The Atlanta Braves of the 1990s. The Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills of the 1980s. 

It looks like you can finally add the 21st Century Detroit Pistons to that list. A team that dominated its conference for almost a decade has little to show for its success, but one measly championship ring. Hey, at least it's one more than the Bills franchise.

After playing in an eye-popping sixth consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons once again were unable to get over the hump. But it may have been for the best. With Kobe Bryant foaming at the mouth to define his legacy post-Shaquille O'Neal, the Pistons days were likely numbered in these NBA Playoffs. 

Now, a long summer faces a Pistons team that has looked more or less the same for the past four seasons. 

When Rasheed Wallace hugged Kevin Garnett at the end Game 6 Friday night in Auburn Hills, he gave him a few words of support, advice and congratulations. Maybe he asked Garnett for his agent's number, as well. Changes in Detroit look to start with the relocation of the mercurial power forward, whose expiring contract may look good to a team looking to unload players and get cap space, but it is doubtful he is departure will be the only one for a team that figured out a way to dominate the regular season and first couple of rounds of the playoffs this decade.

A team that had built its reputation on being the underdog, on being a prideful team that likes playing on the road with its back against the wall came out flat Friday night at home, so instead of popping champagne next week, Pistons president of basketball operations will have a head full of questions popping around.

Management has been loathe to break up the core of Rip Hamilton, Chauncy Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Wallace over the past few years, because their core felt so close. Not just close to a championship, but tight as a unit, a team that had each other's backs and would always step up and fight for one another.

As they lost a double digit fourth quarter lead to the Celtics, not really a team known for its toughness and ability to fight back on the road in these playoffs, the Pistons looked outright sloppy. Worse, they looked defeated. The swagger was gone. And once it leaves a team that is this mature, the question is whether it can ever come back.

Bouncing back after a rough playoff exit is tough, just ask the Dallas Mavericks, but not impossible, ask the Pistons. But bouncing back from multiple heartbreaking losses may be too much for this team to handle. By the end of Game 6, with Wallace, who had his worst game of the playoffs, and Billups both putting up weak three-point attempts that looked like they were being shot from a 20-oint hole and not a six-point one, the Pistons hearts seemed out of it, resigned to another summer of questions.

Where the Pistons go next seems to be anyone's guess. With their Big Four under contract, the Pistons may have to look to change by addition more than subtraction. Wallace may be able to be traded, and Saunders, who also has only one year left on his contract, may be pushed out. If he's not, an entire season may be burdened with questions about the team's unsigned coach's future. Outside of that, Dumars will have to find an extra piece that fits that Pistons needs and mentality. A fierce scorer like Gilbert Arenas, Baron Davis or Allen Iverson could fill the offensive hole that exists due to Prince's inability to score at will.  Maybe Antawn Jamison or Elton Brand could come in in place of Wallace and give the team more discipline and a better post presence. Dumars certainly has his work cut out for him.

Despite the fact that outside of Detroit think the team must undergo some sort of change, the Pistons find themselves in familiar territory. Their backs are at the wall and people are doubting them, so they are trying to do what until this spring they have always done best, stick together.

"I hope all our guys are back and try it again,"  Billups said Friday night. "We keep failing at this point in the season, but I'm never been a quitter. My parents didn't raise me to quit. I want to keep going at it but those decisions are not up to me. I just hope I can go back to war with these same guys." 

Whether he gets his wish remains to be seen. But I imagine some of those Atlanta Braves pitchers would now go back and trade their long history together and their team unity for a few more bats and a few more rings.