Main issue with the Detroit Pistons is the fact that the players who start cannot defend any opponent well

Remember the Philly game awhile back where those players took our Piston starters apart like they were playing a Junior high basketball team? Those Piston starters in that game looked much like the same players who were close to 40 points down against the struggling Bulls. This is not an issue relating to lack of scoring. For Stan Van Gundy's style to work, the team must get stops and then score in transition. The Pistons cannot execute in the half court offense because there is no player or ball movement coming from the starters who insist on standing around with no player willing to set a screen for a teammate. Drummond makes a weak attempt to set screens but he looks like he is playing in a practice situation rather than a real game. Opposing teams now have the Pistons down relating to their weaknesses. All NBA teams now know that nobody on the starting unit looks back when a shot goes up to box out. It is crazy how none of the players do it. They play like lazy idiots on defense. And both guards have issues staying in front of their man allowing dribble penetration from any angle on the floor. And the final nail in the coffin is the lack of a fundamentally sound center who has awareness and can protect the painted area when a driver does drive to the basket. Why don't our Piston starters know opposition offensive plays? What in hell do the players do when they are not on the practice court. Wouldn't you study opposing players and get some idea what each opponent likes to do and what kind of plays they run. It appears that our players do not have a clue and could care less about the details of defending. And again, because every team our Pistons play can easily score on almost every possession, those Piston starters must try to score after the opposing defense is set up perfectly. I think it was dZ who complained that Reggie was dribbling up the court with no pressure and decided to place the ball between his legs like he was in the circus.

Even though the final score was horrible the players on the court for the Pistons in the 4th quarter sure looked a lot better than the starters. And they were holding their own against the Bulls starters. One cool thing that I noticed was Ellenson did look back when an opposing shot attempt was made and did find a body to block out. How simple this game can be if you are fundamentally sound. Our starters look like they just came from AAU ball where nobody plays defense.

Remember when some of us talked about the months of December, January and Feb. and how some players mail it in at that time of year showing weak character? I think that our players really want to win unlike some of the previous guys we suffered through like Charlie V, but when Stan Van Gundy stocks the team with fundamentally unsound defenders and wants to play his offensive style, the current result is very predictable. I know that players like Drummond could turn it around if he wanted to give the same type of effort Ben Wallace was willing to give. You have to be prepared and disciplined on defense and if you are not strong minded, you will fail because it takes a supreme effort to play good solid defense. Reggie Jackson is just dancing the night away on defense. He could also be a fantastic defender but he has never really tried.

Time to play the young guns and use the 3rd string point guard as the starter. Dedicate this season to improvement of the young players and trade as many of the vets as possible It is crazy to sign a guy like Boban. That is on Stan Van Gundy. He could have had a young strong center in Zeus who played well in the summer league. Zeus can run the floor, box out, rebound, and set great screens. And he could have been had for a one year minimum contract. Detroit still might make the playoffs with this current group of vets but they will never win a playoff series and the players will need to get real lucky shooting the long bombs because they all have a long history of being losers on the defensive end. And I include Pope because he is not mentally tough for entire games on defense. And he still cannot guard star players like Wade. But Pope is one of the players who has a lot of promise but is his basketball IQ high enough to outwit other really good starting 2 guards. When will our Piston management secure outstanding guards who can defend?