It's confirmed: The sky isn't falling

Interesting day. The Pistons pushed practice back a few hours after playing and traveling last night and they did a lot of tape review before getting on the floor. But if you think the sky is falling - and I hope I conveyed in my blog posting earlier today that there just isn't that sense inside the building - you should know that neither Michael Curry nor Joe Dumars see it that way.

I talked with Joe D at length after practice and we'll be posting both the audio and text of that conversation on Pistons.com at some point on Thursday. But here are some snippets of what he said:

• I asked about the past week's three losses to struggling teams and how he assesses them against the big picture. A part of his answer: "My perspective is I'm disappointed we've taken some of these early-season losses to teams we should beat, I expect some rough patches, but even knowing there are going to be some rough patches, I have been such an adamant opponent of excuses that I have to be careful how I answer so it doesn't sound like an excuse. But I can't sit here and pretend that we're not going through a transition, especially at that particular position."
• On what he sees when he watches his team: "There have been times we've been winning games and I don't like the way we've played and there are times we've hit some struggles and I say, I like the direction we're heading. Right now, it's probably neither for me. Right now, it's watching a team trying to find itself. That's what I'm seeing. I'm just watching a team trying to find itself. Get down big, can come back. Get up big, can lose the lead. That's a team trying to find itself and that's what we're working through right now."
• On the give and take he had with Curry in discussing the pros and cons of going small and putting Rodney Stuckey into the starting lineup: "We did talk about being careful not to have this starting group become a first-quarter, all-jump-shooting team and not having a postup presence. And I think that's why you saw a concerted effort last night to go to Sheed in the post."

There's a lot of other interesting stuff in there, too, on what he and Curry have told Iverson, what he likes about the new starting lineup, the return of Antonio McDyess and what his thoughts are on the $22 million in cap space the Pistons can exercise next summer.

I asked Curry what he saw in the revamped lineup and he pointed out that the new starting unit not only had a tremendous first quarter, but rebuilt the lead to nine points in the third. And in assessing the unit, he came back to the playoffs - something Curry has kept in the forefront of every decision he's made.

"I knew we would be able to score the ball," he said. "I thought Stuck would be able to get us into some sets and I thought Allen and Rip would be able to run freer. The problem you have with that unit is that you do miss some size and everybody's not going to be able to score all the time. And what we've said is that guys just have to work through the games and when their time comes to carry the team a little bit, guys have to step up and do it. I still think overall that formula is going to be better. We're going to be better going into the playoffs. Tay is better at making plays for us, Stuckey's better at making plays, so add that with posting up Rasheed and adding Allen Iverson to the mix, we've got more guys that can make plays. Against really good defensive teams, you're going to need that."

• And, finally, how about the Phoenix-Charlotte trade that ESPN.com has just reported: Phoenix gets Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley and a No. 2 from Charlotte for Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary. If you set aside the salaries, I like it from Phoenix's perspective - Richardson has two years left at about $28 million total beyond this year. If you include the salaries, I really like it from Phoenix's end - Diaw has three years after this one at $9 million a year. Richardson would have really prospered under Mike D'Antoni, but his shooting range and speed should mesh nicely with Steve Nash's ability to push and find open shooters and Shaq's need for space to be created. A lot of firepower on that team.

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