How should we look at those Detroit Pistons? While the Spurs have gone to less conference finals, in the more competitive Western Conference, they've managed to take home three championship trophies. The Pistons on the other hand, are just 2-4 in six straight conference finals, and have managed to turn just one of their championship appearances into a title. Has this been a franchise of sheer dominance or circumstance?
To dissect the run of the Detroit Pistons the first thing one must look at is coaching. The NBA is a league comprised of the worlds most talented athletes, but without an effective coach, that is all they are.
SEE: Kevin Garnett & his playoff woes pre-Doc Rivers defense.
When it comes to the Pistons, they've had three different coaches lead them to the conference finals throughout this current six year run. Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, and Flip Saunders were all able to take Detroit four wins from the finals. Now we can exclude the performance of Carlisle for several reasons; He never had the benefit of coaching a talent as unique as Rasheed Wallce, he also coached an offensively challenged team led by Ben Wallace, and finally the core of Prince, Rip, and Billups had just been formed that same season. The sweep by the veteran Nets, which dispatched them from the playoffs that season, should have been expected and was. Carlisle replacement, Larry Brown, was by far the most efficient Piston coach during these years. In Browns first season with the Pistons, embattled forward, Rasheed Wallace, was dealt to Detroit with 22 games remaining in the season. Just what the doctor ordered for this young team. The remainder of the '03-'04 season

The next thing I'm pointing to is a more blatant mistake of Detroit. The second selection in the 2003 NBA draft. Coming off their first of six trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons had the second overall pick in that summers draft. A draft headlined by the likes of Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. James of course was consensus top pick among everyone in the entire world. But who would be the number two pick? Now I know what your about to say, they hadn't yet acquired Rasheed Wallace, BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER!!!!!!!! I should tell you that they passed on Anthony, Bosh, and Wade to select Serbian, Darko Milicic. Yea, we didn't know Milicic would be TERRIBLE and we didn't know that Bosh, Wade,
Finally, the EAST just got better around Detroit. It was only a matter of time before the Western Conference dominance got a little less intimidating. Fortunately for Detroit, the last 8 seasons hadn't looked as good for the Eastern Conference, now they do. When the Cavaliers selected Lebron James, the writing should have been on the wall. That fatal draft sent Wade to the Heat, an Eastern Conference team, Bosh to the Raptors, an Eastern Conference team, and of course Bron Bron to the Cavs, an Eastern Conference team. A year later phenom Dwight Howard would be taken by the Orlando Magic with their first overall pick, yet again, an Eastern Conference team. After the departure of Larry Brown, newly appointed head coach, Flip Saunders would take Detroit to the conference finals. They first met a Miami team led by star guard Dwayne Wade and center, Shaquille O'Neal.

So here is the Pistons dynasty: 6 Conference Finals, 2 NBA Finals, and 1 Championship Trophy. Guard, Chauncey Billups, has been sent to Denver in exchange for the expiring contract of Allen Iverson. After six straight seasons of championship play while the rest of the conference was on the mat, the Pistons are finally reloading. Who knows what will replace a core that once produced 50-70 win seasons as if they were easy to accomplish. Then again these are the Pistons and they do have one of the most elite scorers of all time in Iverson, paired with Rasheed Wallace in a coming contract year, and the Rip/Prince show is still intact.
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