Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls

When my buddy asked me, in light of the Ben Wallace relocation, what I thought the odds were of the Pistons landing a marquis free agent from the 2007 class, it didn't take long for the optimist in me to surface. I dreamt of Bird Rights (Chauncey), Mid Level Exceptions (MoPete, as I'm an MSU homer), and the resulting cap space engineered by Dumars and Co. Then I checked online and found out Elton Brand and Jermaine O'Neal aren't free agents until 2008. While the glass no longer appears full, it's definitely not half empty.

I'm one of the few who thinks, without caveat, that Detroit will be better off without Big Ben. He was one of the best (possibly the best) help side defender(s) of all time. Just the likelihood of Ben waiting weakside to swat your shit probably won the pistons 8 games a year. Block parties not withstanding, Ben was never that phenomenal of a one-on-one defender, and he's only getting worse. One sick block on Shaq does not a great man-up defender make. Now that he'll be plying his trade in Chicago, without Sheed's feloniously underrated anchor defense, I think the world will see a more stark contrast between Ben's defensive strengths and weaknesses. Is he going to guard Tim Duncan? More importantly, the Pistons won't be forced to put up with Ben's historically horrible offense in return for his defensive contributions. As Academy Award winning Dwayne Wade continues to get up one more time than he's fallen down, and David "The Relic"Stern (a topic for another blog) continues to reward him, a continually increasing premium is placed on speed and slashing. I'm probably in the minority, but I'd love to see Flip experiment with a starting 5 of Chauncey, Rip, Del Fino, Nazr, and Sheed. Anyway, Ben cashed in on years of hard work and got a ridiculous contract from Chicago, no one can hate him for getting paid. I just don't think the Pistons will particularly miss him.

Back to the original topic: free agency. I'm no Joe Dumars, but I don't see a whole lot of game-changing big men in the Free Agent Class of 2007 (Here is the link I'm using, let me know if it's outdated: http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_13008.shtml). That leads me to think, however painfully, that the best move would be to run the offense through Sheed until January, let him pad his stats, and then convince McHale's dumb-ass to send KG for a Sheed-led package. I hate writing this becaus Sheed was my favorite, but he broke my heart in the '06 playoffs and it would be hard to trust him again after the half-assing he did on both sides of the court. Then again, the aforementioned optimist in me likes to think Sheed's effort was just a byproduct of a poisoned locker room in which the heart and soul (Ben) of a team had bailed on the coach. I'm hoping this is the case.