Pistons may surprise

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

The Detroit Pistons are the Joe Dumars Pistons and Joe Dumars has kept the Pistons at the top of the heap for a long time, until last year and the Allan Iverson cap clearing deal led to an eighth place finish and quick sweep by Cleveland in the playoffs.

Next year will be different, because Joe Dumars wanted it to be different. He already had traded Chauncey Billups for Allan Iverson, and then he released Iverson. Rasheed Wallace signed with Boston and had very little left in the tank. Antonio McDyess signed with San Antonio to clear more cap money for youth. In a final blow, Coach Curry was let go to convince free agents to sign with Detroit.

Rodney Stuckey will have a new cast for support

Joe struck quick with the long shooting Ben Gordon and multi talented Charlie Villanueva. Rodney Stuckey, the future star at point guard was already there.

If this was everything, Piston fans would have been hopeful, but disappointed. More is expected of Joe Dumars and more there was. The draft came and the Pistons were rewarded richly.

With their three selections the Pistons invested in Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, and Jonas Jerebko. At the time it was thought of as a solid draft for the Pistons, but after summer league it was evident that it was even better than that.

Daye was a curious pick for the Pistons because he’s so undeveloped physically and really struggled during pre draft workouts. Everyone realized what the Pistons saw in him though after he averaged 17 points and eight rebounds in Las Vegas. Daye was by far one of the best players at the camp and what’s most intriguing is the fact that he’s so far away from maximizing his potential. Come three years from now it would be no surprise if Daye is one of the top ten players from the class, but he’s probably only going to help in spurts during his rookie year.

Summers on the other hand looked ready to contribute now and his coaches said as much. He’s got a lot more strength than Daye does at this point and just as much versatility. Rather than settling for the long ball like he did at Georgetown Summers was aggressive, always looking to attack. When it was all said and done in Vegas he was thought to be the biggest surprise and an absolute steal for the Pistons.
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Watch out, the Pistons are on the rise and may surprise!

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.