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Langlois: I know the conspiracy theorists were on high alert when Tayshaun Prince didn’t dress with a back injury the past two games, but does anybody really think Joe Dumars would tell Prince – whom he knows views his consecutive-games streak as a badge of honor – to sit out because he has a potential trade in the works? Really? Do you think Dumars would really be worried that Prince, after playing seven straight years without missing a game due to injury, would be at high risk for injury by playing one more game? Joe D had several phone calls asking about Prince over the summer but decided he’s already introduced enough change to the roster for one season. He’s got no obvious backup for him, so trading Prince would necessarily have to be for another small forward. The rookies, for all their promise, aren’t ready to handle full-time duty. As for Maxiell sitting, that was almost certainly nothing more than Kuester not seeing great production from him in the early going and wanting to get a look at Chris Wilcox. It’s safe to say that position battle remains open.
Langlois: “Unload” probably offends the ear of a lot of Pistons fans, but I get your larger point. That’s the nature of sport, especially one governed by a salary cap. It’s essentially what motivated the Chauncey Billups trade – Rodney Stuckey was available to assume his role at a significantly lesser cost, freeing up money to address other needs. It’s only logical to think Joe Dumars is monitoring the progress of all three rookies carefully this season and will make his moves next summer with that foremost in mind. But I don’t think he’s even contemplating other moves before that – or certainly not now, at least. He’s seen very good moments from Jerebko and Daye this week, but good moments don’t mean they’re ready to replace veterans who’ve played at or near All-Star levels for years.
Langlois: Bosh is extremely quick for a big guy and he’s always looking for rebound lanes to crash. He’s clever and knows how to draw contact and force officials to make calls. The way Toronto plays now, with the floor spread with shooters, those lanes for him are even wider than they’ve been. No, all those calls weren’t right, but they’ll never get ’em all right. There are more subjective decisions to make in the course of a basketball game by far than in football, say, or baseball.
Langlois: The story isn’t yet one chapter old, David. I can’t see any way the Pistons don’t emerge as a good offensive team, and the way they’ve started on defense is at least encouraging. The questions about their ability to sustain above-average defensive performances will persist, and their ability to rebound the basketball is a big part of that, but as long as Ben Wallace can keep giving them 25 to 30 minutes a night in the middle of their defense, they look like they’ll defend well enough to give themselves a chance to win enough games to compete for a decent playoff berth.
Langlois: Kuester said after the Orlando game that Wilcox deserved the chance to play. He also said Maxiell has done a good job throughout preseason and into the regular season. And then he said it’s awfully tough to play five big men. Translation: He’s looking for one or the other to grab the No. 4 big man job by the horns. Safe to say Wilcox didn’t put himself in the driver’s seat with his 16-minute stint against Orlando when he went scoreless and grabbed one rebound. It’s open competition there and he didn’t do much more against Toronto. And when Tayshaun Prince comes back healthy, if neither Maxiell nor Wilcox has made a move, you might see Jonas Jerebko utilized as the No. 4 big man.
Langlois: NBA.com is providing game stories this season to all 30 team sites, so rather than writing another version of a game story to complement that coverage, I’ll be blogging after games this season to provide something a little different – a big picture point of view, in your words. It’ll be a little more analytical, an attempt to put the game just played in context. For example, after Tuesday’s win over Orlando – in which the Pistons played without both Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince against one of the two or three hottest teams in the NBA – the story for me was how the Pistons still went into that game believing they had a chance to win and what that says about the environment that Joe Dumars and John Kuester have established. What you didn’t get a chance to see in the early going, Drew, was a new service that the NBA tested for the first few games and just rolled out for the Orlando game. It’s called TV companion and it’s a way to follow the game on-line – with stats, shot charts, box scores and play by play – as you’re watching it on TV. As a part of that, Pistons.com will be conducting live chats in game. I’ll be doing it some of the time and Ryan Pretzer, who’s writing a more in-depth pregame report than we’ve ever provided, will be doing it some of the time, and we’ll also throw other contributors into the mix who have expertise in other areas of the Pistons’ organization from time to time. It adds up to the most comprehensive Pistons coverage you’ll find on the Internet.
Langlois: He missed more than half of training camp with a hamstring pull and, even if the leg is 100 percent now, that probably hurt. It would be one thing if he was in a familiar system playing with a familiar team, but he’s one of eight new players under a new coach. Missing that much of camp set him back. It wouldn’t be a surprise, either, if he was pressing a little, trying to make a good impression, trying to live up to the contract. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, but it would be nice to get him up to speed while Rip Hamilton’s out to help replace some of the scoring lost.
Langlois: The Rip-Boozer talk won’t die, Gil, even though many have explained that adding Rip doesn’t address Utah’s most pressing problem – paying heavy in luxury tax – and, in fact, exacerbates it by adding payroll in each of the next three seasons. Hypothetically, if the Pistons were to make that trade, they’d probably have to bring one of Boozer or Villanueva off the bench unless Boozer bought in to guarding starting centers every night.
Langlois: He’s hurt now, so it’s safe to assume fatigue isn’t his most pressing issue. Besides, it’s a little early to start worrying about player fatigue five months down the road, don’t you think? Prince’s minutes will come down dramatically whether Daye works his way into the rotation or not once Rip Hamilton returns, Alex. He played 32 minutes in the opener, when Hamilton played, and that seems more than reasonable.
Langlois: He’d have four years of eligibility – just not in basketball. Since he plays basketball professionally, he has no amateur standing in that sport. He could play football. Tom Lemming, who has been rating high school football players for decades, had James rated the No. 1 player in Ohio and the No. 1 wide receiver in the country in his class after his junior season. James didn’t play football as a senior, but with his speed, size and strength, he’d be a revolutionary tight end or rush linebacker. But I think his career path is pretty well established.
Langlois: No, but it’s a teaching moment in Charlie V’s indoctrination in the essence of being a Piston. And I think you saw some fire from Villanueva late in the Orlando win when he took a big charge from Ryan Anderson and went up in a crowd for a huge defensive rebound. Charlie V was frustrated by the foul trouble that dogged him in the opening games and Wallace was there to let him know that he can’t let his personal frustrations fester and drag down the team. No one has whispered that Villanueva has attitude issues, but it’s fair to say he has room to grow as a competitor, which is hardly uncommon in young players still trying to carve out a niche. That’s one of the key reasons Ben Wallace was brought back – to show the young players, and not just the rookies, the work ethic and level of selflessness it takes from the top of the roster to the bottom if you want to get on a championship path.
Langlois: A little context, first. I remember Joe D saying, when asked, sure, he’d like Rasheed to post up more often, but when you take Rasheed Wallace, you take the whole package, and he happily took it. He didn’t have any philosophical shift over the summer. But in today’s NBA, he understands that if you can’t get a classic inside scorer at power forward, then you’d better get one who can stretch defenses by shooting from the outside. He would have been equally pleased to get a young power forward who can punish teams inside, but there wasn’t one available. As for why he just didn’t keep Rasheed … Wallace is 35, Charlie V 26. He wanted to use the cap space he created to get at least two young building blocks to go with Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum and the rookies. He got Ben Gordon and CharlieVillanueva. How they work out will go a long way toward determining how the Pistons fare this year and beyond. But you’ve got to give it more than a week to work itself out.
Langlois: Without assessing either team’s relative gain from a Prince-Boozer swap, Chris, there is a significant piece of the argument you ignored. The Pistons traded Billups after Stuckey had given very strong indications as a rookie – and in the heat of the playoffs, no less – that he was ready for a much bigger role. At the time I got your e-mail, Austin Daye had played one NBA minute. The Pistons like his future very much, but to suggest he’s ready to start and replace Prince’s production would be foolish at this point. As for gaining cap space if Boozer were to leave as a free agent, yes and no. His contract would come off the books, but the combination of the projected drop in the salary cap and the automatic contract escalators kicking in for several Pistons, Joe D probably would wind up under the cap by something near the amount of the mid-level exception – which is what he’ll have regardless, in addition to still having Prince, and the option of trading him to plug another hole if the opportunity arises.
Langlois: No idea about the source or the credibility of your rumor, but that doesn’t make much sense. If Bosh wanted to be traded, the time to leverage Toronto management was last summer. While he’s given Toronto no reason to think he’s leaning toward returning, he has said words to the effect that he was encouraged by Bryan Colangelo’s massive off-season overhaul and is willing to see how the season unfolds before making any decisions. I don’t think Joe Dumars would part with any of his young building blocks unless he had ironclad assurance Bosh was going to re-sign here – nor should he – and there’s very little likelihood anyone would give him that assurance, which in any case wouldn’t be binding. As much as I like Bosh’s game, he’s not shown he’s in the class of players who lift franchises by themselves, yet he’s probably going to get a maximum-contract offer in free agency. That’s risky. Which is why I think Bosh is most likely to wind up playing in Miami next to Dwyane Wade or Chicago next to Derrick Rose.
Langlois: That’s not Joe Dumars’ mentality, Juan. He bristles at the word rebuilding, or at least at the concept. Whatever word you want to use for what he did over the summer, he didn’t tear it down the way many other franchises have chosen to do. He kept Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince and he spent his cap money on quality young veterans. The standards of the organization are important to him. He’s not going to send the message to those players that he’s going to sacrifice this season for the sake of hoping it pays off two or three years down the road. He wants the young players to learn what competition is by first competing for minutes – and earning them – in practice.
Langlois: Chucky Atkins is 35 and came to camp without a penny of guaranteed money because he didn’t have one of the 30 NBA teams willing to offer him anything more than that. He’s a terrific guy and a nice insurance policy as the No. 3 point guard, but he’s always been a shooter more than anything else. There’s not a question about who gives the Pistons a better chance to win.
Langlois: Hedo Turkoglu won the award two years ago when he was 29 and in his eighth NBA season, which is fairly old and experienced to be in the running for this award. But even Turkoglu didn’t have an All-Star resume or had won an NBA title. Ben Wallace just isn’t going to be in the discussion for MIP for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he just doesn’t fit the profile and won’t be in the minds of voters. That doesn’t mean he won’t have a terrific season, but the truth is he was having a solid season for Cleveland a year ago until breaking his leg.
Langlois: Depends entirely on how Chandler performs this season. Off early returns, it’s not looking good. Makes you wonder if those OKC docs who flunked him physically last February didn’t know what the future held. But if Chandler starts playing the way he did two seasons ago and shows the ankle and foot problems that have limited him aren’t permanently debilitating, he’ll get something above the MLE. If he doesn’t, he’ll probably have to sign a short-term deal for significantly less than that and prove himself all over again.
Langlois: Aldrich will most likely be a lottery pick, so he’ll be out of reach to the Pistons unless they miss out on the playoffs. I don’t think he’s going to be an All-Star or anything, but he could develop into a decent NBA starter. By all accounts, Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall, compared to Derrick Rose, will be the No. 1 pick next June. No. 2 is wide open, though Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors could emerge as the guy.
Langlois: Only three salaries are in Kaman’s ballpark – Prince, Hamilton and Gordon’s. The Clippers cleared all the space they needed for Griffin by foisting Zach Randolph’s contract off on Memphis. They no longer face frontcourt crowding. They have Eric Gordon at shooting guard, so it’s not very likely they’d be trading their starting center for someone to split minutes with Eric Gordon, eliminating Hamilton and Ben Gordon as bait. They’ve got third-year player Al Thornton at small forward, though they’ve now moved Rasual Butler ahead of him, so depth at that spot, as well.
Langlois: The Pistons never traded Budinger to Houston. Houston called before the Pistons’ pick at No. 44 and offered them a future second-rounder and cash to trade into that spot. Houston dictated who was to be taken 44th. Officially, the record will show the Pistons selected Budinger, but that was only a formality. The trade was made on the condition that the Pistons select Budinger for Houston. Had the Pistons held on to the pick, I don’t have a clue whom they would have taken. They came out of the second round with DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko and the list of players they really liked had run dry after that. It’s fair to assume they didn’t think Budinger had a bright NBA future or they would have held on to the pick and selected him for themselves.
Langlois: They have a five-year waiting period once a player retires to consider him for the Hall of Fame, Brent, and while there’s no such requirement for a franchise to retire a player’s number, I think that outside of the no-brainer choices, a similar cooling period for reflection is wise. That said, I think Ben Wallace had a real chance to have his number eventually retired by the Pistons whether he returned or not. Based on his four Defensive Player of the Year award, three All-Star appearances and, most importantly, his critical role in bringing the Pistons their third NBA title, he already had a strong case. Returning will no doubt go a long way toward re-creating his image in the public’s mind, and it certainly can’t hurt his place in franchise history if he hastens the development of the young players while bridging the gap in this transitional phase for the Pistons. As to what number … if they decide to retire a number, I think they’ll let him decide which ones goes up to the rafters. And, anticipating somebody’s next question, if they retire No. 3 for Ben Wallace and Rodney Stuckey one day deserves the same consideration, then retire No. 3 again – and permanently.
Langlois: When everybody’s healthy, the Pistons have four guards who can create plays. Rip Hamilton doesn’t put it on the floor to get to the rim much, but he’s shown he can set teammates up for baskets. Their roster is set up in a way that doesn’t place the onus on Stuckey alone to run the offense. That’s not unusual around the NBA except on the few handfuls of teams whose point guards fit the textbook definition. Under Larry Brown and especially under Flip Saunders, the ball was almost always in Chauncey Billups’ hands, and he blossomed into a point guard worthy of such trust and responsibility. But he wasn’t that at 23. Despite the barrage of skepticism from outsiders, the Pistons believe Stuckey is suited to be a point guard – currently, in an offense that distributes responsibility more evenly among several ballhandlers; eventually, perhaps, in a role more like the one Billups grew to fill.
