NBA 2006-2007 Preview: Detroit Pistons

Detroit Pistons
Coach: Flip Saunders, 2nd Season (64-18)
General Manager: Joe Dumars
’05-’06 Record: 64-18, Central Division Champions
Postseason: eliminated in Eastern Conference Finals; MIA (4-3)


Projected Starting Lineup (’05-’06 Stats)

PG – Chauncey Billups (18.5 ppg., 3.1 rpg., 8.6 apg.)
SG – Richard Hamilton (20.1 ppg., 3.2 rpg., 3.4 apg.)
SF – Tayshaun Prince (14.1 ppg., 4.2 rpg., 2.3 apg.)
PF – Rasheed Wallace (15.1 ppg., 6.8 rpg., 2.3 apg.)
C – Nazr Mohammed (w/S.A.: 6.2 ppg., 5.2 rpg., 0.5 apg.)


Key Additions: C Nazr Mohammed (UFA – SA); G Ronald Murray (UFA – CLE)

Key Subtractions: C Ben Wallace (UFA – CHI); PG Tony Delk (UFA); C Kelvin Cato (UFA)


2006 NBA Draft
Round 1 – N/A
Round 2 – C Cheick Samb (51st overall), International (Spain); SG Will Blalock (60th overall), Iowa State University


Positional Breakdowns

Guards
The popular talk at the early stages of last season seemed to focus around Chauncey Billups and him being the league MVP. He was the floor leader of the best team in the NBA and was doing amazing things on a nightly basis. He was running the newly efficient Detroit offense, being an offensive juggernaut, and shutting down the opposing team’s point guards. Some would even say he was working on a cure for Cancer in his basement during his free time. The point is, Chauncey Billups proved to the entire NBA community that he is the real deal. The question is, now that there are people beginning to doubt the effectiveness of this team, what does Chauncey do for an encore? He runs the offense very efficiently and knows how to get all of his teammates in exactly the right spots for their offensive schemes to work. He can put the ball into the hoop with consistency and his field goal percentage seems to rise as the pressure does. He takes care of the ball very well and rarely turns it over in bad spots. It will be up to him to keep this offense glued together because they need to make up for the decrease in team defensive effectiveness.