You Asked

One of the first things I tried to get done when I moved into this newly created job last fall was establish ways for the voice of the fan to be heard. We immediately launched Pistons Mailbag – a quick and easy way for fans to ask questions or offer insights on everything from personnel moves to game-day promotions.

My expectation was that once the season ended, Mailbag feedback would slow to a trickle. Not a chance. If anything, I’m getting greater response now than during the season. Your trade proposals were breathtaking in their relentless creativity. The Pistons had two No. 1 draft choices, so the draft stirred amazing interest. So did the Las Vegas Summer League. And the fate of free agents Chauncey Billups, Amir Johnson and Chris Webber.

One Mailbag question I got this week also seemed to encapsulate much of what I’m hearing and sensing from Pistons Nation. It came from Kris of Kalamazoo. Here’s what he wrote and here’s how I’ll answer when we post the next Mailbag on Thursday.

“As I look over the roster, I feel like I have the last couple of years. I see individual talent and character, but I’m also reminded of the way the last two years ended. I respect Joe Dumars’ unwillingness to sacrifice the future for a quick fix, but what is supposed to convince us as fans that this season will be different?”

Excellent question, Kris. In short, I’ll give you this: Joe D is counting on the youthful injection of raw energy and raw talent from players like Rodney Stuckey, Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell to alter the mix. If all of those players join the rotation – and I think it’s fairly certain all three will enter it in fairly prominent roles – that’s a significantly different team than the one that ended the season less than two months ago.

Let me expand on that answer.

Based on what the Pistons saw from those three players in particular during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, it’s more likely than ever that the mix is going to be altered.

Stuckey was everything the Pistons envisioned and more. He created significant buzz among other NBA teams and personnel gurus in Las Vegas. If you reshuffled the deck and did the draft again, my suspicion is that Stuckey would go higher than 15th – maybe much higher. Mike Conley went fourth to Memphis and left a generally favorable impression in Las Vegas, but a debate over Conley vs. Stuckey is one I’d love to hear.

As impressive as Stuckey’s tangibles were – the way he handled the ball and ran a team, the way he defended, the way he got to the basket and drew fouls, the way he shot it from mid-range and beyond – his intangibles are what really solidified the impression that the kid is going to help immediately. Stuckey flat-out took over games in the fourth quarter. Summer League or not, that’s significant.

Based on nothing more than Stuckey’s Las Vegas showing, I like the Pistons better going into 2007-08 than I did coming out of 2006-07. There are going to be hiccups, of course, but I’d be surprised if Stuckey didn’t warp the typical rookie’s learning curve. He’s going to be the first option behind Chauncey Billups, capable of giving him adequate rest, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he also grabbed most of the minutes available behind Rip Hamilton. I’d guess Stuckey gets 20 minutes a night fairly soon into the season and he’ll push for more.

But fans should also be excited for what Johnson and Maxiell promise. I see them being to this year’s Pistons what Dennis Rodman and John Salley were to the Pistons of 1987 and ’88 early in their careers. They might still be unfinished products, but so were Rodman and Salley – yet their impact on championship-caliber teams was enormous. Rodman and Salley affected games by injecting the Pistons with a huge dose of defensive energy.

I see Johnson and Maxiell doing it in a slightly different way, but the bottom line is that the tempo of games will go up a few notches with them on the floor. There will be nights those two combine for double-digit offensive rebounds or close to that in blocked shots – huge, momentum-swinging statistical categories.

The top nine in Flip Saunders’ rotation this year – and for the sake of argument, we’re going to pencil in Nazr Mohammed as the starting center and leave Chris Webber out of the discussion for now – look like this: Mohammed joining the four holdover stars, backed by Stuckey, Johnson, Maxiell and rock-solid Antonio McDyess.

Two or three other players could factor, though. One thing missing from that list is an obvious backup to Tayshaun Prince at small forward. Carlos Delfino filled the role last year but was traded to Toronto for two future second-round picks. Joe Dumars told me in Las Vegas that he was comfortable with the idea of going into the season with a combination of three players to fight for minutes behind Prince – and consider that Prince’s minutes are likely to be cut from the 36.6 he averaged last year based on what Dumars said in his end-of-season public address.

The three in the mix are holdover Ronald Dupree and rookies Arron Afflalo and Sammy Mejia. The Pistons liked what they saw from the two draft choices in Las Vegas, especially their defensive versatility and headiness. Both kids know how to play.

Afflalo would be first in line. The only thing he didn’t do well in Vegas was shoot, but it’s not a long-range worry. When I saw Afflalo play live three times as a college sophomore, the first thing that jumped out at me was how effortlessly he stroked 20-footers. As he finds his NBA niche, he’ll become a reliable perimeter shooter.

What the Pistons are absolutely sold on are Afflalo’s NBA readiness as a defender, his toughness and his character. He’ll be a fabulous fit in their locker room – a team-first guy who validated everything the Pistons believed about his mettle when he volunteered during his Vegas debut to cover Philadelphia point guard Louis Williams after he’d exploded to give the 76ers a fourth-quarter lead.

I’m also intrigued by Dupree getting a real opportunity for minutes. There were times in training camp last year when he would soundly outplay Carlos Delfino in scrimmages, but the Pistons were committed to giving Delfino room to grow. The Pistons were right to think Delfino had the higher ceiling, but it proved a double-edged sword.

Delfino could make more plays in the open court than Dupree because he’s a better ballhandler and he represented more of a perimeter shooting threat than Dupree. But Delfino made too many reckless decisions with the ball in his hands and fell too much in love with a 3-point shot that never gained the necessary consistency. Ultimately, they might be better off with Dupree, a guy who understands his limitations and stays within those boundaries.

There’s one more wild card worth considering. It goes back to Stuckey. If Stuckey really forces his way into the lineup – if his performance warrants 30 minutes a game – it’s possible the Pistons could play a lineup in stretches that includes Billups, Stuckey and Hamilton, the latter swinging to small forward. He’s had fairly effective stints guarding even LeBron James, as physical as any small forward in the game. You wouldn’t want to give him a steady diet of such matchups, but in a league trending to smaller lineups Hamilton at small forward is no longer an invalid consideration.

Add all of that up and you have a team that will be at once familiar yet significantly different than the one you last saw not two months ago. Here’s what else I sense from fans: As training camp opens and those changes become evident, fans like Kris – pretty representative of Pistons Nation, from what I can gather – are going to look at the Pistons and feel pretty good about the season ahead. And the future beyond that.