Dear Detroit Pistons

These four might as well not see the court again... No bailout needed

In the wake of this ridiculous spending and fear filled marathon, otherwise known as the trade deadline, the NBA season has picked up A LOT. Carmelo finally did what everyone knew he was going to do, Deron Williams was burned at the stake by the Mormons Jazz, and Jeff Green is now that kid in your neighborhood that moved away. Not even Baron Davis or Mo Williams were safe. To say it was a panicked trade deadline would be tame. It's funny that the team that stayed pat is still worse off that most squads.

If it isn't closing public schools, or boasting in car commercials, it's keeping your team the way it was at the beginning of the season, allowing what was a respectable franchise last decade to turn into a laughingstock. Detroit, for the past four years, I don't think I've seen a team fall so far from grace. You've been in the middle of 'rebuilding' since 2008 when you shipped out Chauncey Billups for Allen 'Turkey' Iverson (double entendre, don't even ask me how). Rodney Stuckey has been decent at best, Tayshaun Prince has been little more than the big fish in a small, moldy pond and long gone are the days when two men named Wallace were the pillars of the Motor City. That said, you've seen better days, but none worse than last Friday when half of your team staged a 'player protest'.

What's funny about the protest is that between Tracy McGrady, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Chris Wilcox none of these guys have played extensively enough or well enough to warrant any loyalty. Your team has tried to commit to a tenet of keeping around veterans, when it's clear that these players couldn't hack it if they had arms made of axes. Sure McGrady's had a few good games, but what else can you expect from a former scoring champ? The Ben Gordon experiment has proven that combo guards don't work in the Motor City, and Charlie Villanueva has barely showed flashes of brilliance, mostly in meaningless games. To put it shortly, your rebuilding process has NOT gone well.

Ironically, some good has come out of your laconic season. Austin Daye is proving that he wasn't just a no-name WCC player with a highlight tape and Greg Monroe is playing incredibly, making double-doubles look easy. If anyone is worth keeping, it's those two guys. Will Bynum? Expendable. DaJuan Summers? He peaked at Georgetown. Jason Maxiell? He's the poor man's Milsap with no jumper. The rest aren't worth a line. Except for one other person: your coach, John Kuester. Kuester has proven that trying to turn a bunch of former somebodies into 20 minute per game rotation players will NOT work. He's completely mismanaged your team and you know it. Joe Dumars might as well coach this team himself. I'm sure he could help what good pieces you do have grow some cojones before the rest of the East becomes a whirlpool of talent again.

The trade deadline came and went, and you guys stayed pat with a mediocre team. Even though the CBA is hanging by a thread, Detroit, you still have a chance to bring this team back to relevance. A) You need to drop John Kuester immediately. Everything about that man screams pushover in the locker room and it's obvious with how erratically you play on the court. B) Get rid of the old, dead weight. That includes Hamilton, T-Mac, Prince and Wilcox. You can't start rebuilding for the next dynasty if you have leftovers from the first one. C) Make sure you keep Austin Daye and Greg Monroe. Those two look like a dynamic duo in the making, just waiting for Austin Rivers a great point guard to take the reigns. No, it won't be easy. No, it won't be quick. But it's better than believing you can recreate another Bad Boys replica with a bunch of Grumpy Old Men, especially ones that call sitting out of practice for a day 'protest'. Long live the car industry, because basketball isn't happening for a while...