Rasheed Wallace is still one of the best PF in the game, there are a lot of teams that would want him on their teams (attitude and all). Same goes for Richard Hamilton, he’s a consistent scorer and he’s hardly ever injured.

Why keep Rasheed when he can be traded for younger guys? Why keep Hamilton when he can be traded for full value rather than keep him until he’s lost his value. I’ve never seen someone want to build around a SG that cannot either create his own shot or who can hit consistently from 3. Rip can’t do either, his game is mid-range, not many people in the NBA have a great mid-range game like Rip, but maybe that’s more because it’s not important to hit the 12 foot runner than it is to create and/or hit consistently from 3.

That’s all I’m saying, I’m not arguing with you. I’m looking at ways to get more value out of the 4 we have now. The 4 we have now can be turned into keep 3 and add 2 pieces to bring depth to the bench. Tayshaun can pick up the scoring load, he proved that in the 1st 2 rounds of the playoffs PLUS all of last year’s playoffs.

Then if Larry Brown is available, do whatever it takes to get him. If not, there are other options: 1) Hubie Brown; 2) Bill Laimbeer; 3) Terry Porter; 4) Jeff Van Gundy — all who would love to coach Detroit, with the possible exception of Hubie Brown.

I’ll save the trouble, since we seem to be complete opposites.

Obviously, many trades line up money-wise while offering little for one team or both. I did stumble across across a trade while exploring the old Bonzi Wells for Nazr Mohammed rumors from the deadline that works for both teams (arguably). It isn’t perfect but the idea intrigues me:

Delfino and Mohammed to Houston for Luther Head and Shane Battier

There have obviously been no rumors to support this and it’s probably a pie-in-the-sky idea but I’m curious what everyone else thinks of this.

The point is that people are saying “trade” “Isiah” and “Pistons” in the same sentence.

That should have anyone who has paid attention to Isiah’s “career” just about passing out with excitement.

As far as your other “personnel recommendations” I think you’re wrong. The team can only go so far with a front line of 30-somethings, and instead of turning into the 2004 LA Lakers or the Miami Heat, why not get rid of the guys while they still have 1, 2 or 3 years of value left? While I realize they’re not quite the 2006 Miami Heat, I also know that the talent level at the PF/C position (where Sheed and Dyess both play) is ridiculously thin. I believe the true value on the team lies in the team’s SG, Richard Hamilton. He’s a guy that a lot of teams might overvalue because he’s a minutes eater and he’s hardly ever hurt and he can fill it up with 20ppg a night. The problem is, he cannot create his own shot. When he dribbles and tries to create, I almost have to close my eyes and hope that a travel or “palming the ball” violation isn’t called…

I don’t believe any of the guys on the Knicks roster outside of David Lee and Channing Frye have any value (to Detroit) other than when their contracts are about to expire.

Get value out of Rip, deal him for athletes, and get a big and a little in the draft. The building block of the team has to be Tayshaun, all others to me are available for the right price.

However, as far as a Chauncey returns for scenario . . . I really don’t think Detroit should deal any of the Starting Four . . . Chauncey, Rip, Prince, and Rasheed. Rest of the guys? For sure.

Two things really ruined Detroit . . .

1. Flip Saunders really isn’t the best X’s and O’s guy.

Only one minor ponder about Lindsey guarding LeBron . . . it was probably brought on by foul trouble or some sort of panic mode, since I remember Tayshaun guarding Tim Duncan to close the half during Game 7 of the 05 Finals due to foul trouble with our bigs . . . and man did that fail. If there’s any other reason why guys like Chauncey and Lindsey were giving up size and height advantages to LeBron for defensive assignments, then this one goes right there with subbing Lindsey and Flip to start Game 6’s 4th quarter as one of those “oh no” moments for all time.

2. Joe Dumars hasn’t put together the best benches since the ‘05 offseason.

Tony Delk? Maurice Evans? Flip Murray? Chris Webber? Some of these moves were forced-hand (Nazr Mohammed in wake of Ben Wallace to Chicago), but others seemed to be made with a fit in mind . . . those fits never happened, for various reasons.

Why hasn’t Carlos Delfino earned enough playing time to be a major minutes-eater off the bench for Rip and Tayshaun? Why can’t Delfino be the next man off the bench after Antonio McDyess? Why do we still have this guy, otherwise?

I like the idea of keeping Rasheed because the names mentioned as a direct replacement at power forward . . . they don’t measure up. All of them are moves to get younger, not better.

We need a guy who will clean up the boards on offense and defense and play a solid post game so that Rasheed could return to being the inside help instead of the primary option. Rasheed became the main defender when guys like Mohammed and Webber filled the center role. He’s strapped to the limit every night out there, and people wonder why he goes bananas . . . when you watch Webber or Mohammed defend a guy, they can barely handle a Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and that’s sad because half of the league’s centers are about as talented as Z . . . usually on only one side, offense or defense.

Mohammed worked in San Antonio because he was there to clean up offensive boards from missed perimeter shots. I don’t remember San Antonio calling plays for Nazr. He worked exactly like Oberto does . . . neither Oberto or Mohammed are as effective when they’re the main guy in the paint, that much is now clear.

I mentioned Utah and Okur because Mohammed would work well with cleaning up for Utah’s perimeter players and playing 2nd banana to Boozer.

Okur, from a drawback perspective, is a younger version of Webber with slightly better range on his shot. Okur’s faster than Webber, but who isn’t? Okur’s not a great defender, either . . . but despite all that, it gives any team 30-odd minutes to fill in a starting role, and that’s better than Nazr losing his starting job yet again with Detroit this year. Nazr’s style doesn’t fit in Detroit.

If Detroit could get a guy like David Lee in the draft, then the Pistons would once again be fronting 5 solid starters on the court, which is usually at least 2 more legitimate starters than most teams in the NBA. Otherwise, if they could find that rebounding center . . . I don’t know.

I’d really like to get rid of Flip Saunders, Webber, Hunter, and Nazr (I dont really see Blalock doing much for us either). As for a coach I’m kind of open, I’d take Brown or Laimbeer (Brown got us a championship and to game 7 of the Finals, Laimbeer won 2 championships for the Shock in his short time there. I’m still even open to any coach except Saunders, he has a great team, you cant chalk up his success here just as good coaching. I never really liked him. He’s proven to always choke once we get deep into the playoffs.

Either Webber retires, or let him sign somewhere else. Trade Nazr for a younger tall center who (hopefully) can defend, rebound and have some low post skills. Hunter should just retire, I don’t see him getting any better. I’d resign Dale Davis for a year or two pretty much for Shaq (any big guy really…), he don’t seem to bad for his age (much more mobile than “glass knee’s” Webber). Keep Mcdyess for few if he still wants to play. Even keep Murray for Billups backup. Murray ain’t to bad, he needs to share the ball more.

I want Amir Johnson on the regular rotation. Bring over Cheikh Samb and give him some minutes (not to many) to get him some practice for next year. I would like to see more minutes from Maxiell and Delfino.

And what is the point of having Dupree on our team? Really…..

Yeah, no one wants to have another Wallace debate, but we’ve got a good conversation going on at my place about adding a center, and if you look at the options, the best of the list might be Chris Mihm. Chris Freaking Mihm.

Losing Wallace hurts in a league were 50% of the starters at that position suck and all of the better 5s make the playoffs pretty much every season.

For a capped out team, you either spend, or you shed talent. Every decision has a consequence (sign or decline). But when I saw CWebb running up the court (if you can call that running) and NazMo styling his warmups, I didn’t feel a lot better that the Pistons saved the money.

To make an analogy, a car might be too expensive for you to maintain, but without it, you’ll be riding the bus.

On to this year, it should be really interesting to see what happens with Billups, because after you shed one of the core, and another needs a big raise that could keep you from adding veteran depth, all of a sudden, cutting the cord might look a lot more attractive than tying up long term money in an enterprise that might need, ahem, “re-tooling”.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this whole coaching situation. I’m kind of warming up to the thought of Laimbeer wandering the sidelines. He always seems to be right on top of things when he’s broadcasting, my guess is there are times he wants to scream at Flip doing something stupid. Plus, he’s hated by everybody else in the league, which is one of the things I love about him. I know it won’t happen. Sigh.

I know the Pistons could have gone over the cap to match Chicago’s offer, but many people (including myself) think it was a wise decision they didn’t. (And I’m pretty sure that was clear in my last comment.) He’s not worth it. It’s not a matter of being cheap, it’s a matter of having the foresight to see when a player has peaked and is rapidly declining.

But that’s an argument about talent evaluation, not economics. I don’t think Detroit’s decision to let Ben leave (let alone not offer another year when many people think Chicago already offered too much) proves anything.