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Curry: 2 more games to gauge lineup

Self-evaluation is an everyday reality of professional sports. It hasn’t normally been a terribly agonizing process for the Pistons during the Joe Dumars era. But a four-game losing streak – their first in four years – tends to make it so.

Michael Curry stopped short of saying changes are in the offing – in fact, he specifically said there isn’t necessarily another lineup change coming – but he did broadly hint that if the Pistons don’t turn a corner in tonight’s game with New Orleans and Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. late afternoon tip with Memphis, all bets are off.

When Curry was asked about 90 minutes before the New Orleans game if he’s convinced the small lineup can defend and rebound well enough to give the Pistons a chance to be successful, he didn’t beat around the bush.

“I haven’t been totally convinced yet,” he said. “I think we’re good enough, whichever way we decide to play, but we haven’t played defense and rebounded the ball as well as I would have liked with that group.” And then …

“So we’re really looking at today and Monday to see how our performance is. I’m not saying after that we’ll make another decision, but I thought regardless of the lineup, I thought if we shared the ball a little more and took care of some fast-break opportunities … we’re not talking like we are now, because we would have beat Charlotte and we would have beat Indiana and a tossup how that game in Oklahoma City would have gone.

“We’ll see. We’ll look at everything.”

Everything, presumably, includes continuing with the small lineup or reverting back to a more conventional lineup with Tayshaun Prince at small forward and Rip Hamilton at shooting guard. Both were banged up in Friday night’s loss at Oklahoma City, Prince straining a groin and Hamilton hyperextending an elbow.

Curry said his hunch was that Prince would play tonight, though he remains a game-time decision, as does Hamilton.

Jason Maxiell hasn’t played in consecutive games and Curry said that frustrates him as much as it does Maxiell and again brought up the difficulties of managing the rotation while experimenting with the small lineup.

“One of the big reasons I struggle with playing the small lineup is that it’s tough to play more than three bigs when Tayshaun is a 35-minute-a-night guy and he starts at the four. So you consider him a starter at the big, you’re really playing four bigs – Tay, (Rasheed Wallace), Amir (Johnson) and (Antonio McDyess).

“You have to have (Maxiell or Kwame Brown not play), but in the midst of having to figure out how to win the game, you can’t play everybody.”

But who plays and who doesn’t – and in what combinations - in the coming weeks appears to hinge to a great degree on how the Pistons play over the next two games.

Stay tuned.

And check Pistons.com later tonight for my report on the Pistons-New Orleans game.

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Small ball and a rush to judgment

In this brutal economy, we all need a backup plan. I know what mine isn't: counselor. My attempt to ease the swelling panic sweeping Pistons Nation after the back-to-back losses to Charlotte and Indiana appears to have had the opposite effect.

In sum, the reaction has been this: Don't dare tell us things aren't that bad! Throw us our lifejackets! And ... for the love of God, please, no more small ball!

To wit, this missive from Rob of Detroit: "The Pistons lost the game to Indiana because the small lineup gave up 31 points in the first quarter and allowed the Pacers to set the tempo. They got things back under control later with the big lineup, but by then it was too late. The big lineup in the fourth quarter was great, holding Indiana to 19 points, but that was only enough to force overtime. Had the small lineup not given away 31 points in the first quarter, it would have been a double-digit victory in regulation."

Except ... that's not the way it happened, Rob. You could look it up, as they say. So I did.

The Pistons went small for the first 7:26 of that first quarter and gave up 19 points. That extrapolates to 30.67 for the full 12 minutes. So the small lineup essentially yielded the same rate of points as the big lineup. I wouldn't argue that either group played defense very well, but you can't say one was any better than the other.

(And let me anticipate your response: "If the small lineup hadn't set a tone by giving up those 19 points in 7:26, the big lineup would have had an easier time stopping the bleeding." I would argue that the tone the small lineup set that most contributed to giving up 31 first-quarter points was playing too fast on offense. The Pistons got caught up playing at the Pacers' pace. Does anyone think Amir Johnson's presence in the starting lineup was going to have any impact on the pace at which the Pistons played on offense? I don't recall Amir ever being responsible for establishing the offense's rhythm.)

But the third quarter is really telling. They went small for the first 9:02 and gave up 11 points - their best defensive stretch of the night - and, again, they did it with their small lineup on the floor the entire way. They went big for the final 2:58 and gave up 10. So if the big lineup had given the Pistons three minutes of defense to end the third quarter like the small lineup did for the nine minutes to start it, the Pistons would have won going away.

For the record, I’m with Michael Curry on this: The Pistons are a better defensive team with Amir Johnson in the lineup at the four. The question is are they a better team overall? No, check that. The question is do they have the potential to be better with Stuckey, Hamilton, Iverson and Prince all on the floor at the same time or not?

And here's all I'm saying: I think those four players are good enough individually that you have to let them prove it, one way or the other. That's all. If the question is who starts, Rip Hamilton or Amir Johnson, well, at this point of their careers, I think the benefit of the doubt goes to the three-time All-Star.

I think that's what Michael Curry ultimately decided, too. You don't have to read too far between the lines to guess that Curry's first instinct is to go big. He's consistently said the Pistons are a better defensive team with two bigs on the floor - especially when one of them is Johnson, who, when he isn't collecting fouls like some people collect stamps, in bunches, can be a serious difference-maker on defense. And Curry hung on in the NBA - did more than hung on, started for a 50-win team in Detroit - almost solely because of his ability to defend.

But there are compelling reasons why the Stuckey-Iverson-Hamilton-Prince lineup deserves a full and fair chance to prove its mettle.

It's clear to everyone - much more clear than the big-small debate - that the Pistons are a better team with Stuckey on the floor. So then it really comes down to which one of those three other perimter players you're going to remove from the starting lineup. Since it could hardly be argued that taking Prince out of the lineup would augur well for the Pistons' defense, the debate has centered on Hamilton and Iverson.

And all I've maintained is this: If those two guys aren't giving the Pistons the things that have made them All-Stars - a dead-solid Hall of Fame lock in Iverson's case - then they have no realistic shot at competing for an NBA title. And the surest way for them to give the Pistons what they've got is to keep them in the starting lineup - in the roles with which they're comfortable.

Now, time might prove that it doesn't work. Time and experience might steer Michael Curry in another direction, and the thought of bringing one or the other off the bench might need to be broached.

But isn't the most prudent course to try it this way first? Just like the first nine minutes of the third quarter isn't a big enough sample size to prove the small lineup is superior, neither are the two games the Pistons have played since Hamilton returned - clearly, still not on his game - close to conclusive.

That's all I'm saying. Where the evidence is that has so many Pistons fans so certain that they'd be best served by having an All-Star sitting on the bench to start games just isn't clear yet to me.

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Pistons fans: Come down from that ledge!

If there's one truth I've come to learn about the athletes held up as the fiercest competitors, it's this: It's not so much the spoils of winning that drive them as their contempt for losing.

Perhaps the same applies to fans, because in the three seasons that I've been interacting with Pistons fans, I've come to understand this: While wins over the Lakers or Celtics cause the few to extrapolate NBA titles in the Pistons' immediate future, losses to the Bobcats and Pacers - as the Pistons have endured on successive nights - cause the many to predict the utter collapse of the franchise.

Those losses, of course, just happened to coincide with the return of Rip Hamilton after eight games missed with a groin injury - during which the Pistons ran off the last five of a seven-game win streak - and, more noteworthy, a return to the small-ball lineup that has drawn the wrath of Pistons fans out of all proportion to its relevancy.

At the risk of being accused of applying lipstick to the proverbial pig, things just aren't that bad, people.

Let's start with the small-ball mushroom cloud. Small ball had almost nothing to do with the Charlotte and Indiana losses the past two nights. The Pistons lost both games due to offensive sputtering in the final minutes - and the Pistons were big exclusively down the stretch against Indiana and for all but one possession against Charlotte.

The execution wasn't very good against the Bobcats - the Pistons had four turnovers down the stretch in addition to missing their final eight shots - but it really wasn't an execution issue against Indiana.

If you want to quibble about the Indiana game, you could question who took the shots. Rasheed Wallace knocked down two 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the game, then didn't hit another one in 11 tries until his final attempt of the night, a meaningless triple after the outcome had been sealed in overtime. Yet Wallace took not one but two triples on the first possession of overtime. He's made enough big ones in his career - and even this year - that you live with it and trust his confidence.

My only issue with the Indiana loss was why Rodney Stuckey, who was pretty much unguardable all night, wasn't in attack mode in the final minutes of regulation.

But let's think about that one, too. Stuckey has been a starter for a month. On his wings he has two of the most prolific scorers of their generation, Allen Iverson and Rip Hamilton. His other options aren't bad either - Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess.

And he's supposed to take over tight games? You don't think it's prudent for a 22-year-old to sort of ease into the "I'm the guy with the ball in his hands on every possession with the game on the line" mode?

The Pistons have enough chemistry issues now - and by "chemistry issues" I'm not implying conflict or ego clashing, but the natural shaking-out process that occurs when players long set in roles are suddenly confronted with changing circumstances around them that force those roles to change. The last thing they need is Stuckey forcing his way to the front of a pack that's already pretty crowded at the front.

It'll happen on its own terms. Rodney Stuckey is destined to be that guy, but one month into his promotion to the starting lineup amid a cast of 30-something All-Stars is a little much.

Hamilton's status is another thing. He's shot 8 of 25 in his two games back, most of them the kind of shots I start recording as two points (or three) when I've seen enough to know it's a shot he likes. With Hamilton, 9 times out of 10 you can safely predict the outcome of a shot before it's begun its downward arc.

He's missed those shots consistently the past two nights. No better example than the one he missed after taking the inbounds pass with 3.9 seconds to play at Indiana. Hamilton's probably an 80 percent career shooter from that spot, 15 feet out on the left baseline.

You think that shot had anything to do with the fact the Pistons had their small-ball lineup on the floor? Or do you think it's more likely that it had something to do with missing eight games with a groin strain and, because he was 4 of 12 after three quarters and not quite right yet, hadn't played a second of the fourth quarter until that moment?

The Hamilton injury was a setback to the Pistons from this standpoint: It cost them eight games of getting-to-know-you time for him, Iverson, Stuckey and Prince as they figure out their perimeter mojo.

I don't know how it'll all shake out. I don't know if there are enough touches in a 48-minute game, especially at the pace the Pistons prefer to play, to get all those high-level perimeter players the amount of shots they require to get to their comfort zone.

There's an argument out there that either Hamilton or Iverson should come off the bench. I won't dismiss it as baseless. It does make some sense. But there is this to ponder. Hamilton, Iverson, Prince and Stuckey are no worse than four of the Pistons' six best players. They're going to have to share the court at times. Does it matter that much if it's the first six to eight minutes of the first and third quarters or the last six to eight of the second and fourth?

Those eight games Hamilton missed cost Michael Curry 10 percent of the season to figure it out. But the good news is there's still better than 50 percent of the season to go and the Pistons are doing better than treading water. Even with three straight losses, they're sitting one-half game out of the No. 4 playoff seed, which would mean home-court advantage in the first round. Given everything they've endured this season, plus the top-to-bottom improvement of the Eastern Conference, that's not so bad.

As Michael Curry said the other day, wondering how to make the pieces fit, there are worse problems to have than figuring out what to do with two All-Star shooting guards.

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A galling loss on a night worth dismissing

One-game samples are ineffective projection tools. Eight-minute samples are even worse.

Just when the story was going to be how the Pistons performed with their big lineup vs. their small lineup on the night Rip Hamilton returned after an eight-game injury sabbatical – more on that later – it became how they broke down in the last eight minutes, allowing Charlotte to close the game on a 9-0 run and steal a game the Pistons had no business losing.

It was a galling loss for an organization that prides itself on taking care of business and a regime – Michael Curry’s – that vowed to eliminate the types of emotional lapses that would flare up on the Pistons during the Flip Saunders era.

“They just started playing better than us – simple as that,” said Allen Iverson, eyes a little glassy, face a little stunned. “We got a 78-71 lead and couldn’t get it done. That’s just unacceptable.”

But it would be wrong to lump this one in with every other game the Pistons shouldn’t have lost in the past few years and extrapolate further that this team bears the same fatal flaw that predestined them to playoff shortcomings. In fact, this game didn’t fit the mold of most of the losses of the past few years that got filed away as inexplicable. In fact, this team remains a work in progress, learning to play close games without Chauncey Billups and struggling to achieve a new karmic balance while the transition to Rodney Stuckey plays out on a parallel path to the integration of Allen Iverson into the mix – and all on a night Hamilton came back to further tinker with the chemistry.

And yet, until the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter, it was exactly the type of game Pistons followers could have expected. The first game back from any extended road trip is usually an aesthetic failure and this one certainly fit that description. But the Pistons, with a full crew for the first time in almost three weeks but still an assortment of bumps and bruises, were pretty much in control. They took a seven-point lead in the final few minutes before halftime and kept it right about there – widening it as far 10 points late in the third and still up by nine points after two Allen Iverson free throws with 7:43 to play.

Here’s what happened in the 14 possessions the Pistons had between Rasheed Wallace’s 3-pointer with 8:48 to play – their last basket of the night, in fact – to give them a 74-67 lead and the Hail Mary 3-pointer Allen Iverson left short when the Pistons got the ball back with 0.7 left following Raymond Felton’s 19-footer to give Charlotte its first lead since 35-33 midway through the third quarter: The Pistons missed seven shots, committed four turnovers and made only two of their four free throws.

“I thought after the first quarter – the second, third and fourth quarters – our defense was good,” Curry said. “I thought we got good shots. I thought we made some bad decisions, missed a couple of free throws and we just didn’t finish the game out – 78-71, just didn’t finish it out.”

It was as if they suddenly got thrown outdoors to play in Michigan’s sub-zero chill.

Some of that, uh, production came with both Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess on the floor and some of it came with Tayshaun Prince at power forward and the Pistons going small. The concern with the small lineup was defense. The assumption was it would give the Pistons plenty of pop.

But it wasn’t their defense that betrayed the Pistons down the stretch. It was their offensive execution. Felton scored 10 of Charlotte’s last 12 points – two 3-pointers and two long twos. Rodney Stuckey contested three of them. On another he got caught in a switch and couldn’t recover, but it was still an 18-footer in a four-point game with two minutes to play from a guy not known as a sizzling shooter.

Prince missed four shots, though one was less his fault than his teammates’ – he got caught with the ball and no time to shoot, so launched a prayer over Emeka Okafor that missed badly. Stuckey missed a short runner in the lane. Wallace missed a bank shot. Iverson clanked a jumper.

Stuckey and McDyess misfired on a pass along the baseline that would have yielded a good shot. Iverson got caught in traffic and threw a pass away. The Pistons were guilty of a 24-second infraction, the best evidence of how their offense failed to function down the stretch. And Wallace was called for an offensive foul – his sixth – with 29 seconds left and the score tied, an incredible call at that stage of the game when all he was doing was jostling with Okafor for position to establish himself to receive and entry pass and hadn’t gained any undue advantage.

Felton made all five of his shots in the quarter. His teammates were 2 of 12. Again, it wasn’t the defense. It was the offense, and the fourth quarter saw the Pistons best offensive players in the game exclusively, except for the first 2:58 when Jason Maxiell was in the game along with McDyess. Other than that, the Pistons who played the fourth were their six best offensive players – Hamilton, Prince, Wallace, Iverson, Stuckey and McDyess.

Ten points? Two of 13 shooting? Five turnovers? Those numbers are aberrational. The loss is galling, but it’s so far afield from anything else this team has put forward that it can’t be categorized as anything.

The numbers suggest the Pistons were better defensively with their big lineup on the floor. The Bobcats were 13 of 27 when the smaller lineup was together until the last few minutes, 15 of 43 against the big lineup. Then they made four of their last five, thanks to Felton.

But it’s a one-game sample. Project at your own risk. And be especially skeptical of anyone drawing conclusions from the final eight minutes on a night a team that remains a work in progress had any number of asterisks it could attach to a game it should best forget.

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Small ball's future depends on D

Rip Hamilton returns to the lineup tonight against Charlotte after missing eight straight games – and when I say “Rip Hamilton returns to the lineup,” that means the starting lineup. Thus ends two gripping weeks of speculation about who would sit when Hamilton came back – the guy who’s led the Pistons in scoring six straight seasons, or the guy with the third-highest scoring average in NBA history, Allen Iverson.

The answer: neither.

Here’s my takeaway impression after listening to Michael Curry talk about his decision to return to the small-ball lineup with Tayshaun Prince at power forward, Hamilton at small forward and Iverson and Rodney Stuckey in the backcourt: Curry’s giving this lineup a chance to prove itself as a unit and daring them to pick up their defense.

As long as the Pistons defend well and win despite being somewhat undersized at three positions defensively – and asking Rasheed Wallace to defend the other team’s top post scorer every night – small ball stays.

Lose a few, give up more than 100 points consistently, allow the opponent’s shooting percentage to start creeping north again after a solid month of deflationary trending, then all bets are off.

“The small group played pretty well (in its earlier run, before Hamilton missed the past eight games with a groin strain),” Curry said before Tuesday’s tipoff with the Bobcats. “We just weren’t as good defensively. I think we brought that to everyone’s attention. I think all of the players are aware of that. So whether we’re small or big, I think they understand the importance of the defensive end and where we need to be defensively.”

Curry remains adamant that the Pistons won’t be locked in to a small lineup. In fact, his goal is to play two big men 32 minutes a night and limit Prince’s minutes at power forward to maybe the first eight or so of each half.

Prince and Stuckey have had to carry too much of the load with Hamilton missing eight games and Wallace four as the Pistons were down to three reliable scorers – Prince, Stuckey and Iverson. So Prince and Stuckey will quit routinely playing 40-plus minutes. Will Bynum is getting another shot at rotation minutes. Hamilton will spend time at small forward - as he did often last year and planned to all along this season even before the Iverson trade.

Bynum won’t be on the floor at the same time as Iverson, though. Curry has concluded that Bynum and Iverson put the Pistons at too severe a size disadvantage.

“Whenever I sub Stuckey, I’ll probably at the same time sub Iverson,” Curry said. “When I bring Will Bynum in, I like Rip to be out there. It gives us more size. When I had Allen and Will Bynum out together, we haven’t had productive minutes.”

Amir Johnson’s spot in the rotation is secure, Curry said, adding that he’s “separated himself” from Jason Maxiell and Kwame Brown. Maxiell and Brown’s minutes will depend on the opponent, Brown getting a shot against teams with traditional big men and Maxiell otherwise.

The Pistons play a run of opponents over the next week – Charlotte, Indiana, Oklahoma City, Memphis and Toronto; New Orleans on Saturday could be a little more troublesome – that don’t figure to overwhelm them with size and power, so the small-ball lineup has a good chance to settle in and find itself defensively.

If the Pistons defend well and keep winning regularly, no problem. If they don’t get off to fast starts offensively with a lineup tilted toward offense and get beat up on the boards against such teams, then the situation will be revisited.

“Losing is not an option,” Curry said. “When you lose, you’re always evaluating and trying to see what you can do better.”

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Rip's back, but no word yet on who sits

Rip Hamilton returned to practice Monday, which means the starting lineup for Tuesday's game against Charlotte will be ... ummm, check back Tuesday.

"We'll see tomorrow who's able to play and we'll make a determination then," Michael Curry said after the Pistons' first practice at home of the new year following their return from a four-game West Coast trip.

Curry has given every indication that when all hands are on deck, his preference is to keep going forward with a traditional lineup of two big men and Tayshaun Prince at small forward. Further, he's gushed about what Rodney Stuckey means to both the offense and defense to start games, so moving Stuckey out of the starting lineup doesn't seem like a consideration.

Which means it comes down to either Rip Hamilton or Allen Iverson, two of the most prolific scorers of their generation, as candidates to come off of the bench. But Curry isn't going to show his hand - or even discuss what he has in mind with either player - until it's absolutely necessary to reach a decision.

"When it's time, we'll talk about it," he said. "The reality is you talk about something and all of a sudden, another guy is hurt. Then you're talking about a situation that doesn't really affect the team. You all write about it enough. They know it's out there. At the proper time, we'll sit down and explain the decision we make and why."

Hamilton last week told Pistons beat writer Chris McCosky of The Detroit News that there was only one option - when he was healthy, he's back in the starting lineup. Told by a reporter on Monday that neither Hamilton nor Iverson appeared open to coming off the bench - though Iverson hasn't commented one way or the other - Curry said, "I wouldn't expect them to like to come off the bench.

"Both of them have been starters in their careers. I wouldn't expect them to (like becoming a bench player), just like I wouldn't expect to have guys on this team that don't want to play a lot of minutes. But the reality is we have great guys on this team. They're all willing to do whatever it takes for this team to be successful. And whatever decisions we make, it's going to be because we think that's the best thing we need to do to get the most out of everybody on this team. Regardless if guys like it or not, they'll be OK because their No. 1 thing is they want to win."

Beyond bruising egos, the Pistons can't be certain how Iverson or Hamilton's production would be affected by changing roles. Iverson has talked about the adjustment required of him in having his minutes slightly reduced and not having the ball in his hands on virtually every possession, as he's done for virtually all of his first 12 seasons. Starting the game in warmups on the bench, it would seem, would be a greater adjustment for either player - one of whom has the third-highest scoring average in NBA history, the other the Pistons' leading scorer for each of his first six seasons with the team.

But Curry's first priority is to establish a defensive consistency, and he's convinced that the bigger lineup helps him achieve that. Over the past month, the Pistons' field-goal percentage defense has skyrocketed from in the low 20s among all NBA teams to eighth at .445. When Utah shot 53.5 percent against them on Saturday as they wrapped up their road trip, it marked the first time an opponent had hit half its shots against them in 14 games. In four of those games, teams shot less than 40 percent.

"We've seen from the data with our games that we know defensively, it's no secret, when we've got two bigs and Tay at the three spot, we're our best defensively," Curry said. "And at the end of the day, that's normally what's going to drive most of the decisions we make. What group is going to be the best defensively and how we can best utilize those other two guys at the two spot."

One immediate benefit to having Hamilton back will be getting Prince's minutes back in line. Before hitting the wall and being limited to 31 minutes as the Utah game got out of hand, Prince had played 40-plus minutes in eight straight games.

"The biggest thing is that when Rip comes back, we can find times to have Rip out on the court with either (Rodney) Stuckey or Will Bynum," Curry said. "We can take Tay off the court a little more."

• Iverson, Stuckey and Walter Herrmann all were excused from Monday's practice. Stuckey was en route from Eastern Washington, which retired his No. 3 during ceremonies on Sunday. Iverson had family matters that required his attention. Herrmann was sent home before practice with flu symptoms.
• Curry said Rasheed Wallace, who returned to play 23 minutes against Utah after missing the previous four games, went through practice on Monday and appeared to be OK. Wallace reported feeling pain in the foot that sidelined him late in the Utah game.

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Joe D and the art of asset management

Building an NBA contender is the process of accumulating assets. What are assets in the salary-cap era? Draft choices. Young players on their rookie contracts. The absence of bloated contracts. Finding a quality veteran left standing on the outside looking in after all teams with salary-cap space and ownership willing to spend it have exhausted their resources.

The Pistons didn't have many assets at all when Joe Dumars took over. He built a 50-win team anyway. But Rick Carlisle's first team that ground out 50 wins with guys like Cliff Robinson and Michael Curry and Chucky Atkins in the starting lineup? They were fun and professional and gave you everything they had every night out, but everybody in basketball knew there wasn't much in the way of a championship nucleus to be found.

One year after that 2002 team overachieved its way - way overachieved its way - to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs before losing to Boston in the second round, Joe Dumars started amassing the assets that would change the way people looked at the Pistons.

And that was a process that started with the free-agent signing of Chauncey Billups in July 2002. It's hard to believe now - as the Pistons prepare for tonight's game with Denver, the first meeting between the team and the man who gave them no worries at point guard for six years - but there was open debate about who the best free-agent point guard would be that summer: Billups, Travis Best or Jeff McInnis.

Best seemed the surest bet, actually. His ceiling wasn't very high, but he was a competent scorer and very good deep shooter and it seemed that, in tandem with Atkins, the Pistons would have solid point guard play. They wouldn't win that battle every night, but it wouldn't be an Achilles heel, either.

There was some sentiment, too, for McInnis, who came into North Carolina as part of a heralded three-man recruiting class with two other guys with deep Pistons ties - Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse, who was the resident shooting guard of the Pistons going into that fateful summer.

Billups? Well, no doubt he came into the league with the highest profile of the three. But that had been five years earlier as the No. 3 pick in the draft. If the All-Star game is in a player's future, it's pretty rare that the evidence hasn't been discovered within his first five years in the league. He might not have actually played in the All-Star game by then, but his candidacy for future games has usually been loudly announced.

Not Billups, not by the summer of 2002. Not even close. He'd been injury prone and given up on by five teams, none of which saw fit to make him a starter, let alone invest long-term in him.

Joe D did. He gave Billups a full mid-level exception deal for five years. To this day, it is viewed as the best MLE contract signing any team has ever made. By the time the 2002-03 season had reached its midway point, it had become clear: Chauncey Billups was a huge asset, not just because he gave the Pistons very good play at a critical position, but because he gave them very good play at a critical position at an extremely favorable cost to the Pistons.

That's basketball in the salary-cap era. And that's also why Joe D had to trade him.

Oh, it didn't have to be two games into the season. It didn't have to be this season at all, necessarily. But he had to trade him, because suddenly Rodney Stuckey became a more valuable asset: a decade younger and far cheaper. Until Stuckey's rookie contract runs out, which will be after the 2010-11 season, the Pistons have a player emerging as an elite point guard at a price even more favorable than what Chauncey Billups cost the Pistons six seasons ago.

That's why agent Andy Miller called Joe D last summer and acknowledged the facts: We know Chauncey isn't going to finish his career in Detroit, so when you go to trade him - not if, but when - we'd appreciate it if you could try to get him home to Denver.

When last season ended, I was talking to Joe D about Stuckey's future. It was clear, based on the closing rush he had to his rookie season, that he would play a far larger role in 2008-09. I asked if there was room enough in the backcourt for three high-caliber guards. He laughed and said, yeah, if you're familiar with the history of this franchise, there surely is.

He was completely right, of course - at least on one level. There were minutes enough to go around for Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey. Just as there had been 20 years ago for three guys named Isiah, Joe and Vinnie. But in the salary-cap era, employing two difference-making point guards is an unaffordable luxury.

So Billups was traded for assets the Pistons could put to better use: Allen Iverson, a player whose ability to score no matter the circumstances has been proven for more than a decade; and one of the most coveted assets of all, salary-cap space.

The signing of Chauncey Billups once signalled the beginning of an accumulation of assets by Joe D that culminated in an NBA title. History will be the judge, but perhaps trading him signalled the beginning of another such era.

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A tough loss, and a point guard's growing pains

The Pistons awoke in Denver on Thursday after what was likely a restless night for most of them, the nagging thoughts that always accompany a one-point loss making sleep elusive.

It is in such games as the loss to Portland on Wednesday when everyone has the game tape on an endless mental loop, agonizing over the one subtle moment amid a thousand that would have yielded a different outcome.

Rodney Stuckey probably had more to digest than anyone. Stepping on Nicolas Batum's foot when pivoting out of trouble in the first half, leading to a Rudy Fernandez breakaway dunk amid Portland's 8-0 run that chopped more than half of a 14-point lead away in less than two minutes. Dribbling stubbornly into a triple team and getting tied up by a 7-footer before losing the jump ball in a similar second-half turnover fest that fueled another Portland comeback from double digits. Charging into LaMarcus Aldridge at the basket instead of pulling up for a short jump shot and giving Portland another dose of momentum in its gathering comeback.

It's especially worth remembering, as the Pistons prepare for Friday night's game in Denver against the man who wrote their musical score for the past six years, that Chauncey Billups was 26 and a veteran of five full NBA seasons when he became Detroit's point guard to start the 2002-03 season. And, even at that, it was another good half-season before Joe Dumars felt certain that he'd found his point guard.

Rodney Stuckey is on the fast track to stardom, but sometimes the motor on even the fast track's belt needs fine tuning. Stuckey certainly wasn't awful against the Blazers: 13 points and seven assists are numbers the Pistons can win with on nights when one of Rip Hamilton or Rasheed Wallace is available to them, perhaps. But with both out, and so much of the offense dependent on Stuckey, Allen Iverson and Tayshaun Prince, the Pistons can't have two of the three combining to shoot 10 for 29 with 10 turnovers.

Flip Saunders wasn't always able to convey his insights in the most concise terms, but the man knew his basketball inside-out. And Saunders always insisted the keys to winning on the road were making your free throws and taking care of the basketball. The Pistons shot 9 of 16 at the line in Portland - and getting there only 16 times is another concern - and committed 14 turnovers, in itself not an egregious amount but critical in their timing and their perpetrators.

All of that, and the game still came down to four possessions in the final 80 seconds that all had to go against the Pistons to produce a loss. After Iverson made a beautiful play to set up Kwame Brown for a dunk - and Brown's solid play was one of the game's positive takeaways - the Pistons led 83-80.

Travis Outlaw then made a tough, spinning bank shot and made it while being blanketed by Tayshaun Prince, putting the pressure back on the Pistons. They executed admirably, handling Portland's trap that bedeviled them for much of the second half, and the possession produced an open 3-pointer for Prince from the side. It looked good but just rimmed out long with about 40 seconds left. But Antonio McDyess, gutting out another performance over a Gray's Anatomy assortment of injuries, willed his way to an offensive rebound to extend a critical possession.

Once again, the Pistons couldn't quibble much with the shot it yielded: Iverson in a trademark penetration of the lane. He launched himself backward instead of going straight up, and even though he's made a career of draining off-balance shots, he probably increased his degree of difficulty unneccesarily on this one. Still, it missed by a whisker, or the Pistons would have held a three-point lead with under 20 seconds left and reduced Portland's margin for error greatly.

Again, without Brandon Roy in the lineup, the Blazers went to Outlaw. This time, with Michael Curry having subbed in Arron Afflalo for Iverson at the timeout, the Pistons guarded Outlaw with Afflalo; Prince was guarding Rudy Fernandez. The Blazers cleared out for Outlaw and Afflalo, instead of forcing him right and into the lane where help could have arrived more quickly, allowed him to go left. It still proved a tough shot, Afflalo in his face and McDyess flashing at him in the last instant, but Outlaw drained it.

The Pistons still had eight seconds for the fourth and final critical possession. Once again, it was a shot they'd take 10 times out of 10 given the circumstances. Once again, it looked good when it left the shooter's hand. Once again, it rimmed away. Iverson got an elbow jump shot off cleanly, but on a night he shot 6 of 19, it wasn't in the cards.

If he had gone 7 of 19, the Pistons win. If they make 11 of 16 free throws, they win. If they turn it over 13 times instead of 14. ... They all had such thoughts, doubtlessly, on a tough night for sleep in Denver. Rodney Stuckey probably more than most.

They'll find a familiar face in Denver who can tell him all about the growing pains of an NBA All-Star point guard.

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Stuckey diverts focus from Billups-Iverson deal

As if the three contenders remaining on their Western road swing weren't enough to rivet the Pistons' attention, each one comes with a compelling sidebar. Up first is Portland, where Rasheed Wallace returns to the place where he became synonymous with the vilified Jail Blazers, never mind that Wallace's transgressions were largely confined to accruing technical fouls in a time when his teammates were routinely landing on police blotters.

It ends with a trip to Utah, where the Pistons haven't won in their last five tries against a team they haven't beaten in their last seven meetings.

And in between is the most anticipated matchup of all - the Denver game on Friday, where the Pistons will meet up with their former point guard. We speak, of course, of Chucky Atkins.

Just kidding.

The Chauncey Billups Reunion Game will be tinged with emotion on both sides, but it won't even be close to qualifying as the final verdict on who got the better of the trade - or even if the trade was right for both sides.

A few weeks back, as the Pistons were groping to find themselves and Denver was riding high, there was a low murmur of unrest among Pistons fans tired of hearing about the many spinoff adjustments required in the transition from Billups to Allen Iverson. Those adjustments continue - sorry, but them's the facts - though the murmurs have been quieted by seven straight wins.

That streak, not so coincidentally, began the night Rodney Stuckey exploded for 40 points against Chicago, and its two most recent entries - wins over Sacramento and the Clippers despite the absences of Rip Hamilton and Wallace - were driven by Stuckey's 31-point scoring average.

Stuckey, appropriately, was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday for enabling the Pistons to win four games - all without Hamilton, most of three without Wallace. He won it, of course, largely for his offensive stats.

Less noticed - except by Joe Dumars, Michael Curry and their staffs - is Stuckey's impact on the defensive end. When Stuckey starts, the Pistons average 25.5 points a game in the first quarter and their opponents average 19.4. When he comes off the bench, the first-quarter numbers go the other way: 21.1-22.0.

So, in a nutshell, with Stuckey in the starting lineup, the Pistons come out of the first quarter 6.2 points ahead. With Stuckey mired on the bench, they come out of it almost a point behind.

We've talked about two main reasons for Joe D pulling off the Billups-Iverson trade: (1) the chance to be a more varied offensive team in the muck and grind of the playoffs, when half-court offenses have more difficulty executing; and (2) the chance to rebuild the team as soon as next summer because of the cap flexibility afforded Dumars by taking Iverson's expiring contract for Billups', which had three more years to run.

But all along there was a third reason, maybe the most compelling of all: The chance to give Rodney Stuckey the reins sooner than ever would have been possible with Billups still here.

It's worth wondering what the Pistons would be like today had the deal not been made. After all, if Iverson, Stuckey and Hamilton can share a backcourt - with Hamilton getting minutes at small forward, as well - then couldn't Billups, Stuckey and Hamilton have done the same thing?

Well, sure. Sort of. The minutes might have played out similarly. But as long as Billups was here, he was going to be the point guard. Yeah, when Billups and Stuckey shared the backcourt, as they frequently would have, they might have taken turns running the offense. But in crunch time? It was always going to be Billups with the ball in his hands, Billups making the call, Billups deciding when to stick with a play or break it off, Billups deciding it was his shot to take or not.

And that, inevitably, was going to slow Stuckey's development - maybe not as a player who could help the team right now, but as a point guard, and as the leader of the Pistons going forward.

The element of Billups' game that always stuck out most to me was his sense of when to push the pace and when to pull back, when to get others involved and when to force the issue himself. I figured that would take Stuckey a good long while to learn. But he's showing every sign that he's at ease with that aspect of being a point guard already, and making every scout who classified Stuckey as a shooting guard in predraft reports to his GM squirm uncomfortably.

And, again, we're focusing almost exclusively on the offensive end when, in fact, Curry's decision to put Stuckey in the starting lineup was driven equally by his desire to spark the defense. Curry has said repeatedly that Stuckey is his best perimeter defender on the ball. His speed is breathtaking and his lateral quickness and strength keep point guards from routinely getting to the spot from which they want to initiate offense.

Billups was a perfectly competent defender, of course. He would show up in the All-Defense voting every season. And he remains big and strong enough to defend most shooting guards. But he had trouble staying in front of quick point guards. That was no secret. When the Pistons played New Orleans last season, for instance, they had Hamilton guard Chris Paul. Stuckey, 10 years Billups' junior, won't need similar protection. But as someone who's even bigger than Billups, he's also capable of guarding shooting guards, which helps because of the matchup problems the slight Iverson sometimes faces.

Billups is probably the more efficient point guard as of today - no knock on Stuckey, because Billups has been among the NBA's most efficient point guards for the last five years or so. But Stuckey's 38- and 40-point games within the seven-game win streak suggest he's the more explosive player. And the numbers on what he's meant to the Pistons' defense don't lie.

So even though Friday's game was never going to be a referendum on Chauncey Billups vs. Allen Iverson, it turns out the focus on the trade all along probably should have been on what it meant for the Pistons in the era of Rodney Stuckey.

• The Pistons, who've played shorthanded for their last five games and hope to get Wallace back, if not Hamilton, for Wednesday's game at Portland, probably see it as karmic justice that each of their three remaining opponents on this trip will be down an All-Star-caliber player: Portland won't have Brandon Roy (hamstring) back until Saturday at the earliest; Utah remains without Carlos Boozer (knee); and Denver lost Carmelo Anthony on Monday night to a broken hand. If Anthony's is similar in severity to Rodney Stuckey's a year ago, he'll miss about six weeks. More should be known today.
• A little surprising that Denver thought so little of Cheikh Samb that the Nuggets essentially gave him to the Clippers on Monday. The move was done to enable Denver to get below the luxury-tax threshold, but George Karl said this: "We didn't see (Samb) having a chance here.'' Samb had averaged 12.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.8 blocks in 10 games for Colorado of the D-League.

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A big week for playoff projections ahead

The Pistons haven't played a truly meaningful regular-season game in April for the last two seasons, their playoff seed virtually locked in both years weeks before the regular season played out. This year? That's not very likely to be the case.

Which is just another reason why this week's West Coast games should keep you up past your bedtime. Not only are the Pistons looking at three teams all hoping to make noise themselves in the postseason - Portland on Wednesday, followed by a daunting back-to-back Friday and Saturday at Denver and Utah - they also need to be cognizant of the Eastern Conference standings.

It might seem a little early to be scoreboard watching, but when the calendar turns to January the standings take on greater significance. Over the next two weeks, most teams will have hit the halfway point of their schedules. So even though the Pistons are only five games back of Boston and Cleveland in the loss column, if the Celtics and Cavs keep up their first-half pace they'll only lose about 14 or 15 games all season.

That means the Pistons would have to go something like 48-2 in their final 50 to finish ahead of them. Even the three-game edge Orlando has on the Pistons in the loss column is a significant cushion this far along in the season. Barring injury, teams that have established winning percentages of .750 or better for almost half a season aren't likely to suddenly start losing games in bunches.

The good news for the Pistons is that their seven-game win streak has begun to open some distance between them and the teams chasing them, too. They've pulled even in the loss column with Atlanta. If they can say the same thing after this week plays out, they'll have gained a real edge over the Hawks.

Of the nine contenders for the West's eight playoff spots - nine West teams have between five and 15 losses; the other six have between 23 and 30 losses - both Atlanta and the Pistons still have six to play on the road. By the end of this week, the Pistons will have only three left. Atlanta comes back from the All-Star break in late February with a five-game, nine-day Western road trip that includes games with the Lakers, Portland, Utah and Denver. Ouch.

By the time that trip is over, and the calendar turns to March, the Pistons should have a better idea where they stand. The one team behind them that could make a run is Miami, three games back in the loss column but playing well with recent wins over Cleveland and the Lakers.

If Boston, Cleveland and Orlando maintain their current paces and go off as the 1-2-3 seeds in the East, then the Pistons, Atlanta and Miami will be in a dogfight for the final home-court seed in first-round matchups.

And the Pistons still have six games to play against them - all four with Miami and two more with Atlanta, against whom they were scheduled just three times this season. It's to Atlanta's advantage that the Pistons only get them at The Palace once, Feb. 11 - the last game before the All-Star break, a game coaches often dread because players are looking forward to a long weekend getaway flight.

How the Pistons fare in those six games might determine whether or not they get home-court advantage in the first round. It could even come down to the season's final game when the Pistons play at Miami on April 15 - tax day.

Taking care of business this week, of course, will put the Pistons in a much more favorable position - both for their chances at sneaking into the top three or, at least, solidifying their odds at landing the No. 4 seed ahead of Atlanta and Miami.

Business would be easier to manage for the Pistons if they can get Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton back for the Portland game. Their relatively close calls with Western doormats Sacramento and the LA Clippers the past two games put an undue scoring burden on Rodney Stuckey, Allen Iverson and Tayshaun Prince. Even getting one or the other back will distribute the scoring burden a little more evenly and give Michael Curry a little rotation flexibility to shorten the minutes of those three.

It doesn't hurt that Portland will be without Brandon Roy, nursing a hamstring injury, and Utah All-Star Carlos Boozer is scheduled to undergo minor surgery to clean up debris in a knee injury that's lingered far longer than expected. In Roy's two-plus NBA seasons, he's missed 36 games. The Blazers are 11-25 when he's out, 82-80 when he plays.

Then it's on to Denver, where the competitive juices of both sides will be aboil - the Pistons to show Chauncey Billups they can move on without him, Billups eager to show them what he's still capable of doing. And, finally, Utah, where the Pistons - playing their third contender in four nights - will be trying to end two streaks: a seven-game losing streak to the Jazz, most recently a double-overtime loss Dec. 19 at The Palace; and a five-game losing streak in Utah, their last win coming on Nov. 6, 2002.

• Walter Sharpe knocked off a little rust in his first two NBA D-League games over the weekend as Fort Wayne split a pair with Iowa. On Saturday night, Sharpe scored 10 points, shooting 3 of 10, grabbed four rebounds and had two steals in 24 minutes. In foul trouble on Sunday, he played 20 minutes and scored nine points, shooting 3 of 6, with three rebounds. Alex Acker was better, playing 38 and 42 minutes and scoring 20 and 22. They'll take part in two more games Tuesday and Wednesday at the D-League Showcase in Orem, Utah, before rejoining the Pistons for their Friday game in Denver.

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In adversity comes opportunity for Pistons

When Rasheed Wallace limped off The Palace floor two minutes into the second quarter of their New Year's eve win over New Jersey, the Pistons led by two points. So they know they can play without Wallace, without Antonio McDyess and without Rip Hamilton.

They'd just rather not be forced to prove it.

But that looks like it's going to be the case again tonight, when the struggling Sacramento Kings come to town. The Pistons have declared Wallace and Hamilton both unfit, which isn't a surprise. When Hamilton revealed before Wednesday's game that his groin is slightly torn, not just strained, getting him back any time before the West Coast trip starts on Sunday seemed unduly optimistic. And given that Wallace said the foot injury has been bothering him for a while, and wasn't just incurred when he blocked Yi Jianlian's layup try, something more than a 48-hour recovery seemed in order.

McDyess could probably use another week to allow his bruised ribs to heal, too. If you've ever taken a hard shot to the ribs, you know how painful it can be to raise your arm, never mind banging with NBA power forwards - and God forbid a sneeze sneaks up on you.

Not that there's ever a good time to incur injuries, but now - with a momentum born of confidence and familiarity starting to build - seems a particularly lousy stretch, especially with a Western Conference death march ahead of them. After Sunday's warmup act against the Clippers, the Pistons close with a brutal three game stretch in four nights: Portland, Denver, Utah.

Coaches are conditioned to line up with whoever shows up in uniform, though, and knowing the fighter that Michael Curry is, he's going to look at this as an opportunity and sell it that way to his team.

An opportunity for Allen Iverson to shoulder more of the scoring load and speed the process of him feeling more comfortable taking over for longer stretches. An opportunity for Rodney Stuckey's growth as the point guard and de facto leader to accelerate. An opportunity for Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell and Kwame Brown to prove themselves to their teammates as more than situational players. An opportunity for Arron Afflalo to cement the spot in the rotation he's recently earned. And an opportunity for Will Bynum and Walter Herrmann, who've both proven in glimpses that they belong, to carve out a niche.

Curry has shown he's willing to think unconventionally, something rare enough in veteran coaches, let alone a first-timer. So even though he might have only nine able bodies for tonight's game if McDyess can't go - Walter Sharpe and Alex Acker were assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on Friday morning - he'll freely tinker with lineup combinations until he finds something that works.

It doesn't hurt any that the Kings likely will be without second-year 7-footer Spencer Hawes, who's missed the last two days of practice with an abdominal strain. That makes the Kings even more of a finesse team. Outside of veteran center Brad Miller, the big men are slender ex-Piston Mikki Moore and rookie Jason Thompson.

So Curry could go small against the Kings frequently, with Prince or Herrmann at power forward and Afflalo at small forward with Bynum giving Stuckey the three or four minutes of rest each half he might require and Iverson, as he's often said he prefers, playing all 48.

The Pistons carry a five-game winning streak into the Kings game. You never like tinkering with your lineup when the results keep coming back positive. But necessity dictates otherwise. The Pistons, from Michael Curry to Will Bynum, have an 8 o'clock tipoff with opportunity.

• The Pistons had said all along that they liked having Sharpe with them because of his sleep disorder, narcolepsy, that was only diagnosed about a year ago. The fact they're sending him to Fort Wayne indicates that they feel Sharpe can shoulder the responsibility of being more or less on his own in a new environment. Because he played only 18 games in his final three years of college - largely due to academic issues resulting from his disorder - the chance to soak up some game experience should greatly benefit Sharpe.

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