Goodbye Lansing, hello Grand Rapids

The first leg of the Pistons media tour is in the books. Our happy traveling band just left Lewton Elementary School in Lansing and we’re headed for Grand Rapids now, then it’ll be on to Traverse City for a downtown rally late this afternoon.

The Lewton gym was packed with schoolkids as George Blaha and Greg Kelser hosted an assembly program. The Pistons left a few nice presents, too - $2,500 for Lewton and a $2,500 scholarship for the essay contest winner, Alejandro Sanchez. Lewton was the first stop because the Pistons were revisiting one of the 19 Learning Center projects they’ve undertaken – outfitting school libraries with computers and books and splashing up the décor in a Pistons theme that’s served as a magnet for schoolkids. The Pistons will do their 20th Learning Center project next month in Pontiac and then, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of The Palace, will stop in all 20 projects over the course of the season.

A few quick basketball-related topics:

• Joe Dumars was hit with the usual questions we’ve discussed on Pistons.com throughout the summer – the lack of a major trade, the coaching change to Michael Curry, the expectations for young players like Rodney Stuckey. On the anticipated return of Antonio McDyess to the bench, Joe D said he and Curry have talked “maybe once over the last three weeks. He’s going to look at all of those guys. He’s going to look at (Jason Maxiell), he’s going to look at Amir (Johnson), he’s going to look at Kwame (Brown). He’s going to give each one of those guys a chance to play with the starters during training camp and the preseason to see what kind of mix it is.”
  

• Rodney Stuckey’s enthusiasm for playing under Curry was evident when I talked to him in Las Vegas in July during the Summer League and, if anything, it’s even greater now. Stuckey said there’s been a different buzz around the practice facility this summer.
  
  “Having MC as our head coach, he believes in us 110 percent,” Stuckey said. “He’s going to give us an opportunity to showcase our talent. When the young guys go out there, we’re going to do what we do, go hard, play good defense. The attitude’s been good. I was just saying that things are different around the practice facility. Having a new coaching staff here, just spending more time around Michael Curry – things are going to be a lot different. We’re really ready to get started and get back in the grind.”
  
  I’ll have more after the Grand Rapids appearance on the road to Traverse City – assuming I can find a place to recharge my laptop battery in Grand Rapids. No AC outlets on the bus.

Read the essays from the Tipoff Tour's scholarship winners: Jerry A. Hendrix, II | Alejandro Sanchez

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