After the Pistons retired from Thomas, they immediately ushered in their "chosen son", he is Grant Hill, unlike the vast majority of NBA American players who came out of the slums, Hill was born in a very orthodox and very educated family, his father is highly educated, and he also participated in the professional league of American football, and his mother was roommate with the future Vice President Hillary of the United States when he was in college, so Hill received a good education since he was a child, This made him a role model for players across the league after he stepped into the NBA.

Hill is 203 cm tall, weighs 102 kg, and his running and jumping ability is not too top-notch, but the dribble is solid and steady, the sense of rhythm is very good, the change of direction under his feet is enough to twist the ankle of the defender, the shooting is very stable, and the mid-range pull-up jump shot is its killer move, Hill was a player of the year when he was in college, and led North Carolina to win two championships in a row, but after all, the NCAAB is not a league at the same level as the NBA, and many college league players are not adapted to the soil after arriving in the NBA, Many people have this doubt about Hill, but Hill shattered people's doubts with a game, that was in 1992, FIBA opened professional players to participate in the Olympics for the first time, and the United States Basketball formed the famous "Dream Team", which is known as the most powerful basketball team in human history, but in a team training, it was defeated by the Collegiate United led by Hill 62:54, Hill became an instant hit, it is worth mentioning that in this Collegiate United team, There's also Hill's current teammate, Alan Houston.

Hill averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in his first season with the Pistons, shooting 47.7% from the field, elegant ball style, solid mid-range shooting, sharp breakthroughs, and off-court treatment of fans and the media, Hill quickly became a hot favorite of the whole league, in 1994, the "basketball god" Michael Jordan announced his retirement for the first time, the NBA's stock market plummeted, and the league president Stern continued to cultivate a new player, a new superstar to promote to the world, soIn the 1994-1995 All-Star voting election, Hill, who was still a rookie, beat the NBA live treasure Shaquille O'Neal to become the vote king, becoming the only rookie vote king in the four major North American leagues!

Grant Hill and Alan Houston have become the hope of the Pistons' revival, at this time, here, I have to mention one person, he is Joe Dumas, if Thomas led the Pistons to win two consecutive championships, then Dumas is playing a huge role in the post-Thomas era, whether on the court or off the court, Dumas embodies a professional, full of gentlemanly demeanor of a veteran should have the attitude, Hill and Houston have been conquered by Dumas's personality charm, They all regard Dumas as a mentor on the road of life. In Hill's first year with the Pistons, Dumas averaged 18.1 points and 5.5 assists per game, the second most firepower after Hill.

Although the Pistons have two rising stars this season, they have only risen slightly in terms of record, and the Pistons have only won 28 games this season, 8 more than last year, but who can't deny that the Pistons have a bright future, in fact, the bright future will come soon, but it will soon wither.

In the 1995-1996 season, Hill averaged 20.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game, shooting 46.2% from the field, Alan Houston began to score Dumas's gun, becoming the team's starting second position, averaging 19.7 points per game, due to age, Dumas played the sixth man this season, averaging 11.8 points per game, and another sophomore rookie, Lynch Hunter, averaged 8.5 points per game, and the team's interior emptiness allowed the Pistons to bring in "gold medal blue collars" from the Trail Blazers Otis Thorpe, Thorpe averaged 14.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in 82 games this season, and also selected the future "block king" Theo Ratliff with the 18th pick in the first round in the 1995 draft, who averaged 4.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game while playing only 17 minutes per game. Terry Mills contributed his way off the bench, averaging 9.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, and the Pistons finished the playoffs with a 46-36 record this season.

The excitement of the playoffs didn't last long, and it was extinguished by their first-round opponent Orlando, who kept a clean sheet of the Pistons 3:0 in the first round, O'Neal, Hardaway and Dennis Scott combined to score nearly 60 points to send the Pistons home, Hill averaged 19 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, shooting 56.4% from the field, while Houston averaged 25.0 points per game.

Here, I have to write down such a thing, this season's Pistons seem to be a piece of light, but in fact, there is an undercurrent, and this undercurrent finally destroys the Pistons' bright tomorrow.

The beginning of the matter was two years ago, after Thomas retired, the team owner Vilson promised to give Thomas a management position, but this promise was not realized, not only that, but Vilson even refused Thomas to enter the management of the Pistons, to put it bluntly, he didn't give any position, Thomas has always had a big mouth, and he poked this matter out in a few clicks, which caused an uproar in the league.

Pistons legend Dave Bing and former head coach Chuck Daley publicly supported Thomas, believing that Thomas deserves his own respect and position as a team meritorious service, and now you treat him like this, which will make people who come to vote in the future resist.

But Vilson was unmoved, still went his own way, according to later personnel manager Billy McKiney, it was Thomas who did something against Vilson's original intention, which made Vilson feel that Thomas was difficult to discipline and control, so he was not used, but in any case, it was normal for the team to ask for a position in the team after the retirement of the team's meritorious veteran, and Vilson promised like Thomas, but Wilson is also a consistent hardliner, let others say anything, It was not necessary to use Thomas, who later had to travel far away to Toronto to find an errand in faraway Canada.

Because of Thomas's time, Vilson began to ostracize Daley, he found Ron Rotschene, who was still a commentator at the time, and promised him to replace Daley as the team's head coach after the season, Rotes Chaane has coveted this position for a long time, and before the season ended, he went to the stadium to point fingers, and finally forced Daley to leave, after Lotus Schane took office, he adopted a stricter high-pressure policy than Daley - in fact, when Daley accepted the Pistons before, players like Rodman Thomas Dumas were just children, They are willing to be obedient, in their eyes, Daley is as important as his father, but now it is different, they have all become old ruffians, Rodman is even more birdish Lotus Schene, and finally Rodman turned the Pistons management upside down, asked for a salary increase, and finally the intelligence was sent away, two seasons later, Witerson saw that the team could not be controlled, and immediately fired Lotus Schene, and transferred moderate head coach Don Cheney from the Rockets, but who would have thought that Cheney became a puff bag sandwiched between Pistons management and players, two seasons later, also packed up the cover and left, knowing that in the 1995-1996 season, Witson invited Doug Collins from the Bulls as the head coach, Collinson is also a very stubborn person, he naturally supports the management, and suppresses the players, so Collins is not popular in the Pistons team, and the Pistons players and management at this time are like two opposites, fighting against each other, and finally, in 1996, Alan Houston's departure ended.

There is no doubt that Alan Houston was a rising star at the time, and he played well in the regular season and playoffs, but Rao is so, the management is not too comfortable with Houston, and there are a lot of terms attached to the renewal of Houston, which is basically the contract of Houston next season, according to how many games he plays next season and how many points per game he averages, this distrust undoubtedly angered Houston's agent, and under the persuasion of his agent, Houston left the Knicks for 56 million in 7 years.

Houston's departure left many of the team's players disappointed with the Pistons' management, and when Houston played the Pistons' home court for the Knicks for the first time, the players' anger finally exploded.

In that game, Houston only scored 2 points because of nervousness, but the Knicks still beat the Pistons, and this victory had nothing to do with Houston, but Pistons head coach Collins said after the game,

Hopefully Houston will go to hell and show off his scoring skills.

No matter how to say that Houston was once a disciple of Collins, besides, Houston is kind and gets along well with a group of teammates, as soon as Collins's words came out, it directly angered other players, many players had direct and fierce quarrels with Collins, Collins refused to admit his mistake, Thorpe, Ratliffe didn't want to play under Collins anymore, Mills even had to beat Collins! The relationship between the players and the management is instantly incompatible!

In the 1996-1997 season, despite the big problems within the Pistons, it is fair to say that they played reasonably well this season, mainly because they had Grant Hill, Hill has had a consistent and stable performance this season, averaging 21.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, shooting 49.6% from the field! Joe Dumas had to take the starting spot because of Houston's departure, averaging 14.7 points per game, and Lynch partnered Dumas to start the team, averaging 14.2 points per game, playing a career-high performance, and finally the Pistons won 54 games this season and entered the playoffs as fifth in the East.

In the first round of the game, the Pistons lost 2:3 to the Alexander Hawks, ending the season's journey, Hill averaged 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, Lynch Hunter averaged 15.0 points per game is already the second highest score in the team, Dumas averaged 13.8 points per game, but the shooting rate was only 36.1%, on the other hand, the Hawks, trident Steve Smith, Christie Letner and Deacon Promise Mutombo averaged nearly 60 points and 25 rebounds per game, directly stopping the Pistons.

At that time, Mr. Grant Hill did not plan to participate in the whirlpool of the battle between players and management, but Hill, as the leader of the team, already knew that the internal contradictions of the team were not handled well, and the team could not play the expected performance, so Hill represented the players and proposed to the team owner Whitson that the Pistons needed a new coach. Collins was retained, but his three-year contract was shortened to one year.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is just Whitson's delaying tactic, and after a one-year contract, who can guarantee that he will not give Collins a second year of contract? The players were deeply disappointed by Witson's decision, which was directly reflected in the lack of effort on the court, and in the end Witson had to send away multiple players in a row — sending Otis Thorpe to the Saramento Kings for just a first-round pick, and then sending Theo Ratliff to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for guard Jerry Starhouse.

Jerry Starks is 198 cm tall and weighs 98 kg, he was born in North Carolina, is a scoring master, whether it is a breakthrough, a mid-range shot, or a three-point shot has a lot of lethality, but he has no discipline in playing, and it is completely out of the team's tactics to play, which leads to a low shooting percentage in his career, only about forty percent, his character is also unpredictable, he is a lone wolf, and it is difficult to pass back the ball to his hand, but at the same time he has these 3 assists in his career, This is the fourth year of his career, and he is in the Philadelphia 76ers, who was waived by the team because of a battle with Iverson for shots, and came to the Pistons this season, averaging 15.7 points per game.

In the 1996 draft, the Pistons selected Jerome Williams, nicknamed "Junk Dog", with the 26th pick in the first round, Williams is 203 cm tall, weighs 93 kg, plays as a forward, he is a very good defensive player, "Junk Dog" is not a very busy derogatory term in the United States, but shows Williams' resilience and persistence on the defensive end, he is not afraid of physical confrontation, like a mad dog has been biting opponents, in the following years, Junk Dog has been an indispensable substitute force for the team.

This season, the Pistons signed Bison Fowler with a three-year, $14 million contract, the latter is 208 cm tall, weighs 107 kg, and has become a pillar player for the Pistons in the next two years, averaging 16.2 points and 8.9 rebounds per game this season, in the 1997-1998 season, Doug Collins left halfway, Alvin Gentry took office, Gentry is very good at building relationships with players, but the current Pistons team has become a mess, Gentry also became a riceless cook, winning only 37 games all season and being excluded from the playoffs.