The Pistons, by and large, have been a better defensive team and a less effective one offensively since Stan Van Gundy swapped out more than 25 percent of his roster and 40 percent of his starting lineup at the trade deadline.
Their defensive rating over the seven games since All-Star break was less than 100 – meaning they were holding teams to less than one point per possession, which is top-10 defense territory. Their field-goal percentage defense had improved correspondingly.
Their defense was gashed, however, on Sunday night by Charlotte, the league's 28th-ranked offense. The Hornets scored 54 points and shot 54 percent after halftime, coming from eight down at the break to win by seven.
Tayshaun Prince found the words to explain why afterward: the lack of words.
"I think the most important thing is we don't talk defensively. We're just quiet. It's a lot of breakdowns," he said.
That observation comes from a player, of course, whose standard for defensive communication was the Pistons who won the 2004 NBA title and chased a handful of others while anchored by the boisterous Rasheed Wallace and the stern Ben Wallace back line with Prince serving as the lock-down wing defender. Then he left for Memphis, a team that embodied the physical spirit of the Goin' to Work Pistons.
"They talked a lot," Van Gundy said of the Grizzlies. "I think that it has been a problem, there's no question about that."
It's on his radar and Van Gundy isn't on friendly terms with patience, but he understands why the Pistons are something less than a chatterbox at this stage of their development.
"I think it's hard to talk when you are really still learning what's going on. Let's put it that way. Where it's not second nature and you're ahead of the play and anticipating what's happening. You'll see it on a lot of teams that really aren't where they need to be defensively – talk is one of the problems because they're just trying to learn what they're doing. They're not really tuned in to everybody else. I think that's certainly a fair assessment of our team."
You'll hear NBA coaches employ the phrase "play defense on a string" a ton. It's their ideal. The metaphor implies that the movement of any single defender starts a chain reaction affecting all four teammates, each moving in harmony. You know it when you see it. A great defensive team seems to field six or seven players, layups off-limits and open shots barely possible.
To get there, everybody has to know his assignment among myriad offensive situations that present themselves – and then know the assignments of the players to his left and right, behind and in front. It's not a level of dominance exclusive to veteran teams, but it sure doesn't hurt.
Somebody asked Van Gundy after Sunday's loss – by all accounts, damaging to playoff chances that were already flickering – if, with 20 games left, he would start to look at some other players.
"We're starting two 21-year-olds and two 24-year-olds," he said. "We're starting our young guys. I don't know who else that would be."
People hear "chemistry" and think of how it manifests offensively, for the most part, but it is at least as critical at the other end.
"It's defense, also," Van Gundy said. "And it's a trust factor with each other defensively, too. Still a long way to in terms of that and, hopefully, these last 20 games we get a lot better with it."
Just as a point guard quarterbacks a team's offense, it's the center largely charged with barking out orders at the defensive end by virtue of his vantage point. Surely, all five defenders must share in communication, but nobody plays a more central role than the, uh, center.
And that's where the youngest Piston, Andre Drummond, resides.
"It helps," Van Gundy said of a center who takes command defensively. "I think a guy like DeAndre Jordan with the Clippers has become very, very good at directing traffic from behind. I think Marc Gasol, playing against him, he's a guy who does a lot of that. Marc wasn't even in the league at 21; DeAndre wasn't doing it when he was 21 years old, either. I think that's the ideal position, yeah, but I don't think it's maybe a fair criticism of a 21-year-old guy."
There are times Drummond freezes, unsure whether to leave his man to cut off penetration, though Van Gundy has seen progress on that score and went through a similar phase with Dwight Howard in Orlando, who also grew from an uncertain defender to a traffic cop on Van Gundy's watch.
"I saw it develop in Dwight as he went on – very smart guy, got better with that every year. But it can't be one guy. Everybody's got to be talking defensively."
He'd like it to be today. No, yesterday. But he understands there might be a few more tomorrows to wait on before it flowers fully. With four starters under 25, time is on their side – if not for this season, with 5 games to make up over the final 20 to get back in the playoff hunt, then surely for their future.