The 1998-1999 season was a shrunken season, because of the NBA's labor disputes, only 50 games were played in the whole season, Grant Hill is still the team's face star, averaging 21.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game, Jerry Starhouse played Joe Dumas off the bench, averaging 14.5 points per game, but shooting only an unbearable 37.1% from the field. Lynch Hunter is averaging 11.9 points and 3.9 assists per game, and Joe Dumas is averaging 11.3 points per game this season after playing in 38 games. Dumas announced his retirement.

There is no doubt that Dumas is the great star in the history of the Pistons in the same era as Thomas, he is a very comprehensive and very studious person, he was just an offensive player when he first entered the league, but under Daley's training, Dumas became the defensive gate of the Pistons on the outside for ten years, and the four meetings with Jordan in the playoffs are classics in NBA history. In addition to being conscientious on the court, Dumas is also a role model for players off the court, treating people sincerely, gentle and elegant, he made Dumas receive a lot of friendship and praise in the league, after retiring Dumas was deeply valued by the team owner Witsen, and spent a lot of time cultivating Dumas's experience in team management, a year later, Dumas became the president of the Pistons, with full authority to manage the team's affairs, of course, Dumas did not disappoint Witsen, under Dumas's skillful hands, single-handedly pushed the Pistons to the second peak in history.

Dumas's 16,401 points and 4,612 assists for the Pistons are currently second in Pistons history after Isaiah Thomas, and his 902 steals are third after Thomas and Ben Wallace, and he is the first person in team history to play in 1,018 games in the Pistons' jersey! He spent all of his 14-year career with the Pistons, where he was named a six-time All-Star, three-time All-Defensive Team, five-time All-Defensive Team, two championship rings, and a prized Finals MVP trophy! Of course, other honors include the 1994 Kennedy Citizen Award and the 1996 NBA Sportsmanship Award, which was renamed the Joe Dumas Award for his sportsmanship.

In 2000, the Pistons retired Dumas' No. 4 jersey, and in 2006, Dumas was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.

The Pistons improved a little bit this season under Gentry, entering the playoffs with a 29-21 record in the regular season and finishing fifth in the East, only to be knocked out in the first round by Steve Smith and Mutombo's Hawks.

Since Ranbier's retirement and Rodman's departure, the Pistons' interior line can be said to be a collapse, and the Pistons have not found a suitable interior player for themselves in the following seasons, such as being defeated by the Hawks 3:2 last year, the Hawks' super interior Kendibe Mutombo killed all sides on the inside, averaging 14.6 points, 13.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game, and more importantly, Mutombo, who is not rich in offensive means, has a shooting rate of up to 70%! Ranked first in the team!

At that time, the Pistons interior player was called Christian Leitner, and the timing was such a coincidence, Leitner turned out to be the Hawks' starting interior lineman. At his peak, he averaged 18.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, and then Mutombo signed with the Hawks, and the Hawks formed a terrifying inside twin towers, and then the Hawks decided to correct Mutombo, Leitner left Detroit, the NBA is such a coincidence, Leitner met his old teammate in the playoffs, Mutombo, and then was ruthlessly blown up by the latter, what is Leitner's report card in this round of series? In five games, he averaged 10.2 points per game, shot only 42.6% from the field, and as a big center with a height of 211 cm, he was able to grab only 2.8 rebounds per game......

This is the rhythm of being abused and crying by Mutombo every minute......

In order to make up for the lack of the team's interior line, the Pistons signed the undrafted rookie Mickey Moore, a 211-centimeter-tall center, who played well with the Pistons. Averaging 7.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, the biggest change for the Pistons this season is that Jerry Starkerhouse was promoted from the bench to the starter and attended 82 games, averaging 23.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, and Grant Hill, who averaged 25.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, formed the NBA's terrifying outside firepower, this season the Pistons won a 42-40 record, this season's head coach Alvin Gentry had a 28-30 record in 58 games in charge of Gentry made Gentry lose face, and he voluntarily resigned to the Spurs as an assistant coach under PopovichThe team brought in head coach George Irving, who coached the Indiana Pacers a decade ago, to lead the coach, and then led the Pistons to a tie for eighth with the Milwaukee Bucks with a 14-10 record to enter the playoffs.

A very sad thing happened to the Pistons this season, a week before the playoffs, Grant Hill sprained his ankle in the game, at this time the fans did not have a very good tone about Hill, because he was hailed as the next Jordan, but he has not led the team to prove anything over the years, so, in the playoffs, Hill, who has not healed from a foot injury, decided to prove himself and play with an injury, and as a result, in the second game of the playoffs against the Heat, Hill's ankle deteriorated and he had to leave the court halfway, and he barely came back after this injury, became the nightmare of Hill's post-career, and after that, Sylna's fragile ankle became his Achilles heel.

In the three games of the playoffs, the Pistons lost 0:3 to the Heat, Jerry Starkhouse scored 24.7 points with an average shooting rate of 40.7% per game, except for Hill, who played one and a half games and averaged 11 points per game, no one else scored a double-double, and the Heat's Jamal Mashburn and Alonzo Mourning's two major muscles were calling for wind and rain on the inside, averaging nearly 40 points and 15 rebounds per game.

After the season ended, the Pistons no longer had any patience with Hill, and almost immediately hung Hill on the trade board, so Hill was sent to the Orlando Magic to form a twin star with Tracy McGrady in Orlando's expectations, in exchange for Changji Atkins and Ben Wallace, the former Pistons of heaven, and ended his Detroit career in this almost unbearable way.

Changji Atkins is 180 tall, is a short point guard, his face looks like Ralph Alston is simply a mold, his speed is not very fast, three-point shooting is his killer weapon, in 1999, the 25-year-old Atkins did not pass the draft, directly signed with the Magic, and as the team's backup guard, showed good potential, in less than 20 minutes of playing time, He averaged 9.5 points and 3.7 assists per game, but Atkins did not live up to his potential with the Pistons, and became the starting guard of the Pistons after coming to the Pistons, averaging 12.0 points and 4.1 assists per game.

Ben Wallace is 206 cm tall and weighs 109 kg, but according to rumors, Big Ben is only 198 cm tall, he participated in the 1996 NBA draft, but unfortunately he was undrafted, because he still had this good resume in college, he was tried out by the Celtics, but after the trial, he was abandoned again, Big Ben had no ball to play, and once fell so bad that he went to play in distant Italy, which is, Wes Unseld, the general manager of the Washington Bullets, became Big Ben's nobleman, He gave Big Ben a training camp contract, this time Big Ben seized the opportunity and successfully signed with the Bullets, at that time Big Ben was only the team's third center, and the starting center was Chris Webb, who was dormant in the Wizards for three years, until Webb left Saramento, Big Ben became the team's starting inside, but when Big Ben played in good shape, he was considered by the team to be just a flash in the pan, and it didn't take long to be sent to the Orlando Magic, here, Big Ben really showed everyone blood and toughness, He became the Magic's interior barrier, averaging 4.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, and then, only one season later, Big Ben was sent to the Pistons in the trade for Hill, and in the first year of the Pistons, he propped up the team's interior line, averaging 6.4 points and 13.2 rebounds per game, and Big Ben also became the first team to come to the Pistons among the four Pistons Pistons.

Before the trade deadline in February, the team sent "garbage dog" Jerome Williams to the Raptors to get Chris Williams, who became the backbone of the team in the next three years, averaging 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game this season, not only that, but the Pistons also used a one-year $2.25 million contract to acquire Joe Smith, who broke out last year's "yin and yang contract scandal" scandal (Smith only played one season with the Pistons, I won't go into details here. Averaging 12.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this season, the two of them are a good complement to the shortcomings of Big Ben's lack of offensive power.

In the absence of Hill this season, Jerry Stackhouse is completely crazy and completely beautiful, this team that is completely in the transition period has become the team of "Crazy Jerry", he can average 29.8 points per game, ranking second in the league, but the shooting percentage is also not high, only 40.2%, April 3, 2001 against the Bulls, "Crazy Jerry" crazy bombarded a season-high 57 points, breaking the record set by Kyrie Trimka in 1983, It also broke Dave Bing's record for the highest single-season scoring total, scoring in double figures in all of his 80 games, and scoring the most on the team in 72 games, and it is clear that the Pistons, who have been turbulent this season, have only a 32-50 record, ranking 10th in the East and missing out on the playoffs.

In the 2001-2002 season, the Pistons won the former Trail Blazers star Clifford Robinson in the free market for 2 years and 16 million US dollars, Robinson is nicknamed "Uncle Luo" You read that right, his nickname is Uncle Luo, he is a famous evergreen in the NBA, his career spans 18 years, the best first eight years were given to the Portland Trail Blazers, and at his peak he was able to average 20+ points per game, Uncle Luo is 208 cm tall, weighs 102 kg, is not strong, and has an accurate three-point shot, The defensive end is conscientious, when he came to the Pistons, Uncle Luo was already 36 years old, but he was still selected for the NBA Best Defensive Team Second Team, Uncle Luo is rumored to be the founder of the NBA headband, in 1989, he just wore a hood when he played with the Trail Blazers, and no one in the Trail Blazers team took the hood at that time, and a year later, the Trail Blazers had a head suit.

The most noteworthy thing this season is their head coach, Rick Carlisle, who is a typical academic coach with a focus on teamwork, defense, and discipline, he studied under Calesimo, stayed with Callesimo for three seasons, and was righted to coach the Pistons for the first time this season, and achieved impressive results, 50-32, second in the East! This season's Pistons hand is not too good, Carlisle can use this hand to play such a report card, it is really rare, Carlisle also won the best coach trophy this season.

In the first round of the game, the Pistons played against the Raptors, this is the third time in the history of the Raptors to enter the playoffs, the staffing of the two teams is half a pound or two, but the star Pistons team under the leadership of Carlisle The team's tactical literacy is higher, and the defense is more outstanding, and finally the Pistons narrowly defeated the Raptors 3:2 to advance hard, the Pistons can only rely on "Crazy Jerry" on the offensive end, his average of 16.4 points per game is already the highest in the team, but the shooting rate is only a pitiful 30.1%, Big Ben shows amazing dominance on the inside, He averaged 8.2 points, 15.0 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 2.2 blocks per game.

Jerry Starkerhouse's indiscriminate shooting of birds is not good in the second round of more competitive competition, in this round against the Celtics, Jerry Stackhouse can average 18.8 points per game, but the shooting rate is only 33.7%, Clifford Robinson can also average 15.6 points per game, but the shooting percentage is not high, only 37.2%, Big Ben averaged 6.4 points and an astonishing 17.2 rebounds per game, and the Celtics twin stars Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker were able to combine to score 40 points and grab 15 rebounds per game, and finally the Pistons lost to the Celtics 1:4.

In the past few years after Dumas's retirement, the Pistons have fallen into a continuous turbulent situation, and Grant Hill, who was disappointed by high hopes, finally withdrew, at this time, the Pistons are in the dark period before dawn, and the person who dispelled this darkness and brought light to the Pistons is still Joe Dumas!