AUBURN HILLS – Some 128 days after being hired but only 23 days since convening training camp, Dwane Casey’s official debut as Pistons coach is at hand.
It’s that second one – the 23 days – that is most relevant where tonight’s season opener when Brooklyn comes to Little Caesars Arena is concerned.
“You never feel prepared,” Casey said after wrapping up the last practice before the opener. “You never feel like you’re 100 percent ready, but they’re not going to change the schedule.”
The Pistons went 2-3 in the preseason, winning their first and last games, with Reggie Jackson and Blake Griffin playing only the final three games – all on minutes restrictions.
That’s over now. Casey isn’t going to run anyone into the ground – in fact, his track record is to go deeper into his bench than most coaches – but Jackson and Griffin have no red flags on them from the medical team.
Casey – the reigning NBA Coach of the Year, both in the official vote and in a vote of his peers – would naturally love to get off to a fast start, but he’s not losing sight of the fact that a few bumps are to be expected with a new coach taking over and implementing an offensive system that represents a fairly radical departure from the one in place when Casey arrived.
“I’ve been around long enough to know Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Casey said. “If we don’t go 6 and 0, 7 and 0, it’s not the end of the world. It’s a process. It’s about patience and understanding. Yes, we’d love to get out (strong), but I’m not going to push the panic button if we don’t.”
The Pistons are going to shoot a lot more 3-pointers – they averaged 41 a game in the preseason, second only to Houston – and there will be far fewer set plays or play calls coming from the sideline. Casey wants the Pistons to stick to their offensive tenets but not run rote plays that opponents have scouted ad nauseum to know what’s coming.
While Jackson and Griffin have clean bills of health for the opener, the Pistons aren’t without injury concerns. Stanley Johnson, bothered by a toe injury that caused him to miss a preseason game last week, is questionable after sitting out the last three days of practice. Johnson and Reggie Bullock were anticipated to join Jackson, Griffin and Andre Drummond in the starting lineup. If Johnson is held out, Glenn Robinson III, Luke Kennard or Langston Galloway are the leading candidates to fill out the starting lineup.
The NBA has over the past two years moved to reduce the number of preseason games and lop one week off of the time between the start of training camp and the opening of the regular season. The Pistons – or their new coach, at least – probably wish this year they’d have had the extra time.
“I would say if you polled every NBA coach right now,” Casey said, “they’d like to have another week. But I like the way our guys have worked. There’s been a positive vibe. We’ve got to make sure we keep that. It’s a long season. We’ve got to enjoy it. We’ve got to have fun, but the way you have fun is competing – competing together, competing for each other. I know as fans, you want it done yesterday. But the key is players enjoying it, doing it from a positive and pure heart, and good things happen when you approach basketball that way.”