The Pistons should start exploring trade options for Rip if they haven’t already, the 3 small guard combo of Stuckey, Bynum and Gordon is playing as good as any backcourt in the NBA. I wanna see Will “the thrill” Bynum in the dunk contest.

Key Additions: Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Austin Daye, Chris Wilcox, Ben Wallace

Key Subtractions: Rasheed Wallace, Allen Iverson, Antonio McDyess, Arron Afflalo, Amir Johnson

Projected Starting Lineup: Rodney Stuckey/ Richard Hamilton/ Tayshaun Prince/ Charlie Villanueva/ Kwame Brown

-Bennice

This could be a trap game on the road in Memphis against a team that many people severely underrate. The Grizzlies have a couple of really decent players in Rudy Gay, O.J Mayo, Hasheem Thabeet, Zach Randolph, Mike Conley just to name a few of them.

The Pistons Starting Lineup has also been announced:

PG: Rodney Stuckey
SG: Richard Hamilton
SF: Tayshaun Prince
PF: Charlie Villanueva
C: Ben Wallace

Pretty much what I expected. What is more of a question is how the minutes get distributed between the starters and the bench players. I think you absolutely have to start Ben Wallace though to establish some sort of defensive tone to start the game, so I like that move.

I think it’s extremely important to get this first win of the year and establish some sort of confidence in your team. I can’t think of any way worse to start the season off than to lose to the Grizzlies. But neither of these teams tonight play a ton of defense, so it should be a very high scoring game.

Prediction:
Pistons 110
Grizzlies 102

NBA’s rule of thumb, try not to trade within your own conference and whatever you do, do not trade without your own division. That’s usually how trading is mapped out for NBA teams. Although it wasn’t via trade, the Pistons took players from the Bulls and Bucks and a coach from the Cavaliers to begin reshaping their franchise. What do those teams all have in common? Each one of them resides in the Central Division in the Eastern Conference. Shortly after players were allowed to verbally commit to sign contract sheets, the Pistons landed Ben Gordon (from the Bulls) and Charlie Villanueva (from the Bucks) via free agency. The former Uconn Huskie teammates will join another Uconn Huskie in Richard Hamilton to try help restore some pride in the Pistons franchise and fan base. It wasn’t long ago (try a couple of seasons) when the Pistons were the dominant team in the Eastern Conference and all roads to the Finals in the East went through Detroit.

When Michael Curry was fired after just one season of being a head coach, the Pistons needed to find a coach who could get the job done. Their first choice was Avery Johnson, but after a disagreement with the money, they opted to look elsewhere and had their sites set on two of the better assistant coaches from two of the best teams in the league a season ago. In the end, Cavaliers assistant coach John Kuester won over Joe Dumars and the Pistons front office. Kuester is credited with being the guy who helped the Cavaliers offense take off last season.

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.

Unlike in the past though, Lebron James actually has  a decent supporting cast around him and are probably the favorites over  the Pistons this season to win the division. James has more shooters  around him than before, guys like Mo Williams, Delonte West, and Wally  Szczberiak are able to hang around the perimeter and benefit from  James’ penetration. And lets not even get started on Daniel Gibson….

Guards Mo Williams and Delonte West also bring  playmaking abilities, meaning Lebron doesn’t have to handle the ball so  much life before. No longer can you play 5 on 1 and hope to stop  Lebron, he has way too many other weapons around him. And last not but  not least, their strong interior play is a huge advantage, especially  over the Pistons. The Pistons are a little short handed in the front  court after the recent blockbuster trade to acquire Allen Iverson so  you know the Cleveland bigs will be licking their chops to have a big  game on both ends of the floor. Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas will  look to shut down the paint defensively and control the rebounding war.

For the Pistons, they are a little different from the  past as well. As you all know the Pistons now have Allen Iverson and at  times this team has been very good with AI (against Golden State and  Los Angeles) and then at other times they’ve looked very lost (against  Boston and Phoenix) so it’ll be interesting to see which Pistons team  shows up tomorrow night.

Overall it should be a fun night of great basketball  and I can’t wait to see the outcome of it. The Pistons have a lot of  their shoulders though, they can’t come out and lay an egg like they  did last Sunday against the Boston Celtics when they were booed off the  court by their home crowd. Speaking of those Celtics…..after the game,  the Pistons will hop on a plane and travel to Boston for their second  back to back of the season and play Boston Thursday night on TNT.

AI the Answer?

I’m really liking the way guard Allen Iverson is  starting to mesh with the rest of this team, I think once they really  get more comfortable with each other and other guys start hitting jump  shots this team will be really good. Good enough to beat Boston or  Cleveland? Not sure….but pretty good, especially of Tayshaun Prince  continues to play the way he’s been playing since the trade.

The team is also a lot more fun and entertaining to  watch. I’m loving the faster pace as opposed to the slower, grind out  pace, this team started the season off playing. Yeah it was successful  against lesser talented teams but it was boring and against teams like  Boston and Cleveland you have to be able to get stops, push the ball  and get easy baskets which is exactly what they’ve done since AI has  started to gell with the team.

Way too early to judge but so far so good for both Detroit and Denver on that big blockbuster deal.

I’m interested to see how he meshes with this team as well as seeing him hush all the doubters throughout the season about how selfish he is and how he can’t play point guard and so on.

(3-0) @ (3-0)

Regular Season Game 4
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 – 7:00 pm ET
Game aired on FSN

I would really like the ideal of Allen Iverson in a Pistons uniform especially if Denver could add Atkins or Carter. Iverson isn’t the typical point guard but he can distribute the ball and play the position, he showed that last season with Denver. And his offense would be well needed especially late in the post season when Prince disappears. Chances of it happening though is probably unlikely, Joe Dumars for some reason isn’t looking for a type of deal like that. I think it’d be really nice though, improvement now and then after the season having AI and Rasheed coming off the books to make a serious run at someone during free agency.

In other news, Walter Hermann was a complete stud in last night’s game against the Washington Wizards. Hermann scored 16 points, grabbed 7 boards, and dished out 4 dimes in 23 minutes of action Saturday. Looks like we’ve finally found a good backup for Prince, hopefully he can be consistent.

Speaking of Prince, there’s been little rumors of Detroit and Golden State discussing a Prince for Jackson swap. I for one think it’d be a great deal for Detroit, Jackson is one of my favorite players and I’d love to see him in a Pistons uniform. He defends and unlike Prince he’s a physical defender so that’ll be better against guys like Pierce and James come post season time and his offense doesn’t disappear in big games, unlike Prince. Jackson is the better shooter, can handle the ball just as well if not better and overall just a better offensive player. Plus his contract is shorter, only 2 year deal.

Fans for years have been wanting to see Joe Dumars shake things up a bit and acquiring Iverson and/or Jackson would do exactly that. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the next few upcoming weeks.

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.