Well barely.
In those years. Ben made the team once as a third teamer and Billups once as a third teamer and that was after a back to back finals apperance and an impressive dismantling of the lakers in 04.
I watched basketball that year but I recall not caring about individual awards in general.
Also in their 64 win season..I remeber Bilups almost not making it as a third teamer with that 64 win team. He was the only Pistons in that team...
In those timeframe they won 50-54-54-64-52 iirc.
Memory is pretty shady right now though. Cant remember. I do remember talking to a Piston fan who said they're not getting enough credit in 05..
Because they were run by 5 players who shared the glory but had very uninspiring scoring numbers. They didn't score many points, which means they also didn't have many assists. Media always looks at stats first.
Just holding your opponent to <35% and under 90 ppg while scoring under 95 ppg yourself, is not sexy. But winning > sexy for Larry Brown and Co.
You're like 18...stop it.
23 and 2 months, biatch.
I was 10 when the Pistons beat the gay flakers superteam. Loved it and almost wanted to grow up to be a great piston defender at that point... next year changed all that though.
Unappealing brand of basketball plus Malice in the Palace.
Will never forget Malice in the palace...I thought that was Grade A Level of Entertainment. Everyone was talking about Detroit for once.
I need to go down and get some cough syrup.
Billups' reputation improved after he joined the Nuggets and turned them around, tbh..he would have been received more favorably in the analytics era..
Chauncey Billups made seven straight Conference Finals from 2003-2009.
Because unlike
bang! ambchang....puts it in, etcBecause unlike
I have the answer to OP's question. I always called the 03-07 stretch the weakest era ever of NBA basketball in terms of actual dominant teams. The individual talent, however, was still impressive but all the superstars were isolated on one team (except for Houston and Miami). There were no gy superteams of 3 all stars.
-Dirk in Dallas
-Duncan in San Antonio
-Pau in Memphis
-Garnett in Minny
-Pierce in Boston
-Ray in Seattle
-Howard in Orlando
-Kobe in LA
-Durant only a rookie
-Lebron in Cleveland
-Arenas in Washington
-Melo in Denver
-Williams in Utah
Really the only exceptions were Houston (Yao and T-mac but they were often injured) and Miami (Wade and Shaq but Shaq was declining). For a defensive minded team like Detroit, it was probably not that hard to focus in on one guy and shut him down, just look at this year's Thunder. The Gasol trade along with the 3 musketeers in Boston changed the NBA landscape completely. Teams like the Pistons all of a sudden had no chance anymore.
Prolly reiterating what's already been said. But the 2003 Pistons kind of came out of nowhere in a really, really weak Eastern Conference after retooling the team from a 50 win Stackhouse team. Changed the backcourt by adding a journeyman Billups and under the radar Hamilton. Both talented but not viewed as stars, certainly not superstars. So the team success was kind of suspect and questionable in that weak conference, at least initially. The Nets were viewed as a more talented team those first couple seasons of Detroit becoming contenders. And that early success has often been greatly attributed to the coaching prowess of Larry Brown, diminishing the value and talent of the players. They started getting more acclaim after they continued to be successful under Flip Saunders, including a couple all NBA selections and more all star invitations. But none of the players ever put up impressive numbers outside of Ben Wallace's rebounds/blocks/steals. And he was horrific offensively.
And yes there was a lot of guard talent then, Kobe, AI, Kidd, Nash's MVP seasons, Wade after 2005, Gilbert with monster numbers, and T-Mac. Individually, none of the Pistons guards could really compare statistically. Billups got a nod or two during that time period. Ben was often right around 2nd or 3rd team because the center position was relatively weak. So essentially the correlation was individual statistics. And it makes sense. Hard to ignore 20/10 guys at least on paper. None of the Pistons were that type of statistical player.
What's with the Ben Wallace schtick lately, something from 4chan?
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