What's Wrong with the Pistons?

Most commentary on the Piston's non-champion style start, including the comments by the players, focus on subjects like motivation, working together, and learning. Maybe a little is said about missing Ben Wallace for a bunch of games. Little is focused on the main source of the problem.

Comparing last year's to this year's personnel, we see a huge change in the second unit. The forecourt subs used to be Williamson and Okur. Okur was really the small forward, and Williamson the power forward posting up. They are gone. Mcdyess plays more like the 4. He's all around better than Williamson. They miss Okur's defense. There really isn't anyone in the second unit 3 slot, and the rotation is down one one. Campbell is the backup 5, but they don't use him often. Similarly, Mike James is gone from the backup 2. Delfino is now hurt, and face it, his defense was really a project; James was very strong on defense and could also shoot the 3-ball.

So instead of making up ground with the second unit as in 2004, the 2005 Pistons lose ground. And the weakness is especially on defense. That's why they are giving up 100's regularly, rather than pitching 80 point games