It wasn’t too long ago that the Pistons beat the Lakers on the road and all seemed perfect in regard to the Allen Iverson trade.
Just a few weeks later, the deal is unraveling on the Pistons. Iverson missed practice Thanksgiving morning. Given his sound byte, "Practice," is one of the most infamous in sports history, it was a horrible development for the Pistons. Iverson was contrite about it, but it didn’t matter. The damage was done.
As importantly, the Pistons are struggling to adapt their game to Iverson. They are 6-6 since the trade. They didn’t play well at all in a home loss Sunday to Portland. It was nearly as bad as the blowout loss to Minnesota the Sunday before.
Iverson played 32 minutes vs. Portland, but complained about his lack of playing time. It’s not that he is a bad passer. He does a good job of penetrating the lane and kicking the ball out to shooters spotting up. It’s his necessity of having the ball all the time that is a concern.
Iverson is not a point guard. Yet, he demands the ball as much or more than a point guard. The Pistons don’t have a point guard - and therein lies a problem offensively.
That’s before you get to the Pistons’ issues defensively. They don’t guard nearly as well as in the past. When the Pistons bog down on the offensive end of the court, they don’t play the stellar defense they used to in order to carry them through. Defense isn’t Iverson’s strength. Do the Pistons adapt their game to Iverson? Or does Iverson adapt his game to the Pistons? Seems like that’s the issue Piston coach Michael Curry is going to have to sort out. So far, they’re trying to reach a middle ground and nobody to adapting to anyone.
The result: .500 basketball and a future that isn’t exactly looking bright.

Random Thoughts

- Despite his giveaways during the playoffs and his matador defense at the blue line, such as Saturday night in Boston, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock places a lot of faith in Andreas Lilja. Not sure how long that will last with all the depth the Red Wings have at the blue line. Also, Ty Conklin and Chris Osgood need to be sharper in goal.

- There seems to be growing sentiment for the Tigers to play Carlos Guillen at shortstop, at least part-time, next season. In retrospect, was he really that bad there? He made too many errors, that’s for sure. But he had a lot better range - especially to his glove side - than Edgar Renteria displayed. Wonder if he could stay healthy playing short, though. And who would play left field.