First of all this is my first post on Motown String Susic. I'm living in Portland and have adopted the Blazers UNLESS they play the Stones. 

Moving on.....This should be an exciting time to be a Pistons fan.

Right now we have a fresh start and options to turn this around. The most important concern at hand is money. We have plenty of it. As much as it sucked trading Chauncey Billups, it was a hell of a move by Joe Dumars. In my opinion the season was over when we traded Chauncey for AI and Joe Dumars knew that the moment he made the trade. He also knew with Chauncey we would probably have lost again to Cleveland in the playoffs eventually, if it wasn’t the first round.
 
Dumars played on a dominate team that held it’s core together for too long and suffered the consequences of not making the playoffs for the years after. With that experience he learned that you have to bite the bullet, and make moves even if it means taking your team out of contention for a year. AI’s worth to the team will finally be valued now that his contract is expired and it’s 15 mil is off the books. 
 I love 'Sheed, he helped us get that 'Ship, but his time is up too. I wish he would have gone out with a little more dignity, but oh well; I wish him all the best and I’m going to thank him for that other 15 mil off the books.

Looking at how Chauncey is performing in the playoffs people are understandibly questioning Joey D's logic....well I think he was looking at the situation monetarily.

$$$$$ AI vs. Billups $$$$$$
 
AI
08-09: $20,840,625
09-10: $0….FREE AGENT
vs.
Chauncey
08-09: $11,050,000
09-10: $12,100,000
10-11: $13,150,000
11-12: $14,200,000
 
So when you are rebuilding and you can get 20 mil off the books this year and then save...drum roll....$39,450,000 over the next three years as well. Wow.

Add AI’S $20,840,625 + 'Sheed's $13,930,000 you have $34,770,625 of free cap space.
 
That’s great GM work, if you ask me.
 
Joey D has forsight or you could call it court vision, and he knew what he had can’t get it done. He understood his ship was slowly sinking, so instead of patching it over and over again, he traded Chauncey and went down with the ship so to say. Now he has some money and he’s about to build another ChampionSHIP….it’s a pun, I couldn’t help myself.

source: http://www.storytellerscontracts.info/resources/08-09salaries.htm

I invite you all to click on that link showing players salaries. It will really open your eyes to the other part of the league (look at Agent 0's contract, at least we aren't stuck with something like that).  We have flexibility.

Now is the fun part.  Lets research contracts, free agents, and all try to put some rosters together. We are starting over fresh, there will be that initial drop, and then we will start to get better and better, and the excitement will come back. Watching a team grow up before your eyes is awesome, we got to experience that, watching a team die sucks and we just experienced that too. The life cycle is complete on these boys, and now the rebirth cycle will begin and we will watch a new group grow up.

UPDATE: Dave Dial of MLIVE was nice enough to step in and do some number crunching that was initially overlooked. Many thanks to Mr. Dial for pointing this out:

The amount of money coming off doesn’t equal the cap space the Pistons have. So when you write:

Add AI’S $20,840,625 + ’Sheed’s $13,930,000 you have $34,770,625 of free cap space.

It’s not really the case. If you go to the link you gave, it will show how much the Pistons have in committed salary.

http://www.storytellerscontracts.info/resources/08-09salaries.htm

I have a slightly different number, because I have Maxiell making a little over 4.4 million his first season of his extension, with an increasing contract over the length. Storytellers has the contract at 5 million each season. That’s not the way players usually sign, but they could be right.

In any case, Storytellers has the Piston committed salary at 40.4 million, which is around 19 million under the current cap. I have it at around 39.5, around 20 million under the current cap. Most experts predict the cap will go down this season, and they may be right. I do doubt it goes down much, but let’s say it shrinks to 37.5 million, which still gives the Pistons around 17-18 million in cap space.

With the season now over, it's time for Kevin Pritchard to warm up his thumbs, drink some tea, have 5 Blackberry chargers available and start his season...the Offseason. This summer is going to be great, I trust KP, he saw the areas that we were exposed at in the Playoffs and I expect some key acquisitions and upgrades.

Goodbye:

Raef: 12.8 mill

Ruffin: 1 Million in cash to Blazers plus 3 million trade exception

Shavlick: Nothing owed contract up

Please leave now:

Sergio: 4 mill over two years

Trading Block:

**This doesn't mean I want all these players traded but they are trade bait that can be used to UPGRADE the team and yes we could use an upgrade from these guys particularly in the Point Guard category.**

Channing Frye: 4.3 mill one year and expiring contract after next season

Travis Outlaw: 3.6 09-10 Contract (not guaranteed) expiring contract

Steve Blake: 4 mill 09-10 Contract (not guaranteed) expiring contract

Re-sign:

Rudy Fernandez: Expiring Contract

Free Agents worth taking a look at:

Veteran Point Guards: Andre Miller, Bobby Jackson, Mike Bibby

Young Point Guards: Ray Felton, Jarret Jack, Romone Sessions (sweet), Nate Rob

Forwards off the bench: Leon Powe, Birdman (yes), Brandon Bass, Milsap, David Lee

***Don’t forget the Pritchard trigger finger is ready to trade as well***

Go to the Rose Garden right now to get tickets to the game. I just found out at work that there were 13$-25$ tickets available at the box office. I'm stuck at work but my roommate just skipped out and got over there. They will only sell you 4 at a time but who cares? 13$ ticket to the game is unreal. All I have to say is that tomorrow night will be rowdy, and we will see the Blazers bounce back. I expect big things from BRoy and LA. Go Blazers, Good luck with the tickets.

Let me start off by saying Billa is the man. He's a critical person on the team, according to urban folklore, he drives his kids to school in a Catapillar truck, eats with black and decker tools and carhart is designing a secret basketball ball shoe for him. But lately my friends and I are noticing the certain glow from him. Could it be that our blue collar work horse goes to the booth? I came to his defense by saying it was "strickly for light therapy" or that he's just sweating and the blood is pumping giving him look a redish hue. What are your thoughts? Could it be Billa is so tough that he can reach up and move the clouds over his house to get that tan?

this is unreal, he must have dominated middle school basketball. I don't really know what else to say, except this photo makes me like Oden a little more.  It's friday, work is done, go blazers. Can't wait to see the comments on monday of this picture. If anyone lives near mississippi st. check out the new bottle shop called Bridgetown bottle shop off of mississippi and shaver, the owners cool, always has the blazer game on during game days.

I've posted something on this before but as the playoffs are getting closer it's become more apparant.  Every playoff team in the west minus the Blazers and Houston has a SOLID and very good point guard. I love Steve Blake but he's not the answer. He's the guy you want coming off the bench that will provide you steady play and leadership while our starting PG rests.  Sergio hopefully will be gone after this season and Bayless still has a lot to learn, not even convinced he's a natural point guard. 

Our weakness at the PG position shows at the defensive end. We can't guard quick PG's (TJ FORD, TONY PARKER, Devin Harris tonight will light us up) or Big guys like (Mr Big Shot, and Derron Williams) give us a tough time as well.  Who do you think is the answer for the Blazers at the PG? A veteran like Andre Miller? A young buck like Romon Sessions? There has to be a guy out there that can help us. In the mean time we'll ride Steve Blake hopefully deep into the playoffs, because the other two guards are going to have a tough time.

PS. For the people who are going to stick up for Sergio please just make a post to support him because defending his bad decision making, terrible jump shot, and pourous soft defence on this post is going to distract the other reader from making informative posts. Thanks.

I was thinking the other night of possible sponsorships for players on the Blazers. The most obvious one to me would be the amazing body wash Old Spice Swagger. Brandon Roy would be the best person to promote "Swagger" Just picture a commercial with him saying, "In almost three seasons now I've tied or won the game 25 times in the final 30 seconds. Was this because of my incredible skills, and my ability to remain calm under any pressure? No, it was the 8 hour protection from Old Spice Swagger."

Or this one is a stretch, but since he loves the driving extended scoop on either side of the basket, why not Raisin Bran Two Scoops? 

This is meant to be a fun post, getting away from disecting the players, coaches, and hating on the the other teams.  Portland is a low market team and it's always great to see players in national commercials. Perhaps the bloggers here on blazersedge could be the ones that get these players the national recognition.

I think he has ZERO heart. I got to thinking about what Oden is going to develope into and I think with his injuries it's fair to say that he's going to mold into Brandon Haywood. I know people are going to hate, but it's a decent comparison. Either people love him or hate him. For me he doesn't play inspired basketball and that's dissapointing...here's Haywoods stats, and ironically he's injured right now too, just like oden.

The fact that it's up to him to play right now, and he's not playing irks me. This is when the team needs him, we're jockying for playoff position. grow a pair. The Cowardly Lion needs to go to OZ and get a heart.

haywood career stats.

This is just an observation by myself and I wanted to hear if it's happened to any of you.  I've been to 15 games this season, 2 of those being in the lower bowl, and during those games while I've been cheering for the Blazers the people in front of me told me to quiet down. When this happened I told them that I was at a Blazer game and I'll cheer for the Blazers as loud as I want. After the second time I told myself I'll never sit in the lower bowl again, the real fans sit in the upper level, where it's working class rowdy people are. People who care about the game. I didn't have a problem until the Knicks game sunday. 

 After the Blazers blew their 17 point lead (damnit) and then were down 13 points (jesus christ) it was time to get in the game. The Blazers began to make a run and I started to feel it, I had my new Broy jersey on and I was screaming defense, clapping, getting in the game (with NO THUNDER STICKS).  In the final 5 minutes as we were inching closer to the lead fans started to stand up and really get into it. This is when I was told by a schrill, mean, middle aged lady and her son/father to SIT DOWN. EXCUSE ME! i said, this is a NBA game, the BLAZERS are making a comeback and you want me to sit down?!! I refused, blazers won. Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone else think this is inexuseable?  People like this need to watch the game on tv.

quick side note, last year I bought a Outlaw jersery on my bday, and he scored at the buzzer to win. this year when my girlfriend was buying me a broy jersery at the game for my bday, i told her this....and broy scored at the buzzer. next year I'm getting a lamarcus jersey for my bday.

We have BLAKE at 6-3 172 and NATE at 5-9 190  playing defense on

Division rivals

Deron Williams 6-3 207

Chauncey Billups 6-3 202.

Then you have if the Playoffs here is the order with PG's

1. LAKERS-DFISH 6-1 210 and Farmar 6-2 180

2. SAN ANTONIO- T Parker 6-2 180 and J Vaughn 6-1 190

3. DENVER- C Billups 6-3 202 and A Carter 6-2 195

4. NEW ORLEANS- CP3 6-0 175 and A Daniels? 6-4 205

5. PHEONIX- Nash 6-3 178 and backups suck here

6. BLAZERS info listed above

7. UTAH- Deron Williams 6-3 207 and Brewer? 6-7 227

8. HOUSTON- Raefer Alston 6-2 175 and Aaron Brooks 6-0 161 (good nate matchup)

So in a best of 7 Series we'd be hard pressed at the PG position against the Top 4 Teams, If we really want to make a run we need to BOLSTER that position. If Blake gets in foul trouble we a little man and a rookie at that spot. I know BROY can play the PG but that's not where we want him all game. (Only in the fourth when it's his time to dominate.)