Spencer Dinwiddie

Keith Langlois

Point guard will become the deepest position on Stan Van Gundy’s roster when all hands are on deck, but they’ll be two shy for tonight’s preseason opener against Chicago. It could have been worse, but Brandon Jennings – who pulled out of Monday’s practice with knee soreness – proclaimed himself good to go and he’ll start against the Bulls.

Joining him in Van Gundy’s first starting lineup – which he says was chosen almost at random and will change for Thursday’s game with Milwaukee – will be Jodie Meeks, Andre Drummond, Josh Smith and Caron Butler. Van Gundy will use a 10-man rotation tonight, he said after this morning’s shootaround, and the second unit will consist of Greg Monroe, Jonas Jerebko, Kyle Singler, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and D.J. Augustin.

Will Bynum strained a hamstring minutes into the first training camp practice and hasn’t participated since, which leaves Augustin and Jennings among the four point guards who figure to occupy roster spots once Van Gundy trims to the league-mandated 15 by Oct. 27.

But Spencer Dinwiddie might be close to entering the competition.

“You’ve got to ask Stan and (physical therapist) Arnie (Kander) that,” grinned Dinwiddie, under strict orders to avoid timelines as he recovers from January ACL surgery that ended his junior season at Colorado and pushed him into the second round of June’s draft.

“I don’t really have a say in it. If it was my choice, I���d be starting against the Bulls. But it’s not my call.”’

Dinwiddie has yet to be cleared for full participation in practices, but he took a major step forward when he was given the OK to take part in live three-on-three drills. Before that, he could do individual work and be part of walk-through sessions. Monday was the first time he was thrown into a situation where he was allowed to respond to another player’s movements.

“That was a positive,” Van Gundy said. “to see him actually in drills where it was competitive and he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen next. I thought he did well, but it’s limited time.”

“It was good. I had a turnover, got a couple of steals, played basketball,” Dinwiddie said. “I was happy.”

The Pistons and Dinwiddie both feel that whenever he’s cleared, he won’t be far behind. He’s a quick study and has been diligent about his conditioning while rehabilitating the injury.

“I’ve been doing live action half court and obviously that’s not a real game, but it’s not very far off at all, either,” he said. “We run plays and run the action and run our calls defensively. I’m getting used to that and adjusting to the NBA, how it’s played, how it’s called, the speed and everything. Just got to get to full court.”

It stands to reason he’ll have a prolonged adjustment period, first because he hasn’t played basketball in 10 months and also because – like any rookie – the size and speed of NBA players reduces the window for decision making and action. But Van Gundy is bullish on Dinwiddie’s future for a lot of reasons, including his makeup and his size. At 6-foot-6, Dinwiddie will have passing angles to him that the three veteran Pistons point guards – all of them somewhat undersized – simply would not.

He says he has zero discomfort with his knee and his testing results are basically back to pre-injury levels with the possible exception of a slightly lower vertical leap at present. He says his running maximum vertical leap off the injured left leg is a little below what it was, but the same measurement off his right leg is better than before.

“Everything feels good and I’m moving at a very good pace,” he said. “I have to adjust to this level, but I can’t tell any discernible difference except that I jump a little bit lower than I did. That’s about it.”

pistons-down-2-pgs-for-preseason-opener-but-dinwiddie-gaining-fast

Pistons down 2 PGs for preseason opener, but Dinwiddie gaining fast

(Editor’s note: Pistons.com today continues a five-part series on the key questions to be addressed in Pistons training camp with a look at who will emerge from the positional battle at point guard and whether rookie Spencer Dinwiddie becomes a factor. Coming Friday: Can the Pistons start developing the chemistry in training camp that eluded them last season?)

A decade ago, power forward was the most stocked position in the NBA. In the Western Conference alone, you had Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Pao Gasol, Tim Duncan and Amare Stoudemire. Rasheed Wallace had just left to come East and complete the Pistons’ 2004 NBA championship puzzle, where he had to battle players like Jermaine O’Neal in Indiana and Kenyon Martin in New Jersey. Chris Bosh had already announced himself as a future star in Toronto, too.

Today, point guard is the NBA’s dominant position, reflecting not only the depth of talent among modern-day point guards but also the influence they exert as the game has evolved to become more fluid and perimeter oriented. Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Stephen Curry, Rajon Rondo, Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Ricky Rubio, Ty Lawson and Kyle Lowry are among the many who present matchup problems across the league.

After signing Josh Smith in free agency in July 2013, then-Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars decided he needed to upgrade the position to make a credible playoff push. So he swapped two-year veteran Brandon Knight to Milwaukee for four-year vet Brandon Jennings, who certainly seemed on track to become a top-10 point guard not so long ago. Who could forget the 55 points he scored in his seventh NBA game less than five years ago?

And Jennings, despite missing nearly all of the preseason with a broken jaw, got off to a strong start in Detroit. When the Pistons played their best basketball of the season last December, including road wins at red-hot Indiana and Miami, Jennings averaged 18.9 points and 8.4 assists in 17 games.

But as their season began spinning out of control in January, Jennings’ play gradually deteriorated. Over the season’s final 24 games, he averaged 12.2 points and 6.8 assists and saw his 3-point percentage sink to .287. He admitted the firing of Maurice Cheeks just before the February All-Star break affected him and called it the worst of his five NBA seasons.

He’ll find a vastly different environment awaiting him when training camp opens next week. Stan Van Gundy’s playbook will place Jennings in a more structured offense, perhaps more similar to what he experienced under Scott Skiles early in his Milwaukee days. Upon being hired in Detroit, Van Gundy remarked that Jennings’ good games were often flawed by four or five poor decisions and said it was the job of the coaching staff to put him in positions to succeed and help him become more judicious in his choices.

To be sure, Van Gundy has alternatives at the ready. D.J. Augustin played superbly upon having his career rescued by Chicago last season after Toronto waived him. He averaged 14.9 points and 5.0 assists in starter’s minutes (30 per game) while shooting 41 percent from the 3-point line. Van Gundy remembers the pick-and-roll acumen of Augustin in his early years with Charlotte and was further attracted to him by the way he operated Tom Thibodeau’s offense in Chicago.

Jennings, who comes to camp having added noticeable bulk to his sinewy frame that can’t help but aid him on defense and in absorbing contact on penetration, will have to play well and prove a trustworthy caretaker of the ball to secure his status as the incumbent.

And then there’s Will Bynum, never one to be written off. Bynum, now the longest-tenured Piston with six seasons under his belt, comes to camp leaner after altering his diet. He’s focused on being a defensive hound and emerging as a team leader. His proven chemistry with Andre Drummond on pick-and-roll plays alone will make Bynum a candidate to carve out a role.

Beyond the three veterans – all of whom give up size to the vast majority of those accomplished point guards enumerated above – there’s rookie Spencer Dinwiddie. He isn’t likely to appear in the preseason as he continues his rehabilitation from January ACL reconstruction, but Van Gundy is genuinely enthused by Dinwiddie’s makeup and size.

At 6-foot-6, not only will Dinwiddie have passing lanes available to him the others won’t, his length would give Van Gundy the flexibility to cross-match in the backcourt. That would be especially true when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – whose quickness and size can disrupt opposing point guards as they attempt to get their team into sets – is in the lineup at shooting guard.

They’re all just different enough that Van Gundy will have options to help the Pistons hold their own against the cream of the league’s deep point guard crop. But it’s difficult to keep four players at one position sharp enough to be reliable contributors. Van Gundy will have to sort a few things out at point guard in training camp and the seven-game preseason schedule.

camp-qs-wholl-emerge-in-a-4-man-race-to-be-pistons-floor-general

Camp Qs: Who’ll emerge in a 4-man race to be Pistons floor general?

nbaplatformservices

nba-life-spencer-dinwiddie-at-camp

NBA Life: Spencer Dinwiddie at Camp

admin

(Editor’s note: Pistons.com today starts a five-part series examining the roster by position as the Pistons prepare for training camp by taking a look at their point guards. Coming Tuesday: shooting guard.)

One of the objectives Stan Van Gundy took into his first stab at free agency over the summer was to build greater depth and make Pistons practices a competitive cauldron. Nowhere will the fight for playing time in training camp and the preseason be more intense than at point guard.

Brandon Jennings returns as the incumbent starter, but under a coach with a far different style – and under an administration that didn’t send former lottery pick Brandon Knight and promising shooter Khris Middleton out of town to get him or commit a reported $24 million over three seasons for his services.

In other words, incumbency guarantees little. Van Gundy sees talent in Jennings and puts the onus of harnessing it on the coaching staff, which now includes a former dynamic NBA point guard, Tim Hardaway, who managed to play creatively but not recklessly.

Depth chart: Brandon Jennings, D.J. Augustin/Will Bynum, Spencer Dinwiddie

Flexibility: In an era where NBA coaches are more willing than ever to field unorthodox lineups, it’s well within the realm of possibility that Stan Van Gundy will pair two point guards in the backcourt – even if it’s merely to match the many other teams to do so. Bynum, for one example, can be devastating attacking from the wing when he plays off the ball. When Dinwiddie, coming off January ACL surgery, is cleared to play, his size will make such pairings more viable at the defensive end.

The skinny: Jennings comes to camp as the incumbent starter entering his sixth NBA season. He’ll find a more structured offense awaiting him with Van Gundy. The Pistons signed Augustin knowing that he enjoyed tremendous success in Chicago under a similar structured offense. Bynum’s pick-and-roll acumen and toughness make him a factor. Dinwiddie’s potential has the Pistons excited for his future.

“My initial thought (on Jennings) is a little more structure in terms of the situations we put him in and a little more discipline on his part,” Van Gundy said not long after being named Pistons coach in mid-May. “What you see a lot in Brandon Jennings is he’ll have a game where he basically plays pretty well and then he’s got three, four, five plays in a lot of games that are unexplainable. He’s got to cut those out and become a more disciplined guy. Because he’s been in the league a little bit, people sometimes forget how young he is. He’s very young. He’s talented and a lot of those discipline things tend to take some time to really understand.”

Jennings averaged 15.5 points and 7.6 assists in 34 minutes a game last season, but his play tailed off over the final two months and he admitted disappointment with the mid-season firing of Maurice Cheeks. If Van Gundy’s influence can help Jennings rediscover the player who averaged 18.9 points and 8.4 assists while shooting 38 percent from the 3-point line in 17 December games, there won’t be much question as to who emerges from training camp atop the depth chart at point guard.

At his best, Jennings is a streaky scorer who provides incredible bursts to change games while otherwise using his speed to stress defenses and then his vision to exploit overcompensation for his penetration. His slight frame challenges him defensively, but Jennings self-reported over the summer that he’d added 10 pounds of muscle and it looked it when he showed up in Auburn Hills last week for workouts; he’d done the same last summer, but quickly shed it when he suffered a broken jaw and had to have it wired shut. A stronger Jennings who offers more perimeter resistance, combined with the anticipation that has allowed him to rack up 530 career steals, will help the Pistons make strides on the other end, as well.

Assuming Jennings establishes himself as the starter, the battle to be his backup could be the most intense position battle in training camp. It will be waged by Will Bynum – now the longest-tenured Piston at six seasons and counting – and D.J. Augustin, who could prove one of the bargains of 2014’s free agency.

“A competitive atmosphere is needed first in practice in order to take it into games,” Pistons general manager Jeff Bower said of the picture at point guard. “We have talented young men there that have different styles of play and different areas of strength and present options for coach Van Gundy to utilize given the situation. We think we have very good depth there and we do have a composite set of strengths and skills that only add to the versatility and the options as far as the game that night and throughout the season.”

Van Gundy prioritized shooting guard and small forward and came away with Jodie Meeks, Caron Butler and Cartier Martin at those positions. He never expected to have enough left over to get in the bidding for Augustin after his career year with Chicago last season, when he averaged 14.9 points and shot 41 percent from the 3-point line in 30 minutes a game after being cut by Toronto.

“He’s a great guy. He’s got great character, very intelligent,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said after losing Augustin to the Pistons. “He’s a guy who’s had a lot of success in the league, so he’s a proven veteran. He plays for the team and he plays to win and guys like that always add a lot to your team.”

Van Gundy naturally took note of Augustin’s performance for the Bulls, in Thibodeau’s highly structured system, but also remembered how difficult to contain Augustin proved early in his career when Van Gundy’s Orlando team went against Charlotte in a playoff series.

“I go back to Charlotte and, holy cow, that guy was hard to stop in pick and roll,” Van Gundy said. “That’s a guy we really, really wanted.”

Augustin’s edge over Bynum comes from the 3-point line, where he is a 38 percent career shooter. But Bynum is also a dynamic pick-and-roll operator who has the added bonus of having developed great chemistry with Andre Drummond. Bynum has also had experience playing off the ball for the Pistons, where he can receive passes with a full head of steam and attack the paint with even greater force.

The wild card at point guard is rookie Spencer Dinwiddie, a sure-fire first-round pick – and a potential lottery pick – if not for a January knee injury that required ACL reconstruction and allowed the Pistons to grab him with their only pick, 38 in the second round. Dinwiddie attacked his rehabilitation vigorously, moving to Houston to work with the same trainer credited with getting Adrian Peterson back on a football field nine months after a similar injury, and Van Gundy become even more convinced of Dindwiddie’s NBA future after seeing his work habits and getting a taste of his makeup since the June draft.

“I’ve got a really good feeling about him,” Van Gundy said. “I liked what I saw on film, I like where he is in rehab, I like his approach and I do have expectations for him being a good player in our organization. When he’s back, basketball is going to come around.”

Dinwiddie has yet to be cleared for full contact and there is no indication that will come in time for training camp. But the team’s medical staff is confident that he’ll return at 100 percent. Whenever that is, Dinwiddie’s size, shooting range and feel for the game will give the Pistons another option at point guard – and a very different one than the three veterans.

“He’s a big point guard and those guys have tremendous advantages in terms of their ability to see the floor,” Van Gundy said. “He’s a pass-first point guard who can score rather than a scoring point guard who can pass. He’s a very, very competitive guy who can figure out what it takes to get it done in games.”

augustin-dinwiddie-make-point-guard-pistons-deepest-position

Augustin, Dinwiddie make point guard Pistons deepest position

players-lounge-spencer-dinwiddie

Players Lounge: Spencer Dinwiddie

The Pistons return the two point guards who played virtually every meaningful minute for them last season, Brandon Jennings and Will Bynum. They signed two guards in free agency, Jodie Meeks and D.J. Augustin, who are in the prime and coming off career seasons.

So Stan Van Gundy will have plenty of options to consider as he configures his backcourt for the season ahead. But one combination that has him intrigued already is one he’ll have to wait on for a little bit, most likely – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Spender Dinwiddie.

Time is on his side, at least. Caldwell-Pope and Dinwiddie are both only 21. But they’ve both made an impression on Van Gundy in the weeks since he signed on to run the show for Tom Gores from both the sideline and front office.

Van Gundy knew when he drafted Dinwiddie in late June that his availability for the season ahead was uncertain. He also knew that’s the only reason he had the chance to draft the Colorado junior 38th overall. The ACL tear Dinwiddie suffered in mid-January pushed him out of lottery consideration and, ultimately, the entire first round. At that spot in the draft, the chance to land a potential impact player made Dinwiddie an easy choice for the Pistons.

Van Gundy said at the time he had no expectations for Dinwiddie for this season, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to hold the rookie back if his rehabilitation dictates differently.

“We want to follow his rehabilitation,” he said. “When he hits certain points and he’s able to do more, he does more. We don’t want to get caught up in the calendar as much as what’s going on with his knee.”

Dinwiddie has been obedient in following orders to not talk about a timetable for his return, but it’s no secret he wants to be ready sooner rather than later. And Pistons physical therapist Arnie Kander has said Dinwiddie is an ideal candidate to return at full strength based on the makeup of his knee and his running stride. Whenever that time comes, Van Gundy is excited about what he has in Dinwiddie.

“No. 1, he’s a big guard and those guys have tremendous advantages in terms of their ability to see the floor,” he said. “He’s a pass-first point guard who can score rather than a scoring point guard who can pass. There’s a little bit of a difference there. I think he’s a very, very competitive guy who can figure out what it takes to get it done in games.

“And then the other thing he provides, because of his size, is a lot of flexibility on the defensive end. You can switch more pick and rolls because of his size. You can take a guy like KCP with tremendous quickness and put him on point guards because now you’re big enough to play that way. At any position, size for the position is always a major benefit, but I think he’s a rare 6-6 guy who is a true point guard, sees the game like a point guard, thinks the game like a point guard and knows how to get other people involved.”

Dinwiddie wasn’t yet in the fold when Van Gundy came to the Pistons and Caldwell-Pope surely wasn’t as squarely in his plans before his breakout Summer League performance, averaging 24 points and seven rebounds a game.

“He opened my eyes a lot,” Van Gundy said. “More than anything what opened my eyes was the intensity and energy he brings to the floor every time he plays. He’s an all-out guy all the time – practices, games. The other thing I saw is a real competitive side to him that I wasn’t really aware of but I saw a real resolve and toughness and competitiveness that I came out excited just by his approach and his mental makeup in the way he goes about things.”

Van Gundy has set steady improvement as a major goal for the season ahead. The expectation is that the depth he added will lead to consistently high effort and, as the Pistons develop chemistry and grow more comfortable over time with his defensive scheme, they’ll show consistent progress.

But another reason they figure to get better week over week is the upside of players like Andre Drummond – he joined Caldwell-Pope and Dinwiddie as 21-year-olds by celebrating his birthday Sunday – and the two young guards who might someday soon form a rangy and multitalented backcourt.

Spencer Dinwiddie

Pistons down 2 PGs for preseason opener, but Dinwiddie gaining fast

Camp Qs: Who’ll emerge in a 4-man race to be Pistons floor general?

NBA Life: Spencer Dinwiddie at Camp

Augustin, Dinwiddie make point guard Pistons deepest position

Players Lounge: Spencer Dinwiddie

KCP, Dinwiddie could give Pistons great defensive flexibility in seasons to come

The Wrap: Week 14, Summer Edition

NBA Life: Spencer Dinwiddie