Pistons Pre-season Press Conference

[Wombataholic]

Good morning and thank you for joining us.

Last season was both a great success and an abysmal failure. It was a great success because we exceeded our own expectations for the year. We went in thinking we would win around 53 games and snag the 4 seed and win one playoff series. Instead, we won 65 games, lost a tiebreak for the 1 seed, then got swept out of the first round of the playoffs by an underrated Wizards team.

Going into the offseason, our list of goals started and ended with bringing Anthony Davis back. Mission accomplished.

Aside from bringing Davis back, we also were looking to make an upgrade at either shooting guard or center. We were able to trade Kimbrough Slice to the Trailblazers for CJ McCollum in a sign-and-trade after the first round of UFA. We will miss Kimbrough Slice and wish him well in his future endeavors.

We had wanted to bring Lance Stephenson back for another few years, but he was eager to sign a new contract in the first round of UFA. He will be missed and we wish him well in his future endeavors.

In the second round of UFA, we were able to sign some depth at point guard. Some combination of Vasquez, Mercado and Collison will allow Keitt to rest and sometimes shift over to shooting guard to give McCollum a chance to rest.

In the draft, we wanted to get a big to groom for the future, and we feel we got good value for the pick in Roy Woodson. He'll be backing up Odis Jackson at the 5 this year and hopefully starting next year.

Training camp went better than expecting, even taking Keitt's hit into consideration. Our young guys got better, the old guys and Dion Baily got worse. One pleasant surprise is that Rudy Gay, at the ripe old age of 34, remained blue/blue. We were almost certain that he would fall to at least green/green.

Our starting 5 this year will be Odis Jackson, Anthony Davis, Rudy Gay, CJ McCollum, and Stephen Keitt. We're hoping that James O'Connor and Roy Woodson are ready to start contributing this year as backups at the 3 and 5, respectively. A yet-to-be determined combination of Lon Beamon and Dion Baily will back up Anthony Davis.

As for expectations this year, I believe we'll win around 55 games and get the 4 seed behind the Bulls, Hawks and Nets. I believe, barring injuries, the Bulls are the class of the East and will win around 60 games.

With that, I'll open the floor to questions.

[JNR]

GWR: There are parallels between the Suns acquiring James Harden last year and you acquiring CJ McCollum this year. How confident are you in the move being your vault back into the PBSL Finals?

[Wombataholic]

GWR: There are parallels between the Suns acquiring James Harden last year and you acquiring CJ McCollum this year. How confident are you in the move being your vault back into the PBSL Finals?

We feel very confident that the move will put us on par with the other elite teams in the East.

[Eazy P]

Did you ever had any doubt that AD would be back in a pistons jersey and did being swept last season ignite the players on the team this offseason to do whatever to prevent it happening again?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: With CJ McCollum on the team, you have an offensive weapon who is almost as potent as AD. While up to this point, you've ran your offense pretty much exclusively through Davis, how does the presence of CJ affect your approach offensively?

[RPF]

Mitch Landrieu, nola.com: After looking at Stephen Keitt's training camp, did he start hanging with AD this offseason? Also can you please give us some insight on why the front office hasn't invested any paid training in him?

[ballsohard]

Are you worried about Rudy Gay pillaging shots from CJ and AD?

[Wombataholic]

Did you ever had any doubt that AD would be back in a pistons jersey and did being swept last season ignite the players on the team this offseason to do whatever to prevent it happening again?

There were doubts that AD would be back this year. As you know, he already had put his Auburn Hills home up for sale. It turns out that he just wanted to buy a bigger house to hold all the money we're paying him, and all his endorsement money. Last year's sweep lit a fire under everyone. Going out without a fight will not happen again.

[Wombataholic]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: With CJ McCollum on the team, you have an offensive weapon who is almost as potent as AD. While up to this point, you've ran your offense pretty much exclusively through Davis, how does the presence of CJ affect your approach offensively?

As we saw with Lance Stephenson and Bojan Bodanovic, because of AD's usage rate, everyone else on the floor will not shoot nearly as much. Bojan left us to go to Miami and his scoring average jumped 6 points per game. I'm sure Lance's ppg will jump this season with the Magic. CJ's ppg will fall, but we're certain he'll find other ways to impact the game. Offensively, our game plan will hopefully go back to passing AD the ball, then stand at the 3 point line and get ready to shoot.

[Wombataholic]

Mitch Landrieu, nola.com: After looking at Stephen Keitt's training camp, did he start hanging with AD this offseason? Also can you please give us some insight on why the front office hasn't invested any paid training in him?

Keitt has been closely following AD's personal workout regimen all summer. Unfortunately, AD's workout program is too intense for mere mortals like Keitt, and he was hit during TC because of it.

The front office has been working on raising multiple talented players to surround AD, not just Keitt.

[Wombataholic]

Are you worried about Rudy Gay pillaging shots from CJ and AD?

We worry more about Rudy Gay falling and breaking a hip.

[WigNosy]

Most people would kill to have AD on their team. Have there been any downsides to having him on your roster?

[Wombataholic]

Most people would kill to have AD on their team. Have there been any downsides to having him on your roster?

With his usage rate being so high, other talented players don't always get their chance to shine. As mentioned earlier, Bojan Bogdanovic saw his PPG jump when he went to the Heat. Because of the high usage rate, we've had to find players that can contribute in ways other than scoring, such as rebounding, passing, and playing defense.

[NOLa.]

You follow a different route than most GMs in the league when it comes to training players. You've put points in Kimbrough when others didn't think he was worth the trainings, and you've now trained O'Connor in each of his two offseasons to where he's blue potential. What do you see that others don't in regards to training the mid-tier players rather than elite players?

[Wombataholic]

You follow a different route than most GMs in the league when it comes to training players. You've put points in Kimbrough when others didn't think he was worth the trainings, and you've now trained O'Connor in each of his two offseasons to where he's blue potential. What do you see that others don't in regards to training the mid-tier players rather than elite players?

We've operated under the philosophy that we get better value from spending points on training versus putting ourselves into the luxury tax.

With AD on your team, you can count on always picking in the mid to late 20's. This means finding either good athletes and training them to be good basketball players (Kimbrough Slice), or finding good basketball players and training them to be good athletes (James O'Connor). It is rare for a complete athlete/player to fall to us, so we have to make our own.

[kucoach7]

Do you ever worry that Keitt and O'Connor won't hit their primes until AD has left his and that you'll have missed our on Championships if you'd gone all in?

[Wombataholic]

Do you ever worry that Keitt and O'Connor won't hit their primes until AD has left his and that you'll have missed our on Championships if you'd gone all in?

We figure that AD still has at least 3 prime years and many more really good years left and that Keitt will hit his prime next year and O'Connor the year after. So we think we've got a fairly large window where we've got good chances to win a title.

[Xist2Inspire]

Despite having the best big man in the game, finding a running mate for him in the post has aways seemed to be a struggle. Do you foresee yourself making a move to solidify your frontcourt, or are you confident that Woodson and Jackson will be able do enough to keep that particular hole from becoming an open target in the playoffs?

[Wombataholic]

Despite having the best big man in the game, finding a running mate for him in the post has aways seemed to be a struggle. Do you foresee yourself making a move to solidify your frontcourt, or are you confident that Woodson and Jackson will be able do enough to keep that particular hole from becoming an open target in the playoffs?

All Jackson and Woodson have to do for us this year is play decent post defense and grab a handful of rebounds. If they aren't capable of that, we can always shift AD to the 5, Gay to the 4 and start O'Connor at the 3.

[digiskunk]

It goes without saying that you're almost a finals contender every season. But with the moves the Suns made during the offseason, winning another championship became that much more difficult for you guys. What do you guys think you did to put you over the top? How do you think you'd fair against the Suns?