by Samuel Ailes

Created on: July 13, 2009   Last Updated: July 14, 2009

The Detroit Pistons are coming off one of the most embarrassing seasons in their historic franchises' history. Yes, we're talking about the same Detroit Pistons squad that was able to capture an NBA championship in 2004; this is also the team that had been to 6 straight Eastern Conference Finals. However, 1 out of 6 wasn't enough for team president Joe Dumars. He decided that Detroit needed to rebuild on the go and promised major changes going into last season. Dumars certainly lived up to his word when he made arguably the biggest lopsided trade of last season. Detroit's star point guard was sent to Denver for Allen Iverson. Iverson didn't mesh well with the Pistons' chemistry, but the good news is that he and Rasheed Wallace's contracts both expired.

Everyone knew Detroit would be big time spenders in this years off season. Detroit was able to make a big splash signing two former Uconn Huskies, Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. Both of these guys are younger than 26, which is a huge youth upgrade as compared to Wallace and Iverson who are both in their mid 30's. The one problem I have with these signings is that Ben Gordon is a natural shooting or "2" guard. The Pistons still have Rip Hamilton under contract until 2011. Dumars has said that he has no intention of trading Hamilton, but it's almost certain that they won't play Hamilton and Gordon at the same time.

The reason they made the Billups trade was to free up playing time for their franchise point guard, Rodney Stuckey. On paper, their 2009 lineup looks like this: PG - Rodney Stuckey SG- Rip Hamilton SF- Tashyaun Prince PF - Charlie Villanueva C- Kwame Brown. That leaves Ben Gordon getting paid roughly $11 million a year to come off the bench. The alternative could be to play extremely small with Hamilton starting at small forward, and then Prince and Villanueva at the other forward and center position, but I doubt Detroit wants anything to do with that. I feel as though Detroit is still trying to find the right move to make. They're hoping that they can move either Prince, Hamilton, or both in hopes of landing a premiere big man such as Carlos Boozer.

The Utah Jazz have been openly shopping Boozer, but it's tough for Detroit to make a trade for Boozer because he only has one year left on his contract. I'm pretty sure Dumars doesn't want to trade two guys that have been at the core of his starting lineup for a one year rental guy. With that being said, Dumars is not a patient man and will pull the trigger on any trade that he feels will make his team better, regardless of the publics opinion. My prediction is that Detroit makes the playoffs, but doesn't go very far, they might steal one series at best.

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