Not surprisingly, the first team out of the playoffs might have the most work to do in terms of getting back to the top. In fact, all you really need to know about the state of this team and this city is that the second two games in The Palace were partial to the Cavs, even chanting "M-V-P" during his free throws.
Positives:
- Detroit has two massive contracts as well as massive assholes coming off the books in Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace (as well as a smaller contracts in Walter Herrmann's $2 million, Kwame Brown's $4 million, Will Bynum and McDyess) who are receiving $20 million and $15 million respectively.
- This is nice for a few reasons. 1) Iverson and 'Sheed are negative forces on this team. 2) The bad economy seems to help teams like Detroit in a way. It doesn't help them sign top tier talent, but Detroit can't attract that anyway. What it helps is the fact that solid players won't be able to hold teams hostage for horrible contracts like they used to which means they could really maximize that cap space with solid guys OR severely overpay one guy which is another option.
- They found something in this Will Bynum character. Not that he is someone to build a team around, but whenever you can find a guy who fits a role and will accept it, it's a good thing. Bynum seems tough with great energy without being a hot headed punk. His jump shot isn't the best, but he's never guarded on it because he is almost impossible to stay in front of. In one of Starbury's first games with the Celtics, Bynum stole it from him and scored two out of the first three times he took it up and that's when I decided I liked him. He was the only consistent sign of life for Detroit in the whole series.
- They still have some legit third to fourth tier stars in Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince.
- That city and that team just seem depressed. Neither one showed up to this series. I'm really not even sure if the last positive is a positive, frankly.
- I'm not totally sure about Curry. He never seemed very inspired in those on court interviews (I guess I can't blame him) but more importantly, the whole team was never playing inspired ball the whole year. And really, is the Iverson situation 100% Iverson's fault? Sure, he is who he is but he was handled as poorly as possible when he showed up. Ideally, he could have contributed to the team but he was a complete detriment and some of that blame has to go on Curry.
- They are still in Detroit and convincing free agents to go there at this point is going to be tough and expensive. They also don't even have that good of a draft pick in a pretty weak draft.
- Joe Dumars is a much celebrated GM, but he has been pretty hit or miss over the years.
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