By Mark Wilson
October 17, 2014

You can finally say goodbye to the Michael Curry era with the Detroit Pistons.

When Stan Van Gundy shuffled Will Bynum off to Boston, the last remaining Pistons’ player who played in an actual Pistons’ playoff left Motown without any fanfare.

Bynum was dealt to the Celtics for Joel Anthony.

Not exactly a trade that rattles the NBA cage.

However, its significance is in that playoff thing. It goes as a reminder how long now it’s been since there have been post-season hoops at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The little guard motored into town back in 2008-09 as a backup guard to Chauncey Billups and then to Allen Iverson when the Billups trade was made early in the campaign.

Yeah, it was THAT season.

Curry had taken over the club from Flip Saunders when President/GM Joe Dumars felt the team wasn’t able to get over the hump. The hump being… the NBA Finals. Saunders ONLY got the Pistons to the conference finals during his three year run as head coach.

Think about that now in retrospect.
Saunders got FIRED for ONLY getting the Pistons to the Eastern Conference championship series.

Oh, the humanity!

Can you imagine today’s NBA, a coach getting axed for a 59-23 record and Game Six loss to the eventual “gold ball” winner in the sports’ Final Four?

Flip went ALL three years he was coach but… (And this is a HUGE but) he followed the two seasons of success by predecessor Larry Brown.

Then again, Brown HIMSELF got fired for ONLY winning an NBA title and a second appearance in the finals. A Robert Horry basket is the reason why Brown didn’t win back to back NBA gold balls.

Two years and out for L.B.

Now, we all know WHY Brown was canned. It wasn’t because he did a bad job. Late owner Bill Davidson thought there were too many shenanigans surrounding L.B.’s tenure and wanted him gone so, Dumars obliged.

Exit Larry… enter Flip.

In Saunders first season, Detroit set a franchise record with 64 victories. They racked up 53 in his second season and upped it to 59 in his third.

Each time they won the NBA’s Central Division.

Each time they made it to the conference finals and each time they failed to move on to the “gold ball round.”

It wasn’t even LeBron that derailed the Pistons in 2007-08; it was those pesky Celtics of Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Not exactly chopped liver. No shame in losing in six games to those future Hall of Fame studs.

But… Flip got fired.

So long, Flip… we barely knew ye.

Actually, we knew him well and we kind of knew that Saunders didn’t deserve that fate. Despite high expectations, he was still the guy to go forward with a strong nucleus that included most of the cats that led the Pistons to the crown in 2004.

Davidson and Dumars thought they knew better and broomed out Saunders in favor of someone who had never coached ONE GAME in the NBA.

Hello, Mike Curry!

It was a curious choice at the time but those in the know, realized that Joe and Curry had a great relationship and Dumars wanted to be the one to give Mike his first shot at being a head coach. Since his playing days, Curry had spent most of his time in the league’s front office.

Plus, with Joe having so much success, he got a pass for the hiring of the ex-Pistons’ defensive minded guard.

The players thought they had “their dude” in the fold.

How wrong they were.

Trouble started from jump with all sorts of rumors and innuendo. Rip Hamilton even accused Curry of lying.

Even though that core was still in place with Rip, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Billups, it was an early season deal that KILLED the Pistons chances of a seventh consecutive spot in the conference finale.

Dumars had to have Iverson. He gave up Chauncey to get him.

What a disaster.

To this day, most NBA people agree that Billups departure was the end… and a humongous mistake.

Iverson was a shadow of himself despite scoring at a 17.4 points per game clip. This is a former NBA scoring champ we’re talking about here.

Rodney Stuckey was able to pick up some of the assisting slack left by Chauncey’s absence but most nights, the Pistons looked rudderless. They missed the leader/captain type that Billups obviously was.

Bynum brought great energy off the bench and in many respects, was a big reason why the Pistons were even able to do as well as they did.

Everything in perspective however.

At seasons’ end, the Curry chaos resulted in a drop of TWENTY wins; from 59 to 39. Amazingly, it didn’t affect attendance. Fans came out in droves and Detroit once again led the NBA with more than 800-thousand through the gates.

They were slow to react to the pending team demise.

Fans DID get a reward for the crummy 39-and-43 slate. The team managed to snake into the playoffs.

Unfortunately, they drew LeBron and his Cleveland Cavaliers in round one. There would be NO avoiding King James this time.

Four games later, the Pistons were finished.

A 4-0 sweep ended the reign of “Deeeeetroit Basketttttballllll” in the Eastern Conference.

James told me at the time he was mildly “shocked” that the Pistons went down so easily.

Every loss was by double-digits and the Pistons didn’t score more than 84 points in any one game. The 79-68 loss in Game Three at The Palace was a total embarrassment.

Bynum didn’t help with only six points on 2-of-8 shooting.

Two days later when the Cavs blasted Detroit 99-78 to wrap up the sweep, it was quite evident that things had changed dramatically on the hoops landscape at “Two Championship Drive.”

“No way,” James said after the rout. “There’s no way I thought we’d sweep them but I’m glad we did.”

LeBron had a smile on his face; a big one.

Davidson wasn’t around to see the fall of his titanic basketball group.

He died in March of that season at the age of 86; one month prior to the collapse. Of course, until then he had seen his team fall from grace under Curry. Being as sick as he was, the owner never really got to give his opinion on what happened.

99-78.

Look at that score because THAT score is the most recent score of a Pistons’ playoff game.

Detroit hasn’t sniffed a post season appearance since.
SIX rodeos have come and gone with nothing but failure after failure.

Davidson’s wife Karen eventually fired most of the longtime Palace employees. Longtime confidant Tom Wilson didn’t wait to get bagged; he took off for Mike Ilitch’s Olympia Sports and Entertainment.

Winds of a massive fire sale were blowing off I-75.

Sure enough, Karen ended up dumping the entire shebang on Michigan native and California businessman Tom Gores.

Curry was canned after just the one season in favor of John Kuester, who was canned after two seasons in favor of Lawrence Frank, who was canned after two seasons in favor of Maurice Cheeks, who was canned DURING his only season in favor of assistant John Loyer, who was then canned after his interim tag.

Phew! That’s one long sentence describing the Pistons’ coaching situation in these six hard-to-watch seasons.

Finally, Dumars himself got the ziggy from Gores after being part of the organization since 1985.

In April of this year, Gores turned to Stan Van Gundy to excavate the ship from the bottom of Lake St. Clair.

SVG had coached the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic with mild success after being a college head man in the Big Ten at Wisconsin.

Through it all, Bynum and Stuckey were the constants.

At least Stuckey was around to see a Pistons’ season OVER .500.

Stuck was drafted a year before Bynum showed up and was a part of Saunders’ final go-round in 2007-08. Rodney played in 57 games that rookie year.

Bynum’s the one who has ONLY seen Pistons’struggles and since Stuckey left for Indiana following the 2014 version of awful, Will was all that remained from all six UNDER .500 stinkeroos.

And man, have the Pistons been STINKY!

Dumars nearly became a recluse during the last couple of years. He had nothing good to offer the media so he just stayed away mostly. It pained Joe D. to see what his beloved franchise had become.

Without question, Davidson’s death was the start to the downfall that remains to this moment.

Now, Bynum is gone to Boston.

Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko are the longest tenured Pistons’ players.

Technically, Jerebko has been here longer since he was drafted second round in 2009. J.J. missed all of 2010-11 with injury so that puts him and Monroe at four years apiece.

G-Money didn’t arrive until 2010.

Van Gundy has not made a long term agreement with Monroe so he could be next out the door after this season. Who knows how long Jerebko will remain since his skills aren’t exactly the stuff of NBA stars.

No doubt the future is Andre Drummond.

Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, or any variation of those two, may come and go but A.D. IS the Pistons. As he goes, so will go SVG’s time here in Detroit.

Maybe there is some significance to Bynum’s trade to the Celtics for Anthony.

SVG can read and knows that Will has been here a long while. As they say if you aren’t part of the solution— you’re part of the problem.

It’s basically a clean slate for Van Gundy.

Bringing back Brendan Malone as an assistant was cool because he’s a link to the “Bad Boys” days. Malone was a staffer to Chuck Daly during the run to a couple of championships with Isiah, Laimbeer, Rodman, Aguirre, etc.

But, what happens from here out and for the foreseeable future, SVG will shape the fortunes of Gores’ ownership.

Honestly, who knows where the Pistons stand.

Most of the time I have a gauge on how a team will do but frankly, I can’t get a handle.

Drummond is good and young but simply doesn’t seem to have the pieces parts to make enough of a difference.

Yet.

Smith and Jennings are in their second seasons. Kyle Singler is the THIRD most tenured Piston and it feels like he just got here. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope begins his sophomore campaign and needs to learn NBA discipline.

Caron Butler, Jodie Meeks, D.J. Augustin and Cartier Martin were free agent signings. Meeks is already injured and will miss the opener.

Ditto Spencer Dinwiddie, the Pistons’ second round and lone 2014 draft choice. Plus, Dinwiddie has to prove he can handle the NBA. He’s an X-factor.

Literally, as I am typing this… the Pistons website just added Anthony and removed Bynum.

Brian Cook… Luigi Datome… Tony Mitchell… Hasheem Thabeet… Aaron Gray… Lorenzo Brown… a couple of those guys will stick and some won’t.

Camp fodder.

As it sits, the roster does NOT look like a roster that’s going to compete for very much.

There’s a LONG way to go before the Pistons are going to be considered in the upper tier of the NBA. Unless Van Gundy has a magic potion that he can sprinkle on this unit, 2014-15 is going to be a tough season.

Heck, they have to learn how to win out west.

The record is abysmal against western teams on the road. At one point, the Pistons had lost like 49 of 52 games with the three wins ALL coming against the lowly Sacramento Kings.

In the mess that was the 29-win Cheeks/Loyer ride of 2013-14, Detroit went west and won TWICE in 15 tries. Naturally, one was at Sacramento and the other was at Utah.

Yay! They beat the Jazz in Salt Lake City! Woo Hoo!

Take THAT Trey Burke!

That’ll show ya to spend too much time posting nasty nude pics on Twitter!

Don’t email me, Michigan Wolverine fans. HE did it. Not me.

2-and-13 isn’t any good and Van Gundy has to figure out a way to win on the road; both east and west.

Just a quick mention about Caldwell-Pope. He did have his best game of the season AT Oklahoma City on the final night with 30 points. Drummond, Singler and Monroe added 20 or more per person. They STILL lost to the Thunder, 112-111.

So, we go into 2014-15 with KCP having the best previous outing on the stat sheet.

Of course, that and 75-cents still gets you a ride on the People Mover.

As you would imagine, the Pistons open… out west… on the road for a couple.

They start at Denver on October 29th and hit up Minnesota next, the day before Halloween.

It means on game TWO, they get to see their former coach Flip Saunders.
Ah, the symmetry.

Trick or Treat!

Yes, the guy that got fired seven years ago which started this carousel a-spinnin’ is the guy you get to see before Van Gundy ever coaches a regular season HOME game.

Stan and Flip will shake hands and Saunders quite possibly might offer up a congenial “good luck” to the man who has his old gig. Even though all the bad (and good) Palace people have been blown away, Flip will mean it.

Uh huh, Flip will say a heartfelt, “Good Luck, Stan.”

And then under his breathe as he walks back to the Timberwolves bench he’ll add one more thing.

“You’re going to need it.”