The 1990-91 Pistons started off to a 13-2 record, had a rough December, then in Jan of 1991, Thomas went out with surgery to his wrist, he had a scaphoid injury, came back in April of '91, the Pistons were 19-15 in his absence; Detroit had 5 of their 8 man rotation injured and yet played through the injuries -- Isiah Thomas (wrist/ankle - injured in the Boston series); Dumars - toe/groin; Salley, Aguirre, and Edwards - back. Still won 50 games and made it to the ECF ... should have kept the team together for the 1991-92 season but in the summer of '91, Pistons GM, Jack McCloskey waived James Edwards and traded James Edwards to the Clippers.
@@steveshutt6409 Well that's the thing, you win back-to-back titles but in '87 and in '88 they didn't break up the team; in '89, they traded for Aguirre, lost Mahorn in '89, they were totally injured in 1990-91 with 5 of their 8 man rotation injured NOT WHY THEY LOST IN '91 -- it's just that you have to keep that core team together. Remember, Detroit went from an injured 1990-91 team going for a 3-peat and 4 straight trips to the Finals, still winning 50 games, making it to the ECF with Vinnie Johnson and James Edwards to being 100% healthy in 1991-92 without Johnson/Edwards only winning 48 games and getting beaten by the Knicks in the first round. See, that's the impact of breaking up key pieces of a team, 2 rounds. Remember, Chicago won in '93, Jordan retires, they lost in the 2nd round to the Knicks -- 2 rounds. What happened when Jordan came back only playing 17 games in '94-'95? No Horace Grant, lost again in the 2nd round. So in '95-'96 what happened? They picked up Rodman and won the championship. Well, what happened to how great Jordan was? Why pick up Rodman, Edwards, and Salley who were really old on the downside of their careers? Because you need guys behind the main guy to make sure your team is deep enough to win -- that's the problem. So a great franchise player can cost you 2 rounds; Edwards and Vinnie Johnson cost the Pistons 2 rounds; no Horace Grant in Chicago -- still two round deficit with Jordan; pick up Rodman, you 3-peat with a sure front court of Longley, Edwards, Salley, and later on Parish in '97 with Bison Dele, etc... Remember Chicago's front court in the 90's? Cartwright, Grant, Levingston, Purdue, King -- that's 5 front line guys at the power forward/center position. Where did they get that from? Detroit. Look at the '89 Pistons: Laimbeer, Salley, Rodman, Mahorn, and Edwards -- see? See, the Celtics were so great in the 80's they had the best front line ever with Bird, McHale and Parish -- shows you how GREAT they were. HAHAHA From 1989-1993 the Pistons lost the following guys: Mahorn in '89; Edwards/Johnson in '91 and Salley in '92. Remember, both Johnson and Edwards could draw double teams, Edwards in the post and Johnson on the perimeter and in penetration which opens up the court for easy shots -- well you replace them with Darrell Walker, who cannot shoot (solid defender) and Orlando Woolridge who is an undersized power forward/small forward who cannot rebound or dribble with an inconsistent shot. You see? So it shrinks the court and makes it more difficult to get off shots putting the pressure on Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars to play longer minutes and be perfect from the field ... Rodman doesn't score but starts so that's 4 on 5 with no real scoring off the bench aside form Aguirre and your front line isn't deep enough so defensively you aren't going to be able to guard the paint without being in foul trouble, which puts extra pressure on your guards defensively -- they could defend but they had to stay out of foul trouble more, yet the Pistons had 3 All-stars in 1991-92 (Thomas, Dumars, Rodman) and still were one of the top defensive teams -- you add Vinnie Johnson and Edwards to that mix, you easily win another title being healthy. EASY WORK. See, even if you THINK it's OVER, you have to let the players play it out. Thomas, Dumars, Rodman, and Edwards still had the fire to win titles and to push the team, Laimbeer was dedicated and they could have just taken their time working Vinnie Johnson in more as he came off his knee issues, which would NOT have been a problem with Walker there. Mistake: If the Pistons were going to put the team they put on the floor for '91-'92, first off, those guys were not going to win for Chuck Daly because Thomas wasn't on the Olympic Team -- so when you look back on 1991-92, what did you see? Thomas really didn't play hard enough to 'take it' or destroy his opponent, he kinda cruised in the season, we saw it in the Knicks series but Daly purposely didn't put in the right line-ups. You have to start Aguirre and milk Isiah, Dumars, and Aguirre while telling Laimbeer to take 15 shots a game and just play fast letting guys just score like they did before 1989, just let Thomas, Dumars, and Aguirre be the scorers they always been but Daly didn't do that...I still don't know why Dennis Rodman NEVER walked into a gym and work on his ball handling and shooting to get a 15-20 foot jumpshot? Worm could get to the rim all day, get to the line, get easy shots, had range and made solid 3-pointers that season but just didn't shoot enough or handle enough ... you have Rodman handling the ball and shooting through practice, Detroit wins another title. How the hell do you practice rebounding? He went from 12 rebounds in '90-'91 to 18 in 1991-92 ... But he couldn't practice handling the ball or shooting? It's stupid.
Aguirre was so key. Fantastic in College, just as good in Dallas, should've been All-NBA his 3rd season, going 30/6/5 with a team of minor leaguers, made the playoffs, won a series that year. Then 2 titles in Detroit while Dallas foundered without him. Put him in the Hall.
2 champions in a row puts a lot of pressure on your body and mind. Back in the day you played your star players all season. Players did not want to sit out and rest. So different vs today’s game. Eventually the injuries piled up and they were in no condition to challenge the young Bulls team coming into their own.
The 1990-91 Pistons started off to a 13-2 record, had a rough December, then in Jan of 1991, Thomas went out with surgery to his wrist, he had a scaphoid injury, came back in April of '91, the Pistons were 19-15 in his absence; Detroit had 5 of their 8 man rotation injured and yet played through the injuries -- Isiah Thomas (wrist/ankle - injured in the Boston series); Dumars - toe/groin; Salley, Aguirre, and Edwards - back. Still won 50 games and made it to the ECF ... should have kept the team together for the 1991-92 season but in the summer of '91, Pistons GM, Jack McCloskey waived James Edwards and traded James Edwards to the Clippers.
The writing was on the wall. It wouldn’t have mattered if they had kept the team together. The downfall was inevitable.
@@steveshutt6409 Well that's the thing, you win back-to-back titles but in '87 and in '88 they didn't break up the team; in '89, they traded for Aguirre, lost Mahorn in '89, they were totally injured in 1990-91 with 5 of their 8 man rotation injured NOT WHY THEY LOST IN '91 -- it's just that you have to keep that core team together.
Remember, Detroit went from an injured 1990-91 team going for a 3-peat and 4 straight trips to the Finals, still winning 50 games, making it to the ECF with Vinnie Johnson and James Edwards to being 100% healthy in 1991-92 without Johnson/Edwards only winning 48 games and getting beaten by the Knicks in the first round. See, that's the impact of breaking up key pieces of a team, 2 rounds. Remember, Chicago won in '93, Jordan retires, they lost in the 2nd round to the Knicks -- 2 rounds. What happened when Jordan came back only playing 17 games in '94-'95? No Horace Grant, lost again in the 2nd round. So in '95-'96 what happened? They picked up Rodman and won the championship. Well, what happened to how great Jordan was? Why pick up Rodman, Edwards, and Salley who were really old on the downside of their careers? Because you need guys behind the main guy to make sure your team is deep enough to win -- that's the problem. So a great franchise player can cost you 2 rounds; Edwards and Vinnie Johnson cost the Pistons 2 rounds; no Horace Grant in Chicago -- still two round deficit with Jordan; pick up Rodman, you 3-peat with a sure front court of Longley, Edwards, Salley, and later on Parish in '97 with Bison Dele, etc... Remember Chicago's front court in the 90's? Cartwright, Grant, Levingston, Purdue, King -- that's 5 front line guys at the power forward/center position. Where did they get that from? Detroit. Look at the '89 Pistons: Laimbeer, Salley, Rodman, Mahorn, and Edwards -- see? See, the Celtics were so great in the 80's they had the best front line ever with Bird, McHale and Parish -- shows you how GREAT they were. HAHAHA
From 1989-1993 the Pistons lost the following guys: Mahorn in '89; Edwards/Johnson in '91 and Salley in '92.
Remember, both Johnson and Edwards could draw double teams, Edwards in the post and Johnson on the perimeter and in penetration which opens up the court for easy shots -- well you replace them with Darrell Walker, who cannot shoot (solid defender) and Orlando Woolridge who is an undersized power forward/small forward who cannot rebound or dribble with an inconsistent shot. You see? So it shrinks the court and makes it more difficult to get off shots putting the pressure on Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars to play longer minutes and be perfect from the field ... Rodman doesn't score but starts so that's 4 on 5 with no real scoring off the bench aside form Aguirre and your front line isn't deep enough so defensively you aren't going to be able to guard the paint without being in foul trouble, which puts extra pressure on your guards defensively -- they could defend but they had to stay out of foul trouble more, yet the Pistons had 3 All-stars in 1991-92 (Thomas, Dumars, Rodman) and still were one of the top defensive teams -- you add Vinnie Johnson and Edwards to that mix, you easily win another title being healthy. EASY WORK.
See, even if you THINK it's OVER, you have to let the players play it out. Thomas, Dumars, Rodman, and Edwards still had the fire to win titles and to push the team, Laimbeer was dedicated and they could have just taken their time working Vinnie Johnson in more as he came off his knee issues, which would NOT have been a problem with Walker there.
Mistake: If the Pistons were going to put the team they put on the floor for '91-'92, first off, those guys were not going to win for Chuck Daly because Thomas wasn't on the Olympic Team -- so when you look back on 1991-92, what did you see?
Thomas really didn't play hard enough to 'take it' or destroy his opponent, he kinda cruised in the season, we saw it in the Knicks series but Daly purposely didn't put in the right line-ups. You have to start Aguirre and milk Isiah, Dumars, and Aguirre while telling Laimbeer to take 15 shots a game and just play fast letting guys just score like they did before 1989, just let Thomas, Dumars, and Aguirre be the scorers they always been but Daly didn't do that...I still don't know why Dennis Rodman NEVER walked into a gym and work on his ball handling and shooting to get a 15-20 foot jumpshot? Worm could get to the rim all day, get to the line, get easy shots, had range and made solid 3-pointers that season but just didn't shoot enough or handle enough ... you have Rodman handling the ball and shooting through practice, Detroit wins another title. How the hell do you practice rebounding? He went from 12 rebounds in '90-'91 to 18 in 1991-92 ... But he couldn't practice handling the ball or shooting?
It's stupid.
Aguirre was so key. Fantastic in College, just as good in Dallas, should've been All-NBA his 3rd season, going 30/6/5 with a team of minor leaguers, made the playoffs, won a series that year. Then 2 titles in Detroit while Dallas foundered without him. Put him in the Hall.
2 champions in a row puts a lot of pressure on your body and mind. Back in the day you played your star players all season. Players did not want to sit out and rest. So different vs today’s game. Eventually the injuries piled up and they were in no condition to challenge the young Bulls team coming into their own.
Preseason Basketball was way more exciting than regular season Basketball now
What a rough start for my squad bruh. Damn.
Dethroned
They didn’t even shake hands with bulls players after they got swept. No class at all
Loved that.