Glenn
09-15-2009, 09:27 AM
A camp filled with questions
Camp Question Mark
:langlois:
by Keith Langlois
The Pistons have gone to the last several training camps without many significant questions hovering overhead other than the big ones that addressed their championship potential. This year, the questions are many. But so are the options. The storylines could change by the day. Here are five we’ll be watching – and not the only five – when the Pistons open camp two weeks from today:
1. Can Rodney Stuckey hold off Will Bynum?
The Pistons pretty much know what they have in Bynum. They know he’s capable of shouldering the load they gave him late last season, when he emerged as one of the league’s most explosive bench scorers. They also know they’ll be the better for it if they can afford the luxury of limiting Bynum’s role to a six- or seven-minute burst in each half.
But they can’t do that unless Stuckey elevates his play – take it back to where it was around Jan. 1, 2009 and go forward from there. My guess is that will happen because the overwhelming confusion of last season, and the inordinate onus that befell a first-year starting point guard, should be lifted.
Stuckey has every physical tool and the full assortment of intangibles to emerge as a top-10 point guard, and if he shows that starting in training camp and the preseason then the Pistons get to keep Bynum in a limited role that allows him to play manically, harassing the opposition point guard and putting the defense on its heels. That’s a win-win for the Pistons.
2. Which rookie rises to the top of the pecking order?
You could make a case for all three of Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko. In Las Vegas, they took turns looking like the rookie likeliest to carve out a niche for himself.
A near 7-footer just shouldn’t be able to shoot, handle and pass it the way Daye does. If he can hold up defensively, what he packages offensively would give John Kuester a dimension the Pistons haven’t enjoyed. If Summers proves a quick study defensively, he’ll represent a scoring threat from all three levels. Physically, he’ll be able to compete from day one. Jerebko’s strengths are the type of things that often get rookies on the court – the hustle plays that change the tenor of a game.
It could very well be that the rookie who finds his way into a role this year won’t necessarily be the first to eventually win an NBA starting job or blossom into a star. But that’s a discussion for another day. Which one can figure out a way to help the Pistons win a game here or there this season?
3. How soon will Ben Gordon fit?
Gordon’s going to get his 30-plus minutes a night. There aren’t more than two handfuls of players in the league capable of throwing up those magical 20-point quarters that the Pistons would get from Isiah or Joe D or Vinnie back in the Bad Boys heyday, and Gordon is one of them. His relentless scoring ability and mentality, the pressure he puts on defenses, holds the potential to dramatically alter the challenge the Pistons present offensively.
The key is how quickly and how seamlessly the Pistons can figure out how to best utilize Gordon. Which perimeter players will best complement him? Rodney Stuckey and Tayshaun Prince? Will Bynum and Rip Hamilton? Stuckey and Hamilton? Bynum and Prince? When Gordon and Hamilton play together, as they must in order for the Pistons to get the most from each, will they enhance the other’s play or get in each other’s way?
4. Can they come together defensively?
Maybe this trumps the Gordon question. For certain, the Pistons appear to have enough scorers, and enough variety in the way they best score, to become a very good offensive team at some point. It might come at the expense of somebody’s stats, but you have to like the chances that these Pistons, under John Kuester’s hand, are going to put an efficient offense together.
Defense is the bigger question mark. The sense I get around The Palace, reinforced by watching Kuester and his staff hammer out the defensive details on the practice facility’s court, is that emphasis isn’t going to be an issue. Kuester is going to pound the message from his opening speech to the players when they gather Sept. 29 through every day of camp that they have to be sound and tough and cerebral defensively, communicating constantly so five players move as one on every pass, every screen, every cut.
But it’s going to be a process. Any time you attempt to integrate so many new faces, coming from so many different systems, there are old habits that need to be broken and new ones that must be absorbed until they become second nature.
5. How will the frontcourt pieces fall into place?
This could end up being the ultimate job-sharing situation. Kwame Brown and Chris Wilcox could wind up splitting the center minutes. Jason Maxiell offers something so starkly different than Charlie Villanueva that one night he might be the answer and another it could be Charlie V. And Ben Wallace is going to push all four in practice and make his case for playing time at either position based on the reliability of his defense and effort.
Then there’s Jonas Jerebko or even Austin Daye and DaJuan Summers, who each have the sort of offensive versatility that only Villanueva among the veterans offers.
It would be a great sign for the Pistons if Villanueva establishes early in the preseason that he’s a constant, deserving of 30 minutes or so a night. Mixing and matching can work, but Kuester’s job gets easier if he has at least one name he can write down and be reasonably assured that he’ll win the battle at that position most nights no matter who lines up against him.
Camp Question Mark
:langlois:
by Keith Langlois
The Pistons have gone to the last several training camps without many significant questions hovering overhead other than the big ones that addressed their championship potential. This year, the questions are many. But so are the options. The storylines could change by the day. Here are five we’ll be watching – and not the only five – when the Pistons open camp two weeks from today:
1. Can Rodney Stuckey hold off Will Bynum?
The Pistons pretty much know what they have in Bynum. They know he’s capable of shouldering the load they gave him late last season, when he emerged as one of the league’s most explosive bench scorers. They also know they’ll be the better for it if they can afford the luxury of limiting Bynum’s role to a six- or seven-minute burst in each half.
But they can’t do that unless Stuckey elevates his play – take it back to where it was around Jan. 1, 2009 and go forward from there. My guess is that will happen because the overwhelming confusion of last season, and the inordinate onus that befell a first-year starting point guard, should be lifted.
Stuckey has every physical tool and the full assortment of intangibles to emerge as a top-10 point guard, and if he shows that starting in training camp and the preseason then the Pistons get to keep Bynum in a limited role that allows him to play manically, harassing the opposition point guard and putting the defense on its heels. That’s a win-win for the Pistons.
2. Which rookie rises to the top of the pecking order?
You could make a case for all three of Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko. In Las Vegas, they took turns looking like the rookie likeliest to carve out a niche for himself.
A near 7-footer just shouldn’t be able to shoot, handle and pass it the way Daye does. If he can hold up defensively, what he packages offensively would give John Kuester a dimension the Pistons haven’t enjoyed. If Summers proves a quick study defensively, he’ll represent a scoring threat from all three levels. Physically, he’ll be able to compete from day one. Jerebko’s strengths are the type of things that often get rookies on the court – the hustle plays that change the tenor of a game.
It could very well be that the rookie who finds his way into a role this year won’t necessarily be the first to eventually win an NBA starting job or blossom into a star. But that’s a discussion for another day. Which one can figure out a way to help the Pistons win a game here or there this season?
3. How soon will Ben Gordon fit?
Gordon’s going to get his 30-plus minutes a night. There aren’t more than two handfuls of players in the league capable of throwing up those magical 20-point quarters that the Pistons would get from Isiah or Joe D or Vinnie back in the Bad Boys heyday, and Gordon is one of them. His relentless scoring ability and mentality, the pressure he puts on defenses, holds the potential to dramatically alter the challenge the Pistons present offensively.
The key is how quickly and how seamlessly the Pistons can figure out how to best utilize Gordon. Which perimeter players will best complement him? Rodney Stuckey and Tayshaun Prince? Will Bynum and Rip Hamilton? Stuckey and Hamilton? Bynum and Prince? When Gordon and Hamilton play together, as they must in order for the Pistons to get the most from each, will they enhance the other’s play or get in each other’s way?
4. Can they come together defensively?
Maybe this trumps the Gordon question. For certain, the Pistons appear to have enough scorers, and enough variety in the way they best score, to become a very good offensive team at some point. It might come at the expense of somebody’s stats, but you have to like the chances that these Pistons, under John Kuester’s hand, are going to put an efficient offense together.
Defense is the bigger question mark. The sense I get around The Palace, reinforced by watching Kuester and his staff hammer out the defensive details on the practice facility’s court, is that emphasis isn’t going to be an issue. Kuester is going to pound the message from his opening speech to the players when they gather Sept. 29 through every day of camp that they have to be sound and tough and cerebral defensively, communicating constantly so five players move as one on every pass, every screen, every cut.
But it’s going to be a process. Any time you attempt to integrate so many new faces, coming from so many different systems, there are old habits that need to be broken and new ones that must be absorbed until they become second nature.
5. How will the frontcourt pieces fall into place?
This could end up being the ultimate job-sharing situation. Kwame Brown and Chris Wilcox could wind up splitting the center minutes. Jason Maxiell offers something so starkly different than Charlie Villanueva that one night he might be the answer and another it could be Charlie V. And Ben Wallace is going to push all four in practice and make his case for playing time at either position based on the reliability of his defense and effort.
Then there’s Jonas Jerebko or even Austin Daye and DaJuan Summers, who each have the sort of offensive versatility that only Villanueva among the veterans offers.
It would be a great sign for the Pistons if Villanueva establishes early in the preseason that he’s a constant, deserving of 30 minutes or so a night. Mixing and matching can work, but Kuester’s job gets easier if he has at least one name he can write down and be reasonably assured that he’ll win the battle at that position most nights no matter who lines up against him.