Former Detroit Pistons guard Joe Dumars took over as the team’s president of basketball operations in 2000. There was a time when Dumars had the Midas touch with the Pistons. In 1989, Dumars helped the Pistons win their first NBA Championship and in the process he was named NBA Finals MVP. By Dumars’ second season in the Pistons front office the team won 50 games for the first time since the 1996-1997 NBA season. In 2003, Dumars fired Rick Carlisle as the Pistons head coach after going 100-64 in his two seasons in Detroit. Carlisle also led the Pistons to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2003 for the first time since 1991. Dumars replaced Carlisle with Larry Brown and the Pistons won their first NBA Championship since 1990. From 2003-2008 the Pistons would make six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, but they were unable to claim another NBA Championship after 2004.
The dismantling of the Pistons began in 2008 when Dumars fired Flip Saunders as the Pistons head coach. In his three seasons as the Pistons head coach, Saunders compiled a regular season record of 120-70 as he led Detroit to the Eastern Conference Finals in each season, but he was unable to get them back to the NBA Finals. At the beginning of the 2008-2009 NBA season Dumars traded longtime Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for shooting guard Allen Iverson. The Pistons went 39-43 that season as they were swept in the first round of the NBA Playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers and they have not returned to the postseason since.
Dumars dipped into free agency back in the summer of 2009 and he rolled snake eyes. Dumars signed former UConn products in guard Ben Gordon and forward Charlie Villanueva. Prior to signing a five-year, $55 million deal with the Pistons, Gordon spent the first five years of his NBA career with the Chicago Bulls where he averaged 18.5 points per game. In three seasons with the Pistons, Gordon only averaged 12.4 points per game. After three seasons of underachieving, Dumars traded Gordon to the Charlotte Bobcats. Dumars signed Villanueva to five-year deal as well, but for $35 million. In his last season before signing with the Pistons, Villanueva averaged 16.9 points per game as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. Villanueva has never lived up to his potential with the Pistons as he has only averaged 9.6 points in five seasons with Detroit and this season he has only appeared in 14 games.
Since the start of the 2009-2010 NBA season the Pistons have never won more than 30 games in a season. The Pistons came into this season with some promise as they have been improving through the NBA Draft. In 2010, Dumars used the seventh overall pick of the NBA Draft on center Greg Monroe and in 2012 he used the ninth overall pick on center Andre Drummond. What Drummond and Monroe give the Pistons is nearly 14 feet of height. Monroe and Drummond are both developing as they are each under 25 years of age. Dumars tapped into free agency once again last summer when he signed forward Josh Smith to a four-year, $56 million deal. Via a sign and trade the Pistons also obtained point guard Brandon Jennings. With this new found talent in Detroit, Dumars brought in an established NBA head coach in the form of Maurice Cheeks to run this team. Cheeks was a former NBA player who spent parts of eight seasons as a head coach in the league with the Portland Trailblazers and Philadelphia 76ers. In those eight seasons Cheeks had a career record of 284-285.
But after 50 games and a 21-29 record this season, Cheeks was fired. After tonight’s victory over the San Antonio Spurs, the Pistons are currently tied for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and Cheeks’ firing comes on the heels of Detroit winning their last two games under him by a combined margin of 33 points. I don’t see what has changed that much between now and last summer when Dumars hired Cheeks. By firing Cheeks, Dumars has now wasted his entire training camp and for the most part the entire 2013-2014 NBA season. To me Dumars fired Cheeks as the last act of a desperate man. With a new team owner for the Pistons in Tom Gores who is looking for results, Dumars is going to do everything possible to save his job. With assistant coach John Loyer now being promoted to head coach of the Pistons it will mark the ninth head coach that has been employed under Dumars’ watch.
The main problem with this current Pistons team that Dumars has constructed is that they don’t have a consistent go-to guy on this squad as they’re filled with a bunch of “B” type players on their team. The Pistons currently have five players on their team that are averaging in double figures with Jennings leading the way at 17.7 points per game. Smith was brought to Detroit to be the guy, but for his entire career he has only averaged 15.4 points per game.
The main problem with Dumars is that he still looking to build the Pistons in the way that we saw in 2004 when they won a title. The 2003-2004 Pistons were a cast of characters that were given up on by their previous teams, but under Brown they meshed together to win an NBA Championship. The same can be said about the Piston teams that Dumars played on in 1989 and 1990 that won consecutive NBA Titles. More than ever the game of basketball has changed in the NBA as it has become a star driven league which is something that the Pistons clearly lack. For all of their size in the frontcourt, the Pistons are last in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage at 31 percent per contest and they do not have one individual player in the top 70 of three-point shooting percentage in the NBA.
All is not lost with the Pistons as a small winning streak could move them up significantly in the standings in the weak Eastern Conference. More than likely the Pistons will head into this summer looking for a big named head coach. According to ESPN.com, the Pistons are reportedly interested in former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins. Former NBA head coaches in George Karl or Nate McMillan could also be in the mix, but will Dumars still be employed by the Pistons? Dumars has been referred to by some as “Mr. Piston” due to the fact that this has been the only NBA team in which he has been employed by. The bottom line is that something has to change soon for the Pistons.
Villanueva is making nearly $8.6 million this season which is set to come off of the books for the Pistons as his contract will expire at the end of the season. Drummond appears to be in the long-term plans of the Pistons, but could they trade Monroe who does have trade value? Smith clashed this season with Cheeks and he was paid like a star to come to Detroit and lead, but he has not lived up to it. How soon will it take before the Pistons give up on him because he is not an “A” type player? Throughout his NBA career Jennings has not been known as a distributor, but this season he is tied for fifth this season in assists with 8.2 per game which has been a welcome surprise.
The Pistons will finish up the first half of the NBA season on Wednesday night at home against the Cavs. After the All-Star Break the Pistons will have a home-and-home series with the Charlotte Bobcats which could go a long way in determining their playoff fate and maybe Dumars’ fate in Detroit as well.
If Gores does allow Dumars to return to the Pistons next season he will definitely have to change his philosophy because it is not working in the current NBA.
Source: Basketball-reference.com
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