Detroit Pistons Built Their 2004 Championship Team In Two Years
• The Detroit Pistons 2004 championship win is fondly remembered by NBA fans
• The Pistons managed to build the starting five of their roster in just two seasons
• Except Ben Wallace, every single member of the starting five was acquired over the two seasons prior to 2003-04
The Detroit Pistons have one of the most incredible championship wins in the modern history of the NBA, defending their way to the 2004 NBA Championship. They beat the vaunted Lakers in the final year of the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal duo as the underdog, winning the finals series 4-1.
The title is remembered for the incredible defensive performances the Pistons put up. They had teams celebrating double-digit losses just because they managed to score more than 70 points past them, as the playoff-contending New Jersey Nets did in 2003-04.
The team looked very different just two seasons prior to that. The starting lineup included Chucky Atkins, Michael Curry, Jerry Stackhouse, Clifford Robinson, and Ben Wallace. Just two seasons later, the starting lineup of the title-winning team would feature only Wallace, but alongside Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace.
The 2001-02 Pistons were still a force to be reckoned with, winning 50 games on the season under 2002 Coach of the Year Rick Carlisle. However, they weren't title contenders and fell to the Boston Celtics in the second round in a convincing 4-1 series loss.
This led Pistons GM and President Joe Dumars to make big changes. But how did they revamp their starting lineup and acquire a new coach in just two seasons?
Chauncey Billups
Credit: Fadeaway World
Chauncey Billups started his NBA career as a journeyman, bouncing to four teams in his first five seasons in the NBA. But a strong stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2001-02 prompted the Pistons to swoop in and out-price the Wolves and sign Billups in free agency to a five-year, $35 million contract. His first season ended with a sweep loss in the Eastern Conference Finals at the hands of the New Jersey Nets, but greatness lay ahead for Billups.
He would be the team's primary ball-handler for their incredible 2003-04 season, setting the tone on defense as the point guard. He was incredibly tenacious and easily the best shot-maker on the roster, which allowed him to flourish within a system where everyone else would match his tenacity and aggression. He was the perfect point guard for the team and won Finals MVP for his contributions in the 2004 Finals.
He averaged 21 points, 5.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals on 50.1% from the field and 47.1% from three in the Finals and would play for Detroit until 2008.
Richard Hamilton
Credit: Fadeaway World
Richard Hamilton was another one of the star acquisitions of the 2002 offseason, as the Pistons sent a huge trade package to the Washington Wizards to bring him to Detroit. The Pistons received Hamilton, Bobby Simmons, and Hubert Davis for Jerry Stackhouse, Ratko Varda, and Brian Cardinal. Trading Stackhouse away was a big risk for Detroit, but Hamilton filled the void perfectly.
Hamilton was Detroit's leading scorer in the 2004 Finals, averaging 21.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists. However, it was on poor efficiency as Hamilton shot just 40.2%. The team didn't need him to be efficient, as he would always be willing to shoot the ball. The pure offense he added wasn't dissimilar to Stackhouse, but he was a far better off-ball fit alongside Billups, which was proven over the course of the season.
Hamilton played for the Pistons until 2011, spending nearly a decade representing the franchise.
Tayshaun Prince
Credit: Fadeaway World
The 2002 offseason has to be one of the greatest by a GM, as Joe Dumars not only acquired Billups and Hamilton, he also made the Pistons the first home Tayshaun Prince had in the NBA. Coming out of Kentucky, Prince was selected No. 22 overall in the 2002 NBA Draft. He didn't get much play in his rookie season under Carlisle but became a factor in the playoffs as the Pistons experimented to overcome a 3-1 first-round deficit to the Orlando Magic. He earned a rotational spot in that run, even though Carlisle was sacked at the end of the 02-03 season.
Under a new coaching setup, Prince became a starter and averaged double-digit points in the regular season. His defense was his biggest asset, something he showed with multiple game-changing defensive moments and his incredible clamps on Kobe Bryant in the Finals. Prince held Kobe to 22.6 points on 38.1% shooting. He averaged 10.0 points and 6.8 rebounds himself, impacting the game in ways that the stat sheet can't show.
Prince remained with the franchise till 2013.
Rasheed Wallace
Credit: Fadeaway World
Even though the Pistons had built the primary core of the championship team in the 2002 offseason, it was one marquee addition away from being a legitimate contender. They added the perfect piece when they acquired Rasheed Wallace midway through their title-winning 03-04 season. The Piston acquired Wallace and Mike James in a three-team trade that sent Chucky Atkins, Lindsey Hunter, and a first-round draft pick to Boston, and Bob Sura, Zeljko Rebraca, and a first-round draft pick to Atlanta.
Wallace had been a few years removed from making two All-Star games and had a problematic hard-nosed reputation that brought him into conflict with referees. Regardless, Wallace locked in and averaged 13.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in the Finals and provided sensational two-way production. He was the final piece of the puzzle for the Pistons roster that had been expertly put together with hardworking players who embodied their culture instead of whichever star player was available at the time.
Wallace would stay with the franchise till 2009.
Larry Brown
Credit: Fadeaway World
This Pistons' achievement would not have been possible without Larry Brown. The coach who led the Philadelphia 76ers with Allen Iverson to the NBA Finals in 2001 was brought in to take Detroit to the title after Rick Carlisle had a shaky 2003 Playoffs that saw the team get swept in the Conference Finals. Carlisle's sacking was controversial, given he had just won Coach of the Year, but it ended up being the perfect decision.
The Hall of Fame coach was known for his ability to make changes on the fly and use an aggressive coaching policy to control the game. When his vision was perfectly executed, it brought immense success to the Pistons as they romped to the 2004 Championship with a fully locked-in squad. His defensive schemes will be remembered for years to come, as he took the incredible talent on the roster to create one of the greatest defenses the game has ever seen.
That was a credit to Brown and the respect the group had for him. Unfortunately, his aggressive coaching style wore out the team soon and he was let go in 2005.
The Pistons Created A Real Defensive Powerhouse
After the Pistons made the trade for Rasheed Wallace, they were without question the greatest defensive team in NBA history. While this was before the modern rule changes, it was still at a time when we weren't seeing teams dominate to this extent on the defensive end. They gave up just 79.7 points per game after acquiring Wallace in 49 games (playoffs included). The greatest regular-season defense prior to that was the 1999 Atlanta Hawks, which gave up 83.4 points per game.
No team scored more than 100 points in the regular season against the Pistons after they acquired Rasheed, with that number falling to less than 95 points in the 2004 Playoffs. They also had the best defensive rating in NBA Playoff history for this run, allowing only 80.69 points per game in 23 playoff games in 2004.
All of this success would ebb away, as the Pistons would remain competitive but never win another ring. The 2004-05 Pistons went to the Finals but lost a hard-fought seven-game series at the hands of the Spurs. They had the second-best record in the East with 54 wins, but their defense wasn't enough to beat the Spurs.
With Larry Brown getting fired in 2005, the Pistons never made it back to the Finals. They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals three more times, but lost to the Heat (2006), Cavaliers (2007), and Celtics (2008) in all three seasons. They actually got better for the 2005-06 season and won 64 games but couldn't make it through to the Finals. They won over 50 games in both 06-07 and 07-08, but the Finals continued to elude them.
They fell out of contention in 2008-09 and have made the playoffs just twice since. A two-season rebuild like the one Dumars pulled off doesn't seem to be on the cards for the modern-day Pistons, but hopefully they can put the right pieces around Cade Cunningham to return to the mountaintop.
Credit for idea: Forgotten Seasons/Instagram
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