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True Blue Pistons
The Official Pistons.com Blog
Award-winning journalist Keith Langlois, most recently lead sports columnist at The Oakland Press, joined Pistons.com as the web site editor on October 2, 2006. Langlois, who brings over 27 years of professional sports journalism experience to Palace Sports & Entertainment, serves as Pistons.com's official beat writer and covers the team on a daily basis.
Questions and comments on Keith's posts can be submitted via the Pistons Mailbag. Or follow Keith on Twitter.
If Andre Drummond keeps showing up on lists populated by present or future Hall of Famers, he's probably going to wind up there himself.
There's the one where Drummond ranks first for players 20 or under in rebounding with his current average of 12.7 a game, slotted one ahead of Dwight Howard. When his streak of six straight games of six or more offensive rebounds was snapped as he sat out the fourth quarter of Tuesday's game with Minnesota, he found himself in the company of Dennis Rodman.
He's drawing notice for the consistent impact he has on games, but it should be remembered that Drummond is still not only frightfully young but truly in his infancy as a basketball player, more so, perhaps, than many AAU stars who identify themselves as elite players in their pre-teen years. That wasn't Drummond, who had to catch up to his body, though it was a frame that had college coaches intrigued even when the production lagged well behind his potential.
Continue reading Good Company>>
Posted Wednesday, December 11, 2013
For three quarters, Big Easy aptly described the way New Orleans got to the rim and scored against the Pistons. Playing their fourth game in five nights against a team that hadn't played since last Friday, a road comeback from 12 points down seemed about as likely as Bourbon Street running out of, well, bourbon.
But come back the Pistons did. Outrebounded by 38-22 through three quarters, they grabbed 21 in the final quarter and overtime and closed the gap by half. They shut down the paint that New Orleans guards Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans penetrated repeatedly in wracking up 83 points through three quarters. And they rode Greg Monroe, who grew up down the street, to put themselves in position to win.
They might have, too, but Brandon Jennings, whose hot shooting in the first half kept the Pistons from being run out of the building, missed two long jump shots on the final possession of regulation and Ryan Anderson – an elite 3-point shooter who missed 10 of 12 shots behind the arc in regulation – nailed two big ones in overtime to send the Pistons to their third straight loss after they won four straight last week.
Continue reading Comeback Comes Up Short >>
Posted Tuesday, December 10, 2013
As it turns out, Tina Turner, Love's got plenty to do with it.
Kevin Love, at least. Look at the start of his line from Tuesday's 121-94 Minnesota humbling of the Pistons at The Palace and you'd think he had a lousy night: 6 baskets, 15 attempts. Look at the rest and you wonder where the Pistons went to treat their burns.
Love scored 26 points and he did it mainly in two ways: 3-point shooting and free throws, a testament to his unique ability to knock down shots from the perimeter and take it inside and bait the opposition into fouling. Love made 4 of 6 from the 3-point line, 10 of 10 from the foul line, for 22 of his points. When he's locked in from distance, well …
"He's more effective," Josh Smith said. "He can use the pump fake, he can drive, he's good around the rim at finishing. It's tough to guard a person like that, especially when he's knocking down 3-pointers. We've got to be able to take away something from his game and we weren't able to do that tonight."
Continue reading Love Prevails >>
Posted Monday, December 9, 2013
When Mo Cheeks sent the Pistons back out to start the second quarter Sunday night, not a starter was among the chosen. Will Bynum and Chauncey Billups were still in street clothes, nursing leg injuries, and they were joined this night by Rodney Stuckey. Kyle Singler, along with Stuckey the other staple of Detroit's bench through the first quarter of the season, wasn't out there, either.
That meant not a player among the preferred first eight was on the floor for a game the Pistons already trailed by eight points – against the defending NBA champion Miami Heat, bent on avenging a home loss against the upstart Pistons just five nights earlier.
To be sure, all five players Cheeks sent out to prevent their deficit from swelling had been outside his rotation at some point over the first 20 games.
Continue reading Be Prepared >>
Posted Sunday, December 8, 2013
Getting off to a slow start against the defending NBA champion in one half is playing with fire. Getting off to a slow start in both halves is pouring gasoline on yourself and lighting a match.
The Pistons survived a sluggish start to the game, coming from 11 back early to within two points. But a similarly disastrous start to the third quarter undid them, especially when they were playing without three of their top four guards in Rodney Stuckey (left knee tendinitis), Chauncey Billups (ditto) and Will Bynum (left adductor strain, an upper leg injury).
Yes, Miami was without Dwyane Wade. And they replaced him with a Hall of Famer, Ray Allen, while the Pistons had to lean heavily on rookie guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Peyton Siva to provide a modicum of relief for the only other healthy guard left, Brandon Jennings.
Continue reading Heat Snap Streak >>
Posted Saturday, December 7, 2013
CHICAGO – A time-honored NBA axiom holds that it takes a good 20 games before a team figures out what it is. The standings say that after 20 games – essentially, a quarter of the NBA season – the Pistons are a .500 team. But they're .500 with a bullet.
They won their fourth straight game on Saturday night, with two of those wins coming at Miami and Chicago. Sure, the Bulls were badly depleted – missing All-Stars Derrick Rose and Luol Deng in addition to a third starter, Jimmy Butler – but the Pistons weren't exactly at full strength, either, playing virtually the entire game without three of their top four guards.
And the Pistons won this one in a way the Bulls surely recognized. When the game turned into hand-to-hand combat in the third quarter – for nearly seven minutes, the Pistons had scored six points, the Bulls four – it was the Pistons who imposed their will and forced the Bulls to cave, the reverse of what happened 10 days ago at The Palace when a close game ruptured via a 21-0 Chicago run.
Continue reading Bull Market >>
Posted Friday, December 6, 2013
Ever since Rodney Stuckey slammed his thumb in a car door and X-rays revealed Brandon Jennings' cracked jaw within 30 minutes of each other a week into training camp, the Pistons have had beds filled in their guard infirmary.
One might be opening up soon, though.
Chauncey Billups, out three weeks with left knee tendinitis, practiced for the first time on Friday.
Continue reading Close to a Return >>
Posted Thursday, December 5, 2013
If Joe Dumars had allowed himself to think about it, an apocalyptic shiver surely would have convulsed his spine.
As the Pistons lined up for the opening tip Wednesday night at Milwaukee, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond were matched against players from their draft classes, Ekpe Udoh and John Henson. If those two drafts had played out just a hair differently, Udoh and Henson might have been Detroit's starters, instead.
But Golden State picked Udoh sixth, sparing the Pistons from a decision they'd yet to reach, less than 24 hours before the 2010 draft, between Udoh and North Carolina's Ed Davis with the seventh pick. After New Orleans made the slam-dunk choice of Anthony Davis at No. 1 two years later, seven teams picking ahead of the Pistons passed on Drummond.
I'm tempted to write "inexplicably" before "passed," but it's really only unfathomable now, in light of Drummond's remarkable assimilation as a pro. The results of his one year at UConn would be generously described as uneven. Anyone attempting to characterize the selections of Monroe and Drummond now as "no-brainers" for Dumars is rewriting history.
Continue reading Time Well Spent >>
Posted Wednesday, December 4, 2013
MILWAUKEE – Brandon Jennings ruffled some feathers in Milwaukee when he said he'd never had the chance to play with big men as talented as Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith.
They can dock him for political incorrectness, but not for honesty.
Jennings posted a double-double in his return to the place he spent his first four NBA seasons, where they marked the occasion by booing him lustily whenever he touched the ball. But the real story was the domination of the frontcourt Jennings extolled upon coming to the Pistons in late July.
Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith combined for 59 points and 42 rebounds and the Pistons beat Milwaukee 105-98 for their third straight win, completing a two-game road trip that also included a win at Miami 24 hours earlier and a diverted flight that required a bus ride to foggy Milwaukee from Chicago, arriving at 4 a.m. Central time Wednesday morning.
"Drummond played big, Greg Monroe played big," Jennings said. "I was just telling Greg, there was one point in the game where I was just looking at all three of 'em crashing the boards and I was just like, 'Wow.' Like, that's a scary sight down there. Those guys played big tonight. They came in here and did a great job. They took a lot of heat off me."
Continue reading 3 Straight >>
Posted Tuesday, December 3, 2013
MIAMI – The Pistons got their signature win. Now they want to know if they can duplicate it, time after time, signature after signature, so that even the most accomplished hand-writing experts won't be able to tell the difference.
The Pistons beat Miami. At Miami. And, yeah, Dwyane Wade sat one out. But it was still a game that's followed a script the Heat have acted out – and won – scores of times over the past three-plus seasons, since Wade coaxed buddies LeBron James and Chris Bosh to South Beach to be his wing men.
It was also a script the Pistons knew a little too well. They let winnable games against the Bulls and Lakers get away at home last week, ceding 21-0 and 12-0 runs in the fourth quarters to undermine a home stand that might have turned their season around.
Now they hope their stand in Miami, when the Heat whittled a 17-point fourth-quarter lead to three in five minutes but couldn't get over the hump as the Pistons won 107-97, becomes their turning point, the game that's a part of their DNA the next time somebody's charging in the fourth quarter.
Continue reading Signature Win >>
Posted Monday, December 2, 2013
Miami has won two straight NBA titles and 10 straight games in its quest for a third. But the Pistons have a fighting chance against the Heat these days because they can now match up against Miami's big three better than at any time since they joined forces 3½ years ago.
It's probably not a fair fight no matter who guards LeBron James, but Josh Smith's length and athleticism gives him the tools to mitigate the damage the four-time MVP inflicts. It's a similar story for rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at shooting guard against Dwyane Wade, who'll also get a heavy dose of Rodney Stuckey, who also has the type of size and strength that can make it tough for Wade to get to his sweet spots consistently. Chris Bosh's quickness and shooting range gives him a decided edge over most centers, but not so much against Andre Drummond.
Maurice Cheeks cautions that it goes far beyond individual physical matchups, of course.
"These guys are seasoned, been around, won a couple of championships in a row," he said after the Pistons practiced Monday at American Airlines Arena. "Size-wise, yeah. We just have to try to play at the level that they play at, because these are great players and they play hard. When you get great players that play hard, your recipe is championships that's what they have."
Continue reading Heat Checkers >>
Posted Sunday, December 1, 2013
For all the fits and starts the Pistons have endured over the season's first 17 games, there remains one compelling reason their season – and their future – is one rippling with possibilities: Andre Drummond. For all the rough edges to him and all the hurdles yet to be cleared, rarely has a 20-year-old affected NBA games quite the way the Pistons' wunderkind now does almost routinely.
It isn't always as dramatic as Sunday, when he put career bests in points (31), rebounds (19) and steals (six), but it was his 12th double-double in 17 games this season. And it gave the Pistons a win they badly needed, 115-100 over Philadelphia, after two disheartening home losses.
When Maurice Cheeks interviewed last summer, he had a vague idea of what Drummond could do. But the Pistons played Oklahoma City, for whom Cheeks served as an assistant coach, twice in the season's first eight games during his rookie year, so he really had little feel for what Drummond was ready to shoulder early in his second season.
Continue reading Drummond's Day >>
Posted Friday, November 29, 2013
Sooner or later, somebody in the morass that is the Eastern Conference outside of Indiana and Miami is going to get hot and string wins together. It could've been the Pistons. They might now be on a four-game winning streak. But Friday's loss to the Lakers was dishearteningly akin to Wednesday's loss to the Bulls, and instead of soaring into December with the wind at their backs, the Pistons were left to look inward and ask tough questions of themselves after Friday's 106-102 loss to the Lakers.
Just as the Bulls won at The Palace without Derrick Rose, the Lakers won without Kobe Bryant. Just as Chicago used a 21-0 fourth-quarter run to pull away from the Pistons, the Lakers used a 12-0 fourth-quarter run to wipe out an eight-point deficit with five minutes to play.
And the loss had too much else in common with other season-long storylines – vulnerability to 3-point shooting, free-throw woes and stretches of stagnant offense – that have saddled the Pistons with a 6-10 record, not at all what they expected over the first 20 percent of the season.
"You have an eight-point lead with three, four, five minutes to go, you've got to be able to hold that," said Brandon Jennings, who finished with 19 points and nine assists but missed the first two of three free throws when he was fouled with 16.7 seconds left and the Pistons trailing by three. "Once a team gets rolling and gets momentum, it's tough, especially for a team like the Lakers, who travel with fans everywhere. Once they start scoring, the momentum changes."
Continue reading A Bitter Loss >>
Posted Thursday, November 28, 2013
The Pistons are bumping along near the bottom of the league in defense, by any way you'd care to measure it.
They are dead last in opponent's effective field-goal percentage, which accounts for the greater value of a 3-point shot. They're also last in field-goal percentage by traditional measure, allowing the opposition to make 48.1 percent of shots. They're 23rd in 3-point percentage and last – again – in 2-point percentage, allowing teams to make 51.8 percent of shots inside the arc, where it figured that the presence of Andre Drummond and Josh Smith would dissuade drivers.
They're a more reasonable 17th in points per game allowed at 99.9, but 26th in defensive efficiency, a measure of the damage per possession opponents have inflicted. They rank just 22nd in rebounding, though they're in good company – San Antonio is 21st, Memphis 23rd – and 15th in rebounding percentage, a disappointing number for a team that anticipated it would be dominant in that area.
Continue reading Hanging In >>
Posted Wednesday, November 27, 2013
From a seat near mid-court along press row, the change in the Chicago Bulls' defensive temperament from the first half was apparent within the first three minutes of the third quarter. It looked pretty much the same way to Rodney Stuckey a few feet down the sideline from the perspective of the Detroit bench.
"They just came out and hit us first and never looked back," Stuckey said after the Bulls turned a first-half romp into a second-half mud bath, holding the Pistons to 26 points in the final two quarters after spotting them 29 in the first quarter alone. "We didn't start the third quarter out well. We didn't match their energy in the second half, offensively or defensively, and that was pretty much the ballgame."
Pretty much. The Bulls were without Derrick Rose, but the Bulls are accustomed by now to playing without the NBA's 2011-12 MVP. Out for the year with torn knee cartilage, Rose will have played but 49 of 230 regular-season games over the past three seasons when this one ends. And they were still good enough to get to the second round of last spring's playoffs, where they made life uncomfortable for Miami despite missing not only Rose but Luol Deng and other key players, as well.
Continue reading Bulls Pull Away >>
Posted Tuesday, November 26, 2013
In a matter of about 30 hours starting at mid-afternoon on Sunday and extending to mid-evening Monday, the Pistons pushed the misery they felt the previous few days off to the side. But if the headline was the two double-digit wins on consecutive days, one on the road, the lasting value to come from toppling Brooklyn and Milwaukee could well prove to be finding the identity of their bench.
Maurice Cheeks has been a daring chemist in mixing and matching combinations over the season's first month with every player on the roster except rookie Tony Mitchell getting a shot at a spot in the rotation, though injuries opened the door for the opportunities given fellow second-rounder Peyton Siva.
But Cheeks might have found something over the past two wins with Charlie Villanueva's awakening and Will Bynum's return from a hamstring injury that cost him five games.
With Rodney Stuckey, the season's most consistent force, anchoring the second unit along with Kyle Singler, who has endeared himself to Cheeks as surely as he did to Lawrence Frank as a rookie, the Pistons figure to start most second quarters with those two on the court along with Bynum at point guard, running the pick and roll with Andre Drummond and Villanueva spotting up at the 3-point line on the strong side.
Continue reading A Bench Identity >>
Posted Monday, November 25, 2013
The Pistons have many hurdles yet to clear before they'll declare themselves ready for the next phase in an NBA team's evolution, but count Monday's 113-94 domination of Milwaukee as a positive.
One mark of mature teams is taking care of business at home against visitors with fragile psyches. The Bucks came to The Palace fresh off a 24-point home loss – their eighth straight defeat – at the hands of Charlotte, during which their starting five combined for 18 points. That prompted Bucks first-year coach Larry Drew to plug in two new starters – coincidentally, ex-Pistons Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton – in a move he admitted was more groping for a spark than anything.
Middleton helped the Pistons stay close for six minutes. But at 17-14, the Pistons went on a 21-0 run that saw them stone Milwaukee on 11 straight possessions and force six of the Bucks' 15 first-half turnovers that they converted into 21 points. The Pistons were both selfless when they had the ball and selfish when they didn't. They finished the first half with six players with at least two assists and eight players with at least one steal.
The balance extended to their scoring: seven Pistons reached double figures before the third quarter was out and all seven finished the game attempting between nine and 11 shots. It won't be quite like that every night, of course, but it speaks to the formula likely to lead this team to its greatest potential. They don't have a dominant scorer, but they have several capable of leading them on a given night.
Continue reading Deer Season>>
Posted Sunday, November 24, 2013
NEW YORK – There are many issues the Pistons have yet to resolve as they try to make a bunch of new pieces fit, but it certainly appears as if one thing is settled: When Rodney Stuckey comes off the bench, the offense is in his hands.
"He's our go-to guy once he's off the bench, no doubt about that," Brandon Jennings said after he happily stepped aside and let Stuckey dominate in a brilliant second-half run as the Pistons won at Brooklyn 109-97 in a Sunday matinee. "He's a big spark once he comes off the bench. He can score, he's really strong and he takes a lot of pressure off everybody."
Stuckey scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half, leading the Pistons to their most productive half of the season. They outscored the Nets 65-46 after trailing at halftime, including a dominant 34-15 third quarter.
It was their defense that really lit the fuse, the Pistons forcing eight Brooklyn turnovers that led to 10 Detroit points in the quarter. Jennings scored 10 points in the third, scoring two layups off of Nets turnovers and knocking down all six of his free throws.
Continue reading Stuckey's Sunday >>
Posted Saturday, November 23, 2013
Mo Cheeks has a message for anyone studying the Pistons for signs of fissure or implosion: Nothing to see here, move along. And if he senses any residual frustration over the 4-8 start to a season of elevated expectations, well, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
"In terms of the way we think we should be better, yeah, there is such a thing as good frustration," Cheeks said following Saturday's practice, the day after a home loss to one of the teams the Pistons figure to be fighting for a playoff berth, Atlanta. "We've got good guys, good energy guys. Today was a good energy day. I don't let 'em sulk. I don't let that happen. And I told them, we'll be better. Every day is a learning day, whether you win a game or lose a game. So we've got to learn things from it."
Friday's 96-89 loss sprung from a game that had a weird feel to it, the Pistons never really finding a rhythm yet managing to do enough to stay close and actually take the lead with less than four minutes to play before a rash of late turnovers undermined their chances.
Continue reading Mo: No Sulking >>
Posted Friday, November 22, 2013
For the few players who lingered in the locker room after the toughest loss to figure this season, the frustration and bewilderment was palpable after the Pistons fell 96-89 to Atlanta, a game that will be remembered as the one Josh Smith didn't start.
"You can see by everybody's face, nobody likes to lose," Andre Drummond said. "It's tough to swallow, but we've just got to get back to the drawing board. We can't keep using the same excuse, that we're a new team. We're 12 games in now, so it comes down to us figuring things out and just coming together as one."
They seemed like anything but a seamless unit from start to finish against Atlanta, and yet there they were, somehow ahead by a point with 3:30 to play despite suffering another shaky shooting night – last in the league in 3-point percentage, the Pistons dipped another notch by making 3 of 13 from the arc – and Maurice Cheeks tinkering with lineup combinations in search of one that might light a fire.
Continue reading A Stinging Loss >>
Posted Thursday, November 21, 2013
On one level, Mo Cheeks probably connects very easily to Peyton Siva. Siva spent four years in college, as Cheeks did more than three decades earlier at a time that was the norm, and came to the NBA with little expected of him as a second-round pick, just like Cheeks.
On another level, Cheeks holds a sophisticated opinion of what a point guard must bring to his team, based both on his innate feel for the position and a lifetime of observation both as player and coach. There's no fooling Cheeks if you're trying to catch his eye as a point guard.
Siva has clearly passed muster with the Pistons coach, who displayed his faith in the Louisville rookie each of the past two nights, turning to him in competitive games against Eastern Conference teams that figure to be competing for the same playoff spots the Pistons are eying.
Continue reading Staying Ready>>
Posted Tuesday, November 19, 2013
On a 15-man team, the Pistons have dedicated more than a quarter of their roster spots to point guards. It was the one you won't find there who saved them.
With Chauncey Billups and Will Bynum out again with leg injuries and Brandon Jennings' night over early after he gave them 27 minutes while dealing with an upset stomach, the Pistons put the ball in Rodney Stuckey's hands.
Pretty tidy line he put up, too, scoring 21 points and handing out five assists while making 8 of 14 shots and knocking down all five of his free throws. Stuckey scored 12 straight points as the Pistons stretched their lead from 64-59 late in the third quarter to 76-63 early in the fourth, then he ended the streak by penetrating and firing a perfect laser to set up an Andre Drummond dunk. That gave the Pistons a 15-point lead with 10 minutes to play.
When it got hairy, Carmelo Anthony leading the Knicks with 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to pull the Knicks within five points on three occasions, it was Stuckey who again made the plays that led to the 92-86 win, hitting two free throws and hitting Smith for another layup that both times pushed their lead back to seven.
Continue reading Back on Track>>
Posted Monday, November 18, 2013
The Pistons' West Coast trip was a mixed bag, ultimately falling short of expectations. They snapped their 21-game road skid against Western Conference teams, yet couldn't produce the four-game split that appeared within their reach until the Lakers pulled away in Sunday's fourth quarter. Their season has been painted in similar strokes, some good and some bad, which is what you'd expect any team with playoff aspirations might say about a 3-6 record.
There are many good reasons to explain the record, of course, including an unusually top-heavy run of opponents, the rigors of an extended road trip and the backcourt injuries that scuttled their best intentions to use preseason to set chemistry.
Good teams rise above reasonable challenges, though, and the Pistons are already getting a little testy that they haven't yet dispelled doubts they'll prove to be a good team – a playoff team, and a feared opponent once they get there – with a little more than 10 percent of the season behind them.
In keeping with the good news-bad news theme of their season to date, here's a quick look at three things that have gone right and three areas worthy of the Pistons' attention as the season chugs along to the quarter pole.
Continue reading Mixed Results>>
Posted Sunday, November 17, 2013
LOS ANGELES – Their game, and the Pistons' road trip, both ended the same way: with a thud. Both the Pistons and Lakers had one great offensive half. Somehow, that added up to a 15-point Pistons loss, ending their four-game road trip on a low after an exhilarating win at Sacramento two nights earlier.
The Pistons simply didn't do enough with their 62 percent first half when they dominated in the paint. By halftime, all three of Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith were on their way to double-doubles, having combined for 33 points and 15 rebounds. Only Drummond got there (14 points, 13 rebounds), and the double-double that leaps off the box score wasn't Brandon Jennings' 23 points and 14 assists – he scored 19 in the fourth quarter as the Pistons fought from 19 down – but the 24 points and 17 rebounds of Jordan Hill, both career bests.
For all the gaudy numbers the Pistons could point to on their side, it was Hill's monster night, the 16 assists of Steve Blake and the 19 off the bench from Nick Young – especially the two triples late in the third quarter that sparked a 16-0 Los Angeles run – that told the story of a game the Pistons expected to win after Friday's victory at Sacramento ended their Western Conference road drought.
Continue reading Flat Finish>>
Posted Saturday, November 16, 2013
LOS ANGELES – There was a bounce in the Pistons' collective step Saturday as they walked across UCLA's campus to get to the student gym where they would hold practice, the morning after their rousing win at Sacramento snapped a four-game losing streak, but nobody was lighter on his feet than Henry Bibby.
As a three-time national champion for John Wooden's dynasty of the early '70s, UCLA will always hold a special place in the heart of an 18-year-old kid from rural North Carolina who went to the other side of the country on a leap of faith and never imagined the impact it would have on the rest of his life.
"I didn't have any idea what I was doing when I made the decision," Bibby said, standing on the court not far from where Wooden's old slate blackboard is encased in glass. "My family didn't have any idea what I was doing and I don't know how we came to this conclusion. But there is a God, I guess, and it put me on the right track to where I am today. I would never have gotten there without coming out here to UCLA."
Continue reading Memory Lane>>
Posted Friday, November 15, 2013
On a night Sacramento set a contrived record for the world's loudest indoor arena, it was the Pistons who spoke loudest.
Bearing the burden of not only a four-game losing streak against the cream of the NBA but a 21-game skid in road games against Western Conference opponents, the Pistons started strong and finished stronger in a 97-90 win over Sacramento. The Kings were coming off a 21-point crushing of Brooklyn two nights earlier and looking to give a jacked-up home crowd something to really holler about in addition to their 126-decibel outburst that earned an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.
As good as Drummond was, Josh Smith's name goes on the Pistons' marquee for this one. After two subpar games to start their four-game road trip, Smith stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, five steals and four blocked shots.
Continue reading Pistons Snap Skid>>
Posted Friday, November 15, 2013
SACRAMENTO – Ben McLemore and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope came out of high school in the same graduating class and were drafted on consecutive picks five months ago, so they'll forever be linked. Their parallel paths probably will find another common link tonight at Sleep Train Arena, where the two NBA rookies appear headed for a matchup as starting shooting guards.
McLemore moved in Sacramento's starting lineup in its most recent game, Wednesday's rout of Brooklyn. Caldwell-Pope seems the favorite to make his first NBA start tonight for the Pistons, who will be without Chauncey Billups for at least one game as he recovers from a case of tendinitis in his left knee.
Maurice Cheeks said at Friday's shootaround that he hadn't yet decided between Caldwell-Pope and Stuckey for the starting job, but he said several times in discussing the choice that he liked how Stuckey has performed coming off the bench.
"KCP's been good, but I like the way Stuckey plays coming off the bench," Cheeks said. "I like his energy, I like his defense, I like his offense. … I'm comfortable with either guy."
Continue reading Rookies Collide>>
Posted Thursday, November 14, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO – Maurice Cheeks wouldn't tip his hand after Thursday's practice as to potential lineup changes he said would be considered after the Pistons lost to Golden State on Tuesday. But he was perfectly willing to discuss the focal point of practice: defense.
"The whole practice," he said. "You're working on offense when you're working on defense, but it was mostly trying to get out defense back intact."
The Pistons have played a tougher schedule than 28 other NBA teams, based on winning percentage, and during their four-game losing streak they've played three worthy title contenders and teams mostly known for their offensive potency. Over those last four games, the Pistons have played teams with a cumulative winning percentage of .774. Aside from their most recent loss, an 18-point outcome, they've been competitive in every game despite their 2-5 record.
Continue reading Focus on Defense>>
Posted Wednesday, November 13, 2013
They might have named the NBA's annual award for sportsmanship the Joe Dumars Trophy, but that doesn't mean its namesake doesn't understand that in creating a championship stew a few spicy ingredients are as necessary as the meat and potatoes.
When Joe D surveyed the landscape last summer, armed with $20 million in cap space, his first objective was to upgrade his roster's talent level. But another consideration, as he gauged what else a roster filled with recent draft choices worthy of Boy Scout badges could use, was bringing in someone who'd know how to survive in the woods if the handbook got lost.
"This guy's got an edge now," Dumars said in July after signing Josh Smith. "And so, Boy Scout he is not. And I think that's exactly what this team needs right now."
Continue reading 'A Perfect Piston'>>
Posted Tuesday, November 12, 2013
OAKLAND – It's not like the Pistons were unaware of the possibilities. Brandon Jennings warned of Golden State's 3-point efficiency 24 hours earlier after Portland bombed 11 triples to put down a Pistons rally.
They knew all about the raucous Golden State crowd. They were equally aware it was their first back-to-back outing of the season. They probably knew that in Golden State's two other home games this season, they led at some point by at least 27 points. And of course they knew about the millstone of their 20-game road losing streak to Western Conference teams.
So they knew what might happen. But they probably never imagined it would get that bad, that fast. And when the 113-95 outcome was mercifully over, the Pistons pointed the finger right at the mirror.
Continue reading One to Forget>>
Posted Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Even before Maurice Cheeks knew the composition of his roster, he said he wanted a team that forced turnovers and got easy points in transition. Then the Pistons signed Josh Smith to play small forward next to Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, giving them one of the NBA's most powerful frontcourts, and Cheeks naturally anticipated an offense that would do much of its damage near the rim.
That part of the blueprint couldn't be hewing to form with much more accuracy. The Pistons lead the NBA in steals (10.2) per game, they're No. 5 at forcing turnovers (18.2), No. 2 in fast-break points (18.2) and No. 1 at scoring in the paint (52.0).
But Cheeks also figured the big and athletic frontcourt would make the Pistons a formidable defensive team. And there's still ample reason to believe that will be the case. They've only played six games and their four losses are to teams with a cumulative 21-7 record. Yet the numbers that show promise in their ability to create turnovers, score in transition and near the rim also paint a bleak picture of their defense so far.
Continue reading By the Numbers>>
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013
PORTLAND – If Portland was the frying pan, Golden State might be the fire.
The Pistons expected their defense to carry them while they figured out how best to use their jumbo frontcourt and how their new backcourt pieces would fit together offensively. For all the hand-wringing about their lack of perimeter shooting, offense simply hasn't been the issue so far.
The Pistons started their four-game Western Conference road trip hovering in or very near the top 10 in offensive efficiency (eighth) and scoring (12th), but in or near the bottom third in points allowed (22nd) and defensive efficiency (19th).
Alas, those defensive numbers took a hit Monday at Portland, where the Blazers scored 107 points in the game's first 44 minutes before the Pistons – maybe – figured 'em out. Portland was up 13 at that point. The Pistons rallied to pull within four and had two chances to get closer, but wound up losing 109-103.
Posted Monday, November 11, 2013
PORTLAND – Brandon Jennings spotted his teammates two games but still leads them in steals after five games with 10. Some people might be impressed by that. Mo Cheeks doesn't figure to be one of them.
"He tells me all the time, he's top five in steals in history," Jennings laughed as the Pistons prepared to play Portland on Monday night to start a four-game trek down the Pacific Coast that ends Sunday night in Los Angeles. "I hear it every day."
Indeed, Cheeks is No. 5 on the NBA's all-time steals list, sandwiched between a virtual Mount Rushmore of NBA history: John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Michael Jordan and Gary Payton ahead of him; Scottie Pippen, Julius Erving, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon on his heels.
Continue reading Back in the Groove>>
Posted Sunday, November 10, 2013
Their fall term in its infancy, the Pistons are already staring at their final examination.
Five games into a regular season begun on the heels of a preseason that didn't pass muster due to injuries, the Pistons next face the most severe test of an NBA team's mettle: the extended road trip.
In the meat of Chauncey Billups' first tour of Pistons duty, treks like the ones the Pistons embarked upon today – leaving for Portland, where they'll launch a four-game trip spanning a week against the Trail Blazers on Monday night – were looked upon with relish. Those Pistons embraced the challenge of the road. Nothing satisfied them more than that moment when a hostile arena grew eerily still, the issue of superiority settled in the minds of the home team and their fans.
Continue reading Riddle of the Road >>
Posted Saturday, November 9, 2013
Tom Gores and Jalen Rose, sons of Michigan who've done well for themselves, are teaming up to do good for Detroit.
The Pistons owner and the former University of Michigan and NBA basketball star see a critical need for improving the lives of children who lack the support systems that allowed them to overcome their own humble beginnings, Gores near Flint and Rose in Detroit.
Rose launched the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy two years ago as a tuition-free public charter school in the heart of Detroit. This week, Gores and his wife Holly became the academy's largest individual donor, Rose said, with a $250,000 gift that will go toward improving facilities and recruiting and retaining faculty and staff.
Continue reading A Major Assist >>
Posted Friday, November 8, 2013
The overtime loss at Memphis stung badly. A week later, it stings worse. The Pistons played three NBA title contenders in the season's first 10 games, which explains while they'll lug a 2-3 record with them to the West Coast to open a four-game road trek Monday at Portland.
Two or three months from now, maybe it won't much matter. But in the here and now, a young team robbed by injury of the preseason acclimation process sure could have used the psyche massage that a winning record and a signature road win over a playoff-tested team like the Grizzlies would have provided.
As in Tuesday's loss to Indiana – which remains the NBA's lone unbeaten team, now at 6-0 – Oklahoma City led the majority of Friday's game but never really seized control. The Pistons were four down with nine minutes to play despite a foul-plagued, low-impact game from Andre Drummond (four points, three boards, 23 minutes) and another wayward 3-point shooting night.
But just as Indiana's Paul George kept making plays to keep them at bay, so did OKC's Kevin Durant (37 points on only 15 shots, but 17 of 19 free throws) in a 119-110 win.
Continue reading Rolling Thunder >>
Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013
Oklahoma City won 23 games the year Philadelphia fired Maurice Cheeks 23 games into its season. The next year under Scott Brooks and his new lead assistant, Cheeks, the Thunder won 50 games.
It was Kevin Durant's third year and Russell Westbrook's second, that 2009-10 season, and Cheeks will be the first to tell you that the radical U-turn OKC navigated had much more to do with their transcendent talents than did the addition of an assistant coach.
But down in Oklahoma City, which comes to The Palace on Friday night, they'll tell you Cheeks' steady hand helped nurture their young stars and moved them down the path to stardom at an accelerated pace. His presence – the calming aura Cheeks projects – struck just the right note with players who already possessed the drive required of greatness.
Posted Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Maurice Cheeks faced a quandary. He needed more shooting in his lineup, he knew that much, and he was pretty sure that nobody offered more of it than Gigi Datome. But how to find minutes for him?
Josh Smith was the prize of Pistons free agency over a transformational summer and his ability to affect games across the spectrum – scoring, playmaking, defending, rebounding – puts him in line for major minutes. Kyle Singler endeared himself to Cheeks from the first day of training camp with his sheer hustle, basketball IQ, size at his position and defensive temperament.
That didn't leave many minutes – or any, really – for Datome, who came to the Pistons from Italy pigeon-holed as a small forward.
So it was more than a little noteworthy when Cheeks summoned Datome late in the first quarter of Tuesday's loss to Indiana and sent him back out to start the second along with Singler and Andre Drummond up front. Even though Singler played shooting guard as a rookie until the trade of Tayshaun Prince, the Pistons drafted him viewing him as a small forward who could swing to power forward in the right matchups.
Continue reading The Gigi Twist >>
Posted Tuesday, November 5, 2013
The easy answer is Indiana shot it better than the Pistons. Way better. And especially better from the 3-point line. In a game the Pacers – the NBA's last unbeaten team at 4-0 – would win by eight points, they outscored the Pistons by 12 from the 3-point line. And they took four fewer shots from the arc to do it.
So that's the easy answer. That and Paul George, who looked every bit worth the maximum contract the Pacers handed him in the off-season. He scored 31 points and he did it effortlessly on a night, pitting two of the league's brawniest teams, when others required Herculean feats to score.
The tougher answers will be the ones the Pistons spend the season's remaining 78 games trying to get to. They've had fewer games together than the Pacers have had seasons as a core. Brandon Jennings started his first game after preseason was a complete washout for him. Greg Monroe is the only holdover starter from a year ago. For the many ways these teams resemble each other, the familiarity edge goes to Indiana by landslide.
Continue reading Pacers Pull Away >>
Posted Tuesday, November 5, 2013
And then there was one.
After Monday night losses by Philadelphia, Minnesota and Houston, the NBA's lone remaining unbeaten team – the Indiana Pacers – puts its record on the line tonight.
At The Palace.
The Pacers, who took Miami to seven games in last spring's Eastern Conference finals, are led offensively by Paul George, a fourth-year player who received a five-year maximum contract extension over the off-season in keeping with his emerging superstar status. George comes into tonight's game tied for fifth in the NBA in scoring at 25.7 per game.
Continue reading Last Man Standing>>
Posted Monday, November 4, 2013
There aren't many NBA statistics after three games that deserve your trust, but you can take this one to the bank: It's no fluke that the NBA defensive leader in scoring and field-goal percentage in the first week is the one coming to The Palace on Tuesday night, the Indiana Pacers.
Indiana's first three opponents averaged 83.7 points and shot 37.9 percent. In Roy Hibbert, David West and Paul George, the Pacers have one of the NBA's few frontcourts that won't come into games against the Pistons this season fretting about being overpowered in the paint.
In fact, Tuesday's game will be a classic case of irresistible force vs. immovable object. Through three games, the Pistons are No. 2 in the NBA in points in the paint at a whopping 55.3 points a game, just 0.7 behind the surprising Philadelphia 76ers. At the other end of the spectrum, Indiana is No. 1 in fewest points in the paint allowed, 30 per game.
Continue reading Power vs. Power>>
Posted Sunday, November 3, 2013
Maurice Cheeks never came out and said that Brandon Jennings and Rodney Stuckey were ticketed to be his starting backcourt. But if you read between the lines through the first week of training camp, that's where the Pistons sure appeared to be headed.
Two nights after Stuckey returned from a 23-day absence due to a broken thumb and on the night Jennings came back off of a 25-day break to let his fractured jaw heal, it became all but official.
Neither Jennings nor Stuckey started in the 87-77 win over Boston, but both finished. They finished Boston strong, too, Jennings playing the last 17:33 and Stuckey the final 16:51 straight after entering the game midway through the third quarter. It wasn't often pretty, except when the Pistons were pounding the ball inside to a frontcourt that again flashed signs of dominance, and they again committed way too many turnovers: 21, leading to 27 Boston points and allowing the Celtics to erase a 15-point third-quarter deficit.
But they also forced nine turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, spearheaded by Jennings and Stuckey's backcourt pressure. Jennings had three of his four steals in the final quarter, Stuckey one of his three, and they forced three straight Boston turnovers in a critical late stretch after the Celtics – who went ahead by two points after a 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter, then fell behind by eight when the Pistons ripped off 10 straight points – cut their deficit to two points. The Pistons finished the game on an 8-0 run after that.
Continue reading Pistons Power Past Celtics>>
Posted Saturday, November 2, 2013
You're tempted to say Brandon Jennings is chomping at the bit to make his Pistons debut, but two days removed from having his jaw unwired he's not yet chomping on much.
"It's just a process," he said following Saturday's Pistons practice the morning after their overtime loss at Memphis that left them both emotionally gutted and encouraged for their future. "When you have a broken jaw, you can't just come back and start chewing everything. I'm still eating soft food right now."
What he's seen from his teammates over their first two games is something Jennings would love to sink his teeth into. And he hopes to start doing so as soon as Sunday night's game against Boston, when the Pistons will break out their new Motor City alternate uniforms. Whether he'll play will be a game-time decision, he said.
Continue reading Jennings Almost There>>
Posted Friday, November 1, 2013
If the Pistons put themselves in position to win on the road against NBA title-worthy teams and it comes down to Chauncey Billups at the free-throw line and the 3-point line, well, they're going to win a lot of games this season.
He missed a free throw that would've put the Pistons up five with 52 seconds left and a triple at the buzzer that forced overtime and Memphis won, 111-108 in overtime. It was the kind of loss that stings, but it was also the kind of loss that forged the souls of the Goin' to Work Pistons in Billups' first go-around with the Pistons.
"Both," Billups said when I asked him if the takeaway from the game was letting a big road win wiggle off the hook or a huge measuring stick performance from a young team whose knees would have buckled a year ago when Memphis took the game's first double-digit lead, 10 points, midway through the third quarter.
Instead, the Pistons led by two before the third quarter was out and by six with 1:09 to play after a Josh Smith triple.
"We definitely let this game get away," Billups said. "Oh, man. This kind of game just sits on you. You hate to lose like this. You're in control, but it happens. It's the NBA. You've just got to learn from it. You've got to learn – be better, execute down the stretch, take care of the ball. With all of that, you have a shot to win it, a shot we wanted. I didn't knock it down, but that's basketball. That's how it goes."
Continue reading Ousted in Overtime >>
Posted Friday, November 1, 2013
MEMPHIS – The Pistons have weathered the bizarre run of preseason injuries to their backcourt about as well as they could have hoped. Without anticipated starters Rodney Stuckey and Brandon Jennings in the opener, they held off Washington to win. Tonight they get Stuckey back. And if all goes well Sunday, Jennings will join him.
Jennings has been fitted with a protective mask, one that extends past his jawline to protect the hairline fracture discovered more than two weeks ago when he was experiencing pain relating to an impacted wisdom tooth. Maurice Cheeks said, "I think we're going to figure it out tomorrow and see what his status is and see when he's available. If all goes well, possibly Sunday."
Chauncey Billups and Will Bynum will remain the starters tonight at Memphis, Cheeks said. But Stuckey will come in first off the bench at guard, a role filled in the season-opening win by rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Continue reading Bolstered Backcourt >>
Posted Friday, November 01, 2013
Memphis, home of the blues, might as well also be home of the blueprint for the Pistons.
Built around their dominant frontcourt tandem of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, the Grizzlies won 56 games last season, reached the Western Conference finals and enter the 2013-14 season as among the half-dozen or so most legitimate NBA title contenders.
In considering the possibilities ahead of him for playing alongside Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe spent a chunk of his summer studying Randolph in particular. In plotting his playbook after being hired by the Pistons last June, Maurice Cheeks consulted longtime friend Lionel Hollins and wound up hiring Henry Bibby, an ex-Philadelphia 76ers teammate who was on Hollins' staff in Memphis before the Grizzlies made a coaching change following their playoff loss to San Antonio.
Continue reading Memphis Blueprint >>
Posted Thursday, October 31, 2013
All those butterflies Kentavious Caldwell-Pope admitted were fluttering in his belly as he anticipated the whirlwind of his first night as an NBA basketball player were calmed, if just a little, by a familiar face on the opposite bench.
The latest in a line of lottery picks who've enabled the Pistons to hasten their rebuilding, Caldwell-Pope played 27 minutes in Wednesday's opening night win over Washington, much of them spent guarding a player he first met long before they would become McDonald's All-American teammates in the spring of 2011 and then departed for competing SEC schools.
But Bradley Beal was targeted as a one-and-done player even before launching his first 3-point basket at Florida, while Caldwell-Pope needed to prove his merits to NBA scouts for all of his two seasons at rival Georgia.
Continue reading What a Start >>
Posted Wednesday, October 30, 2013
America turns its clocks back Saturday night, but as with most aspects of life Chauncey Billups is a few steps ahead of everyone else.
Mr. Big Shot ratcheted the clock back six or seven years in his first game that counts at The Palace since being traded away in November 2008, not only making big shots but infusing a team bristling with promise but aching for his leadership with the confidence to withstand the kind of late runs commonplace in the NBA.
"Feels like home. Feels like old times," Billups said of hearing The Palace roar to life after a huge fourth-quarter triple, of which he dropped two in and around more subtle moments every bit as critical to the 113-102 opening night win over Washington. "It felt good. The energy in this building sounded familiar. I hadn't seen that in a while around here. It felt really good. We fed off of that."
Continue reading What a Start >>
Posted Wednesday, October 30, 2013
If the season goes the way Tom Gores envisions it, there'll be a lot more celebrations just like the kind that erupted when Josh Smith's buzzer 3-pointer beat Washington in the preseason finale at The Palace. And he'll be there to high-five players more often than not.
"I was behind the scenes in many ways the first couple of years," the Pistons owner said before Wednesday's season opener, his third since buying the team. "Trust me, I've spent so much time on the Pistons. My house is consumed with it, my family is consumed with it, I'm consumed with it. The first few years were really transition time and a lot behind the scenes, and I feel like now that things have developed, it's time for me to be here."
Planning for the summer of 2013 began virtually from the moment Gores purchased the Pistons two years earlier and picked up momentum with the June 2012 trade that sent Ben Gordon's contract to Charlotte, opening the way for the $20 million-plus in cap space the Pistons carried into July. They used it to sign Josh Smith in free agency and acquire Brandon Jennings, Chauncey Billups and Gigi Datome.
Gores said those signings showed something about the Pistons and opened eyes, even among his inner circle.
Continue reading Gores: 'We Want to Win Now' >>
Posted Wednesday, October 30, 2013
It wouldn't quite reflect the Pistons' preseason to say Maurice Cheeks didn't extract all the answers he'd hoped to get out of it. It would be more accurate to say Cheeks barely had time to ask the questions before Brandon Jennings, Rodney Stuckey and Gigi Datome went on the injured list.
With Jennings and Stuckey ruled out for tonight's season opener with Washington – Stuckey, after this morning's shootaround, said he would be ready for Friday's game at Memphis – Cheeks will start Chauncey Billups and Will Bynum at guard. That has enormous ripple effects on the rotation Cheeks might have anticipated, of course, though getting Stuckey back before the week is out and Jennings perhaps as soon as a week from now would restore order quickly.
But the Pistons go into the opener feeling confident that even if they don't know all they'd like to about themselves, they can confidently state the following:
Continue reading Ready to Roll >>
Posted Tuesday, October 29, 2013
If you've ever put together a jigsaw puzzle, you know the frustration of getting close to finishing only to discover a few missing pieces. Now imagine putting it together without an idea of what the finished product looks like.
Maurice Cheeks had a few months to contemplate how he would utilize eight new pieces handed to him by Joe Dumars, but the NBA demands the puzzle be completed by 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and he's still scrambling to figure out what form the completed picture should take.
What's certain is that Josh Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond will start in the frontcourt. Drummond will be the first to come out of the game, probably with about four minutes left in the first and third quarters. He'll likely be replaced by Kyle Singler, nudging Smith to power forward and Monroe to center.
Continue reading Decisions, Decisions >>
Posted Monday, October 28, 2013
The Pistons might not get Rodney Stuckey back in time for Wednesday's season opener, but they know it won't be long before he's in the lineup. Brandon Jennings should follow in short order, hopefully before the first week of November closes.
The Pistons knew from the moment they signed Josh Smith last July that the frontcourt of Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond would be their bedrock. Until their backcourt is fully reloaded, the Pistons will lean on those three even more than they anticipated.
Continue reading Frontcourt Fit >>
Posted Sunday, October 27, 2013
The status of their backcourt has dominated Pistons health concerns, obscuring the absence of a player 99 percent of their fans have never seen and know little about. But Gigi Datome's ability to penetrate their consciousness could take a dramatic turn for the better as soon as Monday.
He'll test the foot that began bothering him during September's EuroBasket tournament, in which he played 11 games as the offensive focal point of the Italian national team, and the hamstring he clutched at during the Oct. 5 open practice the Pistons held at The Palace, the only fleeting glimpse fans have had of the 6-foot-8 Italian league MVP who comes to the Pistons with a reputation as a remarkable shooter. And if they feel as good as they felt on Sunday, he'll plunge into his first full practice in more than three weeks.
"If everything is OK, I practice a whole practice," he said. "If not, I'll step out when my body will tell me. There is no rush. I want to come back at the right moment, for sure as fast as possible, but if you rush this stuff maybe you're going to become a bigger problem later. So better to listen to my body and wait for the right moment."
Continue reading Gigi Getting Close >>
Posted Saturday, October 26, 2013
It won't appear on their lengthy injury report, but the Pistons these days are sporting a stiff upper lip. Their goal of incorporating eight new players into a cohesive unit was undermined less than a week into training camp. By the 10-day mark the availability of their expected starting backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Rodney Stuckey for the season opener was imperiled.
They got a dose of relatively good news on Saturday, though, when Stuckey – who had his thumb X-rayed and re-examined on Friday, two days after breaking the tip of it by slamming it in his car door – was cleared for limited basketball activities. Stuckey, now wearing a hard plastic splint over the end of the thumb, which he said he wouldn't wear when playing, wouldn't rule out being ready for the opener. It will come down to his pain tolerance and the functionality of the thumb.
Maurice Cheeks said he wouldn't necessarily have to see Stuckey go through a five-on-five practice before using him in a game, but would prefer it. The Pistons have three more days of practice scheduled before the opener.
Continue reading A Dose of Good News >>
Posted Friday, October 25, 2013
Among the half-dozen or so attributes that elevates Andre Drummond to the 99th percentile of the world's 7-footers in athleticism is his sideline-to-sideline quickness. What will elevate him to a similar stratosphere in the pantheon of NBA centers is that he's every bit as quick from ear to ear. For the many ways he's impressed the Pistons in the 16 months since they drafted him, his mental acuity ranks right near the top of the list.
Combine his quick-study proclivity with his work ethic and you get the week over week gains Drummond has put into evidence. The leap the Piston saw from him from Summer League to training camp to the regular season a year ago exceeded their hopes for him, which were already considerable.
And that's why that while the Pistons aren't banking on Drummond to develop into a go-to scorer at any time in the immediate future, neither would they be surprised if he assumes such a role well ahead of anyone's timetable
Continue reading Quick Study>>
Posted Wednesday, October 23, 2013
It might be playing out on a level a few planes below Andre Drummond's, but the nascent career arc of Tony Mitchell's is following the same trail: impressive but raw in Summer League, progress made in the intervening months before training camp, flashing signs in preseason that the part of the sky his outrageous athleticism allows him to touch is the only limit.
After watching Mitchell in Orlando three months ago, Joe Dumars said, "The word for Tony Mitchell is intriguing. He's an exceptional athlete, but Tony also has a good feel for the game." He also said, "We can bring Tony along and not have to rush him and allow him to grow and learn and figure things out."
A few months later, just before training camp opened and he'd seen Mitchell working with Rasheed Wallace in the team's practice facility, Dumars said, "There's no rush to throw him out there, but I think Tony's going to compete. He's not going to back down. He's not going to just stand at the back of the line and wait. I think he's going to try to fight his way out there to see if he can get minutes."
Continue reading Mitchell's Mission>>
Posted Tuesday, October 22, 2013
If Chauncey Billups could have scripted it, he might have done it just the way Tuesday's seventh preseason game played out. Big lead, big collapse, now … let's find out about ourselves.
"I was kind of happy it was a tie game with six minutes to go," he said after the Pistons held on for a 99-96 win over Washington after losing every inch of a 22-point halftime lead. "That's how you learn. You learn to execute and slow down and make the right plays when the game's on the line, not necessarily when you're up 18."
Indeed, if the Pistons could take their sublime first half – when they shot 67 percent and assisted on 22 of 26 baskets – and their poised finish and forget about the messy 18 minutes in between, it was a beautiful night.
Continue reading Pistons Hold On >>
Posted Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Pistons came into training camp with three broad evaluations to be made with regard to Maurice Cheeks' playing rotation to carry into the regular season. Now down to the final two preseason games on which to base that evaluation – the two games Cheeks declared last week to be his targeted dress rehearsals – in appears likely that they'll go into next week's season opener with 2½ of those evaluations still incomplete.
That pushes some or all of the following decisions into the regular season:
Whittling the backcourt to four contributors – Rookie Peyton Siva was always a long shot to crack the rotation, given the three veteran point guards ahead of him in the pecking order. But lottery pick Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – because of his ideal size and defensive and 3-point-shooting potential – was at least a candidate to unseat one of the four veteran guards available to Cheeks.
Continue reading Preseason: Incomplete >>
Posted Monday, October 21, 2013
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has taken his job title – shooting guard – to heart, leading the Pistons in shot attempts until Greg Monroe nudged ahead of him by one in Sunday's game at Orlando, the sixth of the preseason. The Pistons love everything they've learned about their 2013 lottery pick since choosing him eighth last June – his defense, his motor, his character and his commitment – and they're unshaken in their belief that his shot will eventually fall.
But first they know he needs to take a deep breath, slow down a little and exercise a tad more discretion regarding the quality of shot he's taking.
"He's just trying to find his way because he really is a good shooter," said Chauncey Billups, who's counseled Caldwell-Pope and spent time watching videotape with him, reviewing his shot selection. "As I'm trying to tell him, good shooters take good shots."
Maurice Cheeks, whose great gift as a point guard was setting up shooters in their sweet spots, also has talked to Caldwell-Pope about the importance of choosing shots wisely.
Continue reading Learning Curve >>
Posted Monday, October 21, 2013
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has taken his job title – shooting guard – to heart, leading the Pistons in shot attempts until Greg Monroe nudged ahead of him by one in Sunday's game at Orlando, the sixth of the preseason. The Pistons love everything they've learned about their 2013 lottery pick since choosing him eighth last June – his defense, his motor, his character and his commitment – and they're unshaken in their belief that his shot will eventually fall.
But first they know he needs to take a deep breath, slow down a little and exercise a tad more discretion regarding the quality of shot he's taking.
"He's just trying to find his way because he really is a good shooter," said Chauncey Billups, who's counseled Caldwell-Pope and spent time watching videotape with him, reviewing his shot selection. "As I'm trying to tell him, good shooters take good shots."
Maurice Cheeks, whose great gift as a point guard was setting up shooters in their sweet spots, also has talked to Caldwell-Pope about the importance of choosing shots wisely.
Continue reading Learning Curve >>
Posted Sunday, October 20, 2013
ORLANDO – If bad things indeed happen in threes, the Pistons can exhale. On top of Rodney Stuckey breaking his thumb by getting it caught in his car door and Brandon Jennings suffering a fractured jaw courtesy of an impacted wisdom tooth, food poisoning took down Will Bynum. Tack on Chauncey Billups taking a scheduled maintenance day off and Maurice Cheeks was down to two healthy guards for the sixth preseason game Sunday night at Orlando, rookies Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Peyton Siva.
Hey, at least it made his decision-making process pretty easy.
Cheeks tried to give Siva, the only one available with any meaningful point guard experience, a short rest early in the second quarter. In three possessions, the Pistons committed two turnovers and missed a shot rushed as the shot clock was winding down. Their eight-point lead shrunk to three and one minute later, Cheeks rushed Siva back into the game.
Continue reading Caught Short >>
Posted Saturday, October 19, 2013
Upon further review, maybe all the hand-wringing over Greg Monroe's transition to power forward was for naught.
Most of the analysis of Monroe's move focused on how he'd adapt defensively, specifically how he'd cope guarding "stretch fours" – the burgeoning crop of power forwards comfortable shooting 3-pointers.
Monroe got a major dose of it in the Pistons' second preseason game when Miami started Shane Battier at the position, but the Heat are more the exception than the rule.
Continue reading Big vs. Small >>
Posted Friday, October 18, 2013
The Pistons are still figuring out exactly what role Chauncey Billups will play this year. Does he start or come off the bench? Will he function as the point guard or play off the ball next to Brandon Jennings or Will Bynum?
And while those aren't trifling decisions, in a larger sense they won't really affect the substance of what Billups will provide. He'll be the guiding force in how the team harmonizes away from the basketball court and he'll provide a sense of order for them whenever and however he's used over the course of 48 minutes.
But his return to action Thursday night at Cleveland – after taking three games off as he sets his own path during his 17th NBA preseason – had one subtle yet important effect on how Maurice Cheeks employed the players expected to fill out the rest of his rotation.
Continue reading One Healthy Return >>
Posted Thursday, October 17, 2013
CLEVELAND – The Pistons were down 13-8 midway through Thursday's first quarter. Two possessions later, they were up 14-13 on 3-point baskets from Josh Smith and Will Bynum. The passes that set them up were fairly unremarkable, elegant only in their simplicity. They had one other thing in common. Both were delivered by Chauncey Billups.
"That's just kind of my game," Mr. Big Shot said after returning from a three-game absence as he sets his own pace in his 17th NBA preseason. "Even though I never played baseball, my motto is just to hit singles. Make the game easy. I've never been the home run type of player. But I believe that when I play that way, it's contagious. You make the easy play as opposed to making the home run play. Hopefully, these guys will take heed of that and say let's everybody play like that."
The Pistons made too many tough plays look tortuous in their 96-84 loss to Cleveland, turning the ball over 22 times. The Cavs turned their miscues into 29 points, 12 in the fourth quarter when they outscored the Pistons 26-17. Billups was responsible for only two of the turnovers despite logging 28 minutes, 17 in the first half.
Continue reading Cold in Cleveland >>
Posted Thursday, October 17, 2013
Sometime between 90 and 120 minutes before tipoff of every NBA game, head coaches are obligated to meet with reporters. In smaller markets where the home team is scantily covered, those sessions usually don't amount to much. In media-saturated markets – New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles – they take on a different tone.
That's where many writers assigned not to a single team but to the league at large call home base. And so when Maurice Cheeks met the media before Wednesday night's game at Chicago, there was a fair amount of national NBA writers swooping in to take the temperature of a Pistons team that offers compelling new storylines – Andre Drummond's ascension, the free-agent additions of Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, and, of course, how Drummond, Smith and Greg Monroe will manage to simultaneously thrive in an oversized frontcourt.
Somebody asked Cheeks about the training camp battle at shooting guard – the only starting position seemingly up for grabs, when everyone's healthy.
Continue reading Battles Deferred >>
Posted Wednesday, October 16, 2013
CHICAGO – Maurice Cheeks wants the Pistons to force turnovers, pressure for 94 feet, play constricting half-court defense otherwise and get out and run. The Chicago Bulls gave his team a working seminar in his preferred style during brilliant stretches of basketball Wednesday night at the United Center.
A full house came mainly to see the return of Derrick Rose, playing before the home crowd for the first time since shredding his knee in the 2011 playoffs, and that contributed to an unusual preseason atmosphere. Rose is back, all right – he had 18 points on just six shots, hitting 9 of 10 free throws, in 14 first-half minutes and finished with 22 points in 22 minutes – and the Bulls are again the gold standard in the Central Division.
"He looked like the old Rose is what he looked like to me, the old Rose," Cheeks said. "One time he got in front of our bench, got a handoff from somebody and two, three dribbles, he was at the rim. He didn't look like he lost a stop to me. He was as quick as he's ever been."
For the Pistons to challenge the Bulls this season, they'll need to develop the type of defensive cohesion and mind-set Chicago has manufactured over time since adding Rose and hiring Tom Thibodeau five seasons ago. It's the kind of stuff that doesn't happen overnight and is especially elusive when a team is without its top three guards, as the Pistons again were missing Brandon Jennings, Rodney Stuckey and Chauncey Billups.
Continue reading Bull-Rushed >>
Posted Tuesday, October 15, 2013
If freak injuries happen in threes, the dwindling number of healthy Pistons guards better avoid black cats, ladders and all other symbols of doom and superstition.
Within a few minutes last week, the Pistons got news of Rodney Stuckey slamming the tip of his right thumb in his car door and Brandon Jennings experiencing stabbing tooth pain. Turns out Stuckey had a broken thumb that required surgery and the insertion of a screw and Jennings, the team announced Tuesday afternoon, has an impacted wisdom tooth and a hairline fracture of the jawbone at the base of that tooth.
Stuckey will have an X-ray taken at the end of next week, two weeks removed from his surgery, while Jennings will be immobilized for three weeks and re-evaluated at that time.
Continue reading Banged-Up Backcourt >>
Posted Tuesday, October 15, 2013
If Rodney Stuckey makes it back for opening night, as the Pistons legitimately hope, and Brandon Jennings' lingering issue with his wisdom teeth resolves itself, then they won't have to rely on this year's lottery pick, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, to nearly the same extent as they did on Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight and Andre Drummond before him.
And second-round rookies Tony Mitchell and Peyton Siva happen to play at the two deepest positions on the team, power forward and point guard.
So it could be a while before the results of the 2013 draft come into evidence. But the Pistons feel like they went 3-for-3 on draft night based on early returns.
Continue reading Rookies Rising >>
Posted Monday, October 14, 2013
When Flip Saunders arrived to take over the Pistons from Larry Brown, he scanned his roster and fairly salivated at the thought of employing the zone defense schemes he learned at the feet of his college coach, Bill Musselman, via a five-man Pistons unit peppered with All-Defense candidates.
There was only one problem.
"We looked at it like, 'We don't need that. We're just going to stop 'em,' " Chauncey Billups recalls. "We were always such a great one-on-one team. Obviously, this team is a little different. This team is a lot more athletic than we ever were."
Posted Sunday, October 13, 2013
The Pistons, nearly halfway through the preseason and just 17 days away from the season opener, are beginning to see the outline of their likely playing rotation come into focus.
There are a few certainties that won't be much affected by the final five preseason games. Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings are virtual locks to be in the starting lineup Oct. 30 when Washington opens the regular season at The Palace. Chauncey Billups will play a significant role, either as the starter next to Jennings or coming off the bench at either guard spot.
Rodney Stuckey likely would have been the starter next to Jennings, based on Cheeks' praise for him as the team's best defender, before breaking his thumb last week. He had surgery on Friday to repair a broken distal phalanx – in layman's terms, the tip of his thumb – and the Pistons announced he'll wear a splint and be evaluated in two weeks. If all goes well, there's a fair chance Stuckey could be back in time for the regular-season opener.
Beyond that, here are three players who have solidified their status in the first two weeks of training camp:
Posted Saturday, October 12, 2013
NEW YORK – Andre Drummond went to the foul line three times in the first quarter at Brooklyn, which employed a Hack-a-Dre strategy against him in Summer League, and made all three.
The NBA winced.
The Pistons threw the ball into Drummond, mid-post to the right of the basket, midway through the second quarter, with massive Brook Lopez guarding him. Drummond turned and coolly flicked in a 10-foot hook shot.
The NBA shuddered.
Drummond wreaked his share of havoc as an NBA rookie despite a limited role in which his offensive post game was non-existent and his foul shooting was execrable.
And the Pistons would live with holes in those parts of his game as long as he still dunked, rebounded, blocked shots and provided a generally menacing presence. But he's showing signs of becoming more than just a dominant specialist.
"It's amazing," Maurice Cheeks said of Drummond's superb second-quarter stretch in which he scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds, collected two steals and blocked a shot as the Pistons, now 2-1, took the lead and went on to a 99-88 win over Brooklyn before a packed Barclays Center crowd ready to cheer on the refortified Nets.
Continue reading Pistons Snip the Nets >>
Posted Saturday, October 12, 2013
When Joe Dumars took over the Pistons 13 years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers were the reigning NBA superpower, having lured Shaquille O'Neal as a free agent to join a precocious hot-shot named Kobe Bryant. While every other team in the league searched for a superstar duo to match the Lakers strength for strength, Joe D was busy mining the draft, trade and free agency routes to put together a team that within four years of his ascension to Pistons president would beat those Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals.
His thinking: Unless I find two better than Shaq and Kobe, that's not a realistic formula.
The NBA is a copycat league, always has been. Today's reigning power is the Miami Heat, who came to The Palace this week as two-time defending NBA champions, a team assembled in one day three years ago when Pat Riley signed LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in free agency.
What works for the Heat is surrounding those three with shooting, placing an ever greater premium on 3-point marksmen. Good luck to the franchise building off of that model, though, unless it starts the construction with someone in James' stratosphere at the core of it.
Continue reading The View from Miami >>
Posted Friday, October 11, 2013
When Kyle Singler checks into games this season, he'll almost always be playing with two of Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe or Josh Smith up front. Brandon Jennings, Chauncey Billups and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are on board since Singler's rookie season ended.
It doesn't take Singler's Duke bachelor's degree to acknowledge the talent around him is up dramatically over last year, which Singler split between starting at shooting guard and small forward.
The Pistons believe Singler will be a better player in year two, in part because of the unexpectedly heavy work load he won as a rookie but even more because they see in Singler a player who performs better when he's surrounded by talented players.
Continue reading Singular Singler>>
Posted Thursday, October 10, 2013
Remember when the Pistons had a crowded backcourt? Like, two days ago? The ranks were thinned, swiftly and bizarrely, in the hours leading to Thursday's second preseason game with Miami, a 112-107 loss despite huge games by Andre Drummond and Will Bynum.
First came news that Rodney Stuckey broke the tip of his right thumb when it was smashed against his car's door jamb Wednesday. He'll undergo surgery on Friday. The Pistons gave no timetable for his return, though when Stuckey broke his hand in the preseason as a rookie he missed about eight weeks. A typical time frame for a broken bone is six to eight weeks, but the Pistons will know more after Friday's scheduled surgery.
Also unavailable to Maurice Cheeks against Miami were Brandon Jennings (discomfort from a wisdom tooth), Peyton Siva (a lingering calf injury that has caused him to miss all of training camp) and Chauncey Billups, whom Cheeks said would pick and choose which preseason games he would skip. Billups played 20 minutes in Tuesday's opener.
Continue reading Heat Hang On >>
Posted Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The Pistons have five guards, each offering Maurice Cheeks something a little different, for four spots in his rotation. That means somebody from the group of Brandon Jennings, Chauncey Billups, Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is destined to be on the outside looking in.
"You can't," Cheeks said of squeezing all five into the rotation. "How can you do it? I don't think you can do it. It wouldn't be fair to the guys that are playing."
Jennings is the likely starter at point guard and Billups offers shooting and game management hard to replace. It might not be conclusive of anything that they lined up as the starters in Tuesday's preseason opener, but neither should it be dismissed. They're the two surest to include in Cheeks' four-guard rotation.
You can pretty much move Rodney Stuckey into the same category, based on Cheeks' unsolicited praise of him after Wednesday's practice.
"All I can say is that Stuckey has been … concepts, the way he's played, has been very good," Cheeks said. "Very conscientious of the things we've been doing. It would be easy for me to say that he's probably been the best defensively, in terms of knowing where to be, what to do. Defensively, he's been very good."
Continue reading 5 Guards, 4 Spots >>
Posted Tuesday, October 8, 2013
It was three minutes into the third quarter and a good hour after the Pistons had safely tucked away their first preseason win. Nursing a 29-point lead, they dug in for another adventurous Maccabi Haifi possession, which ended in a turnover 14 times in the first quarter alone.
Two ball reversals and three options blunted, Haifa found Brian Randle along the baseline about 20 feet from the basket. Josh Smith, in precisely the spot required, sprinted out from the block to challenge the shot, which fell meekly into the hands of a teammate.
If the Pistons are going to play defense with that much effort and that much commitment to their assignments, they can get away with at least a few of the offensive inefficiences and perceived weaknesses some expect after their summer roster makeover.
"We've got to be long and athletic and that's what we were doing," said Smith, headliner along with Brandon Jennings of the eight new players Joe Dumars added to the roster since last season. "We were keeping those guys out of our paint, affecting shots if they got in there and when they did, we were trying to limit them to one shot and get out and run."
Continue reading Pistons Ride Defense >>
Posted Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Teams don't spend much time scouting the opposition in preseason, focusing instead on their own training camp experimentation with the playbook and lineup combinations. That goes double for tonight's Pistons preseason opener against a completely foreign opponent, Israeli Super League reigning champion Maccabi Haifa.
Since that June win over the dynastic Maccabi Tel Aviv franchise – Will Bynum's old team – Haifa has lost its star point guard, Gal Mekel, to the Dallas Mavericks and on Monday night lost 130-89 at Phoenix before a police escort to the airport and a commercial flight to Detroit.
"I don't know anything about 'em, but we're mostly going to focus on ourselves," Maurice Cheeks said. "That's what I'm going to do in these preseason games, focus on the things we're trying to do as opposed to worrying whether they run 20 screen and rolls or 30 down screens. We're going to try to do the things we're capable of doing."
Continue reading Billups to Start>>
Posted Monday, October 7, 2013
A half-dozen Pistons wrapped up Monday's practice with a spot shooting competition from around the 3-point arc. Chauncey Billups smoked the field, a nod to not just his acknowledged shooting prowess but to his competitive streak and ability to embrace a challenge.
They're the qualities that propelled him to leadership and made him an attractive target in free agency when Joe Dumars, after refortifying his roster, knew what was still missing was what Billups offered in volume – the ability to project a confident aura amid the chaos of an NBA season or a game down to its critical final possessions.
That's why he's likelier to finish games than to start them, where it would be more difficult to keep a 37-year-old's minutes in check. And Billups expects to be on the court to shepherd a young team rippling with athleticism and potential through those turbulent moments. "Yeah, absolutely," he said Monday. But if he's not, well …
"One thing I will tell you, if I'm not, I'm just not," he said. "Ain't no riff. No big deal. Hopefully, we win it and no big deal. I'm not going to ruffle no feathers. I'm not here for that."
Continue reading Still a Big Shot>>
Posted Sunday, October 6, 2013
The Pistons found out a few things about themselves in the opening week of training camp, but there's only so much to be learned in an intramural setting. This week, they get to beat up on somebody else, and the variety of opponent will stretch their boundaries in a hurry.
From Israeli league member Maccabi Haifi on Tuesday to the defending NBA champion Miami Heat on Thursday, both at The Palace, the Pistons will face opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of style and athleticism. Their week will end with a trip to Brooklyn to face a Nets team fortified with ex-Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
Both Miami and Brooklyn figure to have very stable starting units and nearly established rotations. For the Pistons, starting jobs and rotation spots are on the line. Here are three issues that should start to come into focus for the Pistons in the week ahead.
Continue reading Week 2: Looking Forward>>
Posted Saturday, October 5, 2013
They're a long way from an open book just yet, but Saturday's open practice at least revealed a few things to the estimated 5,000 fans who showed up at The Palace to see the public unveiling of Maurice Cheeks' first Pistons team.
Here are three quick impressions of the Pistons based on Saturday's scrimmage and glimpses of practices over the past week:
KCP ahead of schedule – Just as a year ago, when Andre Drummond showed the Pistons flashes of greatness in the Orlando Summer League but gave no assurances coming out of July that he'd be ready for anything approaching a significant role during the regular season, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is on a similar trajectory.
The Pistons left Orlando three months ago convinced they'd made the right call on taking Caldwell-Pope with the eighth pick. They loved both his physical gifts and his willingness to stick his nose into the fray. But they were no more certain he'd crack the rotation than they were a year ago with Drummond.
Continue reading Week 1: Looking Back >>
Posted Friday, October 4, 2013
Andre Drummond followed up the worst game of his entire rookie season – no points, one rebound – with his first game that gave glimpses of greatness.
Two nights after earning only six minutes at Sacramento in his fifth NBA game, Drummond put up 22 points and eight boards, hitting 8 of 10 shots, as the Pistons pushed Oklahoma City to the final minute before losing on the road.
Sitting on the Oklahoma City bench that night, Maurice Cheeks was struck by what could be.
"I saw his potential – we saw his potential," Cheeks said after wrapping up the fourth day of a Pistons training camp where Drummond, by all accounts, has left his mark. "Even now, just watching him, the way he rebounds the ball, the way he runs the floor, the agility that he has is something special. Just watching him on a daily basis now, you see how special a player he can be because of his agility and his hands."
Continue reading Bread and Butter>>
Posted Friday, October 4, 2013
Maurice Cheeks has been churning his lineups pretty consistently in training camp workouts, but the one consistent element has been Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith playing together as a frontcourt unit, the better to speed their comfort level.
One byproduct of that is to limit Josh Harrellson to playing only one position: center.
"They've been putting Dre and Greg on the same team," said Harrellson, whom the Pistons signed to put the finishing touches on their summer roster makeover. "So other than that, I'm probably the only big we've got that can go against Dre, so I've been playing mostly the five."
But when the Pistons stop beating up on each other and start playing other teams in preseason games next week, might Harrellson get a chance to work his way into the mix at power forward, where his outside shooting and rugged frame offers a unique blend of talents that could help spread the floor on one end and clog the paint on the other?
Continue reading No. 3 With a Bullet>>
Posted Thursday, October 3, 2013
Maurice Cheeks could go several different ways with the one starting position likely up for grabs in Pistons training camp, but a lot of things fall easily into place if Kentavious Caldwell-Pope wins the shooting guard spot.
And he just might.
"Today, he had an excellent day," Cheeks said after the Georgia rookie knocked down a few long jump shots and got after it defensively in his one-on-one battle with Rodney Stuckey in a highly competitive scrimmage.
Continue reading KCP Makes a Move>>
Posted Thursday, October 3, 2013
Joe Dumars and Maurice Cheeks would get it if Gigi Datome's head was swimming and his legs wobbly after playing 11 tough games for his national team in EuroBasket competition, hopping on a plane and landing in Detroit, immersed in a new culture, less than 48 hours before Pistons training camp began.
His teammates? That's another story.
"Those guys that are trying to get his minutes, they don't care," Cheeks said of the 6-foot-8 dead-eye shooter the Pistons signed off of an MVP season in the top Italian league, where he led Rome to the finals. "In fact, they're glad he was over there playing. It's the NBA. You've got to come in and fit in and try to make your mark."
Continue reading 'So Happy to be Here' >>
Posted Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Maurice Cheeks has ended his morning two-a-day practices by singling out a player to shoot a free throw to decide whether or not the Pistons can hit the showers or run sprints. On Tuesday, rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope stepped to the line and knocked it down. On Wednesday, Italian sharpshooter Gigi Datome – a 93 percent foul shooter during his MVP campaign last season – saw his shot go in and out.
Cheeks offered a reprieve and called on Chauncey Billups, who closed out too many wins to remember for the Pistons by draining clutch free throws in the final minute to protect narrow leads.
Billups declined the opportunity, instead nominating Andre Drummond to carry his team's hopes of avoiding extra duty. A 37 percent foul shooter as a rookie who can expect to be intentionally fouled until he makes teams rue such strategy, Drummond stood before the entire team, coaching staff and front office and swished his do-or-die try.
Continue reading Exclamation Points >>
Posted Wednesday, October 2, 2013
The Pistons might not figure out exactly what they have on offense in time for their Oct. 30 season opener. The best way to ensure they don't have to tunnel out of trouble whenever the light comes on is to play lock-down defense from opening night forward.
And that's their expectation.
"We're a defense-first team," Will Bynum said. "We've got the length, we've got the size, we've got the quickness. We know defense wins games and that's what we're all about right now, just trying to get the principles down and get through this rough training camp."
Andre Drummond's presence was felt on the defensive end during his rookie season even as he was only learning NBA personnel and style of play. With a greater role ahead this year, his impact projects upward. Adding Josh Smith's defensive versatility gives the Pistons two defensive game-changers in the frontcourt. Cheeks will demand on-ball pressure from his point guards, and in Brandon Jennings, Bynum and rookie Peyton Siva he has players with the quickness to accommodate his vision – to force turnovers, steer defenders to his shot-blockers and create transition scoring chances.
Continue reading Defense First >>
Posted Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Fans clamored for more of Andre Drummond during a season the Pistons entered with organizational caution for expectations on their callow rookie. They can stop the hand-wringing, it would appear.
"I'm going to put him out on the floor, for sure," Maurice Cheeks said as the Pistons opened training camp. "I'm not looking not to play him. I'm looking to play him. He's going to be out on the floor. I don't know any other way to say it. He's going to be out on the floor and I think with him on the floor we can be pretty good."
Drummond said Monday that he weighed in at 275 pounds when the team went through their pre-camp physicals, which puts him 20 pounds under his weight last winter even though his body fat index hovered between 5 and 6 percent at the time, he said. The conditioning issues that contributed to limited minutes over the early months last season are no longer a factor.
Continue reading More Minutes >>


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subset: commoncrawl


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This clever rope makes it easy for you to hang your hammock just about anywhere and solves the problem of trees that are too far apart.Includes a large carabiner clip to attach to the hammock and 3.2m of rope. You'll need two ropes or one rope and a hammock fixing if you don't have a hammock stand.150kg load capacity per rope. So a rope at either end will give you a total load capacity of 300kg.
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text:
Dan Ianno
Director of Admissions
Payne Hall Room 101
Phone: (315) 792-5354
Fax: (315) 792-5527
Steps to Enroll
After completing your application and submitting all the necessary paperwork for admission to the college, you application will be reviewed by our Admissions staff and you will be notified in a timely manner. Once accepted to Mohawk Valley Community College, please follow these Steps to Enroll:
1. Confirm your Admissions Reservation Form (no-fee deposit form that was sent in your acceptance packet)
- Just sign and return the form that you received with your acceptance letter to our Admissions office. By completing the Admissions Reservation Form, your application will remain active with our Admissions office.
2. Apply for Financial Aid (after January 1 for the upcoming academic year)
- Begin the process at the Federal Financial Aid website at: www.fafsa.ed.gov.
3. Start checking your MVCC Student E-mail account for important information regarding such topics as registering for classes, campus housing, and orientations
- Your account information is mailed to you shortly after acceptance.
4. Finalize On-campus Housing arrangements (for those who would like to be considered for on-campus housing. Commuter students skip to Step 5.)
- There is a limited amount of on-campus housing available for accepted students on the Utica Campus and no housing on the Rome Campus.
- Accepted applicants will be considered for on-campus housing on a first-come, first-served basis upon the receipt of the Intent to Enroll Form (Step 1).
5. Take your Placement Test
- To sign up for your test, go to http://www.mvcc.edu/placement-testing/placement-testing-center or call 315.731.5802.
- If you previously attended another institution or took college level coursework while in high school, you may be exempt from portions of the MVCC placement test depending upon your credit evaluation. Please contact Admissions should you have questions regarding transfer credits and/or placement testing requirements.
6. Make your Advising Appointment *
- Accepted students who have completed their placement testing may call the Advisement Office on either campus starting in April to set up their new student advising and scheduling appointment.
Advisement Utica - 315.792.5608
Advisement Rome - 315.334.7725
* Students who have confirmed rooms in the Residence Halls will be invited to attend one of several Student Testing and Registration (STAR) programs held during July or early August to complete placement testing and registration.
7. Submit your Health Forms and Immunization Records
- As required by NY state law, you must submit your health and immunization records. The Health Form, in printable form, is available on our web site under Future Students, Health Center
8. Submit N.Y. Certificate of Residence (for non-residents of Oneida County) (Students who live in Oneida county do not need to act on this step)
- NY State Residents from Outside Oneida County must provide a Certificate of Residence from your home county. Certificate forms, available under Administrative Services, then Business Office on our web site, should not be completed more than 60 days prior to the start of classes and are valid for one year.
- Out of state residents and international students are not eligible to submit a certificate of residence.
9. Pay Tuition & Fees
- Semester bills are due approximately 3 weeks prior to the start of each semester. You must return your bill with either payment or proof of a valid deferral by that date to secure your classes. Failure to do so may result in the cancellation of your schedule.
Full payments can be processed through your online student SIRS account, by mail, or in person at the Business Office at either campus.
Please note that even if your charges are completely covered by financial aid, you must still confirm ("accept") the charges in your SIRS account.
A payment plan is available through your SIRS account or by visiting http://www.mvcc.edu/business-office/facts
10. Attend New Student Orientation
- Orientations take place in July and August and are critical to a successful start in college. There are three types:
- Commuter Orientations, with sessions on either the Utica or Rome Campus in late July and August.
- Residence Hall Orientation, mandatory for all new dorm residents for the Fall semester,
- Online, self-paced, at www.mvcc.edu for students and family unable to attend orientation.
For more detailed information regarding orientations - go to http://www.mvcc.edu/first-year-exp-online-orientation/
Contact Information
Dan Ianno
Director of Admissions
Payne Hall Room 101
Phone: (315) 792-5354
Fax: (315) 792-5527
E-mail Admissions