Glenn
10-03-2006, 10:19 AM
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http://www.nba.com/media/pistons/mediaday_254_061002.jpg
Pistons Put Last Year Behind Them on Media Day
By Keith Langlois
The Pistons tried tricking their collective psyche last year. The only carrot out there for them was the NBA championship, as it is again this year.
"And if we don’t do that," as Rasheed Wallace said at Monday's Media Day on the eve of training camp, "then the whole season, the whole eight, nine months, is a failure. That's pretty much how I see it and the majority of the guys see it."
Understanding the dangers of that mind-set in navigating the grind of an 82-game season, last year's Pistons sold themselves on the importance of winning more games than anyone else and locking up home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The logic was unassailable: They'd lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals the previous June, a bitter loss dealt them by San Antonio on the sweltering central Texas plains, amid the soap opera that swirled about Larry Brown.
But it was never about locking up home-court advantage. Not really. The Pistons won the 2004 title despite opening both the Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals away from The Palace, knocking off Indiana and the Los Angeles Lakers. They got back to the '05 Finals by winning the East in the cauldron of a road Game 7, at Miami.
The Pistons, to be sure, were not a team that lacked for confidence. Truth be told, they figured the title San Antonio held was rightfully theirs, and would have been if not for the Brown distraction and the spot they put themselves in by allowing Miami to extend them to seven games, requiring three trips to South Florida and demanding a short turnaround time before the Finals opened.
So when training camp '05 opened, the Pistons already had that 1,000-yard stare, anxious for the playoffs to arrive. And they tricked themselves, hyping up the importance of a regular season that needed hyping for a team conditioned to the soul-bending pressure of the postseason.
And it worked.
Except it worked too well.
Because as they sprinted from the gates and lapped the field, they all got caught up in the gaudiness of their record. And every time the NBA carousel stopped to dump them in a different destination last season – Miami, San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas – the Pistons found themselves marked. They were everybody's measuring stick.
"For two months, every city we went into, every newspaper, every radio show, it was the biggest game of the year," Pistons president Joe Dumars recalls. "Our guys say they don't read, don't pay any attention to that stuff, but they couldn't help but notice."
The end didn't become the means; the means expedited the end – of their season. In trying to compile the best record to keep themselves focused on the larger goal of winning the NBA title, the Pistons got so caught up in chasing regular-season wins that ultimately a toll was taken on their possibilities for the only goal that really compelled them.
"I think we focused on that a little too much as opposed to just staying focused on making it back to the Finals," Chauncey Billups said at the first Media Day the Pistons have hosted without Ben Wallace, gone to Chicago as a free agent, since the new millennium arrived.
"We put so much stock into getting home-court advantage, which we did, that we wore ourselves down in the process. Just trying to get every single win that we could, I think it came back to bite us a little bit."
"Looking back, our team got caught up in the (chase for) 70 wins," coach Flip Saunders said, "and it took on a life of itself. A lot of our guys played a few more minutes earlier. We gave them rest late. Maybe we should have given them rest earlier."
To that end, they all expect more minutes and greater production from the bench. Antonio McDyess remains its anchor, but Carlos Delfino had a big summer playing for the Argentine national team, Flip Murray is a veteran two-way guard who can man both backcourt positions, Lindsey Hunter is healthy for the start of the season this time around, Dale Davis is sturdy and Jason Maxiell is slimmed down and eager to prove he deserves to be in the rotation.
"The most important thing we didn't do is develop our bench," Tayshaun Prince said. "We've got to be able to win by putting guys on the floor we can trust even if they haven't played all that much. If we can do that, we won’t have to rely on the starters to jump back in there to win the game. We’ve got to rely on our bench a little bit more than we have."
There's also this to rely on: The Pistons are back in the underdog role they relish, the role that served them so well in winning one championship and coming within a few minutes on the dusty central Texas plains of another.
"I love it," grinned Rip Hamilton, his familiar braids shorn to within a whisper of his scalp. "I love it, because I think we play better. People out there doubting us, I think we thrive on that."
They'll be a different team without Ben Wallace. Probably a little more versatile offensively, maybe not quite as suffocating defensively. The Pistons left behind aren't quite sure yet how all the details will work themselves out, but there is a palpable air of excitement about them. A little change is good. But the core of this team still looks championship worthy. Back in their underdog's role, the Pistons will once again be looked at warily by the rest of the NBA's contenders.
http://www.nba.com/media/pistons/mediaday_254_061002.jpg
Pistons Put Last Year Behind Them on Media Day
By Keith Langlois
The Pistons tried tricking their collective psyche last year. The only carrot out there for them was the NBA championship, as it is again this year.
"And if we don’t do that," as Rasheed Wallace said at Monday's Media Day on the eve of training camp, "then the whole season, the whole eight, nine months, is a failure. That's pretty much how I see it and the majority of the guys see it."
Understanding the dangers of that mind-set in navigating the grind of an 82-game season, last year's Pistons sold themselves on the importance of winning more games than anyone else and locking up home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The logic was unassailable: They'd lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals the previous June, a bitter loss dealt them by San Antonio on the sweltering central Texas plains, amid the soap opera that swirled about Larry Brown.
But it was never about locking up home-court advantage. Not really. The Pistons won the 2004 title despite opening both the Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals away from The Palace, knocking off Indiana and the Los Angeles Lakers. They got back to the '05 Finals by winning the East in the cauldron of a road Game 7, at Miami.
The Pistons, to be sure, were not a team that lacked for confidence. Truth be told, they figured the title San Antonio held was rightfully theirs, and would have been if not for the Brown distraction and the spot they put themselves in by allowing Miami to extend them to seven games, requiring three trips to South Florida and demanding a short turnaround time before the Finals opened.
So when training camp '05 opened, the Pistons already had that 1,000-yard stare, anxious for the playoffs to arrive. And they tricked themselves, hyping up the importance of a regular season that needed hyping for a team conditioned to the soul-bending pressure of the postseason.
And it worked.
Except it worked too well.
Because as they sprinted from the gates and lapped the field, they all got caught up in the gaudiness of their record. And every time the NBA carousel stopped to dump them in a different destination last season – Miami, San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas – the Pistons found themselves marked. They were everybody's measuring stick.
"For two months, every city we went into, every newspaper, every radio show, it was the biggest game of the year," Pistons president Joe Dumars recalls. "Our guys say they don't read, don't pay any attention to that stuff, but they couldn't help but notice."
The end didn't become the means; the means expedited the end – of their season. In trying to compile the best record to keep themselves focused on the larger goal of winning the NBA title, the Pistons got so caught up in chasing regular-season wins that ultimately a toll was taken on their possibilities for the only goal that really compelled them.
"I think we focused on that a little too much as opposed to just staying focused on making it back to the Finals," Chauncey Billups said at the first Media Day the Pistons have hosted without Ben Wallace, gone to Chicago as a free agent, since the new millennium arrived.
"We put so much stock into getting home-court advantage, which we did, that we wore ourselves down in the process. Just trying to get every single win that we could, I think it came back to bite us a little bit."
"Looking back, our team got caught up in the (chase for) 70 wins," coach Flip Saunders said, "and it took on a life of itself. A lot of our guys played a few more minutes earlier. We gave them rest late. Maybe we should have given them rest earlier."
To that end, they all expect more minutes and greater production from the bench. Antonio McDyess remains its anchor, but Carlos Delfino had a big summer playing for the Argentine national team, Flip Murray is a veteran two-way guard who can man both backcourt positions, Lindsey Hunter is healthy for the start of the season this time around, Dale Davis is sturdy and Jason Maxiell is slimmed down and eager to prove he deserves to be in the rotation.
"The most important thing we didn't do is develop our bench," Tayshaun Prince said. "We've got to be able to win by putting guys on the floor we can trust even if they haven't played all that much. If we can do that, we won’t have to rely on the starters to jump back in there to win the game. We’ve got to rely on our bench a little bit more than we have."
There's also this to rely on: The Pistons are back in the underdog role they relish, the role that served them so well in winning one championship and coming within a few minutes on the dusty central Texas plains of another.
"I love it," grinned Rip Hamilton, his familiar braids shorn to within a whisper of his scalp. "I love it, because I think we play better. People out there doubting us, I think we thrive on that."
They'll be a different team without Ben Wallace. Probably a little more versatile offensively, maybe not quite as suffocating defensively. The Pistons left behind aren't quite sure yet how all the details will work themselves out, but there is a palpable air of excitement about them. A little change is good. But the core of this team still looks championship worthy. Back in their underdog's role, the Pistons will once again be looked at warily by the rest of the NBA's contenders.