:langlois:




THURSDAY, August 28, 2008

Jason (Kalamazoo, Mich.): Do you think there will be a particular factor in how Michael Curry chooses between Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell off the bench for the power forward position? And with the acquisition of Kwame Brown, would that mean more minutes for Maxiell at power forward as opposed to center?
Langlois: As Joe Dumars told me last week (http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_080822.html), he and Curry have talked at length about the stable of big men they have now and how the mix of talents among the five of them – the three you mentioned, plus Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess – will enable them to match up favorably on any given night. Don’t assume McDyess will remain a starter – in fact, if you read between the lines, I think it’s likely that McDyess is going back to the bench, though that doesn’t mean his place in the pecking order is diminished at all. In other words, he might not start games, but he’s about as likely to finish them as he was last season. I think you’ll see the Pistons try various combinations involving Wallace and the other guys during the preseason, but ultimately Curry’s rotation will be determined by productivity and matchups.


Ryan (Dallas): What’s the deal with the Lindsey Hunter situation? I hope he’s innocent. I’d hate to see one of my favorite players end a career this way.
Langlois: I’m no legal expert, Ryan, but when one enforcement agency considers you the victim and another is investigating you as the potential perpetrator, it would seem that his defense attorney, should he require one, will have plenty of fodder to raise reasonable doubt. I read the first story, in Crain’s Detroit Business, and was completely confused. I imagine if it came to a jury, so would they be. Pretty hard to convict someone when even the authorities can’t decide who did what.


James (Canberra, Australia): First, congratulations to Tayshaun Prince and the USA basketball team on their gold medal-winning performance. I would have preferred Australia to get up, but USA was just way too good. This might seem like a dumb question, but what is the difference between a restricted and unrestricted free agent? Finally, Joe Dumars mentioned he was going to leave the 15th spot on his roster open – does this mean Lindsey Hunter will not return?
Langlois: I think we’ll see Australia in the medal hunt in 2012, James, at least if Bogut continues playing. I really liked what I saw from Patrick Mills, Brad Newley and Joe Ingles in flashes. I remember covering the Michigan-Seton Hall NCAA title game in 1989 and seeing Andrew Gaze – first time I remember thinking that basketball wasn’t just America’s game anymore. At any rate, a restricted free agent is someone who can shop himself on the market and solicit offers, but his team will have the right to match whatever he and another team agree to. An unrestricted free agent is free to sign with any team he chooses, his original team included, but once he signs, that’s it – no right to match for the original team. If the original team chooses not to match the offer sheet for a restricted free agent, however, it will not receive any form of compensation for losing that player. (Nor do teams that lose unrestricted free agents receive compensation.) As for the 15th roster spot, Dumars told me last week that if Hunter decides against playing another season, he would more than likely not sign anyone else. But if Hunter comes back, he’d fill the 15th spot. We talked before reports surfaced in multiple media outlets that Hunter is being investigated by the FBI in a complicated probe involving mortgage fraud, while another enforcement agency – the Wayne County Sherriff’s Office – is considering Hunter a victim of mortgage fraud. No idea how that affects his playing status.


Tre (Maryland, N.Y.): Do the Pistons have any chance of getting Ben Wallace back or, if not, any chance to getting Kenny George next year? And will Antonio McDyess still be a starter next season?
Langlois: One undersized and overpaid center and one oversized and underwhelming center. I don’t imagine there will be a frantic marketplace for either one, Tre, not with Big Ben still owed two years on the $60 million, four-year contract Chicago gave him two summers ago and major questions about whether the huge George – last time I saw, he was listed at 7-foot-7 and 360 pounds – has a chance to keep up in today’s NBA. Somebody will give George a shot, for sure, but I’d be surprised if someone risked a first-round pick on him. As for McDyess, I thought so going into my interview with Joe Dumars last week, but now I’m less inclined to believe that. When Joe D said it wasn’t certain who would be starting and that Michael Curry has some thoughts, it makes me think they’re considering other possibilities – maybe Amir Johnson, maybe Kwame Brown, maybe Jason Maxiell. It’s possible they’ll use the preseason to experiment with that spot and see who might work best in tandem with Rasheed Wallace. McDyess adapted well to starting last season, but there is appeal to bringing him off the bench again, too. For one thing, it would bring a little bit of balance instead of having a completely veteran starting lineup (average age on opening night: 33) and a very young bench (average age of projected first five: 23). For another, it gives the second unit a little more scoring punch.


Peter (Troy, Mich.): Will Monta Ellis be wearing a Pistons jersey soon? He’s young and explosive and would make a nice pairing with Rodney Stuckey. Do you think it could happen?
Langlois: Not a chance, Peter. The Warriors lost Baron Davis and re-signed Ellis, a restricted free agent, to a big contract to essentially take Davis’ role. It remains to be seen if Ellis – who’ll miss at least three months, according to reports, while recovering from ankle surgery – can handle point guard on a full-time basis, but it’s pretty clear the Warriors see him as a foundation piece.


Eric (Sterling Heights, Mich.): It seems to me the Pistons have played with less intensity every year since winning the 2004 title. This group is getting stale. That would be enough for me to make a move.
Langlois: The right move, sure, Eric, but not one that holds more negative than positive potential. Joe Dumars wasn’t dealing from a position of weakness or desperation this summer, so why take huge risks when you feel – as Dumars clearly does – that the change he made in head coaches has a real chance to eliminate the lack of urgency he sensed in his team. And it’s not just the coaching change he’s banking on to improve the Pistons, but the logically reasonable leaps in production he expects from guys like Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo and Amir Johnson.


Josh (Hsinchu, Taiwan): Reading your interview with Joe D (http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_080822.html), I was reminded that the Pistons are a phenomenal basketball team. But you must admit that in the next two years the Pistons, along with most other teams, will have a major roster shakeup. McDyess, Wallace and Billups will no longer be offering starter-level minutes. What is our long-term plan? It’s obviously difficult to project, but what is the reasonable ideal going into the 2010-11 season?
Langlois: Billups will still be under contract, probably with a slightly reduced role, but he should still be an effective player. McDyess and Wallace will be 37 when that season starts. No telling if they’ll still be active or not. The Pistons do have four young big men on their roster now – Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, Cheikh Samb and Kwame Brown. I daresay that’s a significantly better group of young big men than most teams boast. The Pistons also have Rodney Stuckey ready to assume a prime-time role. Rip Hamilton (though he can become a free agent next summer if he chooses to opt out) will be 32 then, but he strikes me as a young 30 now and should continue to play at or near his current level for another four or five years. Tayshaun Prince will be 30 and still in his prime. Arron Afflalo should be pressing for starter’s minutes by then. Walter Sharpe is a project, but if he continues to display the willingness to work and learn that he’s shown to date, he has the talent to emerge as a significant rotation piece. The Pistons like what they’ve seen from Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington, their two second-rounders from 2008 they expect to season in Europe for a year or two. They have all of their own draft choices between now and then, plus two additional second-rounders next summer – Minnesota’s and Toronto’s – to spend on projects. Dumars has managed the salary cap beautifully, so there’s no reason to think he won’t be able to spend his mid-level exception if he chooses to plug any holes he perceives. Much can change in two years in the NBA, but I really would be hard-pressed to come up with another team that has that many assets locked up that far into the future.


Austin (Memphis, Mich.): I’m a huge Pistons fan who was hoping Joe Dumars was going to make a big move. I want to know why he didn’t pull the trigger on the deal for Josh Smith.
Langlois: There was no trigger to be pulled, Austin. No one lets a talented player get away as a restricted free agent unless they’re painted into a corner financially. Only two players got offers as restricted free agents this summer. Golden State offered Ronny Turiaf a contract many thought was extravagant after losing Baron Davis as an unrestricted free agent. The Lakers, for whom Turiaf would have been the No. 4 power player behind Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, were hamstrung in matching by bad contracts they gave Vladimir Radmanovic, Chris Mihm and Luke Walton, so they let him go. Smith was the only other RFA to get a contract offer and many suspect Memphis offered what it did to Smith just for show. The Grizzlies were taking heat for sitting on the money available to them under the salary cap and extended an offer they knew Atlanta would match – Smith’s $58 million deal is far less than Andre Igoudala’s $80 million. It also should be pointed out that the Pistons could not have signed Smith to an offer sheet because they didn’t have the money under the salary cap. It would have had to have been a sign-and-trade deal, and Atlanta had little motivation to do so when the Hawks knew that after Philadelphia, Golden State and the Clippers spent their money only Memphis had enough cap space to make Smith an offer.


Joe (Bay City, Mich.): The numbers from the 2004 championship season and now show Tayshaun Prince is down in steals, blocks and fouls. Is he losing his defensive edge or is the competition at small forward getting better?
Langlois: You’re right that the numbers are down, but the truth is that Prince never was one to come up with lots of blocks or steals. His blocks are memorable, but not all that frequent. His career best is 71 in 2004-05; it was 33 last year. But small forwards aren’t shot-blockers. Most blocked shots come against somebody other than the man you’re guarding. Small forwards are almost always out on the floor guarding their man and not really in position to come from 20 feet away to swat somebody else’s shot. His steals were at 42, down from 63 in the title year. He’s not a gambler. His strength as a defender is staying within arm’s length of the man he’s guarding and then using those long arms to make for difficult attempts. As for the fouls being down – 90 last season was six under his previous career low – that’s more than likely a function of playing 300 fewer minutes than the previous season and veteran smarts. I wouldn’t equate lowering one’s foul total with being a less effective defender. Ben Wallace won four Defensive Player of the Year awards and almost never got in foul trouble.


Steve (Grand Rapids, Mich.): What do you tell people who claim that they’re hard-core Pistons fans but also claim they would jump ship to another team if the Pistons don’t do well this season? My personal dignity won’t allow me to speak my mind and I just blow it off. I’ll be a Pistons fan until basketball bores me, which won’t happen soon.
Langlois: The only time I understand a fan severing his allegiance to a team is when ownership is so inept or uncommitted to winning that it, in effect, is openly contemptuous of its own fans. Not to pick on the Detroit Lions, but the fact that the Fords have let Matt Millen run that team with disastrous effects for so long mocks fans. The evidence against Millen is profound on many levels, yet ownership lets him roll blithely along, and if I were a Lions fan I would be beyond frustrated – I would have given up on them long, long ago. The Pistons have gotten to the NBA’s equivalent of the NFC championship game six straight years, have won one “Super Bowl” and gotten there once again, and have a team poised to challenge at that same high level again this year – and reasonably positioned to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Who’d want to bail on that?


Blossom (West Palm Beach, Fla.): Is Joe Dumars going to keep Tayshaun Prince? I hope so. I hope to see him retire as a Piston.
Langlois: It’s almost certain he’ll start this season with the Pistons, Blossom. What happens after that is anybody’s guess. Joe Dumars is constantly evaluating his roster and constantly monitoring the rest of the league. If the Pistons roll out of the blocks this year and play at a consistently high level under Michael Curry, then I’d fully expect Dumars to let this team give it another shot. If they sputter and the right opportunity to trade presents itself, he’s already made it clear that he’s willing to trade almost anyone.


Robert (Houston): I grew up in Flint cheering for Dave Bing and Bob Lanier and am still a Flintstone and a Pistons fan. What is the possibility of landing a legitimate 7-footer who is a low-post threat to give us a double-double nightly, say 15 points and 10 to 12 rebounds with two blocks.
Langlois: How many guys fit that description on the planet, Robert? I looked it up. Last year in the NBA, only three players fit your parameters – Yao Ming, Dwight Howard and Chris Kaman. I’d say the first two are as close to untouchable as anybody this side of LeBron James. The Clippers would listen to offers for Kaman, but he wouldn’t come cheap. The Pistons have an unusually deep frontcourt this season – Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Amir Johnson, Kwame Brown and Jason Maxiell are all capable of putting up sizable numbers. None of them are likely to be double-double guys this season, but collectively their totals are going to give the Pistons a chance to win a lot of games.


Johnathan (Orlando, Fla.): I don’t know if a lot of fans know this guy, but if Indiana released Shawne Williams, how much interest do you think Joe D would have in him? The games I’ve seen him play at Memphis and in the NBA has me thinking he could be someone special – a 6-foot-9 guy who can shoot the three, is quick off the dribble and can throw it down if he gets in the lane.
Langlois: He’s one more misstep from getting whacked by the Pacers, Johnathan. You’re right that Williams oozes talent – it’s why Indiana spent the 17th pick in the 2006 draft on him despite one season at Memphis that included loud whispers of character red flags. There’s no doubt he’ll get more chances in the NBA – as long as he stays out of trouble. Right now, that’s a major question mark. Williams seems reluctant to let go of a very checkered past filled with shady characters. A team desperate for talent would be more willing than a team like the Pistons to give him another chance, but under the right circumstances – meaning Williams offering compelling evidence that he’s seen the light – any team in the NBA would love to see what he could offer.


Zack (Mount Pleasant, Mich.): I enjoyed your article about Rodney Stuckey (http://truebluepistons.blogspot.com/2008/08/look-ahead-to-london.html) and his chances of being on the next Olympic team in London in 2012. I love watching Stuckey play and hope his flashes of brilliance turn him into a consistent All-Star-caliber player. But he doesn’t even start on his own team now. I think calling him a near-lock for the 2012 games might be jumping the gun.
Langlois: I said he was “as likely as anyone” to fill the spot being vacated by Jason Kidd. That’s a far cry from near-lock, Zack. But understand that when they were picking the U.S. Select Team back in June to give Team USA competitive practices before embarking on its Olympic odyssey, the first name submitted to the committee was Stuckey’s – and the vote to include him was unanimous. There is a strong sense in the basketball community that Stuckey will be invited to play on the 2010 U.S. team for the World Championships. Doesn’t start for his own team? I think Jerry Colangelo and his fellow committee members are smart enough to understand Stuckey’s situation – he came into the NBA as a rookie from a small school to a team with two All-Star guards. They all understand he would have started for pretty much any other team in the league. He’ll get starter’s minutes for the Pistons this year. Of course, how he performs this season will go a long way toward determining his immediate future with Team USA, but the best guess is that he’s first in line to join Chris Paul and Deron Williams in the backcourt.


Jesse (Livonia, Mich.): With Michael Curry now as the head coach and Ben Wallace and Curry being very close friends, could you foresee any chance that Ben could end up back with the Pistons before his career is over. I could see Cleveland buying out his contract in the final year to clear the cap space needed to sign LeBron. In that case, the Pistons could bring him back as a bargain or sign him as a free agent in two years.
Langlois: Buying out Big Ben won’t help Cleveland’s cap situation. The advantages to teams in buying out players are to save a few actual dollars, clear a roster spot and rid themselves of stars not coping well with diminished roles. But it does not change the numbers relative to the salary cap. Even when Philadelphia, for instance, bought out Chris Webber in early 2007, his cap number for the following season, 2007-08, did not change. It’s hard to see Wallace having much to offer when his contract expires in the summer of 2010, but if he’s still inclined to play and the Pistons have an opening for a spare big man, yeah, it wouldn’t be out of the question that he comes back to finish his career here. There were no bridges burned when he left to sign with Chicago. He and Joe Dumars are still on very good terms.


T.J. (Sterling Heights, Mich.): Do you think it’s possible Denver would reconsider trading Carmelo. Once they traded Marcus Camby, it’s almost like they were waving the white flag.
Langlois: As I’ve written, T.J., there are rumblings that Anthony isn’t pleased at all that the Nuggets basically gave Camby away to avoid tax consequences. If the season starts badly, it’s possible Anthony will put pressure on to force his way out.