Detroit Pistons by Alexboom

[alexboom]

Thanks cocobee A lot of things have happened since last update !

End of regular season : Detroit on High Wheels !

For the last game of the season against Washington, Detroit was secured for the regular season title. So GM Alexboom made his bench play. After one minute in the first quarter, the 5 Pistons starters went out and never came back in the game ! "I made this to show if they have some heart" said Alexboom speaking of his bench "I wanted the starters to rest for Playoffs, and give some playing time to the bench, as they may not play a lot in Playoffs". In front of them, Washington was still fighting for the 7th seed. A risky challenge for the Pistons who could be crushed in this game ! And surprisingly the Pistons won the game 32-21 ! A bunch of "nobodies" like Felton Hill, Darko Milicic or Penny Hardaway have beaten a team still fighting for the Playoffs ! "He wanted some heart, we give him" said Corliss Williamson at the end of the game, where the Pistons finished with a 15-2 rush. "This is excellent news for the playoffs, we know we can rely on our bench" said an happy Chauncey Billups


Bruce Bowen had a solid season regards to his small playing time


2005-2006 awards

Points Per Game
Third straight scoring title for Chauncey Billups with 5.8 PPG ! Mehmet Okur finishes 8th with 4.2 PPG. Chauncey is also 9th in assists with 1.1, and 3rd in 3pts scored with 11 (same as Tayshaun Prince)
Ben Wallace is the best rebounder of the NBA, tied with Kevin Garnett at 2.5 RPG
Mehmet Okur is the blocking leader in NBA with 0.6 BPG, tied with Teo Ratliff

MVP : Tim Duncan
Defensive Player of the Year: Andrei Kirilenko
Rookie of the Year : Manu Cornell (Atlanta Center)
6th man : Stromile Swift

For the 3rd time in 3 years a Detroit player win the 6th man award. Thinking of renaming it in "6th man of the Pistons award" ?
Coach of the Year : Larry Brown

All NBA First Team : Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady and Chauncey Billups
Mehmet Okur was named to All NBA Second Team



Playoffs : the good, the bad and the ugly


A lot of tension in this game, the Pistons couldn't lose
1st round vs Miami : Hard Win
After the Heat won surprisingly won the 1st game, the Pistons no longer had the right to stumble. They firstly had to win at Miami by playing a small paced game. "Whatever happens in game 3, we can be already proud of what we've done in Playoffs, the pressure is on their shoulders. They must win, and we are only outsiders" said Lamar Odom. In the 3rd and last game, after a difficult 1st half, the Pistons suddenly reminded that they were the leaders of the East, started playing basketball and outpassed the Pistons. In this series, the big problem was Lamar Odom as Ben Wallace simply couldn't stop him.



After 2 years where they got beaten in this round, the Pistons finally got better and passed to the Conf Finals
2nd round vs Milwaukee : Detroit playing like Champions
"We feared them, they crushed us in the 1st game of regular season" explained Ben Wallace. But the Playoffs were completely different. The Pistons were sure of them, played a solid game, and won the 2 games without really any problem even if the score was often close. The problem was the officiating who seemed really in favor of the Pistons. "In so closed games, it's the officials who make a team win or lose" said GM Alexboom. "We improved from last year but that's still not enough. We'll make a lot of changes this summer, and come back better than ever for the next season"



Carter going to dunk
Conf Finals vs Toronto : Disillusionned
Both teams were very close. Toronto won the first game, Detroit the 2nd but Toronto finally won the last game and went to Finals, to meet the Lakers.


Playoffs bracket

Code: Select all

SEA                                                             DET
      DAL                                                DET
DAL      \                                            /         MIA
            DAL                                 DET
SAC      /    \                               /      \         MIL
      LAC       \                            /          MIL
LAC              \                         /                   ORL
                     LAL - | LAL | - TOR
LAL               /                         \                   TOR
       LAL      /                            \          TOR
POR        \  /                               \      /         IND
              LAL                                TOR
SAS         /                                         \        NYK
       SAS                                               WAS
GSW                                                           WAS


Finally the Los Angeles Lakers managed to win again the Title, once Gary Payton and Karl Malone retired


Offseasons moves
Retirements
Among the retired players, note :
Vlade Divac retired after only playing 5 games last season in Sacramento
Tony Kukoc, officialy retired too, his last team was the Detroit Pistons one year ago
Clifford Robinson also retired after just playing one game this season with Golden State

Resignings
Ben Wallace has been resigned for 5 years with 9 M$/yr
Tayshaun Prince has been reconducted for 4 years at 3M$/y
Stephen Jackson continues with the Pistons with a 4 years deal at 6.5M&/y
Stromile Swift, Penny Hardaway and Bruce Bowen contracts have not been renewed

that's all for now, but be sure that there will be some moves, I want the Title now, I'm preparing a big move for the next update !

[alexboom]

2006-07 Offseason Moves

Webber brings Detroit in a new Dimension !



After spending 3 years looking for a way to win the Championship, GM Alexboom may have found the key by signing the Detroit native Chris Webber as a Free Agent for a 3 years, 11 M$ contract. Webber wasn't resigned by Sacramento after a disappointing season that some specialists said to be the start of the declining of his career.
"It's like a Dream, playing for my hometown is like a dream" declared Webber. In order to get enough free salary cap, GM Alexboom has to sacrify the SG spot by trading Jamal Crawford to Houston and Stephen Jackson to Indiana for Cap Space. "Detroit is now better than ever to win a Championship"
Basketball Analyst George Eddy mentionned in an article that "The real key to win the Championship is not Chris Webber but the players who will replace Jackson and Crawford at the SG spot. They won't be as good as them, but Detroit still needs efficient players. Detroit has been known as the deepest team of the NBA, and you can rely on GM Alexboom to sign some role players that will make miracles"
And George Eddy was right, As GM Alexboom managed to sign Dajuan Wagner, Brendan Haywoode and Derek Fisher from Free Agency, while getting Josh Moore and Troy Bell as players throwed in Crawford and Jackson trades.



While bringing Superstar Chris Webber, GM Alexboom managed to acquire solid references for his bench


2006-07 roster
C - Ben Wallace moved to the C spot with the coming of C-Webb. Now Detroit has the best frontcourt of the NBA
PF - Chris Webber considered like the Messiah as Detroit stopped his tradition of no-superstars team to bring him
SF - Tayshaun Prince Tayshaun now have a mature game made of intelligent shots, solid rebounds and big D
SG - Felton Hill the 3 years Detroit fans favorite is switching to SG, his original position when he was drafted, after playing PG. Appreciated for his defense where Dajuan is likely more of a scorer
PG - Chauncey Billups The pressure in Offense brought by Webber may give Chauncey some free spaces to score easy baskets
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C - Mehmet Okur Even in All NBA Second Team last year, Mehmet is now a backup with the coming of Webber. To give him even more playing time he can play SF a little
SF - Corliss Williamson still the player we've always known that provides us a solid basket
SG - Dajuan Wagner an player who has never lived up to the expectations because of injuries. He now have to prove how much he worths
PG - Troy Bell After 3 years in Memphis where he almost didn't play at all, Troy was a good surprise in Detroit as a quick and handy PG
PG - Derek Fisher Didn't resigned by the Lakers who considered he was too old. His experience will be a plus during the Playoffs
PF - Darko Milicic In the last year of his contract, Darko must play big basketball to continue the aventure with the Pistons
C - Brendan Haywoode Like Dajuan, a young player who hasn't lived up to the expectations, except that he doesn't have the injury excuse. Anyway he won't have a big playing time behind Wallace, Webber and Okur
-----------------------
C - Josh Moore one of the biggest body of the NBA. Too bad he has no skills


Detroit bench, still the deepest in the NBA (from left to right : Brendan Haywoode, Troy Bell, coach Larry Brown, Chris Webber, Derek Fisher and Felton Hill)


Now that we are in February, Detroit leads the League with a 13-3 record, and Chris Webber leads the League in Points and is second in Rebounds ! C-Webb also won the MVP of the All-Star Game. Looks like this year is the good one


For the first game of the season, Chauncey Billups hit a 3pts at the Buzzer to give Detroit the Victory against the Spurs !

[mp3]

Love the pics Alex.
Webber can take the Pistons all the way. You did really well getting free agent pick ups like Fisher , Haywood and Wagner keep up the good work

[alexboom]

Hey, even if I'm not updating anymore this Dynasty, I'm still playing it ... I'm now in 2009-2010. Yes, 4 years happened during my last update , so here's a quick recap (sorry, I can't add pictures that time)

In 3 years, Detroit won 3 Championships in a row! The coming of Chris Webber really changed everything. After the Third Title, Webber thought it was enough and decided to finish his career like a loser by going to Milwaukee, one of the worst NBA teams of the last 3 years.

Tayshaun Prince ratings dramatically decreased, so let's say he had a car crash during the 2006-07 off season (after the first NBA title) and never fully recovered. He became a slow player, bad in everything but I kept him as a 12th man as he was a fan favorite. After showing signs of progress in 2008-09, playing like an experimented player, I finally released him this year as he was good for nothing (with a 36 overall rating)

Chris Webber has been replaced by the old Shaquille O'Neal (overall rating 56). Now he's old and slow, but he's still an incredible presence in the paint, that's why I finally made him the starting center instead of Mehmet Okur who became a solid player but may not have the level of an All-Star Player.

Chauncey Billups won 4 scoring titles, Chris Webber won one, and Tony Parker, my last year Point Guard won it just behind Tracy McGrady last year by scoring 16 PPG during the last 3 games (he won the title with about 7 PPG)

Darko Milicic had ups and a lot of downs. After 4 years when he didn't stop being worse and worse, I finally released him for one year. After a year in Europe, he came back in Detroit better than ever, winning the 6th man award! He's now a role player, as usual

Here's my 2009-10 roster, on road to a 4th Championship Title:

C Shaquille O'Neal an old but incredible presence in the paint, the 2nd scorer of the team currently
PF Ben Wallace still a beast in defense, and now have some offensive skills pretty helpful
SF James Posey became in 3 years an indispensable presence in defense, and this year in offense!
SG Emanuel Ginobili acquired this year in the trade that sent Tony Parker to Washington. His overall rating is clearly worse than TP but I didn't wanted him anymore
PG Chauncey Billups became the Pistons scoring leader now that he's back to the PG position (I moved him to SG when TP arrived last year)
--------------------
C Mehmet Okur nice to have him as a backup, not a superstar though
PF Darko Milicic after winning the sixth man award last year he came back to the disappointing role player everyone knows
SF Marcus Fizer brings some helpful strength when you see how thin and weak are the backup PFs in Detroit
SG Felton Hill the only rookie that made it in Detroit since I started my Dynasty. A solid backup
PG Dwyane Wade only rated 53, he has the quickness Chauncey don't have any longer
PF Jermaine O'Neal rated 49! He was rotting in Pacers Injured List for years now, I got him in exchange of Mike Sweetney. He's slowly becoming a good backup
SG Marquis Daniels helpful role player
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PG TJ Ford has nothing but quickness
PF Donnyell Marshall in very old now but brings some interesting experience



The games are challenging as I have the "worst" team of the NBA ... At the beginning of each season I sign all good players stuck in FA and trade them for peanuts to other teams. So the opposing teams are very strong, making the game more challenging than ever.