This picture of Michael Curry, hell, any picture of Michael Curry, somehow sums up what Joe Dumars must be feeling right now. Add a little more rage, and it’s the perfect depiction of what the average Detroit Pistons fan has felt since the Chauncey Billups trade. Personally, I’ve been feeling a little like this since Darkogate – despite the championship in 2004. But where did the Pistons go wrong? They’re officially a lottery team again. I mean, for five years they carried a streak of 259 home- game sell outs (January 19, 2004 – February 4, 2009). They won a championship in 2004. They were able to salvage something from losing Grant Hill that led to them being competitors. What happened?

The keys to any professional sports franchise sustaining longevity among their respective league’s elite are two things: a superstar caliber talent to build around and successful drafts.

The Pistons haven’t had a bonafied superstar since they tried to make Grant Hill pull an Isiah Thomas which inadvertently turned him into Bill Walton (see, injury prone… pre Tracy McGrady). So THAT leaves the NBA Draft. You can’t build for the future if you don’t prepare for it today, right? Let’s take a look at Joe Dumars’ draft history since becoming the President of Basketball Operations over at 6 Championship Drive:

2000: Mateen Cleaves drafted with the 14th pick in the draft. Now granted they had Jerry Stackhouse, Dumars left Quentin Richardson and Mateen’s teammate at Michigan State, Morris Peterson on the board. Both of whom had a lot more upside than Cleaves at that time.

2001: Rodney White with the 9th pick in the draft. Really? Rodney White? Not Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Zach Randolph, Gerald Wallace, Tony Parker, or Gilbert Arenas… but Rodney White? I’ll cut Dumars slack on Parker & Arenas but RODNEY WHITE? Dumars got a great draft pick in Mehmet Okur in the second round, but how did that pan out? He was lost for nothing.

2002: Tayshaun Prince drafted with the 23rd pick in the first round. What a hell of a steal, but has the team stunted his developmental growth or has he just ran his course in Detroit?

2003: Ah yes, 2003. Darko Milicic with the 2nd pick in the draft over: Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Chris Kaman, Kirk Hinrich, and TJ Ford. Boris Diaw & David West also went in that first round but no one could have imagined the all-star impact they’d have eventually. And Carlos Delfino with the 25th pick in the draft wouldn’t have been too bad if he was developed and kept around, but to be drafted over Josh Howard?

2004: No first round pick but Dumars did scoop up Renaissance High School and Missouri stand out Rickey Paulding with the 55th pick in the draft. A late draft coup only to ship him off to overseas exile forever.

2005: Jason Maxiell drafted with the 26th pick in the draft. Nice, solid pick. Maxiell DOMINATED in Bob Huggins’ Bearcats system. The same system where small-forward sized players are bulked up and projected to the power-forward/center positions. Yeah, that doesn’t quite work in the NBA. Still not a bad pick, until you realize that David Lee was still on the board. D’oh!

2006: No pick in the 1st round but two picks in the bottom of the 2nd round that netted Chiekh Samb and Will Blalock.

2007: Rodney Stuckey drafted with the 15th pick in the draft. He’s definitely turned out to be the best pick of the 2007 draft that the Pistons had a chance to get, with Nick Young (drafted 16th by Washington), Wilson Chandler (drafted 23rd by Knicks), Rudy Fernandez (drafted 24th by Phoenix, traded to Portland), Aaron Brooks (drafted 26th by Houston), and Ramon Sessions (drafted 56th by Milwaukee) on his heels.

Sitting down, something Darko did his entire NBA career.

The verdict is still out on Stuckey, but he had a hell of a rookie campaign behind Chauncey. Being a shoot-first point guard without a jumper, Chauncey was the perfect person for Stuckey to learn the game from. That is until the Pistons stunted his growth by trading the franchise away for Iverson. The Pistons also managed to land a great pick in Aaron Afflalo with the 27th pick but gave up on him just as he was coming into his own (Seems to be a trend here, huh? See: 1998 NBA Draft, Bonzi Wells drafted by the Pistons with the 11th pick; 2001 NBA Draft pick Mehmet Okur; 2003 NBA Draft Pick Carlos Delfino).

2008: DJ White drafted with the 29th pick in the draft. A great pick for the Pistons. Someone with the attitude, undersized but equipped with the skill set to bang in the post. Exactly what the Pistons needed since Sheed only wanted to shoot jumpers. That is until they traded him a few minutes later for an undersized, super-project in Walter Sharpe. The Walter Sharpe that didn’t make the team by the way.

2009: Austin Daye drafted with the 15th pick in the draft. It seems as if Austin Daye will eventually come into his own with time but, at this point, time isn’t what the Pistons have and another long-term project and small forward isn’t what the Pistons needed. At the beginning of the offseason, Joe Dumars addressed the need for a floor general after saying that Rodney Stuckey was a combo-guard, and not a point. But what does he do? He drafts Austin Daye while leaving Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Eric Maynor, and Patrick Mills on the board. In addition to passing up on DeJuan Blair TWICE (SELDOM used DeJuan Summers drafted with the 35th pick in the draft, two picks before DeJuan Blair) as if the team still no longer had a need for front court help and toughness.  Sure, DeJuan’s knee problems were probably a turn off to draft him with the 15th pick, but when the 35th pick came around and he was still on the board? The Pistons have the best medical staff in the NBA.

The Pistons would then go on to draft Jonas Jerebko with the 39th pick and Chase Budinger with the 44th pick. At the time, leaving Patty Mills on the board seemed foolish but Jonas Jerebko turned out to be a steal. So the Pistons drafted THREE small forwards, when having a need for NONE? Smart. And Chase Budinger, a smart, blue collar working, intelligent player with a high basketball IQ and a knack for being in the right place at the right time was the perfect fit for Detroit – the basketball team and its city. But, they trade him to Houston for a future 2nd round pick and cash – thus wasting a pick that could have been used to develop Patrick Mills who managed to slip all the way down to Portland with the 55th pick.

Now, it hasn’t all been bad. Aside from the poor draft track record that Joe Dumars has, he’s made significant moves that netted the team success such as trading away Jerry Stackhouse for Richard Hamilton and trading for Rasheed Wallace & Mike James – in addition to signing Chauncey Billups.

But this is also a franchise that started the path to destruction, despite winning a championship in 2004 and coming one game away from repeating in 2005, when the business of appeasing season ticket holders got in the way of letting a coach do his job (this was rumored to be the real reason behind what started the friction between Davidson and Carlise, and Davidson forcing Dumars to fire him) . Rick Carlise, a rookie head coach, led this young and inexperienced team to back-to-back 50-32 seasons, their first 50+ win seasons since 1997 and first playoff series victory since 1991. After the loss of Carlise, the Pistons’ first successful coach since Chuck Daily, the coaching helm became a revolving door of inconsistency – exactly where it is now.

Ten years later and the Pistons are right back to where they were when Joe Dumars took control of the franchise about ten years ago – in the toilet with one hand on the flusher. The near future doesn’t look too promising either with current ownership in limbo after the passing of William Davidson, the head coaching carousel, and the sketchy-at-best free agent acquisitions of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva and the truck load of money spent to lock them up. Money that means, trading Chauncey for the cap Iverson would free up was completely pointless because the team is back to not having any flexibility for 2010-2011 Free Agency free-for-all.

And, as for the 2010 NBA Draft in which the Pistons are PRIME to land a lottery position between the 5th and 10th pick? Let’s just say that I’m looking forward to another botched draft in Detroit.

Yup, it’s going to be another year as a Detroit resident and sports fan – Lions, Tigers, Pistons? Oh my. Let’s just hope the Wings can return to championship form, or else all we’ll have is false claim to Serena Williams (Sagnasty, stand up)!