Champion Creed-Chapter 897 - 296: Once Helpers Turned into the Biggest Threat (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_3

A few years ago, when Joe Dumars decided to let Grant Hill go, the former Pistons star guard even received death threats.

Detroit fans thought that by letting Hill go, the Pistons would experience an incredibly long dark season.

Yet just two years later, the Detroit Pistons made a comeback.

This summer, Joe Dumars formed a trio of Hamilton, Artest, and Big Ben.

This lineup looked weak on paper; Big Ben, although a max contract player, was useless on the offensive end. Artest had good talent but wasn’t at a level where one would build a team around him, and Hamilton wasn’t considered to have superstar potential.

But in the games, they showed even greater dominance than during Hill’s era.

In this era where HandCheck and zone defense were allowed, the defensive combination of Artest and Ben Wallace was enough to become a nightmare for all teams in the League.

Richard Hamilton focused on off-ball offense and was becoming the League’s most efficient off-ball scorer.

Against the Hawks, they first used excellent defense to hold the Hawks down, and in the last moments, relied on Hamilton’s two mid-range shots to drop the guillotine.

Under Artest’s extremely aggressive defense, even Roger found it difficult to advance smoothly, while Big Ben thrived under the zone defense rules, fully utilizing his mobility to cover the entire half-court.

What was most commendable was that when Big Ben assisted away from the rim, he could always return promptly to protect rebounds. In this regard, he performed better than Kevin Garnett.

So, although Hawks could always pull Big Ben away from the rim, they did not gain an advantage in second-chance points.

Eventually, the Pistons won the game at home with a 5-point advantage, handing the Hawks their first defeat of the season.

Besides his excellent defensive performance, Artest scored 23 points.

As almost the Pistons’ only ball handler in offense, Artest’s touch that night largely determined the outcome of the game for the Pistons.

After all, you can’t win games on defense alone.

Today, Artest felt good and smugly said after the game, "I protected Big Ben under my wings!"

Big Ben glared at Artest, thinking he should have knocked him out on the practice court!

Big Ben was annoyed by the idiot missing a few screws in his head, but he still told reporters: "Ron’s performance was key to our win."

Big Ben and Artest formed a strange tacit understanding of mutual dislike yet trust in each other.

After this game, a saying emerged in the media.

"The Hawks’ plan for a three-peat will be ruined by the stupid management’s decision to let Big Ben go, because the person they let go became Roger’s biggest trouble." freewёbnoνel.com

It seems that the Pistons are one of the most likely teams to overthrow the Hawks besides the Lakers, and the cornerstone of the Pistons is Big Ben.

If the Big Ben-led Pistons ultimately stop the Hawks, it’ll be the Hawks’ management paying for their own mistakes.

However, Bill Simmons scoffed at this view.

"I’m not denying how stupid the Hawks’ shareholders are; there’s no one more foolish than them. But unless the Pistons can find a second effective hard point beside Ron Artest, they’ll never pose a threat to the Hawks.

You can’t expect Ron, that unreliable guy on offense, to deliver a brilliant performance every game."

Bill Simmons was not entirely wrong; the Pistons lacked enough quality hard points, lowering their ceiling.

They will be an unignorable force in the East, but overthrow the Hawks? They are still lacking a bit.

Yet what Bill Simmons didn’t anticipate was that just a day after publishing the article, the Detroit Pistons suddenly completed a trade.

They acquired Rasheed Wallace from the already chaotic Portland.

Another effective hard point got in place unexpectedly.

Roger’s former help truly became the biggest threat.