lawyerman said:
Did you really expect the Pistons to beat the Celtics this year? It wasn't going to happen. The year before, LBJ just dominated plain and simple and the Cavs played very well. Miami was unbeatable two years ago (did they ever hit rock bottom quickly) with a healthy D-Wade in the lineup and a rejeuvenated Shaq.
Absolutely I expected them to beat the Celtics. They are just as good as the Celts defensively and what has killed them during the Flip era was lack of offense.
That's what has always bothered me about Flip. Flip was sold as an offensive guru and having a huge offensive playbook but yet the Pistons still went through the same 3 to 5 min draughts like under LB. Yes, the offensive output increased in the regular season but that's because they took more shots good or bad.
However, LB's teams were always money in crunch time because they always played the same way awhether in the preseason or in the Finals. The lack of discipline thanks to Flip's opening up of the offense is what I attribute to many of the offensive problems that killed them in the Conference Finals.
As for CLE, that's just another reason why Flip deserved to be canned since he was outcoached by Mike Brown.
MIA was a byproduct of the campaign to erect Wade as the next one. He did not deserve to go to the line as much as he did. That championship was won on the free throw line which is pathetic. I hardly call them "unbeatable".
Like N2G said, I hardly think they need to rebuild. Simply reload. No matter who is gone out of the four starters, youth will be inserted regardless. I think it's an assumption of their downfall as it is the rise of ORL, CLE or PHI. I would trust the GM who has a ring and fielded consistent winning teams as opposed to the pretenders still waiting to mount a challenge.
