Pistons ranked 28th out of the 30 NBA teams as far a predicted power ranking over the next 3 years. I can't argue with that ranking right now. How sad is that?



By Chad Ford and John Hollinger
ESPN.com

"The Pistons continue their freefall in the Future Power Rankings. In December the team slid from the middle of the pack down to No. 22, and this time they take another big drop to No. 28 overall. With uncertainty surrounding the ownership of the franchise, their veteran players in open rebellion and some really bad contracts on the book, things may stay ugly for a while in Detroit.

In just about every category, the Pistons are struggling. Most importantly, they rank just No. 26 in the Players category, even after the addition of several free agents and top-15 draft picks.

Among the veterans, there are almost no happy stories: Richard Hamilton has been benched, Tayshaun Prince becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer and looks poised to move on, Ben Gordon is still due $37.2 million over the next three years, Charlie Villanueva won't defend anyone and is still owed a whopping $24 million, and Ben Wallace and Tracy McGrady don't have a lot left to offer.

The two bright spots have been Rodney Stuckey, who is having the best year of his career, and rookie Greg Monroe, who is improving rapidly and showing he should have been a top-five pick. Second-year forward Austin Daye has also shown signs of progress since the All-Star break.

The team has also taken a big hit in the Management category, as the ownership situation has remained in flux and tied team president Joe Dumars' hands, preventing him from recovering from moves that haven't worked out. And with the team and the city struggling, the Market category is also a weak spot for the Pistons -- Detroit's economy is in a shambles and the once-rocking Palace is pretty quiet these days."

28th...kind of a positive.

So disappointing, and so easily avoidable.

I'm not so sure that Joe would have made the appropriate moves had he had, say, a Mark Cuban as his owner, either. The guy would still be blathering about how he wants McGrady and Prince on the roster "going forward".

On the brightside 28th would give us a Top 3 pick!

That was a very good post P.

I wonder how much we could jump just by selling the team? Our salary situation isn't that bad really, it's just the whole "lack of talent" thing.

That was a very good post P.

I wonder how much we could jump just by selling the team? Our salary situation isn't that bad really, it's just the whole "lack of talent" thing.

IT'S JUST INJURIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow, that article was WAY off. The people that he talked about being bad spots for the future aren't even going to be on the team in the future, with the possible exceptions of Charlie V and Gordon. I'm not sold on Gordon being a bad piece in the future either. That guy is just misused worse than a tampon going up a girl's nose on this team.

Villanueva makes me mad though. I was actually pulling for signing him back in the day. I was thinking he'd get a little less money, but it still irks me that I even supported it at all. I honestly thought he just needed to add lower body strength to handle dudes in the post defensively. I didn't research enough to know how lazy he was at defending a pick and roll as well. Unlike most of you guys here I don't mind a big guy being a jump shooting player. I like the way they spread the floor. Sheed was great at that, but Sheed isn't a bitch on the other end like Charlie is. Since he's been on the team he's played rough interior D for about nine minutes, and that was only because Garnett called him a cancer patient. Makes me want to create fake twitter accounts for every PF in the league and have them all tell him that he's a bald headed chemotherapy getting pussy ass bitch, maybe then he'd stop playing like he has a vagina.

Stuckey being a considered a promising piece moving forward is wrong as hell to me as well. To me he's the scariest thing about the future. He's not a point, and he's certainly not a star, nor will he ever be one. His contract, if he gets one from Detroit, could very well be the thing that ends up fucking this team over the most. Even Charlie V could be moved. If I was Orlando, or maybe even New Jersey, I'd be interested in CV. If was a GM for any other team I'd have absolutely no interest in Stuckey though.