Pistons – overachieving or underachieving?

Are the Pistons an overachieving team or an underachieving team? At first, it may seem as if they are overachieving because they’ve won a championship and have made the conference championship six straight times. But something about the Pistons leaves the average fan unsatisfied, which is a large reason why Flip Saunders was fired recently.

Richard Hamilton has been the leading scorer on the team for too long in the regular season and the playoffs. Normally, I hate pretending like it is possible to project players stats on another team, but how many other teams would Richard Hamilton be the leading scorer? The Pistons have been such a bland team lately that changes have to be made. Someone needs to light a fire under Tayshaun Prince because he is the youngest of the Piston’s core, and the team needs him the most. It has been reported that Joe Dumars has stated that no one from that core is safe anymore, and Prince should really fear the most. Billups has shown he can elevate his game in the playoffs, even though he was up and down in these latest playoffs. Richard Hamilton is the leading scorer on the team from the playoffs, so why would he get the boot? This means that Tayshaun has the most to prove on this team from the guard position.

The Pistons believe that Prince is the key to the success or failure of the team, but this cannot be a complement because it states his inconsistency. Rasheed Wallace is the poster boy for his inconsistency and uninspired play on the team, which is why he may be on a new team next year. But I still believe that Dumars can find a new coach that can inspire this group of players to be better and play at the same level from the Larry Brown era. There is enough veteran talent mixed with young talent from the emergence of Rodney Stuckey and Jason Maxiell that this team still has a few more years to make a run at the title. The smartest thing Dumars can do is find a veteran coach who can inspire these players and bring them back to the NBA finals rather than just the conference finals. It starts with finding a way to motivate Rasheed and Tayshaun. This team has been underachieving recently, but with a great coach, they can overachieve by making the NBA finals the next two out of three years if they can beat the Celtics.