5 hot questions of Pistons preseason

Less than a week to go until training camp. The roster is set, the veterans are filtering back into town and it’s down to the fine detail work for Michael Curry and his staff as they get set for their first go-around. Here are the five things I’ll be watching most intently over the four weeks leading up to the Oct. 29 regular-season opener with Indiana:

1. Who starts in Antonio McDyess’ spot?
Curry has said it’s an open competition for that spot between Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell and Kwame Brown. And I think he’s going in with a completely open mind.

But somebody has to trot out there with Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince as the fifth starter on the first day of camp. My guess is that will be Amir Johnson for a variety of reasons.

Indications are that Curry would prefer to keep Maxiell coming off the bench. He thrived in that role last year, almost always ratcheting up the level of intensity with one of his signature plays – a ferocious lob dunk, knifing in from nowhere to snare an offensive rebound, barreling across the lane to swat away a shot spectacularly. Curry said this summer it was important to keep Maxiell fresh, citing the Orlando playoff series when he played extremely well for a couple of games while guarding Dwight Howard, then looking lifeless for the next few games because of the effort he expended. For continuity’s sake, it would be easier to limit the minutes of someone coming off the bench as opposed to starting.

Brown seems more likely than Maxiell to draw consideration, all things being equal. The foremost appeal to starting Brown is the freedom it would provide Wallace in not having to guard the opposition’s top post player to start games, keeping him out of foul trouble. But there are equally compelling arguments to be made for bringing Brown off the bench. It might serve him well, for example, to limit expectations after a career in which he’s been beaten down consistently for never living up to the status of being the No. 1 pick in the 2001 draft. There’s also something to be said for bringing Brown in late in the first or early in the second quarters to play against the opposition’s backup big man – which should play to Brown’s advantage nine nights out of 10.

The intrigue with Johnson is how his athleticism and ability to cover so much of the court defensively meshes with Curry’s vision for how he wants the Pistons to play. He wants to create offense out of defense. Curry raved at the Las Vegas Summer League about Johnson’s knack for smothering the pick-and-roll. And if the Pistons are forcing turnovers and increasing their open-court opportunities, that plays perfectly to Johnson’s strength. One more thing appealing about Johnson starting: Pairing him with the savvy Wallace figures to cover his youthful gaffes and accelerate his learning curve. Playing with four big-time scorers frees Johnson to do what he does best in the half-court offense, too – fly to the rim to pick up offensive rebounds and garbage baskets.

2. How much time will Rip Hamilton spend at small forward?

If Rodney Stuckey is going to get 30 minutes a game, as Michael Curry has said, and Arron Afflalo’s minutes are going up appreciably over the 13 a game he got as a rookie, then the only way to accommodate them without cutting Chauncey Billups and Hamilton’s minutes to the bone is to find ways to get three of them out there at the same time.

The logical extension of that premise is Hamilton playing small forward for 10 minutes or so a game, which he proved pretty emphatically he could do last season. The Pistons will want to be careful they don’t give Hamilton too heavy a dose of playing against bigger, stronger players for fear of wearing on his wiry, 185-pound frame. He’d never beg off of that challenge, so it will be up to Curry to make sure Hamilton doesn’t get ground down.

But Hamilton, Billups and Stuckey together would give the Pistons a dynamic new dimension to their offense.

3. How big a jump will Arron Afflalo take?

We’re going to assume Stuckey takes a pretty significant leap, establishing himself as an All-Star candidate for the not-too-distant future. But if Afflalo can draw 16 to 20 minutes a night on merit, when the three players ahead of him in the backcourt are the caliber of Billups and Hamilton and Stuckey, then the Pistons are going to have an even more significant backcourt advantage in virtually every game they play.

And nobody else gives them quite what Afflalo can. As effectively as he played defensively a year ago, Afflalo is confident he’ll be that much better for having a working knowledge of NBA personnel this time around. Yet to be tapped is Afflalo’s offensive game. When Stuckey pulled out of a Las Vegas Summer League game at halftime, Afflalo scored 20 points in the second half. He probably won’t ever be called on to carry the load in a game at any point this season, but he’s capable of seizing scoring opportunities.

Afflalo is either going to be grinding down the opposition’s top offensive player – imagine Michael Redd, having chased Rip Hamilton around for the whole first quarter, now having to try to shake himself free of Afflalo to start the second – or going against the opposition’s backup, which should play to his advantage in either scenario.

4. How much can Kwame Brown contribute?

When Dave Cowens, unsolicited, started banging the Kwame Brown drum on last week’s Pistons media tour, my ears perked up. Cowens isn’t easily given to hyperbole. When he said he’s been associated with the NBA since 1970 and has seen very few players with Brown’s size who move as fast and with as much body control as he does, that carries weight.

But Brown’s physical attributes were what enticed Michael Jordan to make him the No. 1 pick, so there has to be something else to make the Pistons believe they got one of free agency’s biggest summer bargains. That something else is this: Brown’s mental state.

He doesn’t have the weight of No. 1 hanging over his head anymore. He picked the Pistons – as he said, the first time in his career he got to dictate destination – for the opportunity but also for the reputation. He hoped he’d find a camaraderie-filled locker room and a nurturing environment, and from all indications he’s deeply grateful that so far everything has exceeded his expectations.

Worst-case scenario, the Pistons have a No. 5 big man better than anyone else’s. Best-case scenario? They’ve landed an athletic young big man who’ll be a frontcourt fixture for years at very little risk.

5. How will the Michael Curry effect manifest itself?

No question about it, Curry has a presence about him. He’s a clear thinker, a straightforward communicator, a guy who not only understands exactly how he wants his basketball team to look but gives voice to his vision in unambiguous messages.

Not one player has said anything remotely disparaging about Flip Saunders, but it is striking how strongly all of them have endorsed the promotion of Curry. Even though they know Curry isn’t going to let them cut a single corner, they’re universally on board with him as their leader.

From afar, the promotion of Curry has been met with a fair amount of skepticism. And I can understand that. One year as an assistant coach isn’t the resume most first-time head coaches bring to the party. But there are special circumstances at work here – Curry’s familiarity with the organization and his rare leadership ability, foremost – that argue against his failure.

Those are the first five things I’ll be monitoring as camp unfolds. How about you?

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