It adds up: Lock-down defense makes a return

One of the most persistent misperceptions of Flip Saunders’ three years as Pistons coach was that they abandoned their bedrock defensive identity that carried them to the 2004 title under Larry Brown. In fact, by any meaningful statistical measure, the Pistons remained an elite defensive team under Saunders – even though two of the three seasons on Saunders’ watch came without Ben Wallace.

Last season, for instance, the Pistons were No. 1 in points allowed per game (90.1), third in field-goal percentage (.437) and third in 3-point percentage (.332).

But how does the old saying go? There are three types of lies – lies, damn lies and statistics? The Pistons were very efficient, very workmanlike defensively under Saunders. But they weren’t a smothering, suffocating, intimidating defense very often, and at times when they absolutely needed to lock down – which in their defensive heyday with Big Ben as anchor, they seemed able to do at will – it just wasn’t there for them often enough.

It’s dangerous business to make projections based on four days of training camp, but I’m pretty much sold that the swagger – the go ahead, I dare you to knock this chip off my shoulder Pistons bravado – is about to make a dramatic reappearance.

A few things are at work here. First and foremost, it’s Michael Curry’s mantra. He’s insisting the Pistons will be aggressive in everything they do. You’re going to see them trapping, swarming, elbowing and clawing.

It’s a philosophy that dovetails perfectly with Pistons history, of course. The two eras that have produced the three championship banners – the Bad Boys of Isiah, Joe D, Laimbeer and Mahorn, and the Dumars-as-president creation – are rooted in blue-collar, hard-nosed basketball. But it wouldn’t be possible if the Pistons weren’t staffed to make it happen.

Curry has at his disposal the guts of a savvy, veteran unit that all bring unique and well-rounded defensive skills to the table. Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups all draw votes for the NBA’s All-Defense team every season. Rip Hamilton has been grossly underrated as a defender for the past three seasons, at least. He did superb work last season on stars as varied as Chris Paul and LeBron James, who probably go off as the frontrunners for MVP this season. And Antonio McDyess is similarly overlooked when the league’s best post defenders are mentioned. Pop in the tape of last year’s December win over Houston and watch McDyess harass Yao Ming to abject frustration.

But beyond that, Curry has a deep stable of frisky colts itching to show their in-your-face mettle. Amir Johnson is the likely fifth starter this season and he’s got some Rodmanesque qualities to his game for his ability to cover great chunks of the court, smothering a pick-and-roll 25 feet from the rim, then recovering to swat a shot with either hand on the other side of the lane. Arron Afflalo is eager to show he has some offense to his game, as well, but perfectly willing to hang his hat on a defensive stopper’s role for now. Jason Maxiell – remember the work he did handcuffing Dwight Howard in the playoffs despite spotting him half a foot? Rodney Stuckey oozes the athleticism that Curry is eager to put to use forcing tempo defensively to create easy points at the other end.

Curry’s mind-set and the personnel to make it work are nice, but it still takes a coach willing to defy NBA convention by digging deeper into his bench than the norm – especially when doing so will mean unusually low minute totals for All-Star-caliber players. Curry, by every indication, is perfectly prepared to do that.

And, beyond that, a fourth component that points to a damn-the-torpedoes firestorm of fury from the Pistons this year: conditioning.

Friday’s practice ended with a Bataan death march of a drill. Curry put 10 minutes on the clock and put the Pistons – 14 of them; Wallace sat out the last hour of another three-hour practice with routine soreness – through a full-court drill that would have had Kenyan marathoners begging for mercy. Up and down the court they went, two balls always in play, running three-man fast break drills in both directions. One among them would get the layup attempt, while the two trailers would simultaneously receive passes and shoot wing jump shots. The goal: 250 baskets in 10 minutes, racing the clock and the limits of human endurance.

It is, at its heart, a conditioning drill, of course, but it incorporates basketball skills so that players must perform despite crushing fatigue – handling the ball without a misstep and shooting jump shots through weary legs and heavy arms.

“We definitely want to make every drill competitive,” Curry said. “When you have a team that has been as successful as this group, you have to mix things up a lot to keep their attention, to keep them challenged. So we put a goal on every drill we do. There’s a winner and a loser in every drill or there’s a number the group has to get. Today it was 250.”

The final tally: 269.

Curry has preached consistency of effort since being named to succeed Saunders. He said, famously, at his introductory press conference that the way you get a motivated team was “to sit the ones who aren’t motivated.” There were nights the past few seasons when it wasn’t very hard at all to score on the Pistons. Curry doesn’t merely want to eliminate those nights, he wants to eliminate every possession within those nights that doesn’t live up to his standards of effort.

He’s got the depth to give his words wallop. He’s got the conviction to stay true to his code. And he’s got a team well on its way to having the legs needed to obey what the mind instructs.

So, yeah, it’s dangerous to make projections after four days of training camp. But this one feels pretty safe.

A few more thoughts on the open practice held Thursday night at Oakland University:

• The Rasheed Wallace-Amir Johnson pairing looks like it benefits both players. As Curry said, “They’ve done a really good job. Amir brings all the athletic ability and youth to the floor. He’s not a very vocal guy, so when you put him out there with Rasheed, Rasheed helps him in a lot of areas and he doesn’t make nearly as many mistakes. I think they complement each other very well. Sheed can’t move like he once could, but he can direct Amir to do a lot of the dirty work for him.”
  
  It’ll be interesting to see how opposing teams defend Johnson. He’s not going to take many shots out of the half-court offense, but if you let the man guarding him drift, Amir will make a killing on the offensive glass – another Rodmanesque comparison.



• I’m still trying to figure out how Walter Herrmann can carve out a role when it’s clear that the only way to accommodate the kind of minutes Stuckey and, to a lesser degree, Afflalo are in line to receive. But Herrmann showed in the OU scrimmage that he’s got a really effective, really unorthodox offensive array. His scoring burst also suggested rookie Walter Sharpe has some work to do defensively before he can begin to challenge for minutes. But Sharpe has a chance to be a really good offensive player. On offensive potential alone, Sharpe might wind up being one of the top 10 players from the last draft.

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