Many sportswriters have chimed in on this subject already, and their take is the usual: "Tear them down! Blow up the team! They are a failure... start all over again."

The main arguments seem to center around the aging core: "The Pistons have reached as far as they can go with this current nucleus, they have to rebuild..."; "They are a flawed aging team that couldn't beat the Cavs, how are they going to get pass them next season?"; "They don't have the right personnel".

My take on the Pistons? Let's take it easy guys. Did the Spurs dismantle their team when they didn't make it to the Finals last season? A trip to the Eastern Conference Finals is not a bad season.

The Pistons are okay. The Eastern Conference isn't getting better - maybe Rashard Lewis comes to the East (maybe). Grant Hill is probably going west. Vince is staying. Oden and Durant go West. Gerald Wallace is unknown. Jermaine O'Neal is also probably going West, for less talent. In other words, the East is still going to wide open next season.

The Pistons can win. They had two big problems in the series against the Cavaliers. One was that Flip Saunders is a bad playoff coach who didn't make the proper adjustments, and allowed his team to get beat, almost single-handedly, by LeBron James in Game 5, then Daniel Gibson in Game 6. The second problem is Flip Saunders didn't utilize his bench properly. The four primary starters for the Pistons - Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Chauncey Billups - all averaged a combined 40 minutes per game. That's alot of minutes for 4/5 of your starting rotation. The guys coming of the bench were mostly old vets like Antonio McDyess, Lindsay Hunter, and Dale Davis.

They need a coach that they respect. They can resign free agent-to-be Chauncey Billups if they want (why not, unless General Manager Joe Dumars thinks he can get a younger point). Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Billups are all pretty affordable, talented, have played together for a while, and proven winners. The Pistons won a NBA championship in 2004, and made it to the Finals the next season (2005), with that core. Instead of breaking them up, get them what they need - a reliable bench. Better yet, play the bench you have - Carlos Delfino is smooth, Amir Johnson supposedly is, too, and Jason Maxiell is a good young player with "bad intentions every time he touches the ball".

Detroit needs to get rid of the deadweight eating up playing time for the young guns. Goodbye, Chris Webber. Good bye Antonio McDyess. Even if he uses his player option, trade him somewhere. Getting rid of McDyess shouldn't be too hard, or at least bench him. Lindsay Hunter is approaching Julio Franco territory. Just get him a nice job in the booth, and that's it. A 40-year old SG?

Let Amir Johnson get some playing time, backing up Wallace and Maxiell. If the young guys can develop some chemistry, then maybe the Pistons can get back to Finals next season....

Learn more about this author, Javier Divorato.
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