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Langlois: I understand your point, but I don’t think that signing Ben Wallace or a comparable veteran big man is going to slow anyone’s development. The Pistons right now have four big men – Jason Maxiell, Charlie Villanueva, Kwame Brown and Chris Wilcox – and that’s leaving yourself really thin. That doesn’t count the three rookies, but DaJuan Summers and Austin Daye are more capable of playing small forward right now; Jonas Jerebko looked good in Las Vegas, but I don’t know that you’d want to go into his rookie season counting on him to be in the rotation. Besides, the Pistons are going to be a really young team even if do sign a frontcourt veteran to fill out the rotation. And if Ben Wallace comes to town with the same attitude he exhibited during his six seasons here, that can’t help but be a positive influence on the generation of players being groomed for success.
Langlois: If they don’t sign a No. 3 point guard after rounding out the frontcourt with one more big man on a vet’s minimum deal, then I think it’s likelier that they would leave the 15th roster spot open than it would be to sign a sixth veteran big. I could buy the case that the Pistons could get away without a No. 3 point guard when Ben Gordon as well as Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum are all capable of playing the position. I still think it’s likelier that they at least bring another veteran to camp with the chance to win a roster spot, if not signing someone before camp to a guaranteed contract, but I could see the Pistons opening the season with a 14-man roster to give them flexibility to add wherever they see a need as the season unfolds.
Langlois: Not quite daily, Steven, but lots of ideas get bounced around. I can’t confirm that particular trade idea, but you’re right that it’s another pretty audacious proposal if it really happened. Giddens and Pruitt have next to zero value, so that deal is essentially Maxiell and a No. 1 for Davis. You’d have to think long and hard, if you’re the Pistons, if you want to trade Maxiell straight up for Davis. I expect a bounce-back year for Maxiell, who had a tough time last year with all the lineup juggling that started with the December switch to small ball when he started getting some DNP-CDs. He’s not the scoring threat Davis is, but he’s just as clearly better on the defensive end.
Langlois: Any objective analysis of the Eastern Conference has to put Boston, Orlando and Cleveland – in some order – at the top. Atlanta probably is a solid No. 4 right now, assuming the Hawks keep their young core intact through the summer and into the season, and Washington – if Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood come back in form – is my darkhorse to crack the top four. After that, the Pistons are lumped with Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia, but the Pistons have the most growth potential of that group. I’m curious to see how Cleveland is going to make it work with Shaq and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Hard to see them ever playing together, so that means Ilgauskas is going to get maybe 20 minutes a game. I’m not sure that makes the Cavs a better team.
Langlois: When Jerebko worked out for the Pistons before the draft, he measured in at a little over 6-foot-10 in shoes. That appears to be about right. DaJuan Summers measured in at 6-foot-8½ in shoes at the Chicago predraft camp, and Jerebko did look to be close to 2 inches taller than Summers when they stood near each other in Las Vegas. Jerebko has said he’s played small forward all his life, but he certainly appeared to have the physical tools to man the power forward position in the NBA. And since there really aren’t more than a dozen or so players in the league considered true centers who are also proficient low-post scorers, the Pistons could get away with playing Jerebko at center, perhaps, someday and in select matchups. As for the issue of exact heights, fans are far more obsessed than teams. The only really accurate gauge of a player’s height comes during the draft process when teams measure them with and without shoes. I can’t begin to tell you how many questions I took over the last few years wanting to know how tall Amir Johnson was. The Pistons never really knew. Amir Johnson said he was up to 6-foot-11. When we mentioned that to Flip Saunders once, he looked over his shoulder at Johnson and said, “I know 6-11. That ain’t 6-11.”
Langlois: Right now, the Pistons have at least three players who can defend the post – Kwame Brown, Jason Maxiell and Wilcox. Charlie Villanueva could make it four. I haven’t studied him enough defensively yet to have a great feel for it, but he’s certainly got the length to contest shots in the post. I would expect the fifth big man Joe Dumars looks to acquire to have the ability to defend the post, as well. Jerebko did a nice job in Las Vegas even when he was matched with 7-footers with NBA backgrounds like Patrick O’Bryant and Jamaal Sampson.
Langlois: I’m distrustful of weight listings. I think teams list whatever the player tells them to list, even if they keep accurate readings for their own purposes. I don’t know what Wilcox’s true weight is, but seeing him in person, as I did on Wednesday, tells you he’s definitely got an NBA body. And working with Arnie Kander should benefit him, as it does most players, in adding functional strength without necessarily adding bulk. There aren’t many NBA centers who’ll physically overwhelm Wilcox.
Langlois: Unlikely. The best chance for one of them to be traded came when the Pistons still had cap space and greater flexibility to facilitate three-team trades. I don’t see many fits out there any more with all the movement that’s taken place as teams have addressed their needs. As far as Rip playing small forward permanently, I don’t see it. I’m all for giving him 10 or 12 minutes a game there – and I think it’s absolutely necessary if the Pistons are going to get their money’s worth out of Ben Gordon – and John Kuester told me in Las Vegas that the Pistons will play small with Hamilton and Prince bumping up one position at times. But you’ve got to pick your spots for him and avoid putting him in situations where he’s giving away 40 or 50 pounds consistently or Hamilton will take a physical pounding. And at 31, that’s inviting physical breakdowns. I doubt it’s coincidence in Hamilton’s mind, at least, that the groin injury that dogged him throughout the second half of the season came about two weeks after the switch to small ball last season.
Langlois: I think he should be there because for a good number of seasons he was one of the top rebounders and top defenders in the game. Rodman’s influence on games was enormous and he did it over many seasons. But I don’t think there’s any question he’s fighting an uphill battle because his personal life became so eccentric. If he rehabilitates himself and mends some fences, and gets players like Michael Jordan and others to go to bat for him, he’s got a chance someday.
Langlois: The Pistons have a solid working rotation before you give any consideration to the three rookies. That’s a comfortable situation both for the team and the players. They’re all good enough in at least one particular area to get consideration for minutes, but it wouldn’t surprise me if none of the three draftees works his way into the rotation next season.
Langlois: Expect him to be on the roster when the season starts now that Arron Afflalo has been traded to Denver, Chad. He isn’t as polished offensively as Afflalo, but he’s longer and more athletic, so he has a chance to emerge as an effective perimeter defender.
Langlois: The Pistons didn’t appear ready to commit to a No. 3 point guard upon leaving Las Vegas. Pargo, a late addition after going undrafted, might need a year or two in Europe honing his ballhandling before he’s ready to jump to the NBA, but he does have a solid NBA body – very thick in the chest and legs.
Langlois: I don’t know that we’ll have a complete grasp of Daye’s game for at least a few seasons, Adam. What the Pistons know about him now suggests that, at the very least, he’ll be a 6-foot-11 player who demands that defenses pay attention to him out to the 3-point line and beyond. And that’s a pretty good start. But he showed other things in Las Vegas, too. His rebounding was a major surprise. After spearing just two in his first game, he averaged better than 10 over the last four. Even though he was a little turnover prone, he showed very good court vision and showed the potential to be a dangerous operator on pick-and-roll plays as the facilitator. Maybe the most impressive thing was his lightning release in catch-and-shoot situations coming off of screens. We’ll have to see how the rebounding translates, but that shot isn’t going anywhere. Kukoc is a decent analogy, but it’s too soon to pigeon-hole him just yet.
Langlois: The game has changed, Larry, and left the behemoths behind. Oops. Sorry. Couldn’t resist. But it has changed to this degree: If you put any old plodding 7-footer in the middle, just to say you’re playing with a “true center,” you’ll pay. You’ll pay because he can’t defend away from the rim, because he can’t come off of his man to slide across the lane when the ball swings to the opposite corner and the defense shifts accordingly, because he doesn’t have the quickness to slide over to cut off penetration and recover to prevent a dump-off to his man for a layup, because his man beats him back in transition for a dunk or an easy follow, because of any number of other reasons. You ask how the Pistons can get that big man who will rip the boards every night? I don’t know. Where is he? There were six – six – NBA players who averaged double-digit rebounds last season. Four of them – Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Emeka Okafor and Chris Bosh – earn eight figures a season and the other two are Troy Murphy and David Lee, the latter a restricted free agent. Cleveland didn’t have one, Boston didn’t have one and the Lakers didn’t have one. Rebounding must be a shared, team-wide endeavor. Charlie Villanueva averaged 6.7 in 27 minutes a game last year, which was 36th in the league. Chris Wilcox is a solid rebounder. Kwame Brown and Jason Maxiell are solid rebounders. The Pistons will have good size at their perimeter positions, so they can expect to get rebounds from those spots, as well. As much as fans wish a 7-footer with nimble feet who swats shots with both hands would fall into the Pistons’ laps, it’s not very likely to happen.
Langlois: Your premise is off, Kevin. The Pistons don’t have an MLE to use this summer and won’t until next July 1, assuming they’re at or over the salary cap, or under it by less than the amount of the MLE, which this season has been set at $5.854 million. But that’s beside the point, anyway – the Pistons can’t offer Kwame an extension. Only contracts of four years or more in length can be extended, and in most cases they can’t be extended until three years after they were signed. That’s why we’ve read this summer about contract extensions being possible for players like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who in the summer of 2006 signed five-year contracts with opt-out clauses after four years.
Langlois: Whenever they get them finished, Lee. There’s really no urgency or drama in NBA rookie deals, unlike the NFL and baseball. The collective-bargaining agreement very strictly slots the deals with only marginal wiggle room. I anticipate the Pistons will complete what’s left of their roster makeover with veterans first – likely signing one more veteran big man – before the rookie deals are done. That would allow them to give Austin Daye slightly more than the $1.4 million cap hold on their books already as the 15th pick. The two second-rounders will be signed to minimum deals, which have no affect on the salary cap.
Langlois: They didn’t sign Carter, they traded for him in a deal that fell within cap parameters. Gortat was their own free agent and they matched the contract he signed with Dallas, which didn’t require them to use any of their cap exceptions. They signed Bass and Barnes both, apparently, with their mid-level exception, Bass getting about $4 million of it and Barnes the remainder.
Langlois: It is now. He’s signed to play in Spain, according to reports. They really didn’t have any more room for him after drafting three combo forwards, anyway, but they had to renounce their rights to him before July 1 or else he would have remained on their cap and impeded their ability to restock the roster with free agents.
Langlois: He looked pretty good … but pretty small. I like Singletary. He’s a great kid and a nice player who is right on the cusp, like hundreds of players, of being good enough to stick on an NBA roster if he finds the right situation. But when the Pistons already have one undersized point guard, Will Bynum, it’s tough adding a second one unless he does something spectacularly well. And while Bynum is short, he’s thick. Singletary is almost frail with pencil-thin legs.
Langlois: Passive is never a word I’ve heard linked to Ben Gordon. Ask Boston how passive he was in their seven-game playoff series. Gordon is a tremendous 3-point shooter, but he’s also extremely dangerous off the dribble and gets to the rim often. Prince is not a slasher, but probably his best offensive move has become the one where he backs down shorter defenders and scores over them with a variety of shots – the hook over his right shoulder, the up-and-under or the short jump shot. And if you’re going to include Hamilton as a wing, which he is, passive wouldn’t exactly apply to him, either.
