Pistons Try To Make Sense Of Season
It’s difficult to pinpoint the biggest story surrounding the Detroit Pistons this season. We challenge you to go ahead and try:
- Rip Hamilton’s January benching; reportedly due to his outburst toward coach John Kuester during practice.
- The so-called "player protest" wherein many failed to show up (or came late) for shootaround on February 25th.
- The "protesters" were benched from that night’s game; certain teammates were seen laughing on the bench as Kuester was ejected from the game.
- Amid widespread proclamations that Kuester had officially lost his team and may be fired, Pistons’ president Joe Dumars releases a statement confirming Kuester has his full support.
- Kuester announces on March 1st that all spots are open. His message: whoever practiced well would get playing time.
- Kuester’s 16 different starting lineups.
- The non-finalization of the Pistons’ sale.
There are even more (injuries sideline Jonas Jerebko and Terrico White all season, Hamilton refuses buyout, Tayshaun Prince discloses he’s considering every team in free agency); seemingly, the list of challenges never ends.
"Obviously we wanted it to be a better season, a better situation. It is what it is. Just take it a day at a time," Charlie Villanueva told HOOPSWORLD.
"I think it’s been a rough season," adds DaJuan Summers. "It’s been a rough season to say the least. I think we’re having a lot of growing pains; a lot of changes that happened from last year to this year."
The team is currently 23-43 sitting in 11th place in the Eastern Conference; they are 3-10 in the past 13 games. We asked both players to assess the rest of the season as it draws to a close. The two didn’t elaborate in depth.
"I just see us pushing as hard as we can," Villanueva answered. "Being professional. I’m gonna let the chips fall wherever they do."
"Just trying to roll with the punches and win as many games as possible is the key," agrees Summers.
Prince, a nine-year veteran with the team, gave specific details as to what he views is the number-one problem this season.
"The thing you’ve got to do is communicate," began Prince. "You’ve got to talk. We don’t do a good job of that. That’s been our downfall, pretty much, all year. We’ve got a lot of guys who are quiet and don’t always talk on the defensive end of the floor. Because a lot of times, you can’t just play defense how we practice it. Sometimes a game situation is different. Things happen, so you’ve got to call a switch, you’ve got to do something different depending on how it’s going on in the game, and we don’t respond quick enough.
"The most important thing you have to do is to talk and communicate, and like I said, we don’t do a good job of that," he reiterated. "We might do it every once in awhile…a lot of times, when we do try end up helping, it’s too late."
Summers has been with Detroit since he was selected in the second round of the 2009 draft. He’s only averaged 9.0 minutes of playing time in a total of 63 games.
He was admirably mature about the team’s situation as we talked about the season and the outlook going forward.
{AUTHOR_BOX}"There’s a lot going on, especially with our team…with our franchise as far as the lockout is concerned and things of that nature," Summers shared. "There’s no telling. I’m watching ESPN right now and I see the NFL lockout, so….there’s no telling, I just gotta be ready and just be prepared."
In addition to the lockout issue, Summers identified a couple other unique concerns on his mind.
"The team being for sale. (And) we have like six or seven free agents. That’s a lot," he said.
He’s right. The sale of the team has been dragging on for months with no consummation as yet. And the free agency situation figures to be huge this summer for the Pistons. Check out their 2011 list of affected players:
Restricted: Jonas Jerebko, Rodney Stuckey, DaJuan Summers
Unrestricted: Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince, Chris Wilcox
Before those decisions are made, Detroit still has a few weeks of regular-season games left to play. We asked Prince if his team had any chance to put together a good run down the stretch.
"You would think that at All-Star break, that’s something that you would put main focus on, and obviously, I don’t know what our record (was), but it’s not very good at the All-Star break," Prince said. (writer’s note – Detroit’s record was 21-36 entering All-Star Weekend)
"The way we played before All-Star break wasn’t great, but when you have those days off, the important thing is to try to get together and try to respond and try to make that push," continued Prince. "We haven’t did a good job of it. We came out of the gate after the All-Star break and lost those first couple games. Getting off to a bad start really kinda trickles down, so it’s always important to get off to that good start and unfortunately it hasn’t happened for us."
Rodney Stuckey summed up Detroit’s season in just a few words.
"Our defense has been lacking all year; it’s nothing new," he stated.
No doubt about it – defense has been an issue. The Pistons are ranked 28th in Defensive Rating, and 15th in points allowed (100.0).
Kuester’s propensity in using various starting lineups has garnered attention in the league.
"I’ve never been a part of anything like that, so… I mean, this is the only team I’ve been on in this league, so I guess it’s kinda normal to me," Summers chuckled.
"But I know it’s really not," he said.
"I try to worry about things I can control," Summers added, again showing impressive maturity. "You know, some things that are out of my hands, I just try to keep it to my prayers and just try to do the best I can with it."
We asked Villanueva if he’s even thinking about next season yet.
"Nah. Once the 17 games is over, basketball…," he said, trying to find the right words. "Just get away from it for awhile."
This franchise has such a rich history; many find this season’s events downright painful, akin to a train wreck. Attendance has fallen from a league-ranked 1st place in 2008-09 to 8th place last season to a disappointing 19th rank this season. Once the ownership issue stabilizes, free agency shakes out and the coaching situation addressed, hopefully the team finds a way to land back on its feet.
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