The Iverson-experiment failed and the Pistons are no longer one of the elite teams in the NBA. Rasheed Wallace will now become a free agent and there are Pistons fans questioning whether or not Michael Curry is the right man for the job. Joe Dumars has a lot of work to do this off-season if the Pistons are to become a formidable team next season. There have been rumors and reports floating around that if Boozer was to opt-out of his contract, the Pistons would be a likely destination for him. Regardless of what is done this off-season, the moves cannot mimic the the results of the Chauncey Billups trade.

Detroit needs to come across someone who can and will play near the basket. There is nothing wrong with a jumpshooting big man, but someone still needs to do the dirty work near the basket and with the 15th overall pick, the Pistons should be looking towards that direction, unless they are confident they can address that need during free agency.

Fresh off a four game Western Conference road trip  the Pistons will return home to and have to defend their home court  against Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. These two teams have  sort of built a little bit of a rivalry over the last few years and now  that Ben Wallace is wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform it makes the  rivalry a little more personal…..at least to the fans.

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Iverson will make his team debut tomorrow night in Toronto against the new looked Toronto Raptors. Some of us have been waiting 8 years for this moment, goes back to when Dumars tried to acquire AI from Philadelphia in 2000 but the deal fell apart after Matt Geiger waived his no trade clause.

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NBA sources said the Nuggets have inquired about obtaining Denver native Chauncey Billups from the Pistons for Allen Iverson. Because of Iverson’s lucrative contract ($20.8 million) it would take more than Billups ($11 million), though .There is probably small chance that Dumars send Billups to the Nuggets for Iverson. Dumars would need to send out around 16 million dollars in contracts to come within the 25% + $100,000 of Iversons’ 20.8 million dollar contract. A deal sending Chauncey and McDyess to Denver for Iverson would work under the cap rules, but probably not in the rules of reality.

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AUBURN HILLS — Detroit Pistons forward Jason Maxiell has agreed to a four-year, $20 million extension with the Pistons.

The 6-foot-7 forward had until tomorrow to reach an agreement with Detroit. Otherwise, he would have become a restricted free agent this summer.

Pistons FINALLY kicked off the regular season last night and in their first home game of the season beat the Indiana Pacers 100-94. Prince led the way for the Pistons with 19 points 5 boards and 3 assists in only 32 minutes.

Game Notes:

• One of the most impressive stats of the night was the Pistons outscoring the Pacers 19-4 in fastbreak points. Michael Curry said the team wanted to run more this season and so far they’ve lived up to that which is a good thing to see.
• Prince was very aggressive offensively finishing with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block in 32 minutes. It was obvious he looked more aggressive from the start and hopefully he’ll keep that attitude even when the competition is a bit better.
• Amir Johnson debut as a starter was very nice. Amir finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks in just over 20 minutes and most importantly stayed out of foul trouble. Amir finished with just one foul on the night.
• Bench contributed very well being led by Walter Hermann who finished with 10 points last night. Stuckey struggled going 3-9 from the field and didn’t play a lot because of foul trouble but overall the bench crew did very well last night. Just about everyone got decent minutes as well, no starter played over 35 minutes last night which is a good sign.
• Danny Granger will be a star in this league. Granger finished last night with 33 points shooting 10-16 from the field also racking in 5 boards and blocking 3 shots. Overall great game from him last night…

Overall it wasn’t the smoothest game but its the first game of the regular season under a new head coach and a lot of guys are playing and playing decent minutes so it’ll take time for things to completely jell. They pulled through with the win though and that’s the only thing that matters so off to the next game….

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• Once again, Arron Afflalo had a great game off the bench in 24 minutes finishing with 15 points going 6-7 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc. Afflalo also finished second in rebounding last night with 5.
• Tayshaun Prince was very impressive last night…not a lot in the stat column but was huge defensively in the second half. 0 rebounds on the night though, he has to do better than that Preseason or not.
• Amir Johnson didn’t look all that impressive although he had a nice transition dunk in the first quarter from Rip. He didn’t play much either, only 13 minutes last night for some reason.
• Sheed once again hung out on the perimeter too much. Not sure if this is by design or if this is just Sheed but somehow, someway they need to get him in the paint. I sort of blame the coaching staff for this for allowing him to launch up so many threes. He took 6 shots last night, 3 were from behind the arc. He did go 2/3 from behind the line though which is much better than 1-7 but still, need and want to see him in the paint more.
• For Milwaukee, Richard Jefferson, Luke Ridnour, Charlie Bell, and first round draft pick  Joe Alexander did not play. Kind of disappointed, would have loved to see all four of them play.

  As for Michael Curry, I was not impressed with him a ton last night in my first time seeing him in the head chair but maybe its just something I’m not understanding. I don’t see why early in the Preseason the starters are playing as many minutes as they’re playing. Last night Rip logged 30 minutes as Prince and Billups logged 26 apiece. Also, the young guys didn’t get a lot of time…Samb and Acker did not play at all and Bynum and Sharpe played very little. Samb has some type of problem with his jaw so maybe that’s the reason he didn’t play but Acker I would have loved to see on the court. He’s supposed to be so much improved and everything and I’ve yet to see anything so far, he can’t even get on the court in the preseason. And Amir only 13 minutes as well, you would think in the preseason he would log more minutes.

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• Rasheed Wallace went 1-7 from behind the arc last night. Preseason or not, its not a great sign when your center takes 10 shots and 7 of them come from behind the arc, especially when he can only make one of them. So far….same ole Sheed.
• Amir struggled in his first start of his career I believe. He finished with 2 points and 4 rebounds along with 5 fouls in just about 18 minutes. He’s going to have to learn how to stay out of foul trouble if he’s going to be the starter here but hey, Michael Beasley and Shawn Marion are no easy guys to guard.
• Tayshaun Prince impressed me with his rebounding…8 boards from him tonight. One of my biggest criticisms of Prince in the past has been he’s too soft and as a 6′9 small forward in this league he should be averaging more than 4.9rpg. If he can average close to 6-7 a night I’ll be impressed but I’m not getting my hopes up.
• Chauncey and Rip were basically just Chauncey and Rip. Chauncey did lead the game with 6 turnovers…I expect that to change though once the regular season comes around.
• The Bench was awesome…what are they calling them ZooCrewII now? Something like that I believe. Anyways, Stuckey had 23 points shooting 8-15 from the field and 7-7 from the line. He also dished out 5 dimes and grabbed 4 boards…not bad but he did foul out and turnover the ball 4 times. Nice showing for his first preseason game of the season. Hermann continued his hot shooting from the Open Practice on Thursday, Hermann finished with 11 points and went 3-5 from the field as well as 2-3 from behind the Arc. Dice had a nice 10/6 game and Maxiell put up 13/3. Afflalo grabbed 7 boards, Bynum had 4 points and Kwame finished with 3 points and 1 rebound in 11 minutes. Overall, solid game from the bench.
• Alex Acker and Cheikh Samb didn’t get much time at all which was kind of shocking since it was the first preseason game and everything. I guess Curry wanted to use this game to get the starters and regular rotation guys their legs and will use Acker and Samb more as the preseason progesses. Samb getting a DNP was surprising to me though.
• Michael Beasley scored 16 points and grabbed 6 boards in his NBA debut. Nice outing for the rookie in his first official NBA game…

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By: Dustin Chapman

• Selected D.J. White 29th overall and traded his rights to Seattle for the rights to Walter Sharpe (32nd overall) and Trent Plaisted (46th overall).

• Selected Deron Washington 59th overall.

Detroit didn’t necessarily impress anyone in this draft. Nothing great, nothing horrible. They did, however, deal out of the 29th pick – avoiding the guaranteed contract they would have had to shell out had they stood pat. These three second round picks will battle for roster spots, and potentially places in the rotation. Plaisted may be the early favorite to earn minimal minutes, as the Pistons are currently thin at center. However, Sharpe’s potential could be the gem of the three.

Grade: C

Larry Lage of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Detroit Pistons have promoted Michael Curry to head coach, subsequently following last week’s firing of Flip Saunders.

The Pistons chose not to look far for their fifth coach in nine seasons.

Curry was on Saunders’ staff last season, his first as a coach, and he played with Dumars about a decade ago and with some current Pistons during the 2002-03 season.

He will make $2.5 million a season as part of a contract that includes three guaranteed years with the team holding an option for a fourth.

Assistant coach Dave Cowens, who also was on Saunders’ staff, will be retained. Coaches under contract with other teams are being considered for the remaining openings along with Pistons guard Lindsey Hunter if he retires.

“We’re going to be a staff that is going to be here from the summer until the end of the season and will be here for players to continue to develop and breaking down other teams in the league,” Curry said. “We’re going to be a hardworking staff from top to bottom.”

Posted By: Dustin Chapman