling away subtly as we recalled similar situations in which Chauncey Billups and company had found themselves and eventually prevailed. The magnitude of the series-defining match was downplayed in an attempt to ignore the fact that Detroit basketball traditionally perishes in mid-to-late-May.

Speaking only for myself, an unabashed homer of everything Hooper, the seriousness of the tie-breaking fifth game was none too quick to sink in, and as a result, the article that I had prepared for Hoops Addict readers that night was in no way publishable or even coherent. Now, one week removed from the emotional day I had originally hoped to document, I sit again, reflecting on what comes next and how we get there.

Whereas a lack of skill can be appropriately addressed through free agency and/or the NBA draft, the problems that have plagued the Detroit Pistons for the past three seasons are far more intangible than that. While teams around the league address questions of experience, size and speed, Pistons general manager Joe Dumars knows that what haunts his club is a deep-rooted psychological penchant for mailing it in. Try and fix that with a Mid-Level Exception.

The trees are blooming in Northern Ontario, as I navigate the asphalt roads warped and cracked from years under sheets of ice and snow. I’ve escaped the hectic life of the overpopulated south in favour of a quieter, more relaxed north. This is where I was raised and this is where I began developing the love I have for the Detroit Pistons. Here, just a stone’s throw from northern Michigan, it’s easier to relate to the Red Wings and Tigers of hockey and baseball than it is the Maple Leafs or Blue Jays with whom I share a province.

Years ago a man named Grant Hill piqued my interest in Motor City sports and not long after that I’d witnessed first-hand the power of a stadium packed with passionate disciples of grit and hard work. I was a relatively late bloomer to the Palace scene but am grateful for the chance to have witnessed Detroit basketball at it’s finest, back before the phrase became a euphemism for “underachieving league power with little to no presence when the postseason mattered most”.

By returning home I did little but ignore my responsibilities back down south, but it did remind me of the reason why I cared so much about this Pistons team in the first place; the unexplainable bond between team and fan that goes deeper than any particular playoff run. This re-realization of what being a fan is all about has helped put the fourth straight playoff flameout in perspective. I’ve learned that it’s okay to criticize the team’s tendency to take possessions off without fear of giving up on them or without falling out of love.

Though the Pistons franchise, remains in limbo (coach Flip Saunders has already been shown the door), fans of Detroit’s favourite underachievers can take solace in the fact that the same man who brought a sense of comforting stability back in his own playing days in the 80s and 90s is at it again.

“Make no mistake, everybody is in play right now,” said Dumars in an attempt to clarify that Saunders is not to be made a scapegoat. “There are no sacred cows here. You lose that sacred cow status when you lose three straight years.”

Recently the rumour mill has been spinning with names like Rasheed Wallace and Billups featured as the most likely to go, but where an evaluation of expendability is a cut and dry process for 29 other teams, for this Pistons club it’s much more complex. Regardless of who (if any) of the core rotation goes this offseason, fans can rest assured that at least one man is staying, perhaps the man most instrumental to any of the success this current roster has ever enjoyed: Joe Dumars.

While fans, writers and aspiring general managers try and predict who will fill the coaching void left by Saunders, the reason for the coaching change often goes unaddressed. If this Pistons club can not manage to rile themselves up after three consecutive Eastern Conference Finals losses, then a new coach like Michael Curry is not the answer. Similarly, Terry Porter is not the answer. From here I will go as far as to say that another name being tossed around, Avery Johnson, is also not the answer.

The Pistons need a coach that will walk in from day one and demand the respect of the entire roster, simply because their legendary reputation demands nothing less. If it’s worth anything I’ll endorse Matt Watson’s call for Michigan State University’s Tom Izzo.

Either that or Joe Dumars himself, the time is now.

Institutional basketball equipment

This article was written by:

Austin Kent - who has written 45 posts on Hoops Addict.

As both contributing writer and assistant editor of HoopsAddict.com, Austin Kent has enjoyed covering the NBA game from behind the scenes since 2006. Additionally, he is currently the sports editor of The Brock Press and has written for a number of basketball websites and newspapers throughout Ontario.

Contact the author

Readers Rating: