Dennis Rodman

Dennis Rodman dwarfed the rest of the league as a rebounder during the 1991-92 season, leading the NBA with 18.7 boards per game. He set new team standards for most rebounds (1,530), most offensive rebounds (523), and most defensive rebounds (1,007) in a season. He had an all-time Detroit high of 34 boards in a game against Indiana on March 4, breaking Bob Lanier's 1972 mark by a single rebound. Just 10 days later Rodman set the Detroit standard for defensive rebounds in a game with 22 against Sacramento. On December 1 another of Lanier's marks fell when Isiah Thomas passed him to become the Pistons' all-time leading scorer. (Lanier, the Pistons' center of the 1970s who had retired in 1984, was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.)

Detroit's aura of invincibility was beginning to fade. The Pistons' 48-34 record was only good for third in the Central Division (behind Chicago and Cleveland), and they were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs by New York. It marked the first time in six seasons that Detroit had failed to advance past the first round.

Chuck Daly departed as coach after the 1991-92 campaign after amassing 538 victories, a .632 winning percentage, and two world championships in nine seasons-all Detroit coaching records. He went on to coach the New Jersey Nets for the next two years.