AUBURN HILLS -- Tuesday night started a new era for the Pistons.
Not only was it Stan Van Gundy's coaching debut in Detroit, the fans also got their first look at the high-tech renovations to the Palace, topped off by a giant six-screen scoreboard. They also got some extra basketball, as the Pistons blew a late lead before beating Chicago 111-109 in overtime.
In the long run, though, the most important change might have come midway through the first quarter. That's when Greg Monroe came off the bench to replace Andre Drummond, a new role for a player who is probably in his last season as a Piston.
Monroe has started every regular-season game that he has played since Jan. 10, 2011, but after last season showed that he, Drummond and Josh Smith don't work together as a three-man frontcourt, something was bound to change. Drummond only plays center and Smith is going to be a power forward this season, so Monroe's ability to play both positions means that he's the obvious choice to come off the bench.
Van Gundy made it clear on the first day of training camp that he doesn't see the move as a demotion, saying that the most important minutes are the ones at the end of the game, not the beginning. After one night, Monroe appears to entirely agree.
"I'm not worried at all about this," he said. "I know that the media and the fans might think it is a big deal, but I'm only concerned about being ready to play. If you want to know why the coach is using this rotation, you'll have to ask him, but I know I'm going to be playing a lot of minutes, and I'm going to be doing everything I can to help the team win."
Monroe played Monday like a man trying to win a job, not an established star tuning up for a long regular season. He had 10 points and four rebounds in the fourth quarter, then added four points and two rebounds in the extra session.
"Greg was outstanding," Van Gundy said. "He is an elite rebounder and he made some great offensive plays tonight. That's what we need from him."
Van Gundy wasn't as thrilled with some of his other players, though.
"We had some really good moments, and I thought we started with some energy, but I was very disappointed with our rebounding and defense down the stretch," he said. "In some ways, though, this was a perfect exhibition game. We got a win, so everyone gets to walk out with a good feeling, but we did a lot of things that we need to learn from."
Van Gundy singled out Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as having struggled on defense throughout training camp, but was also upset by a more unexpected source.
"We went to Andre a lot in the low post -- probably more than he's ever been gone to before -- and he looked comfortable down there," Van Gundy said. "But his effort on defense and his rebounding were not good. We had five or six players with more defensive rebounds than he had, and that shouldn't be acceptable to him.
"He's got to make sure that he doesn't fall into the trap of letting the good parts of his game suffer while he's learning something else."
