Chapter 27: Rising New Hope

Monroe was 19 years old at the time of the draft, and he had a lot of potential, he came from Georgetown University, which has an inside tradition, and he showed amazing dominance in the NCAA. College averaged 14.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in two years, Monroe's draft template ceiling is Chris Webb, the lower limit is Odom, which can also see Monroe's technical characteristics, his strength is slightly worse, his ass is small, and the efficiency of the strong chisel inside line is not high, but the technique is comprehensive, dribbling, passing, and mid-range shooting are above the league level, although he has the height of a center, but the technical characteristics are more suitable for the position of the big forward, the disadvantage is that the physical fitness is average, and the interior defensive ability is also average.

Monroe played 80 games in his rookie season, starting 48 of them, averaging 9.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 55.1% from the field.

Obviously, a young Monroe and a Maddy who is no longer brave in the past cannot save the current Pistons, Maddy only averages 7.9 points per game, and Dumas trusts him and supports Starki, who is called "Prince Prince", no matter what he does. An average of 15.5 points per game is already the team's highest score, Hamilton only averaged 14.1 points per game this season because of injuries, suspensions, mentality and other reasons, so that the position of the team's scoring champion for eight consecutive seasons was handed over to Starkey, Hamilton has been 33 years old for a few years, and among the five Pistons of the year, the youngest prince Prince Prince is also 30 years old, it is obvious that the current Pistons want to regain the glory of the year, there is only one way, that is, rebuild.

For this reason, head coach Kuster suggested more than once that Dumas trade the veteran and choose a new leader of the team, and these words reached Hamilton, and Prince's ears naturally had a conflict with Kuster, and this contradiction completely exploded on February 26, 2010.

That game was the Pistons' home game against the Philadelphia 76ers, which was originally a very ordinary regular season game, but it became the focus of the outbreak of contradictions, an hour before the game began, Hamilton Prince and Big Ben missed the team's bus under the pretext of missing the team's bus and could not come to training, and Maddie was also dissatisfied with Kuster's style and joined Hamilton's team, using the excuse of a headache and missing training, while the newcomer representatives Starkey and Daye were dissatisfied with the statement that Kuster was re-established as the leader, and also missed training for various reasons, Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is forcing Dumas, and Kuster's toughness also intensified the conflict, announcing that all late players were banned from the game, so the Pistons only had six players in this game to face the 76ers, and finally lost the game.

The Pistons have only 30 wins this season, missing the playoffs, and after the season, Kuster was disgraced. And Hamilton had no intention of staying in Detroit, and joined the Chicago Bulls with a two-year, $10 million salary cut.

Hamilton's 11,582 points for the Pistons in the regular season ranked sixth in the history of the Pistons, ranking seventh in team history with 2,419 assists, and ranking tenth in team history with 631 games for the Pistons, and in the playoffs, Hamilton scored 2,467 points to rank first in team history, 444 assists ranked fourth in team history, and 120 playoff games ranked first in team history. And he wears a mask in every game, and is called "Mask Man" by later generations.

On February 27, 2017, Hamilton's No. 32 jersey was permanently hung over the Auburn Hills Palace Arena, becoming a Pistons celebrity with Dave Bing, Bob Lannier, Dennis Rodman, Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumas, Vinier Johnson, Big Ben, and Billups. Among them, he became the team's scoring champion for eight consecutive years, and became the fifth star in Pistons history to score 50+ points, with the help of Hamilton, the Pistons reached the playoffs for six consecutive years, reached the Finals twice and won the championship in 2004, which will become part of the Pistons' glorious history, Hamilton has also been respected by many players in the NBA because of his style of play and ball ethics.

After Kuster's class, Lawrence Frank, the meritorious coach of the Nets, was in charge of the Detroit coach, Frank belonged to the "mud legs" in Chinese, before taking over the Nets coach, Frank never played in the professional league, nor did he have any experience as a basketball coach, he and Jeff Van Gundy have been good friends since childhood, Jeff Van Gundy was born in a basketball family, and his father Bill Van Gundy is also a well-known basketball player in the local area, so Van Gundy Jr. was selected for the training camp of the American "Rising Star", Little Van Gundy liked to drink Coke when he was a child, and it happened that Frank's family opened a small grocery store, and when Little Van Gundy went to drink Coke, he told Frank about his anecdotes in the training camp, and he didn't want Frank to listen to and be fascinated, determined to make a difference in the basketball world, and did not hesitate to do chores for others, after more than ten years of ups and downs, he finally got the qualification of head coach of the Nets, and in his first season of his career, he led the team to 14 consecutive wins, you must know the four major leagues in the United States at that time, There has never been a rookie head coach who has been able to win 14 consecutive victories, Frank became famous in a fight, and sat in the position of head coach of the Nets for 7 years, and then stepped down as the Nets trident fell apart.

The 2011 draft was known as the year of the draft, and it was a big year for basketball players, and there was one task in it, Brandon Knight.

If you pay attention to Knight's development trajectory, you will think of a person, he is LeBron James, the honor harvester in high school and college, which won the Gatorade MVP in the NCAA for two consecutive years, only James and Oden have done it, and in the NVAA, he is even more killed, the freshman game is called the "strongest newcomer", the NCAA contributed to the first game, yes, he is the NCAA lore king, shooting the lore in several games, before the draft, Predicted by major websites as the top three picks, but compared to Irving, who is also well-known in the United States, his ball sense is not as good as the latter, and his projection ability is even worse, although the skills are comprehensive, but none of them are at the expert level, and the physical fitness is more average, and the most important thing is that Knight's leadership temperament is not as good as Irving, especially what the Cavaliers value, in fact, after experiencing James's departure, he urgently needs a person with leadership temperament who can lead the team out of the quagmire, therefore, The Knights, who had the No. 1 pick, didn't hesitate to choose Irving.

The Timberwolves with the list of names selected Derrick Williams, who is well-known in the United States and has strong physical fitness, known as "LeBron Jr.", and the probe pick is in the hands of the Jazz, when the Jazz star guard Deron Williams was abandoned by the team and sent to the Nets after publicly contradicting the meritorious head coach Sloan, at this time, their backcourt is obviously short of people, everyone thinks they will choose the NCAA lore king, Brandon Knight, but they unexpectedly chose the Turkish interior, Yines Kanter, In fact, there is nothing surprising, after the Jazz sent Delon away, it showed that the team entered rebuilding mode, and the center Al Iverson, who holds the team's largest contract, became the object of the team's cleanup, but then the trade was not sent away, and the Jazz selected Kanter, clearly to trade.

The Cavaliers have the No. 4 pick, and after the first choice of Irving, they will definitely not choose Knight, and instead selected the interior beast power forward Tristan Thompson, the Raptors with the No. 5 pick in the backcourt already have the star DeMar DeRozan to be cultivated, and instead selected the solid technical center Valanciunas, the Wizards with the No. 6 pick also do not need guards, they already have the core and leader John Wall, and in this position they chose Jane Vesely, known as "Nowitzki Jr.", the king with the seventh pick, and they don't need a guard, they have Tyrek Evans, who is at the peak of his debut, and the Kings also selected Bismarck Biyombo on the inside, so Brandon Knight, who was originally predicted to be the top three favorites, fell to the eighth pick and was finally selected by the Pistons.

In the first seven teams, Knight could only play as a substitute, but in the Pistons, Knight was directly pushed to the starting lineup, so the team's starting lineup became the No. 1 Starkey, No. 2 Knight, No. 3 Prince, No. 4 Jason Marc Hill, No. 5 - Greg Monroe, the sixth man was Ben Gordon, Jerebuk, Will Bynum and Villanueva were the main rotation lineup, This season is also the last season of Big Ben's career, averaging 15 minutes per game, playing soy sauce, and being in charge of *Monroe.

Monroe's progress in this season can be said to be a qualitative leap, in this shrinking season, averaging 15.4 points per game, 9.7 rebounds, although the defensive end is still the league's mid-range level, but on the offensive end has shown his comprehensive offensive skills to the league, ranking first in the team in average points per game, and more importantly, Monroe is only in his second year, and there is still a lot of potential to be tapped.

Rookie Knight played in the starting position when he first entered the league, averaging 12.8 points, 32 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, shooting 41.5% from the field.

Starkey had just signed a three-year, $25.5 million contract with the team, but he was hit by injuries on and off this season, playing in just 55 games, averaging 14.8 and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 42.9 percent from the field. With Knight rising to prominence this season, Starkey gradually fell out of Dumas's favor, which paved the way for his future departure.

After the end of this season, Big Ben announced his retirement, ending his 16-year career, although Big Ben is not from a high background, but with his own hard work and diligence, he has become a blue-collar model in the NBA, although Big Ben has a fierce face, but in fact, his heart is soft, he is very emotional, and has strong leadership, four All-Stars, three times rebounding king, four times Best Defensive Player, six times selected to the best defensive team, five times selected to the best team is a testament to Big Ben's brilliant career, 10,482 rebounds ranked 32nd in the entire NBA all-time list, 2,137 blocks, is the 13th highest in the NBA all-time list, in the historical history of the Pistons, Big Ben 1,486 blocks ranked first in team history, 7,264 rebounds is the third after Bill Ranbill drank Bob Lannier, 931 steals are second behind Isaiah Thomas, on January 17, 2016, the Pistons retired Big Ben's No. 3 jersey at home.

The decline of the Pistons for several years in a row, yes, the management of the ball urgently needs to re-establish the team leader, after the five tigers, the Pistons want to establish Starkey on the top, but it turns out that Starkey can not take on the heavy responsibility, so they set their goal on Brandon Knight, but in that era, the strong combination of inside and outside is the standard for the team's rise, the OK combination of the Lakers, the Yao Mai combination of the Rockets, and the GDP combination of the Spurs are all the same, there is Knight on the outside, and Monroe on the inside is strong and weak on offense, but quickly, an even better big man, stood in front of the Detroiters......