The Pistons at the halfway mark.

When Joe Dumars made the trade for AI shortly after the start of the season I had no reason to doubt the move and even applauded it in some ways. At the time of this trade the Pistons roster, at that time, played uninspired and without much passion. In sum, they looked as if they were simply going through the motions of playing Basketball and it was obvious that the roster needed a major shake up. And so, Joe D moved Mr. Big Shot and brought in the Answer. After the trade, many people asked me what I thought, and I said that, on the surface, it looks like it could work, but we will know for sure by the All Star break...Well, with the All Star break upon us, it's pretty obvious that this move didn't work out nearly as well as Joe Dumars, or myself, had hoped. As of today, the Pistons are a pedestrian 27-24 after losing 7 of their last 10 and are clinging to their playoff lives, in 7th place in the Eastern Conference only a pathetic 3 games ahead of the lowly Milwaukee Bucks who haven't done jack diddly in over 3 decades. Needless to say The Answer has done nothing but raise more questions about the current Piston's roster and their ability to continue to be one of "the" teams to beat in the Eastern Conference...One good thing, however, remains-Joe Dumars...No one can question the ability of Joe Dumars as a President and General Manager of a pro sports franchise, and anyone who does is out of their minds. Even the greatest makes mistakes, and as one of my favorite fictional characters of all times once said (or something close): "Being a rather bright man, when I make mistakes, they tend to be larger than most other people's mistakes". Joe Dumars is widely regarded-in all sports-as one of the best at what he does, and I, for one, still trust him completely. The Pistons most likely will end their record run of 7 (or was it 8?) consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals, but I have little doubt that Joe D will have them right back there again in no time...So have faith Piston's fans. The bad boys may not be so bad this year, but so long as Joe D is running the franchise they will always have the potential to be one of the best and most consistent teams in the league, and this year is but a mere bump in the road as far as I'm concerned and it won't be too long before we will be hearing "DDDDEEEETRRRROIIIIIITTTT BAAAASSSSKKKKETTTBALLLLLL" again in the NBA finals.