How does a coach that goes 176-70 in three seasons get fired? Easy. Go 0-3 in the conference finals. For whatever reason, the Piston players never really bought into Flip Saunders and, as a fan, I never really bought into him much either. Besides, you would think that for a team as talented as Detroit that getting back to the finals would be a piece of cake; but, as we learned, a false sense of pride can be a problem. Plain and simple, the Detroit Pistons could not hit a shot when it mattered the most and that is why the Boston Celtics are hosting the NBA Finals tonight on ABC against the Los Angelas Lakers.
That being said, the Pistons have a lot of decisions to make this off season and I'm interested to see which direction management will decide to go. Most likely, Rasheed Wallace will be the primary target to move but don't be surprised if Chauncey Billups is thrown into that mix as well. Rodney Stuckey's emergence in the playoffs makes Chauncey expendable but, before I get ahead of myself, I think it's a little irrational to think such a thing. Chauncey's experience outweighs Rodney's youth if you ask me but, this is only pure speculation (for now) when it comes to what will transpire this summer.
Truth be told, I would love nothing more then for the Pistons to stand pat and keep the current roster intact; but, change is inevitable and the sad thing is, this Pistons team will probably be remembered more for their missed opportunities than that one time that they did break through. Regardless, that championsip window is seemingly closing by the minute; so, unless the Pistons get firing on all cylinders, I fear they will continue to run out of gas year after year.
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