The common thinking in the Pistons’ fall from contender to bottom feeder in the last few years has been that Joe Dumars has ‘lost his touch’ or that he’s had no vision. In fact, the opposite is true. The current version of the Pistons exists precisely because Dumars had a vision.

After the Pistons lost to Boston in the 2008 Conference Finals, Dumars gave in to increasing pressure to shake up the old core and traded Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson shortly after the 2008-09 season started. But today’s post isn’t going to once again delve into whether or not that was a smart move. I’m going to look at the new era of rhetoric that was ushered in starting with that trade. The Pistons won a title and became one of the steadiest teams in the league for nearly a decade based on, first and foremost, physical defense. Starting with the Billups trade, Dumars began to target players that didn’t fit a specific traditional position and who didn’t necessarily have strong defensive reputations, and that was no accident.

Iverson was the world’s smallest shooting guard (or was until Nate Robinson showed up). Charlie Villanueva wants desperately to be the world’s tallest shooting guard. Rodney Stuckey, at best a combo guard and more likely a shooting guard in college and as a rookie, became a full-time point guard. Ben Gordon was primarily a bench player in Chicago because he was too small to be a starting shooting guard and didn’t have the skillset to be a passable point guard. DaJuan Summers was a hybrid forward at Georgetown with the build of a prototypical SF and the skillset of a low-skilled PF. Austin Daye was a lifetime post player with no chance in hell at playing in the post full-time in the NBA (just don’t tell John Kuester that). Jonas Jerebko, although a good player, isn’t perfectly suited to either of the forward positions. Kyle Singler is yet to play a game for the Pistons, but he’s probably not strong enough to play his natural power forward position in the NBA, and he might not be skilled enough to be a full-time small forward. Brandon Knight is technically a point guard, but he plays more like a shooting guard right now. Will Bynum is the size of a point guard, but he’s a scorer in every sense of the word.

I could ask readers what the best position for most of those players is and it would start heated debates in the comments. And in fact, that was by design. Dumars began talking a lot about his belief that traditional positions were becoming obsolete. He wanted to put a team of five versatile guys who could score on the floor at all times. Below are some examples.

Dumars in a 2010 interview:

Dumars later says he doesn’t look at backcourts in terms of having a point guard and a shooting guard. He looks for two players who can play well together. So, if he used that line to dodge the question, ask, “For a player who you think would be ideal next to Stuckey, would other teams consider him a point guard or a shooting guard?”

Dumars in a 2010 interview:

Asked if the Pistons need a “pure point guard,” he said, “When people say that now, I think we still hold on to what a true point guard was 20, 25 years ago. A lot of the young point guards you see now that are having success are also combo guards. I saw some during the playoffs, kids who barely played point guard in college, played two-guard all of college, and now they’re running teams.”

Dumars in 2009:

If you don’t have the strong, low-post, traditional four man that can score, if you don’t have one of those top guys, you certainly better have one of those guys we call a stretch four – that can stretch the defense, that’s versatile, that’s inside-out. You have to get one or the other. If you’re not going to get a traditional four guy, then today’s game requires you to have more versatile four men.

Dumars also clearly believed that the NBA had changed into a less physical league where having an abundance of offensive-minded players was more vital than it had been in the past. From an interview with Keith Langlois in 2009:

We also recognize that we have to be able to score the ball more. I think our acquisitions reflect that. Kuester will decide at what pace we pay, but what I wanted to do was give him weapons to put us in a position to be able to score the ball more. How he chooses to do that will be up to him, but I did not want to put him in position where we didn’t have enough weapons to step on the floor and score like you need to be able to score now to have success in this league.

It’s not that Dumars ever publicly said defense wasn’t important. His comments just started to treat defense as kind of an afterthought, something that could be picked up later. Here’s an example:

I don’t think you can ever lose the mentality that for us to win, you have to stop people. You have to play good defense. You can’t be a poor defensive team and expect to win. So the fact that we’ve acquired more guys who can score the basketball doesn’t change the mind-set that you have to stop people. All we’re doing is saying we recognize that we have to score more. To recognize that doesn’t mean that you’re abandoning the mind-set that we have to stop people. You don’t have to choose, either-or. Lest people forget, Chauncey and Rip didn’t come here as these great defenders. They came here as offensive players. Chauncey was talented offensively, Rip was a scorer. They won a championship because they made a commitment to try to defend people. Just because you address the need to score more, doesn’t change your mind-set to have to stop people.

Dumars, in fact, had a pretty clearly articulated plan. It just wasn’t a good one. Now, I obviously cherry-picked some comments from the past to highlight that point, but these are some common themes that I think it’s fair to take away from Dumars’ change in philosophy: 1. He didn’t believe his veteran core of physical, halfcourt veteran players could continue competing at a high level in a league seeing more wide open offenses and stricter officiating; 2. He feared that his core would age overnight, similar to what he experienced as a player when the key players on the Bad Boys pretty rapidly declined; 3. He believed that he needed both more offensive firepower and players who could create for themselves and score in iso situations; 4. He believed defense was important, but that talented players who were poor defenders elsewhere could be taught to be good defenders.

As for that last point about defense, I’ll let Ben Wallace handle the refutation. From Terry Foster of The Detroit News:

Wallace said it’s possible that the Pistons can become a good defensive team and that some of these players can become good defenders. But it’s doubtful they will turn into all-NBA defenders.

“You are born with it; you can’t teach that,” Wallace said. “It’s tough to get to the league and not be a great defender and turn into one. You can be a great team defender. But as far as taking control of the game, it’s one of those things where you are born with that intensity or with what we call that ‘dog’ in you.”

Thanks Ben. As for the rest of the points, I don’t think Dumars’ philosophy has been entirely wrong — traditional positions have become somewhat obsolete, pure point guards are a rarity nowadays and, since he clearly believed a player with Stuckey’s skillset could be an offensive centerpiece, he was right to think surrounding Stuckey with perimeter threats like Gordon, Villanueva and, to a lesser extent, Daye, should’ve helped Stuckey excel. I think he certainly miscalculated on the players he chose to fill those roles and I think he clearly paid way too much for them while casting aside cheaper, more talented options. But again, that’s not the debate here today. My question is simply, why the drastic change in philosophy? Why reinvent the wheel?

Although it’s true the game has changed some over the last four or five seasons, it hasn’t been some sort of seismic shift. The Spurs, Celtics, Lakers and Mavs all won titles over the last five years by being really good defensive teams. The Bulls became an elite team last year built around a smothering defense, and for all of the hand-wringing about the Heat, they’re actually one of the better defensive teams in recent NBA history. Defense hasn’t changed that much, even if officiating does disallow some of the more physical stuff the 2004 Pistons did. That team wasn’t some relic of a lost era. The Pistons of the last decade were talented enough that they would’ve adjusted to today’s tighter officiating (although it probably would’ve taken about 1,000 Rasheed Wallace technicals to make that adjustment).

There is certainly more positional ambiguity today than there was 20 or so years ago, but Chris Paul would like to tell you that pure point guards still exist. Heck, Walker Russell is proof that even traditional point guards with limited talent can make valuable contributions in today’s NBA. Things have evolved, as they always do in sports, but Dumars seemed to be preparing for an offensive revolution that he perceived to be much greater than what was actually happening.

He clearly changed philosophies. This is the first year that the organization has uttered the phrase ‘rebuilding.’ There’s a reason they’ve been hesitant to do that — ‘rebuilding’ suggests that what you’ve been doing has been a failure. But they’re now at the point where it’s impossible to classify the last three seasons as anything but failure. Via Justin Rogers at MLive, here are some comments from Dumars after this year’s draft:

“When we’ve been at our best, it’s because we knew we were putting guys on the floor who would give there (sic) all and do things the right way. We all know we had some slippage in that department over the last year or two. This is a direct effort to reaffirm who we’ve been and why we have these banners in this building.”

‘Reaffirming who we’ve been’ suggests that decisions that preceded this year’s draft were not ‘who the Pistons have been.’ It’s an indirect admission that mistakes were made, that the drastic philosophical shift towards offensive players wasn’t necessary and that the old way was better.

Why did Dumars change? Unless one of the handful of interviews he gives out each year is to the guy who once built a game recap around around what Austin Daye ate for dinner, I will probably never get an answer for that question. As a fan though, it still haunts me. It’s just so strange.

Dumars became a prodigy among GMs. The ‘genius’ tag was tossed around pretty frequently at one time. Other than Jerry West, at one time, you could’ve made a case that Dumars was the most successful star-player-turned-executive ever. Most people who have that kind of success become so married to their philosophy that they never change, occasionally to their detriment. Dumars was the opposite. He stubbornly and rapidly changed course, as if he’d become convinced that the philosophies that delivered his great successes – fiscal responsibility, identifying under-valued talent, toughness, work ethic and defense as core organizational values, etc. – were untenable, and he couldn’t be convinced otherwise. There have certainly been several forces at work that have made the Pistons what they are today, but chief among them was a mysterious, largely unexplained change in how Dumars believed he needed to go about building a successful basketball team. There isn’t a rational explanation for why that happened.

#JoeDumarsWeek

Monday:

• Intro post
• Joe Dumars’ draft track record is strong
• 3-on-3: Joe Dumars drafting
• Poll: Grade Joe Dumars’ total draft history

• Teams: Milwaukee Bucks at Detroit Pistons
• Date: Feb. 3, 2012
• Time: 7:30 p.m.
• Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

• Pistons: 4-20
• Bucks: 10-11

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Brandon Knight
• Rodney Stuckey
• Tayshaun Prince
• Ben Wallace
• Greg Monroe

Bucks:

• Brandon Jennings
• Shaun Livingston
• Carlos Delfino
• Luc Mbah a Moute
• Drew Gooden

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +4.5

Over/under: 182.5

Score: Bucks win, 93.5-89

Read about the Bucks

Bucksketball.com

Game notes

• Lawrence Frank said Will Bynum is day-to-day, but Bynum said he’s about a week, according to David Mayo of MLive.com.
• Ben Gordon participated in today’s shootaround, but he’s out tonight, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
• Charlie Villanueva still cares. But he’s also out again, according to Eric Lacy of The Detroit News.

“I did it in practice, on that side of the court, in training camp,” he said, his first disclosure that the injury was suffered in preseason. “That was the first time I did whatever I did to it. Then, in games, I kept getting hit in the same area, and it never really got a chance to get back to what it was.”

An MRI last Saturday, when Gordon first missed a game in a win over Portland, indicated multiple issues in the shoulders, including “a couple tears,” Gordon said.

“It wasn’t really one issue,” Gordon, adding he also had multiple contusions and has developed tendinitis in the shoulder. “Each time I played, it may have gotten a little bit worse, because the last couple games, before the MRI, it was hard to even raise my arms to shoot the basketball.”

Perhaps, Ben Gordon’s injury explains his poor shooting (42.2 percent). Still, I’m not convinced an eighth-year player with such a limiting injury will be the rare case who bucks his trend of decline.

I’m just joking. After a visit from Joe Abunassar of Impact Basketball in Las Vegas (seriously, can this guy just be added to the coaching staff?), who he worked out with all summer, Austin Daye showed his full, tantalizing offensive repertoire, the one that made him such an intriguing prospect in the first place, the beautiful skillset that, despite how abysmally he’s played, keeps a vocal contingent of fans strongly in his corner. Daye scored 28 points in 30 minutes and only needed 18 shots to do it. He hit four of his eight 3-pointers.

For the first time this season, he didn’t pass up shots that he can make. He didn’t over-dribble. He didn’t shrink after the few mistakes he made. He played freely, effectively, confident and with energy. As a result, he played 30 minutes in a game for only the 10th time in his career. It’s no secret that Daye’s most dangerous weapon is his jump shot. When he was passing them up to dribble, he was hurting the team. Against Miami, he wasn’t passing them up and, as happens with all good shooters, they started going in. Then, surprise surprise, the defense adjusted, played him tighter and this gave him opportunities to put the ball on the floor, make a few nice passes and show off some other understated elements of his game.

The formula isn’t a difficult one. It’s unrealistic to expect 28 points per game from him, but it’s not unrealistic at all to expect him to play this well. Daye has the ability to be one of the league’s best shooters. Even in limited minutes last year, shooting 40 percent from three wasn’t an accident. He has a pure, natural shot, a quick release and the height to get it off against anyone. He has other offensive skills that are valuable situationally. He can dribble sometimes. He has a mid-range game. He has a nice, un-blockable floater that he can get off in the lane. It’s all dependent on the long-range jumper though. If that part of his game isn’t working, he’s not skilled enough in the other areas to be much of a factor on offense. But if the shot is falling, and with as good as his shot is, it usually should be falling, those more subtle skills he has suddenly make him a more dangerous player and a tougher cover.

Last season, Daye had some success against the Heat, but also made mistakes as a result of Miami’s size and strength on the perimeter. Tonight, that hardly fazed him. Miami didn’t play well and also played without Dwyane Wade. But LeBron James was still around as were Shane Battier and Mike Miller. All three of those guys are much stronger than Daye. All three are solid or better defensively. All three guarded Daye at times and weren’t shy about using their strength advantages to try and push him around.

I’ve seen Daye play well for the Pistons, but even in those moments, Daye’s physical limitations were still very apparent. He still shied away from contact, he still struggled when defenders resorted to clutch and grab tactics. This was the first time I’ve watched Daye in three seasons and didn’t get distracted by his physical strength disadvantages. This season, Daye’s body of work has been far more bad than good, but in a single night, he’s earned his way back into the rotation and for now, that’s enough.

Monroe attones

Monroe had a brutal performance (as did the entire team) against Oklahoma City. He was bothered by Oklahoma City’s strong interior defense and he missed several close-range shots. If he’s truly an All-Star level big man, he can’t miss shots like that, especially against a good team where opportunities around the basket are limited.

He was 8-for-14, he exploited Miami’s weak centers (apologies, Eddy Curry) and he grabbed 10 rebounds. He was back to the Monroe he’s been all season. But, he’s also still a work in progress. The Pistons had no answer for Chris Bosh, and at some point, the Pistons need Monroe to be able to at the very least make things tough for players like Bosh. He and the other Pistons bigs couldn’t do that tonight.

Monroe also had a good look from close range that would’ve given the Pistons the lead in the final minute. He didn’t make it. That’s OK, but the Pistons are also counting on him to be the focal point of the offense, so at some point those are shots he’s going to be relied on to make. For now, it’s progress enough for him to simply bounce back from his worst performance with another strong one.

Wilkins starts for Prince

Tayshaun Prince is still a solid veteran capable of occasional good performances. Much was made of the Pistons re-signing him long-term largely for his intangible qualities — intelligence, leadership, defense, etc. I don’t agree with the signing, but I also don’t disagree with the sentiment. Rebuilding teams that don’t pay any attention at all to maturity, leadership and intangibles in the locker room end up as the Washington Wizards. No one wants that.

My beef though, is that Wilkins essentially showed tonight why the Prince signing was unnecessary. Is Wilkins is good a player as Prince? No. But can he deliver intangible qualities like toughness, defense, intelligence, maturity and being a good teammate for a fraction of the cost? His performance against Miami in 34 minutes gave a resounding ‘yes.’ Wilkins (and Rodney Stuckey, Daye and Jonas Jerebko in more limited turns) did about all a defensive player can do against LeBron James, made things difficult for him. He hustled, played with toughness and played with energy. He didn’t play perfectly — he probably should’ve passed on a couple of his 3-point attempts and he turned it over three times. But he gave decent enough minutes and his energy was a nice compliment to the young players.

The reasons Prince was brought back were valid and justifiable ones. The Pistons just could’ve got those qualities for a much cheaper price.

“It ain’t the same”

A reporter asked Ben Wallace after the game if it was good to hear just a bit of cheers and fans yelling “DEEEEETROIT BAAASKETBALL” for one of the first times this season. Laughing, Wallace responded with the above quote. He’s right — the comparison to the energy of the Palace right now to the Palace during Wallace’s prime years is ridiculous to think about.

But for this team, right now, this is as good as it gets. And for this team, tonight’s game was entertaining. It was fun to see Daye, Knight and Monroe as the team’s driving forces. It was fun to see the team have a chance to win it. It was fun to see Monroe as the guy who got the ball down one in the closing seconds. It doesn’t matter so much that the team lost. What matters is that the young players are asserting themselves and the veteran players are content to let them do that. Even if the results are still a bad team on the court, it’s a positive development compared to last season.

I ranked them fourth-worst:

They have twice as many losses by at least 14 points as they do wins. Their horrid offense makes their horrid defense even worse. Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight have promising futures, but both are turning the ball over too much as they adjust to large NBA roles.

Beckley Mason of HoopSpeak had them third-worst:

They don’t make a lick of sense. After Greg Monroe, who continues to quietly produce solid stat lines, the next three Pistons in terms of minutes played are Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon and Brandon Knight. These three play the same quasi-position and lead the team in shots, while none are shooting better than 42 percent from the floor. Yeesh.

As did Spencer Wellesley Percy of Queen City Hoops:

Brace yourself here. The Pistons rank in the bottom three in both offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency. They use fewer possessions than any other team and also turn the ball over the most in the NBA — not good. The stats are bad, but looking on the bright side they are seeing huge jumps in production from second-year center Greg Monroe (15.4 ppg, 9.5 rpg). He should blossom into the cornerstone of the franchise by season’s end.

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop put them second-worst:

And yes, I’m aware they just beat my Portland Trail Blazers. But look at the schedule! Thunder, Heat, Hawks, Sixers, Bucks, Knicks, with all but the Heat and Hawks on the road. Blink and they’ll be 4-19.

So did Mason Ginsberg of Hornets247:

The home win against Portland over the weekend is nice, but it doesn’t mask the fact eight of their losses have come by 14 points or more. It doesn’t get any easier for them over the next week either, with home games against Miami and Atlanta sandwiched between trips to Oklahoma City and Philly.

Gordon continues to clutch at an ailing left shoulder throughout games.

Ben Gordon hasn’t missed any games due (update: to) the injury, and he’s played well lately.

Detroit Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey, who aggravated a groin pull in a loss Wednesday at Minnesota, is out for tonight’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Will Bynum is also still out, so that means D-League call-up Walker D. Russell should get some minutes immediately. The bad news for the Pistons is that the Grizzlies boast one of the league’s best backcourts at forcing turnovers in Tony Allen and Mike Conley. The Pistons will now have to rely on turnover-prone guards Ben Gordon and Brandon Knight for big minutes. Updates: Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News says, contrary to what Mayo reported, the injury is not a re-aggravation:

The #Pistons don’t want to risk a reinjury with Stuckey so it appears to be a precautionary measure more than anything

Not sure who is righter. Either way, Stuckey won’t play. Also, Keith Langlois says Walker Russell Jr. will have to be a quick study, because he’s getting thrown into the fire:

“His plane lands at 11,” Lawrence Frank said after the morning shootaround. “He’ll get in here and we’ll give him a crash course. Not only will he be ready to play, he’ll play.”

Update again:

Mayo responded to Dan on Twitter:

@PistonPowered Frank said he didn’t reaggravate but he pulled up like a lame horse at 1 point and clearly tweaked it at Minnesota, no doubt.

That’s good hustle by Mayo.

Those two 3s gave him 20 points in that game. He scored 20 again, without needing the garbage-time buckets, against the Rockets. His 29 points in tonight’s loss at Minnesota marked the just the third time Prince has scored 20 points in three straight games in his career. The other times occurred in the 2008-09 season and the 2004-05 season. Thanks to Dan Feldman for that stat, and also this one:

In his last three games, Prince has scored 69 points, the fourth-highest three-game stretch of his career. He scored 73 points during a three-game span of the 2006-07 season – the last time he scored more in a three-game stretch. Prince last scored 69 points in a three-game span during the 2008-09 season, when he did it twice without overlap.

Prince’s health has to be the key factor to his resurgent production. He undeniably looks quicker, he’s looking to score in the paint more, he’s finishing stronger and he’s running the floor more. But he also looks like he’s finding a role in Lawrence Frank‘s offense. Last season, Prince had his normal numbers counting-stat wise. But he got there by having a high usage rate and dominating the ball — or, as the DBB guys refer to it, running the Isolayshaun offense. He’s scored points over this three game stretch using much more variety. He’s running the floor again, something he used to do with more regularity earlier in his career. He’s also moving without the basketball, an element that all but disappeared from his arsenal as he assumed more of a point forward role post-Chauncey Billups trade. Brandon Knight and Rodney Stuckey both found Prince on nice cuts to the basket. When he is catching the ball in the halfcourt, he’s making quick decisions with it. Against Minnesota, he caught and shot or caught and pump-faked then drove inside often. He also willingly kicked the ball back out to the guards when he didn’t have a play, a major difference from last year, when he would’ve just dribbled out and reset the offense himself, often causing the movement of his teammates to stagnate.

Many have been critical of the Pistons re-signing Prince. Joe Dumars’ defense for it is that he didn’t want to let a player with value walk away for nothing. If Prince continues to play this well, that decision will start to look less dubious.

Prince’s performance couldn’t save the Pistons from a loss, and that’s not a bad thing. The Pistons played a competitive game against an up and coming team with an established All-Star and an exciting young point guard. Their young players (minus Austin Daye) played primary roles in the game, took some lumps but also showed some things, and the team came away with a loss, which helps their lottery position. If the Pistons get a productive season out of Prince, continue to see young players in big roles and continue to lose, that’s really the best fans can hope for. The team will still get its high lottery pick and it will also have a veteran player to either use as a transition piece as young guys improve or serve as a trade piece.

Knight still trying to walk and chew gum

The good news for Brandon Knight against Minnesota: his assists were up (six), his turnovers were down (three), and he forced Ricky Rubio into 1-for-8 shooting.

The bad news is that while the running the offense portions of Knight’s game picked up, his shooting — which was strong when he was turning it over a lot — fell to 3-for-11, including several misses at the rim. Now, part of it is a product of Rubio. He’s already one of the better defensive guards in the league, and his length bothered Knight. But Knight also seemed to be slowing down and concentrating on protecting the ball and setting up others (both good things), which may have caused him to rush some shots he had more time on. He’s still a work in progress, but he seems to add new things to his game each time out and I’m excited to keep watching him grow.

Gordon’s answers

Ben Gordon‘s performance wasn’t perfect — technical foul free throws continue to flummox him — but he continued to play solid defense (it helped that Luke Ridnour is mostly content to shoot jumpers, but still, Gordon was solid at that end of the court again) and with Minnesota’s offense finally picking it up in the third quarter, Gordon hit important shots to stop runs.

Midway through the quarter, the T-Wolves went on a two minute run and quickly cut a 13-point lead to five amidst a flurry of Pistons turnovers. Gordon got the ball and aggressively took Luke Ridnour off the dribble, getting off his patented runner in the lane to put the Pistons back up seven. Then, with three minutes to go in the quarter, the T-Wolves cut it to two, but Gordon answered with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to five.

Minnesota tied it with about 10 minutes left in the fourth, and Gordon hit another jumper to give the Pistons back the lead. Down one with seven minutes left, Gordon faked a shot and got all the way to the basket to put the Pistons back up.

Now, all of this was moot since the Pistons eventually ran out of steam and Minnesota won, but hitting those types of shots was a key element in Gordon’s game in Chicago. He’s still too inconsistent and streaky, but taking those shots he used to take all the time is a good sign. This is the most comfortable looking stretch he’s had as a Piston.

Not much success with Love

Part of the reason Ben Wallace was inserted into the starting lineup was to prevent Jonas Jerebko from picking up early fouls. The reasoning was solid. When Jerebko would pick up early fouls, he’d have to come out of the game, sit, and often come back into the game as his super-aggressive self.

The problem against Minnesota is that Jerebko still had trouble staying out of foul trouble (picking up five in less than 25 minutes) and Greg Monroe fouled out in 28 minutes. The problem, obviously, was Kevin Love. Love — who is seriously in fantastic shape and has become even more bouncy than he was a year ago — was able to establish position on the offensive glass at will. The Pistons couldn’t block him out, and their bigs picked up a lot of fouls trying to keep a body on him (Jason Maxiell also had four fouls). Wallace struggled guarding him when Love moved out to the perimeter. Wallace was hesitant to chase him out to the 3-point line, and although Love didn’t shoot that well, he’s also a great passer, so giving him space on the perimeter allows him to find open teammates. I didn’t expect the Pistons to do well against Love tonight, but the sheer amount of pressure he put on their entire frontcourt was amazing to watch.

#LOLDarko

The long national nightmare of Darko Milicic hanging around in the NBA should be just about wrapped up soon. I mentioned in the game preview that despite the fact that he’s on pace for a not so great 40-40 distinction, he’s still inexplicably a starting center in the NBA. Tonight, looking like he just rolled out of bed and like a pair of clippers haven’t touched the back of his neck in months, about seven minutes of playing time was enough. He missed two shots, looked out of shape and was the main reason Monroe eclipsed the point total he had against Houston (four) by scoring five points in the first :90 seconds. Milicic didn’t start the second half, and the T-Wolves clearly were a more fun and more fluid team to watch without him doing his John Cena jog up the court.

They both started, both vanished offensively and both were abused defensively in a 97-80 loss to the Houston Rockets.

The Pistons are stuck in a limbo where their old players are no longer good, and their young players aren’t good yet. It’s not pretty, and nights like tonight display the low end.

Monroe didn’t score until the fourth quarter and finished 2-of-9 for four points. His 11 rebounds and six assists were fine, but his four turnovers stunk. Wallace (zero points and four rebounds in 19 minutes) wasn’t much better.

Monroe, whether matched up with Samuel Dalembert or Luis Scola, struggled to keep the Rockets’ bigs out of the paint. Wallace blocked three shots, but he wasn’t any more effective than Monroe at preventing Dalembert (14 points on 7-of-12 shooting with 12 rebounds, six offensive) and Scola (14 points on 5-of-12 shooting with five rebounds, three offensive) from establishing position inside.

Sure, there will be nights Monroe controls the offense with efficient shooting and passing. There will also be nights Wallace dazzles defensively by showing his legs are just spry enough to allow his supreme basketball intelligence shine. Occasionally, both might happen during the same game, and it will be extremely fun to watch.

But the swings in production have been wild, and they’ll continue to be for the entire team. The short list of Pistons who are theoretically in their prime – Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva – aren’t very good. That leaves a roster full of players too young to play well every night and players too old to play well every night.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of evaluating a player at his best or worst and thinking that’s his real value. Tonight should serve reality check that Monroe isn’t one of the NBA’s top players yet.

The game should also cause Lawrence Frank to revaluate whether Wallace should start. At 37, Wallace is no longer the dependable option he was just two years ago and although Jerebko is an undersized power forward, he might have more success at the position than Wallace.

Bad teams can’t win when their starting big men play so poorly. The good news is they likely won’t look as bad as they did tonight again. Many of us made the mistake of evaluating Monroe at his best. Let’s not demonize him for his worst.

Let’s just respect that he, and his team, have a lot of work ahead.

Tayshaun Prince finally looks healthy

Tayshaun Prince scored 20 points tonight, the same number he scored against the Warriors on Sunday, but I was much more impressed with his play tonight. For the first time since his knee began bothering him, he looked healthy.

Prince made shots to end the first (dunk) and third quarters (long jumper) because he hustled past the Rockets’ defense. I’m not sure he could’ve raced up the court like that a few days ago, even though he said he was healthy.

His points came against set defenses when the game was still competitive, and hopefully, that bodes well for the rest of the four(!)-year contract the Pistons gave him.

Brandon Knight plays hard in face of pressure

As predicted, Kyle Lowry gave Brandon Knight a lot of trouble. Lowry made three steals, and Knight had six turnovers. It appeared the Pistons had enough of the matchup, and Rodney Stuckey spent more time running the offense when Knight was on the court with him in the second half.

Still, Knight (15 points and four assists) showed determination in getting to the rim. His stats are bit inflated due to strong garbage-time play, but I’m happy with him.

Defensively, Knight was just as aggressive, totaling three steals and five fouls. He took one steal coast to coast for an easy layup. I hope Knight continues to gamble a bit more defensively. He has the length to collect more steals, and the ensuing offensive advantage they create provides more value than just staying in front of his man.

Ben Gordon locks down

Ben Gordon not only played hard defensively tonight – he does that more than he gets credit for – he played effective defense. In the process of holding Kevin Martin to 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting and just two free-throw attempts, Gordon had three steals and two blocks – the first time he’s had multiple steals and blocks in a game.

Gordon was solid offensively, scoring 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting, but his defense impressed me much more.

Jonas Jerebko off in first game off the bench

I wouldn’t read much into Jonas Jerebko’s off night. He shot 2-of-8, but a few of those misses were good looks he’d typically make that rimmed out. He was up and down guarding Luis Scola and going for defensive rebounds, but he offensively rebounded well and showed good energy.

When Golden State was tagged with a defensive three seconds call late in Sunday’s first half, Ben Gordon, who’d missed the technical foul free throw that results from such a call earlier, didn’t make an immediate move toward the free-throw line. Neither did anyone else.

So Greg Monroe, who as a rookie last season clanked almost four out of 10 foul shots, walked right up and knocked down another free throw.

“Nobody was looking like they wanted to take it,” he smiled later. “I’m not going to pass it up.”

As a reminder, the other players on the court (with their career free-throw percentage):

• Jonas Jerebko (70 percent)
• Tayshaun Prince (76 percent)
• Rodney Stuckey (83 percent)
• Ben Gordon (86 percent)

Gordon is clearly the best free-throw shooter of that group. It’s cool to see Monroe show so much confidence, but it’s telling that Gordon didn’t jump to the line before Monroe had the chance.