After a stunning blockbuster trade transformed their roster, the Detroit Pistons will look very different when they face former coach Larry Brown and the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday night.

Hours after acquiring Allen Iverson from Denver for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess, the Pistons will be slightly short on star power as they face the coach that guided them to the NBA championship in 2004.

Detroit (2-0) obtained the talented but sometimes troubled Iverson from the Nuggets for point guard Chauncey Billups - the NBA finals MVP in '04 - and reserve forward Antonio McDyess.

The Pistons, determined to change their core following a third straight exit from the Eastern Conference finals last summer, instead waited until two games into the season to do so.

"We just felt it was the right time to change our team,'' Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told The Associated Press. "Iverson gives us a dimension that we haven't had here and we really think it's going to help us.''

Iverson is averaging 18.7 points and 6.7 assists on the season, and has averaged 27.7 points and 6.3 assists over his 13-year career.

"He was very excited about the trade,'' Iverson's agent Leon Rose told the AP.

Iverson isn't expected to be in the Pistons lineup Monday after Denver played the Lakers in Los Angeles on Sunday night, with Wednesday's game in Toronto likely to be his debut. That means Detroit's impressive depth should be tested for at least one game.

The trade is likely to overshadow Brown's reunion with his former club. After getting his first win with the Bobcats, he'll be trying to hand the Pistons, seeking their third 3-0 start in four years, their first loss.

Brown coached the Pistons from 2003-05, leading them to back-to-back NBA finals and winning a championship in 2004. He left Detroit in 2005 when the Pistons bought out his contract after he was reportedly looking into an executive position with the Cavaliers during the playoffs.

Brown ended up taking over as coach of the New York Knicks that year and had a disastrous season, as the team tied a franchise record with 59 losses, leading to Brown's dismissal.

After a two-year absence, Brown has returned to the bench with the Bobcats (1-1), the ninth NBA team he's coached. He recorded his first victory with Charlotte and the 1,011th of his career Saturday, 100-87 over Miami.

Gerald Wallace had 34 points and nine rebounds and Emeka Okafor added 18 points and 13 boards for the Bobcats, who opened the season with a 96-79 loss to Cleveland after going 0-7 in the preseason.

"We were in a free fall for a while," Brown said. "We were the only team (without a win in the preseason) and everyone reminds you of that. I think the kids needed a win, they needed something positive to happen. You can come to practice every day and no matter what we feel if guys are improving, if you don't have a win that's tough, that puts a lot of pressure on them."

While Brown's career hasn't been the same since he left Detroit, the Pistons haven't returned to the NBA finals since Brown's departure, losing in the conference finals the last three years.

Detroit is coming off a 117-109 win over Washington on Saturday. Richard Hamilton scored 24 points and added seven rebounds while Rasheed Wallace had 17 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots. The Pistons reserves contributed 55 points, with Walter Hermann scoring 16 off the bench.

Detroit, though, committed 15 turnovers in the first half, just three shy of its highest total for an entire game in 2007-08. The Pistons tied for the league low in turnovers per game last season at 11.7, but finished with 18 on Saturday after having 15 in the season opener.

"I think half those turnovers came in the last six minutes of the second quarter," first-year coach Michael Curry said. "They played aggressive defense, but no one can play aggressive enough to make us turn the ball over six or seven times in a six-minute span. That's just us making mistakes."

Monday begins a tough road-heavy portion of schedule for the Pistons, with eight of their next 10 games away from The Palace. After this three-game trip, they return home to face NBA champion Boston on Sunday before beginning a four-game road swing against Western Conference opponents. They then face LeBron James and Cleveland at home Nov. 19 before taking on the Celtics at TD Banknorth Garden the next day.

The Pistons, 41-25 on the road last season, won all three meetings with the Bobcats in 2007-08 and have taken four straight in the series.

Swingman Jason Richardson, though, thinks the presence of Brown gives Charlotte an advantage.

"He knows those guys," Richardson said. "He won a championship with them. He knows all their tendencies, where they want the ball, where they catch the ball. He can tell us how to play against them."