In a move that seemed more and more inevitable as another miserable Detroit Pistons season droned on, Lawrence Frank was fired as Pistons coach on Thursday . The former Nets head man had compiled a 29-53 record in his final season with Detroit, and a 54-94 mark overall. No immediate replacement was named, and by all accounts longtime Pistons GM will be given the go-ahead to seek out his seventh (!) head coach since taking the reins of the Detroit front office in full during the summer of 2001.
In Frank’s defense, Dumars did hand him a mish-mash of a roster for both 2011-12 and 2012-13. Dumars wrongly assumed that his batch of homegrown talent mixed with the arrivals of free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva would push the Pistons back into contention back in 2009, and the series of quick-fix veteran additions Dumars chased following that misstep hardly helped. By 2011, the Pistons were clearly rebuilding around talented scoring forward Greg Monroe, but because of the hangover of both an ownership change and salary cap frustrations, Frank never really had even a mediocre outfit to work with.
For the past several seasons, the Detroit Pistons have been a picture of NBA irrelevance. In the summer of 2009, general manager Joe Dumars used the team's considerable cap space to hand out above-market deals to Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon, too capable players very poorly suited to taking on major scoring loads or functioning as leaders in any meaningful way. At the same time, their coaches have shown a commitment to playing veterans to maximize short-term wins instead of aiming to build for the future. That means the Pistons have been just good enough to end up with middling lottery picks, ensuring that they'll miss out on the true difference makers in any draft.
[Also: Heat rally from 27 down to beat Cavs, extend win streak to 24 ]
It's a vicious cycle, although the franchise has occasionally looked capable of turning things around. Rookie big man Andre Drummond has been extremely impressive even in limited minutes , although he has been out of action since February 6 with a stress fracture in his back. Without him, the Pistons have seemed increasingly directionless, and it shows on the court. They've lost nine games in a row and 12 of their last 13, and only one of the losses had a single-digit margin.
The team is reeling. Things are so bad, in fact, that head coach Lawrence Frank finds them tough to watch. From Vincent Goodwill for The Detroit News (via SLAM ):
Gordon had 17 points and shot 3-of-9 from 3-point range in a 100-74 win over Boston on Tuesday night.
The Scoop:After a brutal stretch, Gordon has turned things around lately. He's reached double figures in five straight, averaging 15.8 points during that stretch.
For several years, LeBron James has been the best player in the NBA, a phenomenally versatile talent capable of dominating a game in multiple ways simultaneously. Yes, last June's championship lent a certain legitimacy to LeBron's career that hadn't previously existed, but it was less a coronation than a validation of qualities we already knew to be present. Simply put, James had been the preeminent basketball talent in the world for several years. We have become accustomed to his greatness, because he reveals it regularly.
Nevertheless, there's a difference between greatness and what LeBron has done over the past six games, and what he might do again on Thursday night when the Miami Heat face the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Finals rematch. As our Dan Devine noted on Wednesday, James has been historically amazing over that stretch , making 66 of 92 shots (71.7 percent) for averages of 30.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg, and 6.5 apg. Beyond the stats, LeBron looks like a player not only with no discernible weaknesses, but nothing that is not a clear strength (except free throws, of course). He scores with an efficiency typically only seen in dominant post players, he rebounds, he throws pinpoint passes, he defends every position at a high level, he makes the proper defensive rotations, he doesn't turn the ball over, etc. ad infinitum.
[Also: Bobcats eager to trade Ben Gordon after incident with coach ]
That's not to say that he's reached the height of basketball — history dictates that those achievements can only come in the postseason against the best competition the NBA has to offer. For that matter, I don't mean to suggest that James is now the greatest player ever (whatever that means), or that anyone who doesn't like him is a cretin. Instead, I want to focus on what it's like to watch an athlete whose utter dominance of the field makes the amazing look commonplace.
On Wednesday, the NBA announced that it had suspended Orlando Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu 20 games after testing positive for steroids. It's a notable story if only because issues regarding performance-enhancing drugs typically don't enter the NBA's orbit. For the most part, that's the province of other major sports and leagues. However, this announcement brings up important questions about the prevalence of PEDs in basketball.
[Also: Bobcats eager to trade Ben Gordon after incident with coach ]
Let's start with the report itself. Not surprisingly, Turkoglu denies that he took steroids on purpose. From Kyle Hightower for the Associated Press :
The New Jersey Nets and Charlotte Bobcats have talked about a possible trade in which Bobcats guard Ben Gordon would go to Brooklyn in exchange for forward Kris Humphries, ESPN.com reported Friday.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Ben Gordon never beat his former team after joining the Detroit Pistons. Once he became an ex-Piston, he didn't have to wait long to get back at the team that traded him.
The Scoop: None.
Jan 6 8:30 ET
News (various sources)
Oklahoma City Thunder Avoid Amnestying Kendrick Perkins (Yahoo! Contributor Network) (1 Day Ago | courtesy: Yahoo! Contributor Network) COMMENTARY | According to Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman, GM Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder will not use the NBA's amnesty clause on starting center Kendrick Perkins. More...
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MADNESS!
