The Fan Hub

The Detroit Pistons’ 2010-11 last season was one everyone would like to forget. The “Pistons finished with a record of 30-52, were one of the worst defensive teams in the league (28th), had a log jam at shooting guard, witnessed a minor player mutiny against former coach John Kuester, and had a fan base that suffered through unemployment rate of close to 10%. Detroit was further hampered by the future sale of the team, which hindered them from adding players or losing assets during the season. In 2010 the Pistons became a far cry from the Bad Boy Pistons of the late 80s and early 90s, or the squad that took six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals form 2003-2008. Can you think of a team in more need of a reset than the Detroit Pistons? (OK, maybe Cleveland)

Lawrence Frank will be a big part of the Pistons’ long road back to respectability in the Eastern Conference.

With the Eastern conference heavy on top with teams like the Bulls, Celtics, Heat, Magic and Knicks fighting for domination, look for the Pistons to turn a few heads this season and be one of the league’s more surprising teams. New owner Tom Gores is from the Detroit area, which logically means he has a vested interest — both monetarily and emotionally — for another decade of Pistons prosperity. While some have the quarrels with GM Joe Dumars, he has assets and a budget to work with. Detroit also got one of the brighter younger coaches in Lawrence Frank, whose addition will undoubtedly improve the Pistons’ effort and defense from day one.

As John Shuhmann of NBA.com illustrates, the Pistons were not actually that atrocious offensively. They played at one of the slower paces in the league, but ranked 15th in the league in OffRtg. The Pistons offense improved after All-Star weekend when they made more of conscious effort to go to Greg Monroe more in their half court set. He’s not the most flashy or athletic player in the post, but the more he got the rock, the more he capitalized. He finished the year with a PER of 18.07, and 57.5 TS%, and 10.8 R/40. He was completely stiffed in the Rookie of the Year voting because he lacked the panache of Griffin or Wall, and didn’t play in a big time market.

The Pistons have assets; specifically Rip Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey, and Jonas Jerebko. Stuckey is a restricted free agent, but he plays a similar position to their their prized rookie Brandon Knight. The Pistons depth chart is loaded with combo guards and wing players, and while Charlie Villanueva would make the most sense to be amnestied (because let’s face it, is there really a trade market for Villanueva with roughly $25 million left on his deal?), the Pistons are shallow at the 4, which means Ben Gordon might make more sense to be cut loose. Currently Detroit’s payroll sits at just over $48 million, which after their rookie signings will take them to about roughly $50 million — over the mandatory 85% spend, but still $8 million below the cap. They could be in the market for any number of players, and if they can strike a deal to move Richard Hamilton or Ben Gordon, they could be in play for David West, Carl Landry; and if they lose Tayshaun Prince they could look at adding Mike Dunleavy to upgrade at small forward. While this is certainly a building year in Detroit, there certainly isn’t any reason the Pistons cannot compete for the 8th seed in the East. The Bulls are looking for scoring help off the bench and could be a good fit for Hamilton; likewise the Boston Celtics are also in need of another shooter coming off the bench, who they can run the offense through in their second unit. Either way, the Pistons will should certainly be much improved in 2011.

— Dave Jacober