Curry: "It's all a part of change"

Less than two weeks ago, the Pistons hung 58 second-half points on the NBA's hottest team at the time, Cleveland, and broke open a tight game in the fourth quarter. Three of Michael Curry's starters didn't play the last 10 minutes. Two of them were Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton.

But the win left everyone feeling good, so nobody made anything of it. When Prince didn't play, and Hamilton and Allen Iverson's minutes were curtailed in the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss to Portland, it left a far greater impression.

But it's all the same to Michael Curry.

"We would have loved to have gotten Tay back in the game," Curry said Monday after a tape review confirmed his suspicions - his starters didn't play very well. "But the way it went, that combination brought us from 11 down to two up and we tried to carry it out what that group. ... Tay has been leading us in minutes pretty much the whole season. That was one game in the midst of trying to find a way to win."

Curry wants to make it clear that he wasn't laying blame for Sunday's poor performance at Prince's feet just because he didn't get back in the game during the fourth quarter. He's still searching for combinations that work in a season of change. It's not just the transition from Chauncey Billups to Allen Iverson, either. This was going to be a season of change for the Pistons regardless. The Billups-Iverson trade only ratcheted up the magnitude of change.

"It's all a part of change," he said. "These guys have played 40 minutes together regardless, no matter what. The young guys haven't played. So at the end of the year, guys have been tired. You all tell me the excuses - I've read all of 'em over the years. We're going to play our young guys, OK? If our young guys are playing well, they're going to stay in the game. They deserve it. They've earned it. And that's what we're going to do.

"Now, are guys minutes going to be down? Sometimes. But it's never a personal thing with one guy. ... Even if the (starters weren't) playing bad to start the game, (the bench) played really well. I think we can all say they played well. You all looked at their plus-minus. Those guys off the bench, double figures plus-minus, that kind of indicates they played well. And they gave us a chance to win the game and that's what we were trying to do - win the game."

The Pistons are getting closer to putting it all together. Rodney Stuckey's elevated his level of play tremendously in the last week after getting over the effects of the hard crash he took courtesy of Shaquille O'Neal. Arron Afflalo is giving Curry quality minutes virtually every game. Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson are producing with greater consistency. Those young bench guys had come to rely on the stability Antonio McDyess provided the second unit. They're getting him back soon, the Dec. 7 window to formally extend a contract offer about to open.

Knowing what he can expect on a nightly basis from his bench will give Curry one less ball he has to keep in the air amid this juggling act he's been performing. He's figuring out what works and what doesn't, what to add and what to phase out, as Iverson immerses himself in the Piston way. When the comfort level of the starters starts inching up, gradually but steadily, then another corner will have been turned.

In the meantime, winning games will remain the short-term goal, and the players who give the Pistons the best chance to do so on any given night will be called upon to win them.

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