Following the busiest offseason since Joe Dumars became the team's president of basketball operations, the Pistons head into training camp on September 29 with plenty of intriguing storylines. High-priced free agent signees, promising rookies and a former franchise player have joined the club with a first-time NBA head coach in charge.
There are plenty of issues to be sorted out in the coming weeks, most notably involving the rotation. They include: --John Kuester's imprint: New head coach John Kuester boosted Cleveland's offense with some creative schemes as one of Mike Brown's top assistants last season. Dumars is hoping that Kuester can do the same for a moribund Detroit offense that finished 28th in scoring. Kuester's low-key personality should be a good fit for a relatively young group led by headstrong veterans in Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. But Kuester still has to prove he's head coaching material.
--Middle men: Chris Wilcox did not come to Detroit with as much fanfare as top free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva but he's the favorite to start at center. Wilcox will battle holdover Kwame Brown and 35-year-old Ben Wallace, who re-signed to finish his career in Motown, for minutes at that spot. The Pistons are hoping that Wilcox can emerge from the pack after his career nosedived in Oklahoma City and New York last season.
--Blending in: Charlie Villanueva replaces Rasheed Wallace at power forward and has a similar skill set at the offensive end. He must assert himself defensively at training camp and show that he can become a complete player. Ben Gordon won't concede the starting shooting guard job to Richard Hamilton but he's likely to be the team's sixth man. The key to maximizing Gordon's skills is to find ways that he can coexist with Hamilton in three-guard sets, unlike his predecessor, Allen Iverson. That process begins before the regular season.
--Kiddie corps: First-round pick Austin Daye and second-round selections DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko give the Pistons plenty of depth at the forward positions. This is their time to show if they can claim a rotation spot in their rookie seasons.
--Point man: Rodney Stuckey came to camp last season as a second-stringer to Chauncey Billups. He wound up behind the wheel when Billups was traded two games into the season and the engine sputtered, in part because of Stuckey's tentative play. Stuckey must prove he can be a top-flight floor leader by building chemistry with his array of offensive weapons.
