Underachiever

A person or thing that performs below expectations. Also see Detroit Pistons.
Ok, so I made that last part up. But is it really that far off?

A few days after their season ended, Joe Dumars held a press conference that ended a miserable tenure of what was a semi-tolerable coaching stint of Flip Saunders: Three straight seasons, three early exits. When you precede a coach who won a title in 2004, then took his team to Game 7 in the Finals the next year, you are expected to take the team back to that level, or even further.

I was never really sold on Flip to begin with. Flip had the Big Ticket (Kevin Garnett) for this entire coaching career, and mainly mediocre supporting staff to round off the rest of the rosters. The Timberwolves were never throwing money around to get anyone to really support Garnett, but they still made it to the playoffs all but the final year of Saunders’ existence. In each of those years but one, the Wolves never made it past the first round. Underachiever. The second to last year, Flip guided the team to the Conference finals only to be ousted by the Lakers (who were then deconstructed by the Detroit Pistons). Underachiever. The final year of his Minnesota stint, the players (especially KG’s not-so-polite trade requests all year long) gave up on Flip, and lead to Genearl Manager Kevin McHale leading the team the rest of the way. The players quitting, and the team underachieving sure sounds familiar!

Joe Dumars let Flip go and it was his only option. The team failed (miserably, I might add) and something needed to change. If you do not change, and stay content with being alright, than you will become the Buffalo Bills. Some people will say that the Bills were a good team; and I will agree. BUT good will only get you so far, and for the Bills’ case, it took them to 4 straight Superbowl losses. Some teams and most players will never win the Big Game in their sport. However, the Pistons have been molded to win championships. That is plural, championshipS, and anything less is unacceptable.

This will be a tell-tale of Joe Dumars. He is definitely rolling the dice with Michael Curry, especially with the likes of Avery Johnson still being available. When Curry took the court, you would not mistake him for Michael Jordan by any means. He barely played 20 minutes a game, averaged under 5 points, and not even 2 rebounds. However, he had leadership qualities that both the NBA and his teams noted. He served as head of the players association, VP of player development in the NBDL and VP of NBA basketball operations, and now head coach of the Detroit Pistons. Those are not titles you just walk into. You have to work for it and grind out a lot of long days to get to those ranks.

This could also be the end of the line for Dumars. If Curry fails, then what is Mr. Davidson to think of Joe D. then? If you look at Dumars’ drafts, they haven’t been early 90’s, Dallas Cowboy-esque. For every Tayshawn Prince, there has been a Darko Milicic; and every Jason Maxiell there has been a Rodney White. So it is not like Dumars is drafting an army of great players; he is shooting a mere 50%. Not a bad shooting percentage (Joe Dumars shot a career average of .460), but if his coaches won at that rate, they would definitely be looking for other jobs. For the record, Rick Carlisle had a .610 winning percentage; Larry Brown was .659; and Flip Saunders .715. These are very good numbers; considering Larry Brown won a championship, and came very close the following year. So, I have to ask: What is stopping Bill Davidson from pulling the plug on Joe D?