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**DANNY** · 06-03-2008, 06:38 PM

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Decision Time: Detroit Pistons President Joe Dumars has a difficult summer ahead of him as he figures out what do with a team that has underachieved despite going to the Eastern Conference Final six years in a row.

Detroit won the NBA title after their second conference final, advancing to the NBA Finals twice and winning on their first try with the guidance of Coach Larry Brown.

Flip Saunders won 64 games in his debut as head coach, but the Pistons haven't been able to get back to the Finals under his tutelage. This past season they won 59 games but couldn't get past the Celtics despite taking Game 2 in Boston.

So what does Dumars do? Does he blame the coach? The players?

Sources close to the team say the big decisions have yet to be made but the Pistons are definitely exploring the possibility of making changes.

To what extent isn't clear but Assistant Coach Michael Curry already has the respect of the players and is being groomed to be Saunder's successor. The difficulty is in giving a first-time head coach the reigns to a team that was two wins away from the Finals.

How much should be blamed on Saunders isn't clear considering Rasheed Wallace checked in and out of the series on his own clock. In addition to his volatile personality, Wallace has shown a tendency to disappear in big games. Most recently Wallace scored just four points, missing 10 shot attempts in Boston's close-out game.

Wallace is supposed to be Detroit's post presence, but his lack of focus could lead to his ticket out. One interesting idea would be to offer Wallace to the New York Knicks for his former Portland Trail Blazer teammate Zach Randolph.

While Randolph is nowhere near the defender that Wallace is, he's a more consistent post scorer and rebounder. The Knicks are looking to get under the salary cap before 2010 and are considering moving Randolph to facilitate that process. Wallace is going into the final year on his contract at $13.6 million. Randolph is owed $48 million over the next three seasons.

Some of the blame is also being passed on to forward Tayshaun Prince who shot a low percentage and scored just single digits against the Celtics (32.4% shooting). Word is he may be shopped for a more explosive scoring three. Prince is one of the league's better perimeter defenders; any deal sending him out would take a serious amount of consideration from Dumars.

The difficulty the Pistons face this summer isn't necessarily in what moves they need to make but in deciding how far they need to go back to the top immediately or how far to scale back in order to reload.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?STORY_ID=8927

wallace for randolph straight up? this has to be biggest joke in years.