So long, Tayshaun

I have a lot of fond memories of Tayshaun Prince. The first time I became aware of Prince, he was playing for Kentucky. Hunter S. Thompson (HUGE Kentucky fan) wrote glowingly about him on ESPN's Page 2 (where their best writers -Wiley, Thompson, Bill Simmons - used to reside), calling him an "assassin" (I think the link is broken). I was watching a UK-UNC game back in college in 2001 and this happened:

At that point, I was a Tayshaun Prince fan. That 5th trey sealed the deal. He was 1 step past the 'U'! So when the Pistons took him with the 23rd pick in 2002, I was ecstatic. I couldn't believe we (there I am, using the first-person plural) got a player of that caliber so deep in the draft. He spent most of his first year buried on the bench, which frustrated the hell out of me. Carlisle insisted on starting Michael Curry, supposedly a defensive specialist, who averaged 4.5 ppg over his career. 

This became problematic in the playoffs, because the Pistons were down 3-1 against the Magic and Tracy McGrady was tooling Curry up for over 40 points per game. Curry was giving up height & athleticism, and he was getting burned. Enter Prince, at 6'9" with a legendary wingspan (I think Jay Bilas just giggled somewhere), and McGrady went from scoring 27 points in game 4 to 19 in game 5. Prince hassled McGrady on defense and drained threes on offense, scoring 20 in the deciding game 7 (and holding McGrady to 21). Then in game 2 of the next series Tayshaun completely put the team on his back.

Yes, back when "isolayshaun" was a pretty good play. The crazy thing is, Tayshaun wasn't given a starting spot the next game. Or the next game. Or the one after that. It became clear, though, that the starting SF spot would be his. The next year Curry was gone, Prince averaged 10 ppg and nearly 5 boards, and he usually guarded the other team's best shooter. This was a Detroit team that broke defensive records. Ben Wallace protected the rim, Tayshaun the perimeter.

The Block (worthy of capital letters and the definite article) deserves its own paragraph and a preamble. Detroit had dropped game 1 and Rasheed Wallace guaranteed (which would later become known as "guaranSheed") victory in the next game. I didn't have a TV at the time, so I ended up at a bar on the corner of Michigan & Trumbull, right across the street from Tiger Stadium (RIP) with a couple friends. I have a DVD of this game, and I can say that watching it now is pretty brutal (I mean, look at the final score!), but at the end of the night my voice was hoarse and my legs tired from jumping up from my seat. Points were at a premium, blocks were plentiful, and if half the fouls had been called, most of the starters on both teams would've fouled out (World Peace nee Artest DID foul out, as well as Tinsley, and Rip finished with 5 fouls).

Then we get to the End Game. Pistons, up 2 with about 35 seconds left need at least 2 points and to burn clock. Rip made a beautiful swing pass to 'Sheed for an open dunk, except he gets fouled by O'Neal and it isn't called. In a mad race to beat the shot clock, Chauncey lost the ball & it got fed up court to Reggie, who's all by himself. Rip was trailing and I didn't even see Tayshaun until he was in the air. I think I jumped up so fast my chair fell over. Now there would probably be about 50 youtube videos taken by cell phones at that bar showing the reaction, but since I only have my memory to rely on I have to say that just about everybody was yelling at the top of their lungs. There was one Pacer fan in the bar that night, I think someone was probably punching him in celebration.

Detroit went on to beat Indiana in 6 games, then the Lakers in 5 to win the title with Tayshaun getting the Kobe assignment (Kobe shot 38% in the series). Unfortunately, this was probably the peak moment of Tayshaun's career. He would develop more as a player, but the following seasons were filled with turmoil and issues with coaches (Larry Brown bailing in the 2005 playoffs, various issues with Flip Saunders, problems festering with Michael Curry and culminating with John Kuester and the walk out). Some of those issues Prince had little part in, some he was right in the thick of it.

Lately Tayshaun has been more of a calming influence on the team, occasionally taking younger players aside to give them advice. I'm glad Tayshaun is going out like this, as opposed to getting chucked when he was a part of the problem. I couldn't quite believe it when I heard he'd been traded though, since I think he was probably Joe Dumars' favorite player (I mean, watch him talking about The Block), and Joe D's more recent moves have been made more with his heart that with his head (or maybe with some other part of his anatomy). This trade makes more sense for the Pistons than anyone else involved. Memphis loses a very talented (albeit expensive) wing player, Toronto dumped one of the best passing guards in the game (with a great shot, by the way) and a promising young PF, and Detroit loosens up the logjam at SF and cuts some salary, along with one of the few veteran presences on the team (although they do lose their two best 3pt shooters).

I'm anxious to see what Calderon adds to the Pistons. Hopefully this means Drummond is making a move to the starting lineup, since the Pistons are now even weaker on defense than they were before. Knight should slide over to the 2-guard spot and Monroe doesn't need to be as much of a distributor, which will help cut down on turnovers. Now all that's left is to cut Stuckey loose (PLEASE!) and upgrade the SF position.