Like it or not, a major transition takes time

The U.S. economy is in a bad place right now. On an intellectual level, everyone accepts that. When it arrives on your doorstep, through the loss of a job that invites bill collectors and a visit from the banker attaching a foreclosed notice to your front door, there is little emotional tolerance for actions so far beyond your control that undermine a lifetime of good intent.

A little of that is in play with the Pistons, too. Intellectually, fans can wrap their heads around the fact that the trade for Allen Iverson, the subtraction of the only point guard the franchise has known for six solid years, the sudden loss of Antonio McDyess, the search for a rotation that works with all the new moving parts, the tweaking of the playbook necessary to take full advantage of Iverson's creative genius and the introduction of Rodney Stuckey to the starting lineup are changes significant enough to take a commensurately significant amount of time to take hold.

Emotionally, when they see them lose a 15-point lead at home and fall to a struggling Philadelphia team, dig a 29-point hole and fall to a flailing Knicks team, and squander a 17-point first-half lead and lose by 13 to a three-win Washington team ... well, there's a two-for-one sale on panic buttons in Motown.

Fans don't want to hear that the Billups-Iverson trade caused a sea change in the way this basketball team does business. Is it possible that when the final analyses of the trade are written, it will be deemed a mistake? Sure - there is that possibility with virtually any trade, even the clear salary dumps that appear overwhelmingly lopsided at their onset.

But it's not prudent to offer anything more than a speculative first draft on this trade yet. The Pistons have too much individual talent remaining and too many players with a history of achievement to say that after five weeks the trade was a mistake.

Even in the ruins of the Washington loss, you could see signs of what the Stuckey-Iverson-Hamilton perimeter can do and what value there is in moving Tayshaun Prince to power forward. The 17-point lead they opened by the midway point of the first half wasn't a mirage. The Pistons simply aren't far enough along in their metamorphosis to seal those moments in wax and preserve them. They simply happen for them these days, mercurial stretches of basketball, and then dissipate as quickly as they formed.

It's not for lack of effort or interest, it's not because any turmoil exists in the locker room, it's not pangs of loss over seeing Chauncey Billups traded. There was always a delicate nature to the chemistry that made the Pistons an elite team, requiring all five parts to move as one, and that's not there for them with the necessary degree of consistency.

Yet.

But Michael Curry and his staff are burning the midnight oil, not to mention the rewind button on their digital tape video screens, to accelerate the process, to lengthen the duration of those magical stretches and limit the frequency of their dissipation.

It's like Iverson said when he arrived here, just wanting to put some distance in his rear-view mirror, to get all those firsts out of the way and start settling in and feeling at home.

They're getting those firsts out of the way now. As the last week has proven, it's sometimes an uneasy process. On an intellectual level, it's pretty easy to accept that January will be better than December and February better still, and by the time the playoffs arrive, the Pistons will be an interesting and dangerous opponent. On an emotional level ... well, that's another thing.

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