A few weeks back, after a couple of disappointing losses, I said that it would take about 20 games to evaluate the impact of Joe Dumars’ semi-overhaul. 21 games later … Check that, 21 below-.500-games later, I’m ready to get evaluatin’.

First, I’ll restate what every Piston fan knows. The trade to send Chauncey Billups in exchange for Allen Iverson and, to a lesser extent, the decision to replace Flip Saunders with Michael Curry, was made with a win-now/win-later mentality. As such, it is appropriate to evaluate the trade in light of both present and future. This post will deal with the former, and I’ll get to the latter next week.

I’ll be blunt. I cannot fathom how, as presently constituted, this team could possibly compete for a championship. The Pistons are 10-11 with AI for a reason, or, rather several reasons. Here are they: