Las Vegas -- Saying your franchise is in transition isn't code for not being able to compete.
The Pistons absolutely intend on competing next season. Are they as good as the Celtics, Cavaliers or the Magic right now? Probably not. Are they better than last season? Oh, yes. Are they a certain playoff team? Yep.
So if your bottom line is being a solid playoff team in the first real year of transition, well, that's not so bad.
Saying you are not going to overextend yourself financially on a coach is not code for hiring an incompetent coach.
John Kuester might not have been president Joe Dumars' first or second choice, but given the way the roster has shaken out, plus the sudden drop in average age, he might wind up being the right choice.
Yes, Dumars said he wanted an experienced hand to oversee the transition. Yes, he went after Doug Collins and Avery Johnson. But winding up with Kuester is far from a booby prize.
Kuester's only head coaching experience is at Boston University and George Washington, but he has been on an NBA bench since 1995. This is not a repeat of the Michael Curry hire, who was an assistant for one season.
This guy is smart -- basketball smart and real-life smart. He understands the game, he understands the people who play the game, and he understands the culture of the league. He is low-key enough his ego never will clash with the players'. But he's competitive enough and confident enough in his ability to coach he won't allow the players to walk over him.
Trust me on this: Richard Hamilton
and Tayshaun Prince feel a whole lot better about this hire than they did the last one.
Did you watch the Eastern Conference finals last year? Cavaliers coach Mike Brown trusted Kuester with his offense so much he allowed him to draw up plays and run huddles late in games.
Cavaliers beat writers tell me LeBron James and the other veterans had total respect for Kuester, and while happy he's getting this opportunity, they are sad to lose him.
This is far from a throw-in-the-towel hire. This is bringing in a new leader who offers a new vision, a new temperament and a new identity to a team redefining itself on the fly.
Today is not Armageddon for the Pistons. Today is the first day of spring. Today is the day you throw open the windows for the first time after the winter thaw and feel that warm, refreshing, rejuvenating breeze in your face.
Gone is the disaster that was Curry's one year. Gone are the old dramas that seemed to play out year after year toward the end of the last era. Who's mad at the coach today? Who's sulking today? Who's not happy with his role or his minutes?
It's a new day -- and that is not code for falling off the NBA map.
Work still to do
On Wednesday, the Pistons signed two cornerstones of the next era, a 26-year-old blue-chip scorer in Ben Gordon, and a 24-year-old multidimensional forward in Charlie Villanueva, whose talent many scouts believe is about to reach full bloom.
Add them to a youngish core of Hamilton and Prince, Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo and Will Bynum, plus Kwame Brown and Jason Maxiell -- this isn't a lottery team.
Here in Las Vegas, four rookies are cutting their teeth in summer league -- Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, Deron Washington and Jonas Jerebko. At least two, maybe three, could be in the rotation next season.
No doubt there are holes. Who is the on-court leader? Hamilton? Prince? A combination? Can Stuckey make that leap in his third season?
Those things likely won't get resolved until well into next season.
Where are the big men? Brown is the only true center on the roster. Maxiell is a tough but undersized low-post player. Villanueva is 6 foot 11, but he's more effective playing away from the basket and has never been accused of being a stingy defender.
Dumars isn't done remaking the roster, obviously. They have about $1.7 million left. As much as Antonio McDyess loves Dumars and is comfortable playing here, that's not going to get him back. He reportedly accepted a three-year deal from San Antonio, starting at $5.8 million. So, how is Dumars going to fill that hole in the middle? The $1.7 million won't buy him much.
If he could get a team willing to take Afflalo and Walter Sharpe for draft picks, he would have a little less than $2 million. That might put him in the running for Dallas' Brandon Bass.
Of course, perhaps Dumars revisits Carlos Boozer. The Jazz want to trade him. Dumars has been disinclined thus far to trade either Hamilton or Prince. Perhaps as the summer wears on, or as we get into next season, he changes his tune.
On to the next
That's a lot of ifs, ands or buts -- which is why most pundits are predicting a steep slide for the Pistons. I offer only this as a caution against that: In the summer of 2001, the Pistons hired a rookie coach (Rick Carlisle), who found a way to win 50 games with a mismatched roster featuring one star (Jerry Stackhouse), a young and still unproven Ben Wallace, and a group of aging vets (Cliff Robinson, Jon Barry, Chucky Atkins, Dana Barros, Corliss Williamson, Damon Jones).
Kuester's roster is going to be flawed, but it's younger, more athletic and much more diversely skilled than Carlisle's squad in 2001.
Regardless, the days of six consecutive trips to the conference finals ended when Chauncey Billups was traded last November.
Nothing lasts forever.
It's time to move on.
Embrace the beginning of a new journey.
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