First, the new players - Jodie Meeks, Cartier Martin, Spencer Dinwiddie, Caron Butler, DJ Augustin, and Joel Anthony - represent 40% of the Pistons current roster. That's a LOT of turnover, but Dumars had built a team full of holes and redundancies, so turnover is for the best in this case. Top 4 additions, in order of importance:
Jodie Meeks: Had an out-of-the-blue breakout season with the Lakers last year, was one of the most efficient scorers in the league last year (5th highest True Shooting % among SGs, over Ray Allen and Manu Ginobili), and leveraged that into a contract with Detroit worth $6M/yr over 3 yrs. Before you cry "OVERPAY", know that Meeks averaged nearly 16 ppg on great shooting %s. He's not spectacular on D, but he's exactly the kind of offensive player Detroit has been missing since Chauncey Billups was traded to Denver. Unfortunately, Meeks fractured his lower back in the preseason and is expected to miss at least 2 months. This is less of a huge deal than it should be because...
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: Ok, KCP isn't a new face. But by the some token, he kind of is. His rookie season was as uneven as Detroit's coaching situation, and he barely saw the court. The Acronym (my just made-up nickname for KCP, we'll see how it feels) went on to light up the Orlando Summer League to the tune of 24 ppg and 7.4 rpg. Yes, summer league is wonderful for stat-padding, but he followed up summer league with 2 1/2 REALLY nice preseason games before spraining his knee in the 3rd. He's probably Detroit's best wing defender, he's poised to make the leap this season, and Jodie Meeks' absence provides him the opportunity to do so. Can he continue that crazy scoring production with Jennings running the offense? I hope so.
DJ Augustin: Nearly 2 years ago, I thought Augustin was a good option for the Pistons' starting PG spot. They traded for Brandon Jennings instead, who had a crappy season last year while Augustin averaged 13.1 ppg, 4.4 apg with 1.8 turnovers coming off of the bench for Chicago. Like the recently departed Will Bynum, he's short and not a great defender. UNLIKE Bynum, he shoots the 3 really well and could be trusted with the starting PG role if Jennings goes off the reservation.
As far as the other guys go, Cartier Martin represents the streaky hot-hand off the bench role, something Detroit has lacked since Jon Barry left town, Dinwiddie is the lone rookie and at 6'6" can play either SG or PG (probably 3rd on the depth chart at both positions), Butler was once an All-Star SF but now represents Singler's backup and a veteran voice in the locker room, and Joel Anthony is another vet who shores up the C position.
Stan Van Gundy, Coach/GM: This was the biggest addition to the team this off-season. By far. I'd rate SVG as the Pistons' best coach since Larry Brown, ranking him over Flip and roughly equal to Carlisle. That is high praise. SVG (yeah, he's another acronym) coached Orlando to 4 straight 50+ win seasons, including 2 straight 59-win seasons, before things soured with Dwight Howard. His offenses ranked in the top 10 in scoring, despite not really having a dynamic scorer (his top 3 scorers were Howard, who had like 2 post moves, Rashad Lewis, a classic stretch 4, and Turkoglu). His defenses often ranked in the top 5, despite Dwight Howard being the only good defender on the team (I know that's like saying "my only gun is a bazooka", but the entire rest of the team were defensive liabilities). He's made the NBA Finals, and his teams have made the playoffs 7 out of 7 seasons (not counting the season he stepped down from the Miami HC job & they went on to win it all). He even wrung a playoff appearance out of that Orlando team that Dwight Howard murdered. The guy can coach.
I've been distantly impressed by SVG the GM so far as well. He hasn't made a WOW move yet and he probably overpaid for Meeks, but at least the Meeks overpay was for a player that fits the team! Compare to Dumars overpaying for Jennings and Josh Smith, who don't fit. While none of the players he's brought in knock you over, look at the team as a whole. It's a LOT better. Van Gundy plays down his role as Basketball Overlord, but the moves the team has made certainly have the scent of Stan on them (which I imagine as smelling like tanning lotion mixed with bacon).
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The Lions are headed into a bye week, so not much to say there. Fairley sprained a couple of ligaments in his knee Sunday, is expected to miss the next 4-5 games, and the coaches say they aren't worried about his weight. Yeah. Right. Anyway, the Lions will have to bring back CJ Mosley for DT depth, they'll need a solid 2nd half performance from Caraun Reid, and they'll probably bring in another guy for DT depth.
The Lions' 2nd half opponents are stars & scrubs. The Cardinals are the top team in the NFC, maybe in football. New England is #2 in the AFC. Green Bay is back on track, more or less. On the other hand, Chicago, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay are all having wastoid seasons and represent half of Detroit's remaining opponents. I expect a tough games from Chicago, because they tend to play tough even in bad season. But Tampa Bay might be the worst team in football, and Detroit steamrolled Minnesota in their first matchup. Fairley should be out for the Lions' 2 toughest games, and that hurts. Hopefully getting some guys back makes up for the loss of Fairley.
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