“I appreciate every environment I’m in, because everything is different, and you can from every team that you go to,” Wilcox said. “So, it’s all a learning experience. Still learning.”

What did he learn in Detroit?

“I learned that whatever goes on in the locker room, that’s some stuff that really does have to stay in there,” Wilcox said. “Because once it gets to the media, it can get a little bigger than what it is.

“I think it was definitely overblown. I think a lot of stuff that went on last year that should have been in-house leaked out. I think that was the only thing.”

Whether or not the media leaks were the only thing wrong with the Pistons’ interpersonal relationships, Wilcox said he was open to returning.

“Every team has issues, but I would’ve taken consideration to go back there,” Wilcox said. “But at the same time, they wasn’t really talking about nothing.”

Wilcox said he spoke with the Pistons about re-signing, but they never reached specific contract negotiations. Instead, he reached a deal with the Celtics.

“They was a little slow with it,” Wilcox said. “So, I had to make a move.”

“I was in the country, so it wasn’t even a town,” Wilcox said. “Tobacco fields and all that all the way around. Everywhere around me, it was all farm land. You could easily get work. The main thing in North Carolina was tobacco. School wouldn’t even be in yet if the tobacco wasn’t out of the fields, they would push school back.

“I picked tobacco. I hung tobacco in the barn. … In tobacco fields, a tobacco barn isn’t anything but a barn in the middle of the field that’s just been sitting there. So when you open the door, you could see anything in there. [If you saw a snake] you had to kill it, but I never messed around with snakes. That’s when you get the big rats, everything.”

In addition to working with tobacco, Wilcox and his friends asked neighbors if they needed their lawns cut or other odd jobs done around their homes and on their land.

“We used to have dogs in the neighborhood to chase the pigs back when they get out,” he said. “They’d give us five dollars if you bring your dog up there and chase the hogs back into the pen. I’m deep down in the country.”

One of Wilcox’s earliest jobs involved going around to local schools, helping to barrel old milk, and then pouring it into buckets to feed the pigs.

The Pistons not only lost Chris Wilcox, one of their surprisingly solid players last year, to the Celtics, they lost a guy with a ridiculously interesting upbringing. I’d rather be reading about Wilcox’s childhood than analyzing whether this might be the Pistons’ worst-ever season.

Wilcox signed a one-year deal for what appears to be vets minimum #celtics

Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded Wilcox back with Detroit on a deal like that, but losing him is certainly nothing to fret about either. I’m sure Wilcox will provide some nice finishes to Rajon Rondo lobs, but I’m not sure he’ll fit in so well defensively with the Celtics. But the Celtics didn’t do too bad in their other reported signing late Friday, getting David West according to David Aldridge.

If we’re talking strictly intangible qualities, Powe is the guy. Powe is an undersized warrior who was a second round pick. He made himself into a reliable rotation player on a veteran Boston team. Wilcox, meanwhile, is an underachieving former lottery pick who possesses all of the physical tools that Powe doesn’t and seemingly little of the drive to use them.

But unfortunately, Powe hasn’t been the same player since a serious knee injury. His total rebound percentage prior to his injury was more than 17 percent and after the injury it has been around 11 percent.

Wilcox, on the other hand, is still relatively young and injury free. Last year, he actually had a pretty solid second half of the season for the Pistons, developing decent chemistry with Greg Monroe. Wilcox isn’t a long-term building block for any team, but right now, he’s a better asset than Powe.

-Patrick Hayes

Leon Powe

Chris Wilcox missed the Pistons’ infamous shootaround in Philadelphia and claimed he overslept. Apparently, it was believable because he always oversleeps.

Sorry. For his production, he’s not worth the hassle. I’d much rather have the hard-working Leon Powe as a fourth big man than a snoozing Wilcox.

When you consider Wilcox will likely regress from last season, I’m OK with the fact that he out-produced Powe last year. In 2012, that will be a coin flip. But I know whose work ethic I’d bank on.

-Dan Feldman

Vote in our poll

Previously

• Greg Monroe vs. DeMarcus Cousins
• Rodney Stuckey vs. Arron Afflalo
• Ben Wallace vs. Antonio McDyess

Wilcox is a tricky acquisition. Last year was the best season of his career (7.4/4.8 in 17.5 mpg and an 18 PER), but it came at the age of 28 which makes him eligible for John Hollinger’s fluke rule. The fluke rule basically says any player 28 or older whose PER jumps by more than three points in a season and is above 14 will regress next season by the same amount.

He has great hands for catching the ball of cuts, scoring 1.23 PPP in those play types. As a roll man, he scores a decent 0.96 PPP. He’d be a decent running buddy for a game manager like Jennings.

As for his defense, Wilcox is below average to terrible. He allows an awful 1.07 PPP in post-ups and 1 PPP defending PNRs.

Hollinger’s fluke rule is particularly apt for Wilcox, because playing in a contract year could explain his boost in production. Bucks, beware.

I believe Maxiell’s ranking is mainly a product of people remembering his highlight reel plays and energy he became known for a few years ago and not realizing that statistically, his production has fallen off a cliff over the last two seasons. James Herbert at Hardwood Paroxysm recently discussed the Maxiell phenomenon:

Go to YouTube and type in his name. You’ll love him.

K, now go to Basketball-Reference. Same thing. Yeah, see that 2010-2011 season? Do you still love Jason Maxiell? He’s the worst.

You can and should still love Maxiell’s dunks and blocks, but let’s be realistic about his prospects as a rotation player. Aside from highlights plays, screen-setting, and baby-eating, you’re not getting anything from him. He could never shoot, pass, or dribble. He’s regressed in a big way on the boards. Last year was the third straight season that his production has dropped and this time he found himself out of the rotation for long stretches. It’s sad when the undersized overachiever stops overachieving.

Maxiell earned his spot in a NBA rotation because, despite being undersized, he had amazing athleticism which allowed him to rebound well, block some shots and finish strong around the basket. But guys whose games are predicated on athleticism don’t always have a long shelf life. Maxiell got a little older. He got a little heavier (hey, it happens to the best of us as we age). And his other basketball skills, as Herbert pointed out, just didn’t develop enough for him to add new wrinkles to his game as he aged.

Like many Pistons who have big contracts and who have underperformed, I still maintain hope that Maxiell can get back to his old form. But unfortunately, based on his last two seasons, he’s ranked much too high in the ESPN rankings.

Other Pistons unveiled in the rankings are: Brandon Knight (267), Chris Wilcox (330), Kyle Singler (446), Terrico White (472) and Vernon Macklin (498).

If you’re on Twitter, feel free to follow along. The @NBAonESPN account is unveiling the names and picking the best comments that use the #NBARank hashtag for retweets and also featuring some on ESPN.com.

With the eighth pick, the Pistons had their choice and, obviously, went with Knight. But, as the numerous media personalities who voted in ESPN’s project ranking the top 500 NBA players (including this year’s incoming rookies) show, there’s still not a consensus on who the better player is. Walker and Knight finished with the exact same score in the voting, putting them tied for 267th in the rankings.

Now, as I’ve said in previous posts, it’s hard to gauge incoming rookies since they have no NBA body of work to date, which is why many are starting off low in the rankings. I think it’s a good bet that both Knight and Walker, by the end of the season, would finish much higher in the rankings. As it stands, Knight is the fifth Piston unveiled. The others are Chris Wilcox (330), Kyle Singler (446), Terrico White (472) and Vernon Macklin (498).

And, if you’re on Twitter, feel free to follow along. The @NBAonESPN account is unveiling the names and picking the best comments that use the #NBARank hashtag for retweets and also featuring some on ESPN.com.

Each post will be divided into two sections: Player assists to and Assists from player. Player assists to shows who the featured player assisted. Assists from player shows who assisted the featured player.

Each section will display two pie graphs and corresponding tables. One graph and table will show totals, and the other set will show per 36 minutes.

All the graphs and tables are color-coded with a specific color assigned to each player throughout the series. Point guards are blue. Shooting guards are orange. Small forwards are green. Power forwards are red. Centers are yellow.

Player assists to

Total

Per 36 minutes with each player

What we learned

Adjusted for time playing with each teammate, Greg Monroe assisted Chris Wilcox most often. Chris Wilcox! Yes, the same Wilcox who plays power forward and doesn’t really create his own shot often.

That’s Monroe’s Princeton-style roots on display. He often found Wilcox on cuts, and I hope that Pistons take advantage of Monroe’s ability to make that pass more often next year – whether it’s to Wilcox or someone else.

Assists to Player

Total

Per 36 minutes with each player

What we learned

To nobody’s surprise, Tracy McGrady assisted Monroe most often. Monroe didn’t become involved in the Pistons’ designed scoring until he became a pick-and-roll partner for McGrady midway through the season. Once he did, that became a staple both players.

But I was a bit surprised to see Rodney Stuckey also assisted Monroe fairly often, too.

By the way, don’t be fooled by that high percentage of unassisted baskets by Monroe. Most of those came on putbacks. He was still heavily reliant on teammates to set him up.

Previous

• Richard Hamilton
• DaJuan Summers
• Jason Maxiell
• Charlie Villanueva
• Will Bynum
• Chris Wilcox
• Ben Wallace
• Austin Daye

Chris Wilcox was just unveiled at No. 330. For a refresher on how the rankings were devised, a bunch of ESPN personalities and writers and TrueHoop Network writers voted on every player in the league, rating them on a 1-10 scale. The average score of each player was then taken to determine the order.

So far, the only Pistons to rank lower than Wilcox are Kyle Singler at No. 446 and Vernon Macklin at No. 498. Obviously, Wilcox should be higher on the list when compared to some teammates he was clearly better than last season (looking at you, Jason Maxiell). But Wilcox’s ranking is probably to a large degree a result of his overall body of work in a career where he’s underachieved significantly.

To participate as the rankings are unveiled, follow the #NBARank hashtag on Twitter. And if you come up with good one-liners about each player, ESPN has been retweeting and posting the best tweets on ESPN.com.