Flip Saunders is gone, and Rasheed Wallace could be next. What they're saying out in the ether about the Pistons' suddenly intriguing off-season...

20 Second Timeout, sans mustache: "Ben Wallace did not fit in with the "liberation offense" that Saunders wanted to run and that certainly played a factor in the Pistons electing to let him sign with the Bulls. Saunders believed that he could increase the team's offensive efficiency by so much that it would compensate for any slippage in defense in the wake of Wallace's departure (perhaps Saunders also thought that the Pistons would still be great defensively even without Wallace). Saunders may run the best baseline out of bounds plays in the league and his offense — run by three All-Stars — may look great in the regular season against weak teams but it annually falls apart for extended stretches in the playoffs against elite teams. Defense wins championships, not 'liberation offense.'"

Detroit Bad Boys: "Of the teams the Pistons have lost to in the Conference Finals, one (Miami in 2006) ended up winning the whole thing, another (Cleveland in 2007) came on the heels of one of the most transcendent performances in NBA playoff history, and the other (Celtics this year, duh) came against a team that was near universally regarded as the league’s best for most of the season. I’m not trying to gloss over his failings, but the guy did his job about as well as anyone could have possibly expected. Dumars’ decree that “there are no sacred cows” is proof that he holds the players just as responsible as the coach. This was a change that needed to be made for reasons of timing (namely, Flip entering the final year of his contract) as much as anything else."

Larry Brown Sports: "Unlike the shock when [the Pistons] fired Rick Carlisle, I would classify this move as a mild surprise. Think about it — the Pistons had peaked at the Conference Finals once again; there’s only so long you can be pleased with that type of performance before changes are made. And that’s how Joe Dumars thinks. Hearing him speak at the press conference made me think: Gee, now there’s a guy who wants to win — that’s the type of guy I want running my franchise. [...] I really appreciate Dumars’ mentality and if you’re a fan, that’s exactly how you should want your GM to think and act. If he gets the feeling something isn’t right, regardless of how good the performance is, you have to make the change. He did it once before with Carlisle, went to LB, and reached the Finals."

Will Brinson, FanHouse: "If the two biggest concerns of Dumars are that a) Flip Saunders did not have the confidence of his team and b) that the Pistons need to keep things in-house, then Curry is a perfect choice, as his leadership abilities and current role satisfy both requirements. Curry have just one year on the bench, but as a former president of the NBA Players Association as well as NBA Vice President of Player Development, the guy knows how to lead. Plus, he bridges the gap between the front office to the current roster: he's one of Dumars' teammates for several years and was a starter during Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince's first year in Detroit in 2002-03, which marked the first of Detroit's six straight trips to the Eastern Conference Finals."

Empty The Bench: "The question still remains: how do you improve a team that won 59 games, advanced to the Conference Finals with relative ease, and matched up extremely well with the Boston Celtics, a team that won 66 games and is a good bet to win the title? It won’t be easy, and there are any number of ways Dumars could choose to go about it: try to move up in this month’s amateur draft, target a big-name superstar in trade, move a few of his high-priced vets and clear cap space for next summer, etc. One move seems almost certain: trade Rasheed Wallace. It personally pains me to write that—anybody who knows me is well aware how big of a ‘Sheed fan I am. I’ve always wanted him to be a Piston, and up until the latter half of this season wanted him to retire a Piston. No more."

Upside And Motor: "I know that the Pistons think of themselves as championship contenders, but when you look at this team in a vacuum — ignore what the media, other blogs, or even things I've probably said in the past, ignore what other teams are telling you, and ignore what the Pistons themselves are telling you — they really are a team that lives and dies by the jumpshot. It may not seem as obvious because they play solid defense and don't shoot that many three pointers, but they really are a jumpshooting team. And when you stop and think that a team of jumpshooters with a big man who is reluctant to post up at times has made the Conference Finals in the last six years, it really is a special thing. Flip Saunders is responsible for half of that, and the fact that he is being kicked to the curb is kind of appalling. The Pistons by all means should not have won the 2004 Finals, but they did. They caught a break, they played well, and they won. But if you'll tell me that team didn't overachieve ... well, they did."

Dr. Lawyer IndianChief, FreeDarko: "Flip's looseness is one of his greatest assets, allowing him to coexist with notorious headcases such as Rasheed Wallace and Latrell Sprewell, but his nonchalance, and the fact he has zero NBA roots pre-Timberwolves also makes him — to get on some Billups channeling Michael Clayton bit for a second — "the guy you kill." Rudy T, Larry Brown, even Don Nelson ... they're not the guy you kill, they're the guy you buy."

Related: The Internets are alive