“We don’t have that one guy that steps in, get on a person for doing something wrong,” McDyess said. “We have certain nights where one person would say something, and another would, but we need that one person who will be there, and we know that they got our back and that they’ll get on us when we do wrong and direct us when we’re going wrong. We don’t have that.” Via MLive
That quote comes from a piece in MLive in which A. Sherrod Blakely paints a grim picture of the Pistons discontent.
“In the past couple weeks, players have dropped not-so-subtle hints blaming the team’s poor play on roster changes that began with the Nov. 3 trade of Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen Iverson. Curry, in not-so-subtle terms, has said players need to play with more fight if they want to turn things around.
There appears to be an increasing disconnect between Curry and his players, the kind of issues a team leader would work to hash out before things become worse.
Things are getting progressively worse, and there are no signs from within the Pistons roster that anyone is ready, let alone willing, to stand up and be accountable for this team’s success moving forward.”
We can all sit here and point fingers, we do it all the time, but imagine what’s going on inside that locker room and how hard it is for those players to believe in the Coach, Joe Dumars or each other.
When a guy like McDyess can’t muster up the courage to take control of that locker room, things must be worse than we ever imagine.
Ben Wallace even chimed in…
“It’s tough to go out and be a leader when you’re not certain about the style that you’re playing,” said Wallace, who now plays for Cleveland. “Once they find their identity, everybody will be on the same page and a leader will emerge. Until then, it’s going to be some uncertainty; you don’t know whose coat-tail you need to pull; who you need to get in line because you don’t know for sure what’s going on.” MLive
we definitely need a leader inside the court and the locker room as well.. but for me, more importantly, they need to play with desire and heart.. i was able to watch the game against cleveland and they were terrible. from Stuck forcing up shots to the team’s lackluster defense. i don’t want to give up on this season yet, but they they have to right the ship if they’re going to make the playoffs. how bad are they playing right now? 6-game losing streak.. i still hope they make the playoffs. predictions, Pistons fans?
We need Gene Hackman!!! Go Hoosiers
Every single bit in that article falls on Curry and Dumars. You can’t trade the leader of your team, and bring in AI as the new guy and expect him to step up and start barking orders at people.
So you get rid of the leader on the court, you need to rely on the coach as the leader of the squad. Which Curry obvious cannot do. Some of the blame belongs with Dumars for putting him in that situation as a rookie coach. I just hope a change is made while there is still hope.
Every morning I wake up hoping to see the headlines CURRY FIRED and every morning I’m dissappointed……… Lottery here we come
My wife woke me up yesterday morning and said. “Guess what I heard on the news this morning!!!” … “Detroit fired curry.” I actually leaped out of bed so happy. I was like REALLY??? She said no. I can’t tell you how happy I was for a second. Ready to meet the day with a smile. What and uncool joke.
My cousin from cleveland pulled the same joke on me too…soooo cruel…
i think its funny how ben still puts input in on detroit because he is still so close with the team that we used to know and love.. honestly i think we need to run this team up and down the court.. not like phoenix but at least sometimes.. didnt AI even say after a game that we need to run more so we don’t have to play against these big defenses in half court sets?? curry cant realize this… bring in avery johnson
I believe curry is not a bad coach but for him to be put in this situation without billups is pretty crappy…chauncey definetly was the missing piece in denver and Im sure true pistons fans are happy for him but the team is in a drought without him and we need our missing piece. free agency 2010 maybe? we’ll c
We need a leader. Even if we signed someone awesome, if hes not a leader for the team it wont help.
This is exactly why Billups should have never been traded. Every one of us and everyone in that locker room knew that he was the leader of this team. I would have traded anyone else rather than him. Dumars should have been smart enough to see that, and who cares about the frickin money part of it. You could have traded anyone else and saved money, just not as much. I’m still happy for him though. At least he landed in a good situation.
Big Ben said it exactly right in that last comment. These players have no idea what’s going on because of lineup changes, fluctuating minutes, DNPs, you name it Curry’s done it, and it’s tearing this team apart.
And the sad thing is I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Joe put Curry in this situation because he had an idea of how bad it was going to get and didn’t want to put his “real future coach” through a situation like this. I can’t say I can complain with the success that this team has had the last decade or so, but Joe can be devisive at times. An example being, rushing and making sure Rip signed his extension right before the trade went down for AI.
Whatever, at this point I don’t really care anymore. Even if they make the playoffs it’s not going to be anything spectacular. I just wish when they played they would play with some passion. I can handle losing if it appears that you’re giving your all.
i think the that the pistons are playing this way because of one person….dumars. he traded our leader and captain. no wonder they don’t look like their having fun and stuff when they play now. they had such great chemistry. the season started out great. and then we lost him. and curry needs to step up. put rip back in the starting line up. maybe he should just let us play ourselves without him coaching us. let us play how we did before.
AI IF YOU REALLY WANT A RING, THEN STEP UP