Spencer (Fort Worth, Texas): Whatever happened to the chat room for Pistons games?
Langlois: We had an opening-night hiccup due to some technological issues well beyond my comprehension level, Spencer, but the chats resumed for the home opener the following night against Utah and are back on in full force. On game nights (or days), the chat link can be found under the Game Feed tab on the pistons.com home page. Or just save this link to every game’s chat. Hope that helps.
Clark (Santa Cruz, Calif.): The bench outscored by 41 points? I know it’s only one game, but over four games we have pretty handily the worst bench in the NBA. Is there anything we can do this season, outside of Jennings and Meeks coming back, to improve it?
Langlois: It was glaring in the loss to Indiana, Clark – the 20-0 Indiana run to open the second quarter and force Stan Van Gundy to come back with his starters in less than five minutes. I don’t think it’s representative of the bench overall. In fact, I expected the bench to be a strength of the Pistons this season. Van Gundy has a few days to retrench and retool before the Pistons play again, opening a six-game West Coast jaunt at Phoenix on Friday night, but I don’t expect a radical makeover. He has a few options: tinkering with the starting lineup, perhaps, or more likely staggering his rotation to reduce the number of bench players on the court at any one time, or paring the rotation down by a player or two. The down side, as he mentioned after the loss to Indiana, is you then mess with the chemistry of a first unit that’s playing exceptionally well. My guess is eventually he’ll get back to playing his second unit as he intended to and they’ll work out the kinks. Part of the problem – maybe one we all overlooked – was the effect of second-unit chemistry that came from Steve Blake’s absence for almost the entire preseason. We focused on the impact on Blake himself but didn’t really consider how it would affect the unit he was charged with running. As for outside help to bolster the bench, it’s hard to see what moves could be made without risking a deficit somewhere else. The fact the Pistons are down a key backcourt player at both spots – Jennings at the point, Meeks at the two – limits flexibility. You also don’t want to make a move now that would cost them down the road and, additionally, create a positional logjam when those players return. Van Gundy has some choices to make, but he’ll want to straddle the line carefully so as to not cause more problems than he might be addressing.
Alex (Terre Haute, Ind.): If KCP and Stanley Johnson keep improving, they might demand a higher contract when that time comes. Do you believe the Pistons will be able to afford to keep KCP, Johnson, Drummond and Jackson and possibly Morris for the long term? Drummond will take a large chunk of cap space and if KCP improves like he has been each year, then he might get a nice contract as well. How many of these current young players do you believe the Pistons will be able to keep for the long term without running out of cap space for the rest of the players?
Langlois: We’ll file that under “first-world problems,” Alex. Yes, even with a rising salary cap, teams with a handful of young players coming to the end of their rookie contracts will have to manage their finances prudently. But Stanley Johnson will be on his slotted rookie contract through the 2018-19 season, so the Pistons are a long way from worrying about squeezing him into the larger cap picture. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will be on his rookie deal through the 2016-17 season. Depending on what moves the Pistons make this summer, that might be the first off-season where they won’t take fairly significant cap space into the off-season. I don’t foresee any cap-forced personnel moves of magnitude, though – something along the lines of Oklahoma City having to essentially choose between Serge Ibaka and James Harden, for instance – coming any time soon. The Morris contract is actually something that would help the Pistons keep that core together; he’s on a team-friendly contract with three more seasons after this one to go.
Dave (Potomac, Md.): Although their games are different, could Marcus Morris have the same type of impact on the Pistons that Corliss Williamson did? Ultimately, he contributed to a title, but I’m referring to Big Nasty’s role in first changing the Pistons’ temperament.
Langlois: Williamson was a little older and another season and a half into his NBA career when he came to the Pistons than Morris, Dave, but it’s not a bad analogy. Williamson was a part of it, but there were quite a few players who shaped the culture that ended in the formation of the Goin’ to Work Pistons. Ben Wallace was in his first year with the Pistons when they traded for Williamson from Toronto. So was Chucky Atkins and Michael Curry, a very important voice in that locker room. Cliff Robinson was added in the first off-season Williamson was a Piston and the players who were around at the time gave Robinson major credit for his leadership. There’s no doubt Morris’ voice is already a big part of the chorus on this team and, as he told me over the weekend, he’s embracing that role.
Derrick (Shelby Twp., Mich.): I’m a huge Pistons fan and was excited to hear that games this season could be streamed using the Fox Sports Go app, but for some reason it will not work for me. And according to the many comments for the app, it hasn’t been working for others, either. Is there anybody to talk to so the Pistons don’t keep advertising this before the games? Or could it be resolved?
Langlois: Streaming via the Fox Sports Go app isn’t available to subscribers of all cable providers as of this time, I’m informed. Comcast customers are included in that group yet to have the streaming service available. The parties are continuing to discuss additions, though, so stay tuned.
James (@PistonsAnalysis): Is everything right with Steve Blake? He’s leaving almost every shot short. Is it legs, concussion, age issues? Have you seen or heard anything?
Langlois: He missed almost all of training camp, James, and I don’t doubt that’s the driving factor in the 2 of 17 shooting line through the first four games. Nothing more than that. He also averaged 11.8 assists per 36 minutes over the first three games, a tremendous number, and Stan Van Gundy values the things he brings to the second unit. “He’s a good defender, plays with great energy and I think gets our team playing at a good pace,” Van Gundy said earlier this week. “He promotes unselfish ball movement, so I think he helps us in a log of ways. But with that said, he knows – he’s as frustrated as anybody – he’s going to have to shoot the ball better. And he will. But we like the way he plays, guys like playing with him, so there are a lot of positives even with the way he has shot the ball.” Blake obviously struggled against Indiana on Tuesday – and Van Gundy went with Spencer Dinwiddie over him in the second half. We’ll see what Van Gundy has in mind for Friday and going forward when the Pistons next practice on Thursday.
Marvin (Richmond, Va.): Do you think the Pistons need to do anything different with the second unit to get Bullock more shot attempts?
Langlois: He’d only had three halves as a member of the rotation coming into Tuesday’s game with Indiana, Marvin, and had gotten up only two shots in 21 minutes. He, like Steve Blake and Aron Baynes, was taken out of the rotation for the second half after going 0 for 2 in four first-half minutes against the Pacers. That’s not much of a sample size. But I did ask Stan Van Gundy about Bullock’s limited shot opportunities prior to Tuesday’s game. Here’s what he said: “He’s not a guy we run a lot of plays for, so I think when you have guys like that who shoot it well and don’t get a lot of shots – now, 21 minutes is not a good sample – but over time, it usually does make a statement that the ball’s not moving as well as it should because the guys you run plays for will still get shots. The way guys like Reggie get shots is the ball moves and so that is, in time, a pretty good barometer.” Since the ball moves pretty well with Steve Blake on the second unit, I think the two shots in his first 21 minutes goes under “fluke.”
Chris (@cschliewe): What is Brandon Jennings’ expected role when he returns? Will Jackson remain the starter or is Jennings jumping right back in?
Langlois: Jackson, barring injury, is and will remain the starting point guard for the foreseeable future. The Pistons didn’t invest in him to the degree they have if Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Bower didn’t have that intent. The cost to acquire him was relatively modest – two role players, Kyle Singler and D.J. Augustin, and two future second-round picks – but one of the major reasons it didn’t cost more was the fact Jackson was coming up on restricted free agency and all parties understood he would command a significant contract. The Pistons and Jackson agreed to a reported $80 million deal over five years in July. You don’t enter into that level of contract with any intent other than the player being a cornerstone for the franchise’s future. When Jennings is ready to come back – and the best guess on that is sometime in December, but until he gets thrown into live practices even that’s just a guess – the thing that will determine his role will be his level of play. If he’s able to approximate the things that made him a starting NBA point guard, then Van Gundy is going to find a role for him – bank on that. Jennings could prove an invaluable weapon. Especially with Jodie Meeks out for another three-plus months, the second unit can use a scoring anchor. Jennings certainly would qualify. As he fully acclimates and can handle extended minutes, Van Gundy surely will look for spots to use Jackson and Jennings in tandem. With so many other coaches using two point guards at a time, he should have no trouble finding matchup opportunities. That would help relieve the burden of initiating so much of the offense that falls on Jackson, as well. There aren’t many NBA teams that will be able to add a player capable of making the type of impact Jennings can over the course of the season.
Alex (@Alex_Drain): What is the minimum number of wins the Pistons need on their upcoming six-game road trip for it to be a success?
Langlois: You don’t want to come back without at least one or two pelts, Alex, but I don’t think Stan Van Gundy would look at the trip as a standalone entity. The 3-1 start they take with them helps reduce the urgency. I think if you looked at the schedule before the season started and told Van Gundy he’d be 5-5 after 10 games – given the quality of the first four opponents and the six-game trip to follow – he’d have taken that in a heartbeat and moved on. So if they go 2-4 on this trip, that’s where they’d be. If they could split the six games, I think the Pistons would come home feeling in a pretty good place.
Nick (@NickBaum18): Do you think the Pistons have legitimate playoff hopes or was the 3-0 start a fluke?
Langlois: Yes to your first question, unlikely to your second. There aren’t many teams in the East – Philadelphia the obvious exception, Orlando a likely second team, Brooklyn perhaps a third – that don’t feel like they have a legitimate shot at contending for a playoff berth. New York is off to a promising start, as well. I expect the Pistons to contend with a wide swath of teams – Indiana, Milwaukee, Charlotte and Boston most obviously – that will challenge the group of teams most consider likely playoff teams. The Pistons are well coached, have two players (Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson) emerging as All-Star candidates, depth and – so far, at least – the sort of chemistry building that portends success. The loss to Indiana will cause some soul searching for the way the bench was dominated in a five-minute spurt, but overall there have been too many positives coming out of four games to let those five minutes overwhelm the whole. They’ll need the usual assortment of breaks – starting with good health – but people whose opinions I respect have noticed something different about this team even during the preseason.
Tyler (@tvandam24): Do you expect the Pistons to be active during this year’s trade deadline?
Langlois: No, but the track record of Stan Van Gundy’s front office is they act swiftly and decisively when opportunities arise. In just a little more than 12 months, they’ve made trades to add Joel Anthony, Anthony Tolliver, Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Steve Blake. They’ll have a surplus of guards when Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks return, but Meeks might not be back until after the trade deadline. If Meeks hadn’t been hurt, I’d rate the odds of making a deal a little higher simply because of the backcourt depth they would have not only had but been able to put into evidence. If Jennings comes back and is performing at a high level come mid-February, the Pistons almost surely will be presented with some offers for him – or perhaps for Steve Blake. But that’s tough to project right now because we can’t know which contenders will be looking for backcourt help at that time. It will depend largely on who stays healthy and who doesn’t between now and then.
Ricky (@RickyLaBlue): How important is it for Morris to continue to play well with Stanley Johnson adjusting to the NBA? Will Morris keep playing well?
Langlois: The short answer is it’s important for all Pistons key players to continue to play well, as it is for all teams to have starters perform to expectations if they’re to realize their goals. The longer answer is Morris is playing at a level that has exceeded his career norms so far and he’s been integral to the Pistons’ swift start. It’s not a given he’ll keep it up, but it’s probably important to remember that Stan Van Gundy envisioned Morris playing a significant role even as the majority of pundits were skeptical of the move to install him as the starter at small forward. The Pistons pour more resources into scouting NBA personnel than any other team – Van Gundy and general manager Jeff Bower have four dedicated pro scouts who watch virtually every NBA game and file weekly scouting reports on every player – and they acted within hours when Phoenix proposed the trade last summer. It’s easy to say that it was a no-brainer for the Pistons in that Phoenix was only asking for a second-round pick five years down the road – and, in that narrow sense, it certainly was an easy call. But adding Morris (plus the contracts of Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger) meant that was Van Gundy’s play for a starting small forward. It’s not like he accepted that trade and then had the wherewithal (cap space or other trade assets) to acquire another small forward to compete with Morris for the job. So, yeah, that was a very shrewd move – at least, so far, it’s looking like a very shrewd move.
