Alright, this is the Detroit Pistons after the end of the draft.
PG: John Stockton / Derek Harper
SG: John Havlicek / Michael Cooper / Pete Maravich
SF: Kawhi Leonard / Jimmy Butler
PF: Elvin Hayes / Larry Nance / Hedo Turkoglu
C : Alonzo Mourning / Dikembe Mutombo
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Did you know, in the history of the NBA, only four teams have won the NBA Championship without having an MVP winner on their team? One is the '18-'19 Toronto Raptors. The other three?
'88-'89 Detroit Pistons
'89-'90 Detroit Pistons
'03-'04 Detroit Pistons
The biggest factor to that Raptors win was Kawhi Leonard. The biggest factor to those three title winning Detroit teams was intense, suffocating, tough, hard nosed defense.
We have combined both to form a single entity. This is the CStrong Historical Draft Detroit Pistons! This team, from top to bottom (apart from the two end of bench guys), features players who have been an All-NBA Defender, with some of them winning the Defensive Player of the Year in their own rights. I built this team with one identity in mind, and it's defense, and I'm proud to say that we at Detroit have accomplished that.
The Starters:
PG: John Stockton - '88-'89:
(All-Star, All-NBA 2nd team, All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team, League leader in AST and STL per game)
SG: John Havlicek - '71-'72:
(All-Star, All-NBA 1st Team, All-NBA Defensive 1st team, League leader in Minutes per game, 4th in MVP voting)
SF: Kawhi Leonard - '15-'16:
(All-Star, All-NBA 1st Team, All-NBA Defensive 1st team, Defensive Player of the Year, 2nd in MVP voting)
PF: Elvin Hayes - '74-'75:
(All-Star, All-NBA 1st Team, All-NBA Defense 2nd Team, 3rd in MVP voting)
C: Alonzo Mourning - '98-'99:
(All-NBA 1st Team, All-NBA Defensive 1st Team, Defensive Player of the Year, League leader in Blocks per game, 2nd in MVP voting)
From the PG spot to the Center spot, this team boasts a tough defensive unit. Two DPOY winners, all making All-Defensive teams, this is one of, if not the best defensive starting 5 in the league. Along with the defense, comes the talent. All but John Stockton made All-NBA 1st teams, with three of them ranking within the top 3 in NBA MVP votings.
Defense, talent, and more importantly, there's a great deal of balance within this team. Everybody are capable on their own, but all are willing to play within a team, and there are no overwhelming presence. There are playmakers within the team with Stockton and Hondo. Great one on one scoring in Kawhi Leonard. There's inside scoring with the Big E and Zo on board. Floor spacing wouldn't be a problem as all are capable shooters in their own rights, with our bigs being able to extend their offensive game within 18-20 feet.
Just like the title winning Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors, this team is not loaded with top end, recognized name talents, but they are as talented, and are also relentless and tough, that could dominate on either ends of the court.
Bench mob:
PG: Derek Harper - '89-'90:
(All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team, League leader in games played)
SG: Michael Cooper - '86-'87:
(NBA Champion, All-NBA Defensive 1st Team, Defensive Player of the Year, League leader in games played)
SF: Jimmy Butler - '17-'18:
(All-Star, All-NBA 3rd Team, All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team)
PF: Larry Nance - '88-'89:
(All-Star, All-NBA Defensive 1st Team)
C: Dikembe Mutombo - '94 - '95:
(All-Star, All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team, Defensive Player of the Year, League leader in BLK per game and games played)
Coming off our bench are another bunch of hard nosed, defense oriented, team players. This bench unit sports TWO DPOY winners, and all of them, like the starters, have made All-Defensive teams. Simply put, there's ZERO days off on opposing teams' offense when they play us. When one or two of our starters sit, the guys that will replace them will give as much effort on defense and toughness as they are. Jimmy Butler will be our main scoring option off the bench, while Larry Nance and Derek Harper provide some added scoring punch. Michael Cooper will shut down any perimeter player when he comes in, and Dikembe Mutombo will protect the rim. As with the starters, this bench mob sports excellent balance, with team oriented players capable of fitting in with just about any lineup we can put out.
Deep Bench:
"Pistol" Pete Maravich - '76-'77:
(All-Star, All-NBA 1st Team, Scoring Champion, League leader in minutes played per game)
Hedo Turkoglu - '07-'08:
(NBA Most Improved Player)
It's almost blasphemous to suggest that a talent of Pistol's caliber will be nothing more than an end of bench guy coming off the bench. We value his scoring, shooting and playmaking, and on certain situations where we need more points, he's certainly going to come in and drop buckets. Unfortunately, his lack of defensive effort has made him nothing more than a specialist for this team.
With all due respect to Hedo Turkoglu, but the only reason he's in this team is to bring in Jimmy Butler. He won't see any minutes on this squad, unless there's foul trouble with the bigs.
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Defense, top talent, balance. That's your Detroit Pistons.
(And just for fun, imagine this for one second.
Your team is down one, with less than 5 seconds left, and you're going against Detroit. This is the lineup you're going against.
Cooper - Havlicek - Leonard - Hayes - Mutombo.
That would be fun, eh?)
you have a very solid starting lineup defensively, but I believe mine trumps yours.
The advantage I have is speed and the ability to switch. Hakeem can defend anyone PG-Center, Payton PG or Sg, Kobe PG-SF, Dandridge PG-SF, and Dave sg-c.
That, I believe, makes my lineup stronger defensively as some of your guys are limited to their postions, like Mourning and Stockton.
Eh, IDK about that. I might give you Elvin Hayes, but he was a mobile and active dude in the 70s as well, one could assume that his mobility would translate in the modern game full of switches. Same goes with Zo, who is one of the more mobile Centers in the 90s. He could easily adjust to the switching.
We already know Kawhi can do it. He won two DPOY's playing the defense he does in the modern game.
Hondo can run until the lights burn out. Speed won't be a problem for him.
And John Stockton? He's more of a disruptor and smarts on defense that a one on one guy. I'm not concerned about him as much as speed, because he would know where he'd position himself on defense to disrupt anything.
The other thing that separates our teams is the bench. Our bench unit would continue on the barrage of tough, hard nosed, All-NBA level defense, with TWO DPOY winners coming off of it. There's no rest for the wicked against the Detroit Pistons, whether you're going against the starters or not.
Fair enough, I dont belive your starting lineup has the defensive switchability as vast as mine.
Mourning I dont think would be able to guard PGs.
Hayes I dont think could guard SGs.
Stockton was a good team defender, but if isolated can be exposed.
You probably have the tops bench defense though. Not much offense on it, but great defense.
I don't think DeBusschere can cover PGs/SGs. He was a bulky forward with some quickness, not a quick forward with some bulk. And you're definitely not getting away with putting Kobe on anyone but the weakest offensive perimeter player in this game. I also think that Payton would struggle against quicker PGs, which teams in this game have in spades. Dandridge and Hakeem are great though, but I think you overrate your team's defense just because a few of your guys had such romanticised reputations.
Also Stockton isn't getting exposed at PG in man defense lol.
Dave was known to defend all positions on the floor from sg-center. I never claimed he would defend PGs, but he could certainly not be a turnstyle when isolated on a switch.
Your Kobe hatred blinds you to the fact that Kobe was an all world defender for most of his career. a 9 time 1st team and a 3 time second team. You cannot just brush that away and state he is not defending the best players on the other team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBu28UwDzpsKobe was a beast defensively, second at his postion only to Jordan.
Payton defended both large and strong and small and quick pointguards his entire career and shut them down. There was a litany of speedy guards in the NBA during his time, and he still won DPOY and multiple all nba defensive 1st teams.
Stockton was best a team defender first. that is pretty common acceptance. Stockton was not athletic, Was not the biggest and was not overly strong, but always played incredibly hard and was always in fantastic shape. But when being paired against all time nba talents he would get posted up by larger, stronger offensive talents, and he would get pulled outside by faster better shooting players.
Stockton would have a hard time with someone like Curry and had a hard time with guys like Magic.
Stockton could defend Payton well, but he can get picked on. The Bulls used to isolate Stockton on Jordan and he got absolutely abused, where as Payton held his own against mike.
Stocktons steals generally came from helping down on drives and helping down on postups. sneaking in there, I dont know if he gets those steals in this scenario as much as every position has threats, he will have a harder time cheating off his man.
Also Stockton was know for kicking, elbowing, pushing, tripping, flopping and got away with it, the rules now, not so much