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I for one can promise that I won’t even be READING future posts from your account, let alone replying.

Boston is a better team than last year’s Cavs and Miami’s championship team. Detroit isn’t going to get past them. Orlando will end up being a bigger struggle than most of you seem to realize.

The Piston’s starters and a lot of their fans have a huge entitlement complex they need to resolve.

I laugh when I see some of these followers waste their energy writing posts citing Detroit’s updated bench as the secret ingredient that will get them over the top this season. That would make for a good point, well, if Flip Saunders understood how to use his bench that is! Besides, there have been flashes of potential at best from the younger players, but nothing to indicate a bench that is capable of extending and holding leads in playoff games, especially against the leagues best teams.

Relax people, I’m sure there will be something to smile about this summer after the Pistons get knocked out of the playoffs, but it’s easier if you just give yourself reasonable expectations. Detroit getting to the finals and winning doesn’t qualify as a reasonable expectation for this team as it is currently constructed and coached.

This team could be great, but it’s not. Just like those of you that disagree with me could be right, but you’re not!

This is going to be a great playoffs (first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs notwithstanding).

I think Brad and No Chance are actually right… We’re on pace to win 60 games. Chauncey is having a career best year. Flip and Rasheed are getting along. Our bench is arguably stronger than it has been in years.

we’re doomed everybody. sell your pistons memorabilia.

And be VERY afraid of Boston. Just like Chicago did last season, Boston is dominating us in the regular season. Remember what happened to Chicago in the post-season? Wait, scratch that. nevermind.

we’re doomed. sell the franchise to seattle.

Brad:

I recall Chauncey saying that “the better team didn’t win” or words to that effect after losing to the Cavs last year. I don’t remember him saying Detroit has been the best team in the NBA for the past three years. And is he supposed to say, “we have the best starting five, but our lousy bench is hurting us?” Because that would have been the honest answer in the last two (and maybe three) years.

Beyond that, all the things that bother you bother me, but my questions remains: isn’t true that in the past several years, all the other elite and championship teams have had losses like the one Detroit had last night? And given that Detroit is on pace to have a better final regular season record than the last several champions have had, is there any evidence Detroit has had more of these sorts of losses? I’ll give you this year’s Celtics (so far) as an exception, but beyond that?

Aren’t we running out of excuses why we lose games to Philly, or don’t get up to play Boston, or lose to Cleveland(or Miami) in the ECFs? I have. And shouldn’t it light a fire under someones behind that Posey was taunting Detroit fans after they won on OUR court (and celebrating like they won the title)? This ugly complacency thing is rearing its head again, and everybody saying that’s its not a big deal. PG4L, talks about this “other” team showing up, and she’s spot on. Its getting old… very, very old.

However, I also disagree with the opinion that if the Pistons play up to their potential that they WILL win the championship.

This promises to be the most exciting NBA playoffs in ages. There are more than two teams in each conference that are capable of winning it all and no one can say with any certainty what’s going to happen.

The wisest words have come from (I think) Rob G when he stated that we was just going to simply enjoy cheering on his favorite team this April, May and hopefully June.

But Brad, you say that other teams “mow” through these sorts of games. I’m not so sure they do any better than Detroit. You cite the Celtics, but Boston is on pace to have the best record the NBA has seen in years. Detroit still has the second-best record in the league and still is on pace to win close to 60 games — which is more than the Spurs won last year, than the Heat won the year before, and than the Pistons won in their championship year. So, some pretty great teams must have lost some games like this one.

And “almost say three years of underachieving”? Not sure what you mean by “almost,” but if losing to the Spurs — the best franchise in the NBA over the past 5 years or so — in a close game 7 in the Finals could be called “underachieving,” well, you have pretty high standards. Two years ago, Detroit lost in the ECF to the eventual NBA champion Heat, who were peaking at the right time.

The loss to the Cavs last year was a bitter pill to swallow, but let’s face it: Detroit had a terrible bench (as it did the previous year when losing to Miami). It wasn’t just clearly the worst bench of any serious contender; it was, by any objective measure, one of the worst in the whole frickin’ league (and I say that loving McDyess).

Flip does need to figure out minutes among the bigs now that Ratliff is here, and also minutes among the guards. I guess Stuckey is the #3, but what about Dixon, Afflalo, and oh yeah remember Lindsey Hunter?. Maybe we’ll lose a few games along the way working that out. And again, maybe we’ll lose to Boston no matter what we do, because let’s face it, Boston is very much for real. But this team needs to aim to peak during the playoffs, and there are some things to work on before then.

“If they can’t get up for it (re: the Sixers game) [expletive] them”. Really? You’ve never mailed it in at the office? You’re paid to be there. You studied dilligently for every test you ever took in school? Your education depends on your scores. Face it, sometimes what seems to be a worthwhile motivation doesn’t help at all. Sometimes the Pistons thump teams (ie: The Suns recently) and sometimes they get thumped (like the embarrassing thumping the Knicks gave to them @MSG back in January). We’re not the team that thumped the Suns and we’re not the team that got thumped by the Knicks. We’re somewhere in between. Boston, LA, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, and maybe more are in that same category as us. The playoffs are there to determine who will emerge from the group. And the truth is, as much as some of us believe in the Pistons, they haven’t given us any reason to crown them yet and they haven’t given us any reason to down them. They’ve given us a reason to believe that they have a legitimate chance (just like the aforementioned teams) to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. But apparently, examining their legitimacy is not how you care to evaluate things.

I never said the sky was falling. I really don’t think last night’s game affects the Piston’s playoff situation at all.

All I said was “I’m sick of wasting my time watching a team that isn’t interested half the time”….

To illustrate my point please just imagine the following scenario:

You have two kids and a girlfriend who hates basketball. You finally convince her to come to the Palace last night by agreeing to bring both kids. You’ve spent 30 bucks on DRINKS before the opening tip off……. and that’s the game you watch. Would you STILL be saying “hey, it’s just ONE game”? I doubt it very much.

I love the Pistons but I’m starting to HATE this other team that shows up every time we play a “Should Win” game… and yes I KNOW they usually pull those wins out anyways, but that’s the problem to be honest. The impression one gets watching the team is that they STILL feel “entitled” to wins regardless of effort.

As for Flip, RIGHT ON, it’s about damn TIME you came out and said what we all see right infront of us… Good job, seriously I freaking mean that.

They had a run earlier in the year where they were just rampaging through teams. That first 10 game win streak, I think. We were playing championship level ball then. If we can get back to that we got a shot, but I don’t think we can flip a switch any more. I think we THINK we can flip a switch, but the bodies might not be as able as they used to be. Plus, the years we could flip a switch it was about playing lock down defense. There’s a number of reasons we can’t do that anymore… mostly rule changes, but also age and no more Ben Wallace factor in as well.

If we can get back to playing that caliber of basketball, I’ll change my expectations again, but I’m not giving this team the benefit of the doubt after the last 2(and you can almost say 3) years of underacheiving.

i still find this interesting. it was 10-9 76′ers when sheed left the game and theo came in. when the next substitution was made (Afflalo), we were down 23-16. Theo is great and will probably get more minutes than max or amir, but he doesn’t make the starters play harder, like those guys do.