What the 'finishing' lineup could look like

Absent the headline-grabbing trade that remains possible before the Pistons reconvene for the 2008-09 season in another six weeks, the expectation is that the starting lineup when the Indiana Pacers come to town for the Oct. 29 regular-season opener will be the familiar old hands: Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess.

It’s the finishing lineup I’m waiting to see.

And for the 30 percent or so of games that come down to the final minute, my guess is that there’s a distinct possibility the finishing lineup could look like this for a significant number of those games: Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace (or McDyess) and … Rodney Stuckey.

Which means Tayshaun Prince slides over to power forward on occasion. I think it’s something Flip Saunders would have tried at some point last season if Stuckey hadn’t missed the first 25 games of the season, not only setting his progress back but cutting out almost one-third of the season for bold experimentation.

There will be some matchups where swinging Prince to power forward wouldn’t work, sure, but Michael Curry doesn’t strike me as a particularly cautious man. He’s going to be more proactive than reactive. Which is another way of saying that he’s more likely to wonder how opposing power forwards are going to stay with Prince rather than worry about how Prince is going to keep from being overpowered by them.

(And you can extrapolate that to any number of other possibilities: Let the other coach worry about how a bull moose of a power forward is going to keep up with an antelope like Amir Johnson instead of fearing Johnson being ground down by the other guy, etc.)

Swinging Prince to power forward proves for an intriguing lineup. Hamilton proved last year he could guard anyone from Chris Paul to LeBron James and hold his own. When the Pistons routed the Cavs in March, Hamilton held James to 13 points. If you can do that against James, all questions about your ability to guard small forwards is laid to rest.

Look at some of the power forwards in the East. Is there any reason to fear the 6-foot-9 Prince being overwhelmed by the likes of Antawn Jamison, Rashard Lewis, Josh Smith, Yi Jianlian or Charlie Villanueva? Maybe you’d want to protect him from the likes of Elton Brand or Zach Randolph, but even terrific power forwards like Chris Bosh or Kevin Garnett don’t present physically dominant mismatches for the lanky Prince, at least not over short stretches – not when the corresponding matchup on the other end takes those players out of their comfort zones. Even if Garnett and Bosh have the foot speed to stay with Prince, pulling them away from the basket to do so is a victory for the offense.

When I was talking to one of Curry’s new assistants, Pat Sullivan, about the plan to mix and match at backup small forward with players like Hamilton, Afflalo and Walter Herrmann, he brought up the possibility of those players getting minutes at that spot even when Prince was in the game.

“Tayshaun’s versatility to play as the four man presents a lot of problems to match up with, too,” he said. “Being with the Nets the last three years, the one thing Detroit poses to me that’s such a problem is the fact they have so many bigs that can shoot the ball with Rasheed, McDyess and now even (Jason) Maxiell is getting better at 15-, 18-foot jumpers.”

Sullivan went on to talk about the possibilities – using two shooters together, as the Pistons have when Wallace and McDyess are on the floor; or using Maxiell or Amir Johnson, whose strengths are rolling to the rim and finishing with their quickness and explosion. But adding Prince to the mix is fascinating.

Hamilton’s offensive game, predicated on constant movement and shrewd use of screens, would figure to be at least as problematic for small forwards as shooting guards, and probably even more so. Billups and Stuckey together in the backcourt would present another headache for the opposition. Whoever is being guarded by the lesser defender could use that to his advantage, either by capitalizing on facing less resistance to initiate the offense or by isolating whoever has the physical mismatch – and with Billups and Stuckey’s strength and size, the Pistons are almost always going to have a physical mismatch in the backcourt – to go one-on-one as a scorer.

And Prince could take his man 25 feet from the rim and then go off the dribble, either to get to the basket or to create space for a jump shot that power forwards are unaccustomed to defending.

The larger point is that in close games you’re going to want your five best players on the floor. And Rodney Stuckey’s emergence coupled with the versatility of almost every Piston to play multiple positions makes that possible.

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