I have wondered about this Michael Curry experiment from the beginning, I never like it when people hire a guy who is their friend without checking resumes of more qualified candidates. Beyond that it was always a mystery to me how Joe Dumars thought Curry with a whopping one year as an assistant coach was more qualified to lead his team than a man as experience as Flip Saunders. It wasn’t until today, however that I totally gave up all faith in Coach Curry. The reason he lacks the spine to stand by his own comments and to do what is clearly in the best interest of his team if his players object to it.

Yesterday Curry was rightfully telling the media that either Allen Iverson or Rip Hamilton would have to come off the bench when Hamilton returns due to the team being better defensively with a big lineup. All anyone has to do is watch a tape of the eight games played with Hamilton injured to see that Curry was right to make that suggestion. With Curry forced to start Amir Johnson and give more minutes to Kwame Brown and Jason Maxiel, the Pistons rebounding and defense all improved by leaps and bounds. The result was a 6-2 stretch that showcased some of the best basketball the Pistons have played all year. Tayshaun Prince also put up all-star worthy offensive numbers and returned to his stellar defensive play as he was not burdened with checking bigger stronger players. Curry admitted that neither Hamilton nor Iverson would like to come off the bench but that his decisions would be made based on the team’s defensive needs not what made players happy. Then after Hamilton and Iverson both apparently balked about becoming a 6^th man Curry caved and announced both would start. Hardly making the decisions for the good of the team he had spoke of only a day earlier.

In the NBA once you cave to players they will walk all over you forever, if you give into them you are finished. Curry has now shown a team full of players that forced Saunders out due to their lack of respect that he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to them. Good luck ever getting anything done the rest of the season now that inmates know they run the asylum. Now how does curry stand up to Rasheed on his 12 technical fouls and the inevitable suspensions that will come after 16? The answer is he doesn’t, Rasheed will simply brush him off. Remember Rasheed is the guy who didn’t respect Flip because he admittedly caused trouble for him and Flip didn’t stop him. He may have “spilled coffee” on Flip’s desk but he will use Curry’s for a toilet. How does he take players out for defensive adjustments in the fourth quarter? Again he doesn’t players will blow him off, demand their minutes and he will cave. One has to wonder how Curry will handle the huddle in the waning minutes of a tight game when multiple players want the shot. These guys now know they have no reason to listen to Curry and you can bet they will tune him out whenever he irritates them.

The other problem Curry’s cave job does is it weakens the Pistons on the court. I have said it more times than I can count, but the Pistons weren’t beaten in the conference finals the last two years by Kevin Garnett and LeBron James. They were beaten by Drew Gooden and Kendrik Perkins. The Pistons gave up double doubles to players who have nothing more than minimal NBA talent due to their inability to defend the post. Now they have a 200 lbs. string bean at power forward who will be shoved all over the court. This will quickly wear out Detroit’s best overall player in Prince, and just like before his offensive game will disappear. The Pistons will once again give um astronomical numbers in the paint, and be one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. Not to mention Hamilton or Iverson would have given a hell of a boost to their struggling bench. Imagine Hamilton was a sixth man; he would come off the bench as the number one option and score at will. This would bolster the entire bench and energize the team and fans whenever he checked in. Instead now we will continue to see mouse ball which will NEVER win consistently in the NBA. Curry said that he had good guys on the team who would only care about winning, and would accept the bench role for the good of the team. Too bad he didn’t stand behind his statement and tell his players how it was going to be, instead of them telling him.