--The Pistons will be major players on the free agent market. They will have nearly $20 million to spend and want to either sign two top-tier free agents or sign one free agent and apply their remaining salary-cap room to a blockbuster deal.
Chicago guard Ben Gordon is a major target, as is Utah's Carlos Boozer. But the Pistons won't go crazy and use the bulk of their cap space on one player. Privately, they fear Boozer might price himself out of their price range. They will also try to pursue a trade for Toronto's Chris Bosh, if the Raptors put the 2010 free agent All-Star forward on the market.
"We hope two get at least two players out of this free agency (market)," president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said. "We've targeted that all along, to try to get two good players, plus add a good player at 15 (in the draft). We went into the offseason saying 'We have to add three new guys to the mix here.'"
--First-round pick Austin Daye will be learning from one of his boyhood idols. Daye, a California native, has followed Tayshaun Prince's career since the Pistons forward was a high school All-American at Dominguez High School in Compton, Calif.
"I'm not going to lie," Daye said. "He was probably one of my favorite players to watch growing up. I was watching him at Dominguez and even through college at Kentucky. I was there at his All-Star games in Vegas, so I definitely looked up to him a lot. It's kind of funny I'm going to a team with him. I'll definitely be a sponge and try to soak up as much information as I can."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "There's only a handful of teams that have the marquee names that people may go out to see. It doesn't even make sense wasting your time trying to chase that. That's like a dog chasing his tail." -- President of basketball operations Joe Dumars on whether his team needs a superstar to compete for titles.
