The Detroit Pistons are now in full rebuilding mode

April 24, 2:31 PMSports Business ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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The Pistons may deal Prince Ap Photo/Wilfredo Lee

Some would say that the official rebuilding project of the Detroit Pistons began when GM Joe Dumars traded Guard Chauncey Billups for NBA star Allen Iverson at the beginning of the season. Since that trade didn’t exactly work out in terms of on the court success the Pistons will be big players in the free gent market in the next two off seasons.

This is another one of those cases where we must separate fandom from the business side of sports. Even with Billups it was highly unlikely that the Pistons were going to make their 7th straight Eastern Conference finals, so Dumars dumped Billups’ contract and cleared up a lot of cap space over the next two off seasons.

In terms of success the pistons have only been able to turn those 6 trips to the Eastern Conference finals into one World Championship, but on the business side the Iverson deal really paid off.

According to ESPN the Pistons were able to draw 896,971 fans to the Palace of Auburn Hills during the 2008-09 season. That is an average of 21,877 average fans for each of the 41 home games. That number barely beat the Chicago Bulls for best average over the past NBA season.

When new really think about it that is an amazing number. The pistons had a poor record of 39-43 for this season and backed themselves into the playoffs winning the 8th seed in the east. Since then they have been getting pummeled by the Cleveland Cavilers in the first round of the playoffs.

More than that though, the Pistons were able to draw in fans in a soft economy, and in a state with the highest rate of unemployment in the country. This seems to prove that the NBA is very much a star driven league.

Since Iverson was a cancer on this team’s chemistry in the locker room, and on the city at large (there are reports that Iverson was banned from some of the local casino’s for rude behavior), he will not return to this team. That means the Pistons need another top tier free agent to continue to draw in their fans.

The upcoming free agent class may not feature the kind of star player the Pistons want, and they may be forced to wait until 2010 when a better crop of NBA stars will become available.

According to SI.com the best free agent players in 2009 will be Kobe Bryant, Carlos Boozer, and Shawn Marion. It is unlikely that the Pistons will want to invest a maxed out contract on any of these players and may wait until 2010 when the free agent class has many more options.

According to Hoops World the 2010 class will feature establish NBA stars like Lebron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade among others. The Pistons have cleared enough cap space to land at least one it not two of these stars from this free agent class.

That does leave the Pistons without much of a plan for the 2009-10 season. It is obvious that this team needs something and if Dumars is willing to wait to the summer of 2010 to make a big move he may have to deal one of his current players to get a star that will keep the fans coming to the games.

Over the second half of the season there have been many rumors that the Pistons were ready to deal forward Tayshaun Prince. For many years now Dumars has believed that Prince was a key foundation for this team’s future but that may change if Dumars needs another star to keep his fan base interested.

While a lot of this is speculation we can now officially say that the Detroit Pistons are in a full rebuilding mode that may cost them dearly not only in the current season but in 2009-10 as well.