By H. Jose Bosch
I wanted to see Joe Dumars find a pure point guard or a pure center this off-season. Ideally he would’ve gotten both but since finding a high-level talent at either position is rare, just getting one would’ve been nice.
But apparently someone told Joe D that next season the paint will not exist because he clearly doesn’t care about the team’s lack of presence down low. Instead Dumars thinks his team will be the next Orlando Magic, a 3-point shooting team that will drown opponents in their greatness.
Too bad Detroit is missing a major piece of that puzzle: a dominating presence down low. You think the Magic could do what they did without Dwight Howard? Naw.
What will be the Pistons’ answer to teams defending their perimeter? Charlie Villanueva? Yeah, ok, my 12-year old brother could probably post him up. Tayshaun Prince? He’ll be too busy whining to the officials and reminding people of that one great block he made in the 2004 playoffs (and to his defense, it was an unbelievable block). Austin Daye? Well, Pistons officials will be too busy scrambling to catch Daye after a gust of wind blows him off the court.
Those in charge of the Palace might as well blow up two large craters at each end of the court because no one will want to go inside.
Maybe I’m being a little harsh. Running a professional organization is probably tougher than it looks. Hell, I know it’s tougher than it looks. But come on. This doesn’t even seem like Dumars is trying.
When he told the press he wanted to shore up the backcourt, most of us crazy fans believed he was going to, you know, strengthen the backcourt. Not bring in younger, softer versions of Rasheed Wallace. I’ve torn out enough hair yelling at a 6-foot-11 forward staying on the perimeter and chucking threes like he’s flippin’ Reggie Miller!
I don’t even want to start on Ben Gordon. If there’s one thing I’ve learned living in Chicago is that Chicago sports fans loooove their teams. It’s frightening frankly. Dressing up as a Batman-like character for your team wouldn’t fly in Detroit. So when a city isn’t sad to see a player go, even when he was a consummate professional, that should raise questions.
Just like the draft, these deals have me scratching my head. Unlike the draft I can’t say, “Oh, we’ll just wait until free agency to see if the Pistons know what they’re doing.”
I believe the Pistons are a better team now than they were at the end of the year, but the point is not to build a better team, but to build a championship winner. I don’t think Dumars’ moves over these past two weeks have done that.