Stan Van Gundy isn't ready yet to throw a blanket on a beach somewhere and hang the "do not disturb" sign on his door for a week. But he can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel. August. If he can get to August having checked off another handful of boxes on his to-do list, then he can consider entertaining a little fun.
There hasn't been time to catch his breath since Tom Gores hired him last May. He needed to hire a coaching staff and stock an entire front office, putting not only good people in place but building systems and processes so they could all speak a common language.
So he's going to be busy – exceptionally busy – over the next three months: draft preparation, the June 25 draft, the July 1 start of free agency and Summer League, then filling out the roster after the first wave of free agency when teams get back into the trade market.
But it won't be the type of chaos-driven busy that marked last summer, when he was doing all of those things and doing it with a skeleton staff while trying his best to be patient with the process of landing the best people.
"I think we are far better positioned to make decisions this summer than we were a year ago," Van Gundy said Thursday afternoon as he and general manager Jeff Bower met the media. "We were scrambling. We have people and systems in place, processes in place. I think we'll be better suited to make decisions now."
Van Gundy's second season almost certainly won't throw as many curveballs at him, either. His first one started 5-23, followed by a 12-3 stretch that ended with Brandon Jennings' late-January Achilles tendon rupture. That led to a four-game losing streak – four games over five nights with no practice time to allow for adjustments to losing Jennings – before the ship stabilized again with D.J. Augustin stepping into Jennings' role. The Pistons went 4-3 over seven games leading to the All-Star break.
And that's when Van Gundy and Bower made their first major trade, sending Augustin, Kyle Singler and two future second-round picks out in a three-team deal that returned Reggie Jackson.
Jackson was marvelous for the Pistons, especially after an 11-game acclimation period. But that acclimation period included a 10-game losing streak that essentially cost the Pistons their shot at a playoff berth. Even with the turbulence – the four-game losing streak precipitated by Jennings' injury and the 10-gamer that ensued after the 40 percent turnover to the starting lineup – the Pistons went 26-26 after Christmas.
"Really proud of the way our team rebounded," Van Gundy said. "We made some progress – not enough, but some progress – at both ends of the floor. We feel like we've established a base of good, young players. Over the last two-thirds of the year, which is not a small sample size, we played .500 basketball, which would have put us in the top five in the East over that time period. We think things are looking up. Obviously a big summer for us with both the draft and free agency coming up. Jeff and his staff have been working on both the draft and free agency all year and we'll be very well prepared when the time comes."
Probably the least uncertain element of that will be Jackson's restricted free agency. Nothing is a given, of course, but both sides have talked openly about wanting to come to a quick resolution. As a Piston, Jackson averaged 17.6 points, 9.2 assists and 4.7rebounds a game, shooting .460 overall and .337 from the 3-point line. But over his final 16 games, the numbers were even better: 19.9 points, 10.9 assists, 4.9 rebounds, .480 and .400.
"Reggie, in a third of a season here, did an outstanding job, particularly on the offensive end of the floor," Van Gundy said. "If you look at his per-minute numbers, he'll match up with just about any point guard in the league over that period of time."
The Pistons will go into the May 19 lottery in the No. 8 position, which means they'll have about a 90 percent chance of drafting either eighth or ninth and a 2.8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick.
The focus of the draft will be to land the best player available, but the expectation isn't that they'll get a day one starter. Van Gundy said long-term projection is more important than the ability to contribute immediately.
Somewhere over the course of the summer – either via free agency or trade, more likely than the draft – the Pistons need to land quality players at both small forward and power forward. Van Gundy's preference in addressing the latter, of course, would be to retain Greg Monroe, an unrestricted free agent.
Bower said the organization is comfortable that a healthy environment was created and gave Monroe more than a glimpse of what he can expect from Van Gundy into the future.
"The one thing in Greg's situation that's really important is there's nothing more information and educational than living and seeing and doing on a daily basis," he said. "Greg now has an incredible amount more information than he had last Julye. He knows eactly how Stan is going to be in good days and in bad days. He knows the type of work ethic and culture that has been created and he's able to look at all that and put it on one side and create his own list of what the franchise he wants to play with looks like."
It's going to be a busy summer: lottery pick, loads of cap space, Monroe's fate, finding the right fits to fill in around the young core of Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jackson. We'll spend the next few weeks diving into all of those topics. We'll be at the NBA draft combine in mid-May from Chicago to be followed by extensive pre-draft coverage, then on to Orlando for Summer League and free agency.
The beach can wait.