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SVG's primary goal never wavers: Pistons play to win over season's final 11 games

The question wasn't about tanking, or about emphasizing things like getting a longer look at Shawne Williams or Quincy Miller. It was about the final 11 games of the season perhaps being about something more than a normal stretch run for a team on the far fringe of playoff contention – all because of the recent acquisition of Reggie Jackson and what could be gained, from both the player's and the organization's perspective, by maximizing the importance of those games.

Stan Van Gundy's answer, though, sure could serve as a powerful rejoinder to those who might advocate the Pistons should worry more about improving their chances to pull a top-three pick in the lottery or jockey for the No. 7 draft pick instead of running the risk of picking No. 8 or 9 or 10.

"I've never played a game in my entire life that I didn't think it was important to win," he said after Thursday's practice as the Pistons readied for a weekend trip to Orlando and Miami. "Never – not an exhibition game, not anything. The nature of being a competitive person, they should all be important."

Van Gundy would like to hit the ground running next season, of course, and that means pushing to the degree he can control it the development of the young players so central to the Pistons future – primarily Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jackson.

They've all been brilliant over the last five games, the Pistons 4-1 in that stretch, with Jackson averaging 20.2 points, 12.2 assists and 6.0 rebounds while shooting .454; Caldwell-Pope putting up 21.8 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting .524 overall and .411 from the 3-point arc; and Drummond averaging 15.6 points, 15.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. Sustaining that momentum and building a synergy between Jackson and Drummond in their pick-and-roll sets and between Jackson and Caldwell-Pope in the backcourt is a huge component of the head start Van Gundy hopes to get on 2015-16.

"Just getting an idea of guys who are going to slide on the perimeter and spot up as opposed to guys who might cut in certain situations," Van Gundy said of the relationship a point guard and a shooting guard develop through repetition. "And in pick and rolls. Some guys are rolling to the rim, some guys are popping back, some guys are short rolling and sliding to the basket. There's all those things you have to become familiar with with teammates and the longer they're together, the more that will take care of itself."

Greg Monroe, who's missed the last five games with a right knee injury, didn't practice on Thursday and is very unlikely to play at Orlando on Friday, but he'll travel with the Pistons for two overriding reasons: Pistons training staffers won't be available to him should he stay behind and Van Gundy prefers to have players, even injured ones, with the team – especially so when it's a player like Monroe, "a real solid pro, you want those guys around your team all the time," he said.

But if and when Monroe is ready to play, Van Gundy isn't going to hold him out.

"I've never really shut anybody down. If he's ready to play, he's healthy and he gets clearance and he's ready to go mentally, then we would play him."

Monroe is headed for unrestricted free agency, the ball in his court when July 1 hits. Van Gundy has consistently and strongly maintained his desire to retain Monroe, so he'd like him to go through the same familiarization process with Jackson as Drummond, Caldwell-Pope and the rest of the players he's mentally penciling in to the 2015-16 roster.

"When you're trying to develop a competitive team, you can only do that in the context of games being important and winning being important," he said. "If we're just playing pickup games and we don't care if we win or not and there's no pressure on guys to perform and you're not holding them accountable, then you're not getting a true indication of who they are. That's not NBA basketball. So we will keep a very high importance on winning games.

"That's the only way you get better. A big part of developing as a player is developing as a competitor. It's not just the skills. It's going out and understanding that it's about getting ready to play and being able to adhere to a game plan and do all the things that go into winning games. So I don't think there'll ever be a day that I'm here when winning's not the primary goal when we walk on the court."

Clear enough?