Yahoo! vs PistonPowered: Detroit Pistons five best players

If you’re a regular on the site, you know that we’ve made a Detroit Pistons all-time first, second, and third-team list.

Kelly Dwyer over at Yahoo! created a similar list with the same guidelines–two forwards, two guards, and one center.

In other words the two guards could be shooting guards and the two forwards could be power forwards if Dwyer decided that would put the five best players on the floor.

Here’s how Dwyer’s list turned out:

"C: Bob Lanier. The Dobber (as in “Doberman”) wore a size 22 shoe and was an All-Star fixture throughout the 1970s while working on some middling Pistons teams. The top overall pick in 1970, Lanier managed 25.7 points and 14.2 rebounds per game in just his second season, and he would approximate those averages throughout his decade-long run with the team. Also basically invented the And-1 mixtape.F: Grant Hill. Hill’s injury-plagued career following his time spent in Detroit was more or less a cruel prank, but at least he got to showcase his brilliance during a six-year stint with several capable Pistons clubs. Working as a point forward, Hill’s slashing style was at its peak during a 25.8-point, 6.6-rebound, 5.2-assist 1999-00 season when a misdiagnosed ankle break ruined his career as a go-to force.F: Rasheed Wallace. It is true that Wallace played too big a role in undermining the work of the coaches that followed in the wake of Larry Brown leaving the defending Eastern Conference champions, but for five-plus years he was a needed catalyst on both ends of the court and the tipping point that helped turn the 2004 Pistons into NBA champions.G: Dave Bing. Working as a martyr of sorts as the Pistons continually went through an unending list of coaches (sound familiar?) and would-be saviors, Bing was the steadying backcourt force that helped keep the team relevant and, possibly, in business. Bing played nine seasons with Detroit, averaging 22.6 points and over six assists a contest.G: Isiah Thomas. Thomas’ efficiency numbers and his executive acumen may not have aged well, but he was the driving spirit behind two NBA championships and quite nearly a third in 1988. Teams like the Pistons, and guards like Thomas, just did not win championships prior to the team’s 1989 conquest. Thomas’ dogged determination and out and out game changed all that."

Here’s how our first team compared:

G: Isiah Thomas
G: Joe Dumars
F: Grant Hill
F: Dennis Rodman
C: Bob Lanier

I don’t mind Bing entering first-team.

His career numbers were better than Dumars’ and he was the better player individually. Dumars ultimately made the first-team list for PistonPowered, because he played more seasons in Detroit (14 season to nine) and won two championships to Bing’s zero–but Dumars’ admission to the top unit wasn’t unanimous.

Time Thielke, who composed our second-time all-time list felt similarly to Dwyer:

"Dave Bing’s playing days easily predate my fandom, so I can’t exactly pull up all sorts of memories. But it seems a bit of a travesty to have him all the way down on the second team. Along with Bob Lanier and Grant Hill, Bing rounds out the only superstars the Pistons ever had apart from their championship teams. And really, Isiah Thomas is probably the only other one the Pistons have ever had. The star power of the 2004 championship team gets severely underrated, but neither Ben Wallace nor Chauncey Billups quite qualified as “superstars” in my book.Bing was a bit like the Barry Sanders or Calvin Johnson of the Pistons. He was an incredible player, toiling away on underwhelming teams. Yet he reeled in individual accolades hand over fist. In his nine seasons with the Pistons, he won a Rookie of the Year, a scoring title, two all-NBA first team honors (he finished third and fourth in MVP voting those years), he was a six-time all-star and even won the all-star MVP the following year as a Bullet (and finished sixth in MVP voting that season)."

The Wallace selection, however, is a little more puzzling.

Rodman seems like an easy choice. He played more seasons in Detroit (seven seasons to five and a half) and won one more ring than Wallace. Rodman may not have been the offensive force that Wallace was, but Wallace wasn’t the defensive or rebounding force that Rodman was either.

What do you guys think? Bing or Dumars? Rodman or Wallace?