Editor’s note: Joe Dumars, Pistons president of basketball operations, sat down Tuesday afternoon with Pistons.com editor Keith Langlois to talk about the Pistons’ 3-0 start, Antonio McDyess’ integration into the starting lineup, Jason Maxiell’s impact, the addition of Jarvis Hayes and his general impressions one week into the NBA season. Here are the highlights of their conversation:

Langlois: When last season ended you very deliberately said you thought complacency had become an issue. From the moment you said that until today, how have you sensed that message has been received?

Dumars: I think the message was clear last year after we lost the way we did. I tried to make it clear that we would not accept complacency. Once you state that, I think you have to follow it up with action. If you look at our draft and our free-agent acquisition and the mandate that has been constantly hammered home, I think the guys and everybody here has responded to it extremely positively.

Langlois: It beats the alternative, but when Rodney Stuckey returns from his hand injury and Amir Johnson is fully over his sprained ankle and Achilles pain, are there going to be enough minutes to go around for what looks like an unusually deep team?

Dumars: When you have a deep team that’s really good, inevitably you’re going to have some guys who are not going to get the minutes they would on some other team. But I think that’s the reason it becomes very important to select the right type of people to play on your team. On one hand, I don’t expect everyone to get the minutes they think they deserve to get. On the other hand, we’ve been very careful to select the right character guys. If that happens, it’s not going to be an issue internally here with this team.

Langlois: The decision to move Antonio McDyess into the starting lineup was a fairly dramatic one in that he’d been adamant about wanting to come off the bench and it meant one of your two power forwards – McDyess or Rasheed Wallace – was going to be forced to guard the few remaining true centers left in the league. Talk about the thought process that led to the decision and what you’ve seen from it so far.

Dumars: What I’ve seen so far is a seamless transition for McDyess into the starting lineup. The thought process behind it was simply this: McDyess is an 11-, 12-year veteran in the NBA. We’ve had him in the role of energy guy off the bench, come in and score points for us off the bench. He became very comfortable with that here and we needed that from him at that time. But your team transitions. And we transitioned to a team where it’s not best for us as a team to have McDyess coming off the bench. We have young, high-energy guys who can come in off the bench and provide that. It makes no sense whatsoever to ask a 33-year-old guy to be your energy guy off the bench. It just doesn’t make sense. In return, what’s happened is there were times McDyess would come off the bench and be frantic about making something happen really fast. What you’re seeing is him really settle down as far as not getting early fouls and make that transition to being a starter very easily. That was the thought process. Why would you ask a 33-year-old guy who’s been in the league 12 years to be your high-energy guy off the bench when you have 24-year-old Jason Maxiell and 20-year-old Amir Johnson to bring that type of energy? It made no sense.

Langlois: My interpretation of why he wanted to come off the bench – one of the reasons, at least – is he wanted to defer to the guys who’d been here and won a championship and didn’t want to be seen as superseding their roles. Now he’s in the starting lineup with four guys who are gifted scorers, as he is, also. Are you concerned that, because of his nature, he’ll naturally become the fifth option and defer as a scorer?

Dumars: Not at all. Of all our guys here, this guy has had tremendous success, as much or more than any of the other four starters as far as individual numbers. The guy’s been an All-Star. He was the highest player drafted here as the No. 2 pick. When he first came, I could understand deferring. But it’s his fourth year now. He’s a full-fledged member now. And he understands that and that’s why I think you’ve seen the transition happen so easily. He’s played extremely well. I think it would be a mistake if people strictly judge McDyess on scoring. The guy defends and rebounds and gives you so much energy in that starting five. That’s what I’ve been looking at.

Langlois: Did you have any concerns you’d be exposing yourself to teams like Orlando, Miami, New York – teams with strong post presences – and risking foul trouble to those two with that starting lineup?

Dumars: Dice and Sheed are very intelligent defenders. They understand how to defend those guys. They’re veterans and they have tremendous experience in how to guard those guys. I was confident that they could step on the court and defend without fouling or without being overpowered. After three games, they’ve done a really good job of that. There are going to be nights they get in foul trouble. It’s going to happen. But it’s happened in the past, as well. It’s not something you can avoid at all costs. But I felt very confident they could go out there and defend the frontcourt positions without any issues. They’re both excellent defenders, excellent shot-blockers, smart guys and they know their way around the court.

Langlois: Part of the reason it seems to be working so well is that Maxiell has taken that leap up that you were confident he would. There was some perception with Maxiell, because he was a four-year college guy and had always been a hard worker, that he might not have had great potential for growth. What made you confident that he did and would realize that potential?

Dumars: We’ve been very confident in Maxiell. We see him. We have the advantage of seeing him every day and seeing his work ethic and his improvement. We see the rise he’s been on for the last couple of years. To think that a guy can’t get better is amazing to me, every time I hear that. It really amazes me. The only thing I’ll say is we had proof. I guess people have short memories. We had proof that an undersized power forward can get better after a couple of years. Ben Wallace had been in Washington, had been in Orlando. We sign him and we see him just kind of take off. That was proof that if you have that kind of work ethic, you can get better. This notion that four-year college guys can’t get better, I don’t know where that came from. All of a sudden high school guys started coming out, well, guys who played in college can’t get better. How do you put that two and two together?

Langlois: Is there any concern for you that Amir’s ankle injury set him back and with the other guys playing so well, maybe he’s going to be the odd man out?

Dumars: No – he won’t be the odd man out. He’ll get his opportunity this year. I’ve talked to him several times, Flip Saunders has talked to him several times about how much we’re going to depend on him this year. It’s an extremely long season and we wanted to make sure he didn’t get emotionally down, because with an injury like this it can take a while to get back to full strength. He had never been through this before, so we have been constantly talking to him about continuing to work hard, that we have tremendous confidence in you and your time is going to come where we’re going to put you on the court and you’re going to have to compete the way you see Maxey and Sheed and Dice are.

Langlois: He did have kind of a noisy five minutes when he got in at the end of the Orlando game.

Dumars: Yes, he did. He sure did. He makes some noise when he gets out there.

Langlois: Let’s talk about the Jarvis Hayes signing. The first Pistons team I covered – your era – had Vinnie Johnson. I’m not comparing him in playing style to Vinnie, but the way he comes off the bench with a fearless scorer’s mentality reminds me of that. How valuable of an asset is that to have on your bench?

Dumars: It’s extremely valuable, and as we went into the summer, I’ll just say that my thought process was that we have not had a guy similar to that since Jon Barry, who comes off and just lets it go. The guy can put the ball in the basket and we’ve really wanted that. Jarvis fills that role for us. He has been the right fit for us this off-season. He was the right guy for us to bring in. As a person and as a basketball player, he fits. He fits who we are and how we play and how we go about our business. He’s made a smooth transition as well with these guys. He just looks like he fits.

Langlois: I thought it was pretty telling the other night when he had the mismatch at the end of the Atlanta game with Tyronn Lue guarding him. Here’s Jarvis on the floor with four guys whose identities here have been well-established, but without hesitation they went to him twice down the stretch to exploit a mismatch and he scored two critical baskets.

Dumars: I thought that was huge. I thought that was very important. The win was the most important thing, but the second-most important thing was the fact we went to him down the stretch. I rank that right behind the win. We know the other guys have made plays to help win games for us over the years. Here’s a new guy on the floor with four other guys who’ve won here and done big things here and they’re deferring and going to him. It builds tremendous confidence for a guy to look around and know those guys are thinking, “We can count on you.” It gives a guy tremendous confidence.

Langlois: He came out of the 2003 draft where you had Memphis’ pick that wound up leaping over others to become the second pick. If that lottery had played out according to the numbers, you’d have been picking in a range where Jarvis might have fallen to you. I know in talking to George David that he liked him very much coming out of Georgia. I assume you’d done your homework on him even back then.

Dumars: We had. (Personnel director) George David and (former director) Scott Perry were both very high on him. They loved him. They felt he was going to be a guy who could really stroke the ball. Things just didn’t unfold for him in Washington as I’m sure as he would have liked. But it never stopped us from liking him. You look at a guy and if it doesn’t work out somewhere else, you look and say, “He might fit here, though.”

Langlois: Only three games – a real small sample size – but what’s jumped out at you so far. What are you happiest about with the 3-0 start?

Dumars: Focus. The focus that we’re playing with. If you go out and play with a sense of purpose and focus and you come up short, I can live with that. If you come out and play lackadaisically and half-heartedly, I’ve got a real issue with that. So far, we’ve gone out and played with purpose and I can live with the results of that. That’s the first thing that’s jumped out at me. Even though we had success over the last year, I made no bones that I wasn’t happy with the approach that we took and I won’t be if we slip back there. I’ll make it known. But the guys have come in since the first day of training camp, it’s been a completely new focus and sense of purpose. They’re not playing with any sense of lackadaisicalness – if that’s a word – anything like that. It’s been good.

Langlois: Flip several times since training camp has made a point of crediting Rasheed for his focus and his practice habits. Everything with Rasheed seems to be scrutinized to a greater degree, but what are you seeing from him this year?

Dumars: Sheed’s been absolutely great. I’ve made it very clear hear, in the midst of all the noise surrounding Sheed, that I’m a Rasheed fan and I’m not going to throw him under the bus. I love the spirit he shows up with, I love his competitive nature. When he crosses the line, we’ve had a few talks. But other than that I love what the guy does. Flip is right. He’s shown up with a new sense of purpose and focus this year. But it’s not just him. Chauncey and Tayshaun, too, are two guys I’d point to who have recommitted themselves and seem to be more focused and more locked in to what we’re doing and I think that’s been just as big as Rasheed showing up. It’s not just Rasheed we’re looking at. That’s so not the case.

Langlois: Assess what you saw from Stuckey in the preseason and then your reaction to his injury.

Dumars: What I saw in the preseason was each game you looked and said, “He’s getting it a little bit more.” And, ironically, in that eighth preseason game, I remember looking at him and saying, “I think he’s figured it out.” He was so good in that game and you just sat there and realized he’s figuring out real quick what he’s able to do and how much impact he can have on a game for us. When he ran off the court, I said to (vice president) John (Hammond), “That’s probably broke.” He said, “Why do you say that?” “When you’re holding your hand like that, it’s not just a sprain.” Disappointed, obviously. For him, for us and for what we’re trying to do right now. But Stuckey was great after that game. His spirits were sky-high. He was fine. He wasn’t down in the dumps. When guys get injured, it’s a shot to the gut and then you hear he’s going to be out for several weeks. You sit there and kind of swallow hard. It is what it is.

Langlois: Do you expect once the rust shakes off that he’ll pick up where he left off?

Dumars: Yeah, because he’s young. When you’re young, it’s hard for stuff to keep you down. You don’t know any better. You’re young, you show up and you don’t worry about as much. You feel invincible. And I’m sure when he gets back on the court, you’ll see that youthfulness again that he shows out on the court.

Langlois: He does seem to have a pretty short learning curve. In the Las Vegas Summer League, Louis Williams was guarding him in his first game. And twice in that game, Stuckey was on the wing trying to feed the post and Williams – the guy guarding him, not guarding the post – picked off the entry pass. I didn’t see him make that mistake again in Vegas.

Dumars: He and Arron Afflalo both are extremely bright kids who get it. They understand. They both have tremendous work ethics and they’re both very bright. You talk to them and they understand what you’re saying and where you’re trying to go and they pick up things very quickly.

Langlois: This 10-game stretch to start the season with eight on the road, how important is that? And I wouldn’t expect you to put a number on it publicly, but do you look at that stretch and say if we can come out of it with X wins, we’ll be OK?

Dumars: I used to do that five, six years ago, I really did. I used to look at the schedule and say if we can come out with this record, we’ll be OK. Let me tell you the honest-to-God truth right now. I look at every game, and I say, “You know what? We should win that game. Or we have a chance to win that game.” And if we lost it, I’m disappointed. And I think that approach and that attitude permeates throughout the rest of the team, the coaches and the players. Coming from me, it has to be that way. They have to know that I expect us to win every game. Because if I throw them a record that’s acceptable to me, then I can never be really upset about a particular loss, because that’s just one of those losses I expected anyway. So I don’t even do it any more. I expect us to win every game when we step on the floor. And if we don’t, there better be a heck of a reason why we didn’t.

Langlois: Finally, what do you see when you look around the league after a week. Chicago’s 0-3, Indiana’s 3-0. Does any of it have any real meaning at this point?

Dumars: I think it means you’re not going to see any cakewalk games in the Eastern Conference. I think Atlanta is a much-improved team. They have some great young talent on that team, and I say this in all honesty: I’m a big fan of what Mike Woodson has done with that team. He’s got them doing certain things you have to have from a coaching standpoint, especially with a young team. He’s got them playing hard, they’re basically unselfish and they’re trying to make the right play. To get a young team to buy into that is huge. So when you’ve got teams like Atlanta that are not easy wins anymore, what it means is you’ve got to strap it up every night, which I kind of like. Because it forces your guys not to go into games thinking it’s a cakewalk.

Langlois: When you look at it, the East right now from the middle down is stronger than the West.

Dumars: No question about it. Top to bottom, it’s gotten very strong, very competitive in the East.