It all comes down to defense, not second options. The reason Hakeem and Duncan were able to win without much help because they're both once in a generation talents that basically did everything for their team. They completely anchored the defense, commanded double teams and consistently kicked it out to open shooters, were a dominating presence on the boards every night, facilitated their team's inside out game, and was the focal point of not only the offense but also of the defense.
The Pistons on the other hand are tied with the '08 Celtics as the greatest defensive team of our era, and are easily on par with every other truly great defensive team like the Bad Boys, Riley's Knicks, '85-'86 Celts, the Russell Celtics and so many other defensive teams I haven't mentioned. It all comes down to defense, not second options.
In Timmy and Hakeem's cases, they each made as much an impact on the defensive end as Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan put together (ok, well that may be a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point). And the Pistons were a magnificent defensive team that played under the greatest defensive mastermind in basketball history (Larry fuckin Brown baby), so they never needed a superstar first option anyway.
That's why we were able to get to the Finals back in '07. Because we had a consistent defensive identity, and the players we played and the coach we had reflected that. Everyone knew their role, and while we weren't the most talented we got as far as we did because we stuck to our roots. As the years went on we sacrificed our defensive identity for scoring ability, but we still tried to stick to our defensive roots while no longer having the personnel fit for that sort of a mentality.
If we're gonna harp about having a second option, then we better have the type of offense that makes use of a player like that. Otherwise we're better off sticking to our hard nosed defensive roots imo.