The job of rebuilding the Pistons officially starts Thursday night.
Most of the needed improvement, especially in the short term, will come through free agency and trades. That's why Joe Dumars has built a war chest that means he can compete for high-caliber players that have already proven themselves in the NBA.
That job will become much easier, though, if Dumars can fill one of the team's many holes with the eighth pick in Thursday's draft. Tomorrow, we'll look at some of the players that Dumars will be considering with that pick, but first a look at what the team needs.
The easy answer, of course, is that the team needs a lot. The Pistons are coming off a 29-53 season, and haven't finished over .500 or won a playoff game in any of the past five seasons. Maurice Cheeks is set to be the fourth Pistons coach since Dumars fired Flip Saunders after a 59-win season in 2007-08, and while he's built a reputation for helping develop young players, he's never won a playoff series in his eight seasons as a head coach.
Cheeks will certainly get a chance to show what he can do with young players, between the draft pick and the three players who are considered the foundation of what he and Dumars need to build -- Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight.
Drummond and Monroe give the Pistons two talented, athletic big men, something every NBA coach would love to have. Drummond doesn't turn 20 until August and was limited to 60 games by a stress fracture in his back, but he put up staggering numbers when he was on the floor. Even though he didn't move into the starting lineup until late March and only averaged 20.7 minutes of playing time, he still put up 7.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. If you expand his playing time to 36 minutes -- a load he should be able to handle with a year's experience -- his numbers project to almost 14 points and 14 rebounds a night. The only two players to average a 14-14 in the last 20 years? Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.
The exciting part of this for Pistons fans is that Drummond did all of that on athletic ability. His offensive game is limited to dunks and put-backs at the rim, and his 37 percent free-throw shooting made him the target of many intentional fouls as the season went on. If he can develop any kind of rudimentary post game and become a option in the halfcourt offense, his scoring numbers could take a jump forward.
Monroe is the veteran of Detroit's Twin Towers, having just turned 23. Like Drummond, he's a force on the boards, and he's also got more of an offensive attack. In three seasons, one shortened by a lockout, he's put up 88 double-doubles, including 37 in 81 games last year.
The problem for Monroe is that he hasn't really progressed much since his rookie season. Lawrence Frank made him a bigger part of the offense than he had been under John Kuester, but Monroe struggled with turnovers and a consistent shot rhythm. He has also never picked up the art of blocking shots, never coming close to even averaging one a game in any of his three seasons.
Last year, especially after the trade of Tayshaun Prince, Monroe tried to assume more of a leadership role, but had a tough time leading by example due to his inconsistent play. Late in the season, when the Pistons couldn't even manage to be competitive in several games, he was unable to get anything started on his own, more often fading out of sight on both ends of the floor. Cheeks will be hoping to bring out more of his competitive nature, which will help him be more of a veteran presence on a very young team.
Knight is definitely a talented player, but one that hasn't settled into a role yet. He won't turn 22 until the middle of the season, but he has already played 141 NBA games and shown scoring ability since the first time he set foot on the Palace floor. Unfortunately, like Rodney Stuckey, he was drafted to be Detroit's point guard of the future and, again like Stuckey, hasn't shown the ability to succeed at that spot. He hasn't shown a knack for finding open teammates, and he's quite prone to turnovers.
On the other hand, he hasn't shown the consistent shooting touch needed by a prototypical shooting guard. Knight is great at attacking the rim, and in the six games where he scored at least 24 points last season, Detroit won five. He hasn't developed a reliable mid-range jumper, though, and he's not a big 3-point threat. If he can become a better perimeter scorer, he would give Detroit a third solid, young starter.
The problem is that the cupboard is almost entirely bare at the other three spots. For the third time, the Pistons will be trying to find the point guard they've needed since the ill-advised trade of Chauncey Billups, and they also need a small forward to fill the spot that Prince had held down for a decade.
At the point, the only internal option is Jose Calderon. He's one of the best passers in the NBA, and he can score, but he'll be 32 on Opening Night and he's one of basketball's worst defensive players. He played well for the Pistons after coming over in the Prince trade, but he's now a free agent and he'd probably be a better fit on a contending team than in Detroit's long-term rebuild. He'll only be back if his salary demands are lower than expected.
At small forward, there are a few returning options, but nothing that will keep Dumars from pursuing free agents to take the job. Jonas Jerebko showed some promise as a rookie, but has never looked the same after missing a season with an Achilles' tendon injury, while Kyle Singler's impressive trick-shot routine didn't transfer to game play. Khris Middleton showed some surprising flashes late in the season, but he's a long way from being able to help as a starter.
Easy enough, right? Coach Drummond, Monroe and Knight up to their potentials, find a point guard to get them the ball and a small forward who can score from outside, and then figure out what you are going to do for a bench. As long as Dumars and Cheeks can do all of that, the Pistons could be back in playoff contention within a year or two.
If they get any of it wrong, though, they probably won't get a chance at the third attempt at building the next Pistons contenders.
