Modeled after ESPN’s 5-on-5, Patrick and I will answer three questions about a Pistons-related topic.

For each 3-on-3, we’ll be joined by a guest contributor. Today, that’s Matt Moore of CBSSports.com. Hardwood Paroxysm and NBC Sports’ ProBasketballTalk.com.

1. Who was Joe Dumars’ best draft pick?

Dan Feldman: Tayshaun Prince. Picking Prince 23rd in any draft would have been a steal, but 23rd in the 2002 draft is special. None of the 12 players picked before him ever amounted to much in the NBA. To find a near All-Star in that barren wasteland is special.

Patrick Hayes: Mehmet Okur. Since 1990, Okur is one of just 17 players who weren’t first round picks to make an All-Star team. Dumars’ strength in drafts has been finding talent late, and although Okur had his best years after leaving Detroit as a free agent, finding an All-Star big man in the second round is probably the best value pick Dumars has made.

Matt Moore: Tayshaun Prince. Greg Monroe is my first answer, because I hate obvious answers. But come on. Prince will have his jersey in the rafters. Total production, championship ring, highlight reel play (The Block).

2. Who was Joe Dumars’ worst draft pick?

Dan Feldman: Darko. I’m convinced nearly every other would have drafted Darko with the No. 2 pick in 2003, but that doesn’t completely absolve Dumars. The next three picks – Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade – became stars, and even the No. 6 pick, Chris Kaman, made an All-Star game. Dumars could have picked a name out of a hat and done better.

Patrick Hayes: The entire 2009 draft. Taking Austin Daye at No. 15 over Ty Lawson, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Jeff Teague and Eric Maynor will always be the high-profile miss from this draft, but taking DaJuan Summers in the second round at No. 35 when DeJuan Blair was still on the board was worse. Add giving away a pretty solid player in Chase Budinger to Houston, and not even finding Jonas Jerebko at No. 39 can salvage this mess of a draft.

Matt Moore: /desperately searches for a way around the Darko pick. /still searching. /seriously, gotta find one. /it’s here somewhere, I know it. / Nope. Darko.

3. How do you rate Joe Dumars’ total draft record?

Dan Feldman: Excellent. Darko, Rodney White and Mateen Cleaves were high-profile busts, but even with them included, Dumars has done a quality job. He’s been hurt in the draft by the Pistons’ extended run of success – even good picks in the 20s probably aren’t game changers – but with more high picks coming, I’m convinced the draft will be a reliable source of talent for the rebuilding Pistons.

Patrick Hayes: More good than bad. He’s missed on a couple of high profile picks, but he’s consistently found legitimate rotation players all over the draft – Okur, Brian Cardinal, Tayshaun Prince, Amir Johnson, Arron Afflalo, Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, Jerebko, Carlos Delfino and Greg Monroe give him enough quality over the years to make a case that he knows how to identify talent in the draft. Whether he knows how to develop it is another discussion.

Matt Moore: Really well, actually. Darko busted but still starts in this league all these years later. Jerebko, steal. Afflalo, steal. Knight, quality. Monroe, future All-Star. Delfino, capable player. Dumars can draft. He just never puts himself in a position to draft multiple picks to reform the team.

What do you think? Share your answers in the comments.

He chose Darko, so he’s terrible! He found Tayshaun Prince in a weak draft, so he’s great!

That sort of analysis is unhelpful. Dumars has made some great draft picks. He’s also made some terrible picks. That’s true of anyone whose been a general manager as long as he has.

To truly gauge Dumars’ drafting ability, we should look at the entire body of work. Thankfully, Justin Kubatko of Basketball-Reference.com developed a system to do just that.

Kubatko created a chart of win shares a player should earn during his first four seasons, based on draft position. Using just the first four years – the length of rookie scale contracts – most fairly links a draftees’ play with the executive who picked him, rather than skewing the numbers with the player’s production long after he’s drafted.

The drawback to this method is just the draft classes that have spent four years in the NBA can be assessed. That means Austin Daye (likely a bad pick), DaJuan Summers (likely a bad pick), Jonas Jerebko (already earned more win shares than expected), Greg Monroe (certainly a good pick), Terrico White (almost certainly a bad pick), Brandon Knight (tossup), Kyle Singler (tossup) and Vernon Macklin (tossup) can’t be evaluated yet.

I think that’s fair. If we truly want to grade Dumars’ drafting, there’s no point declaring someone like Knight a success or failure at this very moment.

I also think it’s fair to include his 2008 draft picks, even though they’re not four seasons removed from being drafted. Two – Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington – never played in the NBA and likely never will, and the one who did – Walter Sharpe – might be even less likely to join an NBA team in the future.

Here’s Dumars’ draft history, from 2000-08, with each player’s expected and actual win shares through the first four seasons of his career:

A +16.5 in win shares is significant. That’s enough leeway to for all of Dumars’ picks through Monroe to retire today and still have Dumars come out ahead. Put another way, you could add a No. 5 pick who never played a minute in the NBA to the ledger, and Dumars would still have a positive draft record.

Granted, maybe Dumars shouldn’t get too much credit for a couple of his late picks drastically over-performing when he missed (12) more picks than he hit (8).* But most of Dumars’ misses came between picks 51 and 60, a range where the difference between a hit and a player never making a roster is minimal.

*Remember, this is based on historical production by pick, not the common over-hyped perception of draft picks. So the league average of hits is 50 percent (give or take).

In many ways, the draft presents a perfect setup for outside evaluation of a general manager.

We don’t know which trades Dumars has turned down and proposed. We don’t know which free agents would and wouldn’t consider Detroit, and of those who would, how much money they’d want to sign here.

But we know which players Dumars can draft, because the players have little to no choice in the matter.

Sure, win shares aren’t a perfect measure, though I don’t see a player on the above list that they misrepresent. And some drafts are stronger than others, but given how long Dumars has run the Pistons, I think that evens out.

My conclusion isn’t an approval of Dumars’ reign as GM. The Pistons have obviously struggled to develop too many of their draft picks, and that’s certainly an indictment of Dumars. But that point is moot unless he drafts good players.

He’s shown, over the long run, he does that better than most.

Hopefully, the injury doesn’t cause him to miss a lot of time — he’ll probably join a long line of famous masked Pistons like Bill Laimbeer, Antonio McDyess, Rip Hamilton and Charlie Villanueva. In the meantime, though, Knight’s absence allowed another rookie to show what he can do as a team’s primary lead guard.

Walker Russell‘s circumstances are quite different from Knight’s. Knight is a prized, highly hyped lottery pick who will be given ample opportunities to turn himself into a good NBA player. Russell has no such guarantees. He’s playing without a guaranteed contract. If not for a long list of injuries, the Pistons would’ve never signed him even to that non-guaranteed deal. He’ll be 30-years-old later this year. And when the Pistons regulars do return, there’s no guarantee, despite his solid play, that he’ll even hang around on the roster.

Saturday’s audition was big for Russell, and he made the most of it. He showed for an extended stretch what he has shown in the brief flashes of playing time the Pistons have given him: he can run a NBA offense, he always looks to make plays for others, he competes hard on defense and he takes care of the basketball. He scored nine points with four assists, two turnovers and two steals. If the Pistons can’t keep him, he might not be a difference maker, but he will give competent minutes off of most benches in a league that overall doesn’t have an abundance of unselfish, smart point guards.

But Russell’s performance didn’t just do him some favors if he finds himself in need of a new team soon. Subbing the minutes of a shoot-first player in Knight (he’s been getting incrementally better as a passer, but his first inclination his entire life has been to score the ball) for a pass-first (and maybe pass-second) player in Russell allowed the Pistons other shot-loving rotation players the chance to play more freely. Ignoring last night’s performance by Knight for a minute, when he’s been in the lineup, the Pistons offense hasn’t looked good. That’s not all Knight’s fault, but because he’s a shoot-first guy and because Rodney Stuckey and Tayshaun Prince are shoot-first guys, they all kind of struggle for power at times. All three guys possess some ability to create for others and all three possess some ability to create shots for themselves. What is usually missing is an understanding of who is supposed to do what. Sometimes all three are too assertive, sometimes none of them are. What has resulted has been a mess of an offense with no true facilitator and three guys who all seem to want that job, but none of the three showing he can do it full-time. Oh, and complicating things, the one guy who is a natural facilitator, who should have the offense running through him, Greg Monroe, plays center, so he relies on others to get him the ball. As we’ve seen all season, there are many games Monroe doesn’t touch it enough as a result.

Subbing Russell for Knight makes that problem less complex. When Russell’s in the game, he brings the ball up, he starts the offense and Prince and Stuckey didn’t have to worry about figuring out when they were supposed to take turns as playmakers and when they were supposed to simply take the shots that came to them.

Monroe also was heavily involved. He finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds, and he also got 17 shots, the most he’s had in the last four games.

I was looking forward to seeing how Knight followed up that first really good performance of his career. It’s disappointing he didn’t get a chance at it tonight, but the game wasn’t a total waste, either. Hopefully, he’s learning how to have command of an offense and run it efficiently when he gets to watch Russell out there.

Big plays by veterans

Stuckey and Prince didn’t have good games overall, but both helped put the game away late with key plays and big shots.

Prince made a nice pass to Jason Maxiell for a dunk to the the Pistons up five with 2:31 left. Stuckey hit a contested 18-footer off the dribble to put the Pistons up seven with less than two minutes left. Maxiell snuck in for an offensive rebound/dunk to put the Pistons up five with less than a minute to go.

Stuckey had a poor shooting night (5-for-13), but he got more aggressive in the second half and started getting to the free throw line by driving inside more. He was passive in the first half, didn’t get a couple of calls, and settled for jumpers after that. It was good to see him come out more aggressive, particularly late in the third quarter and in the fourth.

Prince also shot poorly, and he and a few others got torched by Trevor Ariza for 17 first half points. Prince did a little better job on him in the second half.

Maxiell had another fantastic game. Last night, I mentioned Maxiell’s previous struggles as a starter. He had a good game as a starter against Milwaukee, but due to injuries, the Bucks were starting their typical backup frontcourt guys. Tonight, Maxiell finished with 10 points, 5 rebounds and a block against a big frontline of Emeka Okafor and Jason Smith. Those guys certainly aren’t All-Stars, but Maxiell has often had problems getting shots off inside against taller players. He was active and delivered another encouraging performance in what has been a nice bounce-back season for him so far.

Jerebko impresses again

After a rough stretch of games where Jonas Jerebko wasn’t his energetic self, his activity has come back nicely over the last three games. He scored 11 points and had five rebounds against the Hornets.

More importantly, though, he’s stayed out of foul trouble the last three games. When Jerebko picks up quick fouls, he becomes much less aggressive. A non-aggressive Jerebko is a non-effective Jerebko. He’s a huge asset with his constant motion and activity when he can stay on the court.

After the inbound pass Prince holds the ball, guarded by the much smaller Keith Bogans, on the right wing. Greg Monroe is in the low-post. Brandon Knight and Jonas Jerebko stand at the left elbow.

Knight comes over to set a pick for Tayshaun Prince. Prince does a very poor job of using the screen, because as you can see, Knight must make a huge step to the right in order to give Prince any opportunity to get away from his defender. Luckily, the referees did not call a moving-screen violation. Unfortunately, the play wouldn’t get better, anyhow.

The Nets switch Deron Williams onto Tayshaun and Bogans stays with Knight. Williams is fast and strong enough to deny penetration by Prince. Meanwhile, Jerebko sets an off-ball screen for Walker Russell while Tayshaun drives left. I believe this was meant to be a hand-off, but Russell somehow simply runs into Jerebko.

Now, there are six players within a couple of feet of each other. Jerebko makes the correct read and fades out to the 3-point line, where he will receive the pass.

Note that the Pistons haven’t used (and will not use) their most effective scorer and one of their better screeners – Monroe – during this possession.

Jerebko has a pretty clear path toward the basket and tries to drive the ball into middle, while Prince hinders Shawne Williams to recover. Knight and Monroe (best shooter, best scorer on the court) are completely out of the picture.

Deron Williams makes another great read and quickly switches onto Jerebko, denying the penetration. Jerebko, who has little experience, gives the ball back to the veteran and let him isolate rather than giving the ball to Monroe, who is covered by Kris Humpries, one of the premier post defenders in NBA history (hint: irony).

Prince posts up Shawne Williams. Williams has several advantages, if not all. He is quicker, and more athletic.

Also, look at the bad spacing of the Pistons. Russell and Jerebko are in no position to score whatsoever. Monroe could take one more step inside to get within his range. Knight sort of hides far away from the basket, but at least he spaces the floor a little bit.

All the Nets are in position to help if Prince gets past his man. Knight should run over to the left wing to take one defender out of the picture, and if his defender decides to double team Prince, Knight could receive a pass and nail a 3-pointer. Jerebko should have stepped into Knight’s spot to create even more space. Another 3-point shooter other than Knight would have certainly helped, but I can’t blame Lawrence Frank for having Russell on the court.

Prince takes the contested fade-away jumper that was to be expected. Do you see Knight? No? Well, he is wide open at the top of the key. All five Nets are in the paint area, and Prince must recognize that. You cannot leave one of your best shooters wide open just so you can take a jumper with a hand in your face –unless you are Kobe Bryant, which Prince is not.

Another possible option would have been passing to Monroe, who has perfect position on Humphries. Granted, this would have been a risky pass, but still possible.

Patrick has written a lot written about Prince’s propensity to shoot, and this is a perfect example. We should let the youngsters try to win games like this. I just don’t see Prince making major contributions much longer, and the Pistons would be better off giving their green players these end-of-game shots.

What they can do is set small, realist goals and accomplish those. In a recent string of blowouts, the Pistons have been sloppy with the ball and turnovers have removed any chance of those games being competitive early. Against the Nets, the Pistons took care of the ball and they hung around the entire game.

The improvement started with the point guards. Brandon Knight broke out of his slump. He was aggressive, penetrating inside, looking for teammates and, most importantly, maintaining that aggression while not getting out of control. As expected, Deron Williams mostly had his way with Knight defensively when they were matched up, but Knight had good moments. He took Williams off the dribble and hit a contested jumper over him early in the fourth quarter, then drew an offensive foul on the other end.

Knight shot the ball poorly from 3-point range, but he played well down the stretch. He made a nice drive inside, drawing the defense, and found Jonas Jerebko for a short jumper to cut the Nets lead to two in the final minute. Then, with the Pistons down three on the final possession, Knight caught the ball and, although he didn’t get the shot off before the buzzer (even though his three almost went down), I like that they went to him and I like that he stormed off the court really mad at himself for missing. Knight had four assists and just one turnover in 43 minutes.

The other element of that point guard production came from Walker Russell. I’ve made no secret of my affection for the guy. He’s maybe the most unselfish passing guard the Pistons have had since Chauncey Billups was around (settle down nuetes … I’m not comparing him to Billups). Until tonight, his passing has been the only real contribution he’s made to the team. Tonight, he finally got his shot to fall as well. Russell scored 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, his best effort as a pro. He also grabbed six rebounds, played pesky defense (he was really annoying Jordan Farmar) and finished with two assists and no turnovers.

As a team, the Pistons turned it over just nine times, tying a season-low. For lottery purposes, it’s for the best that the Pistons didn’t win. But for their young players, who played hard enough and well enough to win tonight, it would be nice if the Pistons could occasionally pull out a game like this to reward that work. For now, the team should be thrilled that they at least temporarily fixed the turnover issue.

Tayshaun Prince plays better

Let’s get the negative out of the way: Prince is still not doing a good job of making entry passes into the post. Not sure if the issue is him not setting up a good enough angle to get it in or Greg Monroe not establishing good enough position. Regardless, there’s an issue there between those two that needs to be fixed still. Also, I was no fan of Prince’s shot with the team down two. After Knight and Russell created shots through penetration all game and Monroe once again proved to be unguardable inside, the best the Pistons did on that possession was an iso for Prince in which he settled for a contested, fadeaway mid-range jumper. And on the defensive end, down two, Prince and Monroe both let Kris Humphries walk right between them and grab an offensive rebound with :20 seconds left. Now, it wasn’t that big a deal since Monroe tied Humphries up and the Pistons won the jump ball, but it was still a horrid breakdown at that point in the game.

But there were far more positives from Prince this game. He gradually became more willing to move the ball. He made much quicker decisions, which was key. Prince is his most effective when he catches the ball and quickly decides whether to shoot or pass. Too often, he holds. Sometimes, he’s able to slowly work himself into a decent shot. More often than not, though, he over-dribbles, the rest of the team stops moving and he either settles for a contested shot or passes to a teammate for an awkward shot as the shot clock is running down. Tonight, he wasn’t as methodical, and that made him infinitely easier to watch. He took 15 shots, but they were mostly good ones, and he made nine of them. He also had six rebounds and his four assists tied a season high.

The Pistons need to continually work on making Prince a part of the offense while also ensuring that he doesn’t assert himself as the only option.

No answer for Monroe

Monroe got more touches tonight. He finished with 21 points on 11 shots and New Jersey really had nothing for him inside.

Turnovers, though, were once again an issue. Monroe turned it over four times tonight after turning it over six times last night. He also didn’t do a good job boxing out on the defensive glass. There was the aforementioned whiff by Monroe and Prince on the Humphries offensive board. Shelden Williams grabbed six offensive rebounds in the first half and seven for the game. Monroe is a solid rebounder. He has the skill to be one of the game’s best. He still loses focus on the defensive glass too often.

There were no shortage of moments that would disgust the most even-tempered of coaches in Tuesday’s loss to the Knicks. Landry Fields made his first six shots. Carmelo Anthony, famous for never passing to anyone ever, had five assists by halftime. Amar’e Stoudemire plays no defense, yet the Pistons rarely attacked him, either with penetrating guards challenging him or by looking for post players to establish position. But above all, the unforced turnovers are the most unwatchable problem the Pistons have right now.

Turnovers have plagued Brandon Knight this season, but that’s to be expected as a young rookie point guard forced into huge minutes because of all of the Pistons’ backcourt injuries. The trend, though, is spreading. Greg Monroe had six turnovers by the start of the fourth quarter. The team as a whole turned it over 20 times and did so in a variety of ways.

Some of them were the brainless type. Monroe made a weak outlet pass without bothering to notice that a Knick was standing right in between him and his target. Austin Daye, with no defensive pressure, simply dribbled the ball off his foot as he tried to advance it up court.

Some of them were bad calls. Monroe is getting no respect from officials. Tyson Chandler played him physically, reached in frequently and on more than one occasion stripped the ball away from him while having a chunk of arm or jersey as well.

Some were the Rodney Stuckey variety — aimlessly driving into traffic, drawing easy charge calls or throwing the ball away after getting caught in the air with nowhere to go.

As a result, the game was obviously another difficult one to watch. There are few positives to point out with the Pistons, which is why I admire Fox Sports Detroit not really trying anymore. Ryan Field was sharing LeBron James’ reaction tweets about Blake Griffin’s dunk on Kendrick Perkins and FSD was running stories about the Madison Square Garden renovations. Really, what else are they supposed to talk about? The Pistons have now lost 10 of 11 games, including six straight. Four of those six have been by 20 points or more. Knight’s play has fallen off drastically. After a semi-positive three-game stretch that looked like Tayshaun Prince was coming out of his shooting slump, he’s regressed back to his mean this season.

The Pistons aren’t going to stumble onto many positives that result in wins this season. Instead, they should be focused on smaller goals. Reducing the turnovers will keep games more competitive. Getting Monroe more touches will make the offense run more smoothly. Those should be the team’s two immediate priorities.

Greg Monroe needs to shoot way more

At the risk of being a broken record … you know what? … scratch that. I will continue to scream about this point as long as it is an obvious and obnoxious trend. Tayshaun Prince shoots way too much. Greg Monroe shoots nowhere near enough.

Monroe is one of the most efficient scorers in the league this season. Prince is a terribly inefficient scorer. It’s ridiculous that after tonight’s game, both guys are attempting 12.3 shots per game. Prince is shooting 41 percent this season. He never draws fouls and he doesn’t create shots for teammates. He is way too involved in the offense.

Although Monroe doesn’t draw a lot of fouls yet, he does get contact on many plays. He’s still a young, unproven player, and he’ll eventually get those calls. On top of that, he shoots a high percentage, he puts pressure on a defense and he sets up good shots for teammates.

Prince was signed to be a veteran leader. I’m worried that Prince’s interpretation of that might make him think that means he’s a go-to player. If Monroe is going to keep developing, Prince needs to take a backseat in the offense and be the complimentary player his skillset suggests he should be.

Walker Russell is the team’s best passing guard

There’s strong evidence that Walker Russell is only a temporary Piston who will probably play elsewhere when the team’s other guards get healthy. The great thing for Russell is he’s created a market for himself by showing in Detroit that he’s a smart, capable bench player who probably should’ve been in the NBA sooner. The unfortunate part for the Pistons is that if he does indeed go elsewhere, they’ll be back to a collection of guards who aren’t particularly good at setting up others.

Prince doesn’t deserve the entirety of the blame for the offense running poorly — he’s just taking too many shots and stopping the ball. Knight and Stuckey are also bogging down the offense. Knight’s turnovers are a problem and Stuckey is still too often over-dribbling and not creating good passing angles to get the ball into the post. Neither player creates easy shots for teammates. When Russell is in the game, he’s able to change the tempo, he has good court vision and awareness and he routinely gets players open jumpers or layups. Russell isn’t a long-term piece given his age and non-guaranteed contract, but the Pistons’ offense will get worse if he’s not on the roster.

Jerebko gets it going

Hopefully, after playing only 15 minutes tonight, Jonas Jerebko is primed for a big contribution tomorrow. Jerebko, who has struggled with his shot of late, hit all four attempts tonight and grabbed four rebounds. He also got a little feisty with Renaldo Balkman late in the game.

It might be time to start Jerebko again. The Pistons are getting jumped on at the beginning of games. Maybe Jerebko’s energy to start the game could prevent them from starting in such big holes.

This passage, in particular, caught my attention:

In most systems, on most teams, the big minutes in the big games go to those who have already earned them. In San Antonio, Popovich knows those minutes can do a lot to inspire young players to develop. He has long been handing them out to players who would struggle to make a lot of NBA rosters. And he has way more than his fair share of those players evolve into meaningful contributors. Is it just that his front office knows how to find diamonds in the rough? Or maybe Popovich has mastered the art of polishing.

Is Danny Green the kind of guy who nails a buzzer-beater to win a huge game on the road over the defending champs? Most people, maybe even including Green, would have said “no” a day ago. But now he hit just exactly that shot — but for a tenth of a second and video review, the Spurs would have won at the end of regulation. This effect echoes across the lineup. James Anderson drove hard to the left of the lane, looking for all the world like an out-of-control guy not far removed from the D-League. But after drawing a defender, he made a beautiful dish to Splitter. And on and on. The five Spurs who played can all file away memories that prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they can hang.

In the Pistons book I wrote during the lockout (which * ahem * can be purchased in electronic or dead tree form here), I wrote about one of my favorite random memories of the era when the Pistons were yearly title contenders:

I used to sit and gaze in amazement at Amir Johnson’s 2005-2006 NBA D-League stats — 18 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, 1 steal per game on 62 percent shooting. He was long, fast and athletic. He was young, getting drafted straight out of high school in 2005. Surely, the Pistons would find a use for this kid. Obviously, they never did and Johnson went on to become a solid rotation player elsewhere. But the best moment for Pistons fans obsessed with the team’s youth came in a blowout loss to Milwaukee on April 17, 2006.

The Pistons were resting veterans, preparing for the playoffs late in the season. Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace sat out the game. Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace and Antonio McDyess all played less than 20 minutes each. When the Bucks built a huge lead in the third quarter, it was time for the kids to play.

Bolstered by the young trio of Johnson, Jason Maxiell and Carlos Delfino, the Pistons scored 35 points in the fourth quarter. Johnson made all six shots he attempted, even hitting two 3-pointers, to score 18 points. Maxiell was a wrecking ball, crashing the boards and putting down some ferocious dunks to finish with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Delfino ran, he handled the ball, he defended and he slashed to the basket, filling the stat sheet with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals.

I loved that game. Loved it. Watching those guys get on the court and get an opportunity at extended minutes after rotting on the bench most of the season was really rewarding. Looking back, it was also really depressing, as we all know, because with the exception of Maxiell, Johnson and Delfino didn’t become rotation contributors until Detroit gave them away in trades.

I’ve constantly harped on the player development issue with the Pistons. Detroit has done a great job finding talent in drafts. Teams simply don’t often find players late in the first round or in the second round of drafts that turn into rotation players or better. The Pistons have a long, consistent history of finding value late — Brian Cardinal, Prince, Mehmet Okur, Delfino, Maxiell, Johnson, Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo and Jonas Jerebko have all had solid or better NBA careers and none were lottery picks. Only a few teams can claim that kind of record at finding useful players late over the same time period. It’s impressive. What is unbelievably frustrating is, as we all know, five of those eight players have had their best years in other organizations. It’s maddening. It’s a question that, to my knowledge, Joe Dumars has never been competently asked about. The variations of the question I’ve heard asked — either some form of “How could you let Arron Afflalo go for nothing?!” or “OMG! How could you take Darko over Chris Bosh/’Melo/Wade?!” — don’t get at what the real question is. The question worth asking at this point has nothing to do with the individual players. The players are gone and they aren’t coming back. The question is how has Detroit been so savvy and consistently good at finding value in portions of the draft where most teams struggle to find it and so bad at turning that talent into contributors?

The answer, at least partially, is in that Spurs piece linked above: coaching. Particularly, Flip Saunders. Saunders isn’t a bad coach. In the right situation (read: a veteran, talented, self-motivated team; or, the opposite of Washington), in fact, he’s a pretty solid coach. He won in Detroit. The team’s offense became a fluid machine (at least during the regular season). The defense didn’t fall off much (at least during the regular season). But he failed the team’s young players.

Reading Abbott’s piece on Popovich, I was struck by not only the fact that Popovich, on the surface the last guy you’d expect to be patient with youth, plays his young players. It’s that he plays them with the expectation that they will play at a level nearly as high as his regulars. I’m sure Popovich berates those guys, is hard on them and does all the things that you’d expect a cranky old perfectionist coach like Popovich would do to players behind the scenes. I’m sure that if they get into games and prove to be mistake-prone, he’ll bench them, and if they do it a lot, he’ll probably bury them too. But he also understands something that Saunders and, to a lesser extent, Michael Curry never did. Namely, that although it’s important that young players execute, play defense and play mistake-free basketball, it’s just as important that they know you believe in them.

Did anyone ever get the impression that the coaching staff believed in Darko Milicic, for example? There were rumors that the coaching staff was openly hostile to the thought of playing Johnson, disagreeing with the front office’s belief that he could become a capable player. Saunders was never sure Delfino was a better option than Maurice Evans. Basically, with the exception of Stuckey late in the Saunders era (and Maxiell a little bit), no young player got enough playing time to do enough things right to build any kind of confidence. Instead, they fought for scraps, the got occasional minutes in games that meant little to the team and were just being used to rest starters for the playoffs. Compare that to Popovich, playing all bench players in the fourth quarter and overtime against the defending champion (and in-state and division rival) Mavericks. The Spurs and Mavs are only a game apart in the standings. San Antonio at 12-9 actually wouldn’t even have a playoff spot if they started right now. And Popovich sent a lineup of largely untested guys out to close that game? Imagine the impact that would have on your bench guys vs. only playing them extended minutes when a game is out of reach or when your playoff position is already secure.

Most frustrating in all of this is the Pistons actually had a roster set up similarly to the Spurs. Popovich can experiment with his bench like that because he has stars, particularly Tim Duncan, who are not stats-obsessed and who care about winning and going deep into the playoffs. The Pistons had those things, even if they didn’t have an individual player as good as Duncan. I firmly believe that Saunders could’ve gone to his bench much more often. I firmly believe the veteran players would’ve understood it was in their best interest to rest more. I firmly believe that Delfino, Afflalo, Maxiell and Johnson would’ve played well had they been given more minutes. This probably would’ve cost the Pistons some regular season wins, maybe they would’ve been a slightly lower seed in the playoffs, but it also might have gained them some wins in stalled playoff runs.

Saunders’ experience before and after Detroit actually showed he was ill-equipped to handle youth. His most successful Minnesota team came when they added veteran All-Star level players in Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell. When the team went with younger (albeit worse) players around Kevin Garnett, Saunders didn’t last long. It’s also impossible to categorize his tenure with a very young Washington team as anything but a mismatched failure. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that he wasn’t comfortable with Detroit’s youth.

During Monday’s game against Milwaukee, a clip aired of Dumars talking about the need to rebuild the talent base and the fact that that doesn’t happen overnight. I hope he also realizes that another run as a contender will involve more than simply finding the talent.

Unfortunately, less efficient scorers Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye took more shots than him and, not surprisingly, didn’t hit many of them. They combined to shoot just 13-for-42. It’s even more frustrating when you consider three of Monroe’s 12 attempts were missed tip-ins that came on a single possession.

The other night, I went into detail about how the Pistons just simply played dumb basketball. They did it again, so there’s no point in expounding in great detail once again. Bad teams often don’t play smart, and the Pistons don’t. What has been confounding is that Prince, in particular, and Stuckey to some extent, have been around long enough to recognize when a post guy has a definite advantage and get him the ball a lot. The Pistons have technical issues too — the perimeter guys as a whole do a really terrible job of creating good enough spacing to make entry passes, so as a result, they often throw the ball around a lot, can’t get it to Monroe in a good spot, then settle for a long jumper when the shot clock is running down.

The Pistons don’t have many easily correctable problems, but this seemingly should’ve been one. In the first quarter at one point, Monroe had just three shots while Stuckey/Prince had combined to take 12. There’s no possible way that the Pistons could’ve gone into this game without talking about getting Monroe the ball a lot. It’s disappointing that they didn’t do it much early and it’s disappointing that they didn’t really make the necessary adjustments to get him more shots. It’s on the coaching staff and it’s on the guys on the floor for not recognizing an obvious mismatch the entire game.

Plenty more bad games are ahead for the Pistons this season, but watching the failure of veteran players in particular to recognize mismatches has been probably the most frustrating part of the season for me.

Knight and Daye struggle in reversed ways

Against Philadelphia, Brandon Knight played poorly, but he stayed aggressive. He still looked for his shot (even if he missed 13-of-17) and he came up with a steal and a couple of deflections on defense. Lawrence Frank lived with the struggles and Knight still played 37 minutes.

Against Milwaukee, he played poorly and wasn’t aggressive. He only shot the ball four times (making zero), he turned it over four times and he failed to be an impediment at all to Brandon Jennings, who was in the lane most of the night. Consequently, Knight was benched.

Most of the season, Austin Daye struggled with his shot, became passive on the court and passed up good looks that were in his range. As a result, Frank benched him and removed him from the rotation for several games.

Against Milwaukee, Daye’s shot wasn’t falling, but he kept aggressively looking for it. He played 37 minutes.

Although I think Frank has been to patient with mistake-prone veterans, I think he’s clearly been consistent with how he handles young players, and this is a perfect illustration of it. Much of the season, Knight has been allowed to play through ups and downs because he plays hard, with energy and aggressively. Daye has not because he’s often been passive and lacked energy. Tonight the roles reversed, and Daye was allowed to play through his shooting struggles because of his activity while Knight wasn’t because of his passivity.

Agree or disagree with how Frank is handling their minutes, at least he’s being consistent in his reasoning.

What to make of Jerebko?

I agreed with Frank’s thinking when he decided to bring Jonas Jerebko off the bench to save him from early fouls. The problem is Jerebko’s offense is clearly hurt by not playing as much with Monroe. Jerebko is great at moving without the ball and Monroe is great at finding cutters. Jerebko isn’t a great perimeter shooter, but the attention Monroe draws gets Jerebko cleaner looks from outside. As a reserve, Jerebko’s shooting has fallen from 47 to 43 percent. His 3-point shooting has fallen from 36 to 26 percent.

I don’t think it’s terribly vital to start Jerebko, his future in the league might be as a high energy combo forward off the bench anyway. But the chemistry he and Monroe were developing might be more important than Jerebko picking up the occasional cheap foul.

Monroe picked up a technical foul, one that I didn’t have a problem with, considering the pounding he was taking under the basket. Monroe is too good offensively and too active to not get more calls than he was. And Monroe was angry. He promptly went down on defense and stole the ball from Brand. My immediate thought was the Pistons would invoke the Rasheed Wallace rule and immediately go to Monroe in the post after picking up that technical and displaying so much anger.

Now, because Wallace was some kind of folk hero, the meme was always that he magically played so much better and more aggressive after picking up a tech. I don’t know if that was more legend than reality, but I love the idea of going immediately to any post player who picks up a tech after getting mauled inside. I don’t think Monroe would’ve magically started finishing better around the basket, but I do think there was a chance he would’ve got a call on at least one of those final two possessions of the half. If Monroe caught it, made an aggressive move and drew contact, I would bet he would’ve got that call at that point even if he hadn’t been earlier in the game. That’s just how referees are sometimes. They don’t like it when you berate them, but if it comes to that, they generally start paying a little more attention as long as you aren’t constantly trying to show them up, and Monroe doesn’t qualify as that type of guy.

Instead, the team went two straight possessions without Monroe so much as touching it, let alone catching it in a position to do anything with the ball. The player I expected to recognize that situation was Tayshaun Prince. He didn’t. Rodney Stuckey didn’t either.

In fact, both veteran players had several what you would call “youthful mistakes” in the game.

Stuckey spent much of the game matched up with Jodie Meeks. Meeks does one thing on offense: shoots threes. I lost count of how often Stuckey completely lost track of where Meeks was on defense. It was four times in the first half and one time early in the third quarter before I gave up on it. Meeks converted on 3 of 5 threes and passed up several more good looks. He was seriously open all night.

Prince’s performance was more troubling. His numbers weren’t good, but that’s somewhat forgivable since it was his first game back after a couple off and Andre Iguodala is a great defensive player.

The Pistons had two of their best performances of the season with Prince out of the lineup. The team’s official twitter feed was spouting off about Prince’s “veteran cool-headedness” being a missing ingredient in those games. He returned, the offense stagnated and they had one of their worst performances of the season in Friday’s loss. Making things worse, George Blaha said in the intro before the game that the Pistons had missed Prince because he was playing the best of anyone on the team before he had to miss two games. I get that the announcers have to put a positive spin on things, but that’s just blatantly false. In three games before Prince missed the last two, he shot 3-for-9, 6-for-14 and 5-for-13. Yes, he had that nice three-game stretch before that, but those games so far are an anomaly in what is turning into a very poor season for him shooting the ball.

Against Philly, he shot below 40 percent again, and many of his looks were clean ones. Against Philly, Stuckey played really lazy defense.

My issue is those two factors — missing badly on open shots and playing lazy defense — are things that got Austin Daye removed from the rotation. How Lawrence Frank responds when veteran players are guilty of the same things that young players do wrong will be interesting.

I don’t discount Joe Dumars’ reasons for re-signing Prince. I disagree with the price and length of the contract, but in general, I do agree that it’s a bad idea to throw a team full of young players together with no veteran presence in the locker room (see: Washington for examples of what could happen minus vets). I also have a lot of respect for Prince’s intelligence and knowledge of the game. I do, however, still have serious questions about how he fits in on this team. He’s happiest when he’s playing a lot. So far this season, he hasn’t played well. He’s also had injury issues, but because he likes to play a lot, he hasn’t missed much time or played fewer minutes as a result. Daye had his third straight decent game against Philly. What happens if Daye’s play demands that he gets more minutes and those minutes come at the expense of Prince? What happens if the Pistons continue to play their best when Prince is the least involved in their offense? Will Prince still be OK with his role, still be happy and engaged, if his minutes and role diminish?

Daye was the first reserve off the bench tonight and Damien Wilkins didn’t play until the game was far out of hand, so it looks like Daye has already earned back his rotation spot. Based on how poorly Prince has played overall this season, and how well Daye is now shooting it, if it keeps up, it won’t be long until Daye proves to be the better option over Prince at least offensively as well. I hope it happens simply because the Pistons have more to gain by Daye’s improvement than Prince getting 30+ minutes per game.

How Frank and Prince handle it will be very interesting.

Knight struggles with physical play

In two games this season against Philadelphia, Brandon Knight has shot 9-for-32 and has seven assists and six turnovers. It’s no secret how Philly defends him — they beat him up. Jrue Holiday and Lou Williams attack him on the perimeter, knowing that if Knight gets in the lane, they have shot blockers who can bother him. On those occasions when Knight did get inside, he ended up on the ground pretty frequently. Knight has exceeded expectations this season so far, but how he plays against more physical players is probably something he’s not going to be able to fix until he can get stronger in the offseason.

The Jason Maxiell is still alive tour continues

The Pistons have no shortage of highly paid players who have failed to meet expectations over the last few seasons. But while Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva have had their share of defenders with theories as to how it was the offense/minutes/situations they were being used in that was hurting their games, Jason Maxiell had no such luxury.

An undersized, athletic hustle player who has never relied on plays being run for him, Maxiell has been a useful rotation player in the past as a result of his ability to out-run and out-jump people. Then he got a bit heavier, and he wasn’t so fast and he wasn’t jumping so high anymore. Predictably, his production dove over the last three seasons, and he looked like the player on the roster with the least hope of ever rebounding from that downward trend. Instead, he’s quietly putting together a really nice season. He shot 4-for-7 against Philly and grabbed seven rebounds. He’s played himself into shape after a poor start to the season and although he still does have the ability to make the athletic play, his jump shot from 10-feet and in has really improved as a weapon for him. If he keeps this up, there isn’t a contending team in the NBA who wouldn’t love to have a player like him on its roster.

It would be nice to see Vernon Macklin earlier than garbage time

Vernon Macklin isn’t exactly a “prospect” considering his draft position, age for a rookie and limited skillset. But in the few garbage time minutes he’s received this season, he’s hustled, ran the floor and has a pulse. With Maxiell playing well and Jonas Jerebko in need of minutes, it’s hard to justify getting Macklin into a game when it’s not out of reach at the moment, but the Pistons have a tough stretch coming up over the next few weeks, including their first back-to-back-to-back of the season, so perhaps Macklin can spell Ben Wallace for a few minutes coming up?

When Doug Collins coached the Pistons in the 1990s, he used to start Don Reid, who was terrible, at center. But Reid played hard, gave the Pistons a few minutes early, and then was never seen again most games. With Wallace surely in need of a night off at some point over this stretch, maybe Frank can employ a similar strategy with Macklin, just to see whether he’s completely over-matched by starting caliber players or whether he shows any kind of ability. The odds against Macklin becoming a legit NBA player are slim, but the Pistons don’t have anything to lose by figuring out if he can beat those odds.

Just because not everything is so negative …

This was pretty funny, via Vincent Goodwill:

The kiss-cam: Stuckey sees him and Monroe on it, playfully kisses Greg on the head…

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.