Tom Gores has finally won official ownership of the Detroit Pistons after a year-long courtship. Now the hard part begins in rebuilding the franchise into a contender.
If it wasn’t for the Detroit Red Wings, the city of Detroit would have nothing to cheer about as far as professional sports teams are concerned.
The Pistons have fallen far from glory and Tom Gores now inherits a team with a head coach John Kuester, that has had dust ups with the current team and probably shouldn’t survive the transition.
Gores will have to deal with disgruntled veteran players who showed their displeasure with an alleged boycott in February.
Gores will have to find a way to boost the fan base in Detroit which has dwindled. The struggling economy in Detroit will also be a difficult barrier to doing business.
Gores has famous friends and he’ll need to find a way to bring that star power and celebrity presence back to the seats of the Palace in Auburn Hills. Gores doesn’t have to be like Mark Cuban to attract free agents to Detroit. But he does need to rebuild the image of the team. He needs to give the Pistons a new identity, he needs to start fresh and that might require him to clean house and start over.
There are plenty of veteran players on the Pistons that don’t need to be there and probably don’t want to be there. Gores needs to take control of this team, work closely with Joe Dumars to make the Detroit Pistons one of the most young and exciting teams in the NBA.
There’s been enough violence in the Palace, the Pistons don’t need players like Charlie V losing their damn minds. They need a superstar, someone with a personality like Shaq, that will excite the fan base and make people care about Pistons basketball again.
