FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.Everything that could go wrong for the Pistons did last year, from front-office blunders (the Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson trade), indefensible coaching decisions (three guards and Tayshaun Prince as a power forward?) to a rash of injuries (only two starters played more than 67 games).
We could rehash the depressing nitty-gritty details, but why bother? It's a new season, and this year's squad looks very little like the one swept out of the playoffs in front of a turncoat Palace crowd.
Instead, let's focus on the changes, which should destroy your outdated notions of what Dee-troit Basket-ball is all about. First and foremost, the Pistons went from being one of the oldest teams in the league to one of the youngest -- and not just because four rookies will make the roster.
Fantasy Spin: Stuckey Among Top Sleepers | Play Free Fantasy Basketball
Ben Gordon (26 years old) and Charlie Villanueva (25), the two big-ticket free agent acquisitions, are just hitting the prime of their career, while guards Rodney Stuckey (23) and Will Bynum (26) are still coming into their own. In fact, of the 10 or 11 players expected to compete for minutes each night, only three players are older than 27: Tayshaun Prince (29), Rip Hamilton (31) and Ben Wallace (35). It's a far cry from the last several years when the Pistons were more concerned about propping open their window to contend than actually developing young talent.
With so many young legs comes another monumental shift in philosophy: instead of slowing the game and trying to out-execute the opposition in the halfcourt, new head coach John Kuester is encouraging his players to speed up the game and attack whenever possible.
Kuester, who won a ring in 2004 with the Pistons as a member of Larry Brown's staff, was widely credited with orchestrating Cleveland's offensive renaissance last season. He no longer has an MVP like LeBron James to make his job easy, but he does have a dynamic four-guard rotation that rivals any in the league: Stuckey, Hamilton, Gordon and Bynum have lit up the opposition in the preseason and could easily combine for 65 points a night in the regular season.
While big men like Kwame Brown, Jason Maxiell, Chris Wilcox and Wallace will earn their paychecks defending and rebounding, the Pistons aren't lacking for firepower in the frontcourt: Villanueva was signed for his offensive acumen, and rookie Austin Daye, also 6-11, was primarily drafted for his silky outside shooting.
The Pistons have the weapons to win a shootout, but can they defend? Truth be told, the bar isn't raised very high; playing at a slow pace helped mask their difficulties from a pure "points allowed per game" (94.7, eighth in the league) perspective, but digging deeper reveals the team actually finished 16th in defensive efficiency. If Detroit shows even marginal improvement in this area, they should easily finish with a winning record (something that can no longer be taken for granted after last year's 39-43 finish).
And despite his relatively recent reputation as an offensive genius, Kuester certainly knows how to coach defense: a Dean Smith disciple from his playing days at UNC, he spent years working under Brown, and his championship ring (and history with Hamilton, Prince and Wallace) gives him more than enough credibility to get the rest of the team to buy into playing both ends of the court.
Will all of these recent changes reverse Detroit's slide? Only time will tell. With so much turnover, success is hardly guaranteed -- and even if everything goes right for a change, they're still miles away from joining the elite three (Cleveland, Boston and Orlando) at the top of the conference. But no matter what happens once the regular season starts, you can't deny that Joe Dumars has already succeeded in changing the team's culture. With so many players competing for minutes (the rotation figures to go 10 deep without factoring in a single rookie), starting jobs and contracts (Brown, Wilcox and Bynum all hope to sign new deals next summer), any lingering feelings of entitlement have gone out the window.
The chip is back on Detroit's shoulder.
Last Season By the Numbers
Record: 39-43. Finished 5th in the Central Division, 8th in the Eastern Conference.
Offense: 107.4 points per 100 possessions, 21st in the NBA. 25th in shooting, 1st in turnover rate, 7th in offensive rebounding, 26th free throw rate.
Defense: 108.0 points per 100 possessions, 16th in the NBA. 5th in shooting defense, 30th in opponent turnover rate, 12th in defensive rebounding, 20th in opponent free throw rate.
Top Performers: Rip Hamilton led the team in scoring with 18.3 points per game adding 4.4 assists. Chauncey Billups technically led the team with 7.5 assists but played only two games; after him, Iverson and Stuckey each averaged 4.9, while Hamilton chipped in 4.4. Iverson also averaged 17.4 points and a team-high 1.7 steals. Antonio McDyess fell just shy of a double-double with 9.6 points and a team-high 9.8 rebounds. Rasheed Wallace averaged 7.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
All statistics via Basketball-Reference.com.
Player to WatchFanHouse's Matt Moore and Tom Ziller preview one player to watch from each team. Here's a snippet of Ziller's post on Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey.
Stuckey needs to assert himself quickly. With so many guards to play, the Pistons can't wait for Stuckey to get into a flow in order to perform. If Stuckey pops into the second quarter with only four minutes left, he needs to play like he's been in the game from the start. Maybe that's not entirely possible -- we tend to see leaguewide trends that support greater efficiency for players who get long stretches of opportunity as opposed to short, stop-and-stop stints. But Stuckey can certainly improve his initial aggressiveness, which should help him be at his best on the court ... no matter the rotation situation.
See Ziller's full post on Stuckey.
Offseason Tracker
IN: Ben Gordon (free agency), Charlie Villanueva (free agency), Austin Daye (draft), DaJuan Summers (draft), Jonas Jerebko (draft), Deron Washington (draft), Chris Wilcox (free agency), Ben Wallace (free agency).
OUT: Allen Iverson (free agency), Rasheed Wallace (free agency), Amir Johnson (trade), Antonio McDyess (free agency), Walter Herrmann (free agency), Arron Afflalo (trade), Walter Sharpe (trade).
