Four Takeaways From The Pistons Preseason Opener [BLOG]

By Brian Chapman, 97.1 The Ticket

The Pistons preseason opener was two nights ago at The Palace of Auburn Hills and Stan Van Gundy won his unofficial debut against the Bulls 111-109 in overtime. The game was shown on national TV on NBA TV, but was blacked out locally so unless you were there, you have no idea how this team looked. Fortunately, for you, I was there and here are my four biggest takeaways from the Pistons first practice game:

1. Jennings does not have to worry about losing his starting job… A lot of people, including me, thought that Brandon Jennings may be in jeopardy of losing his job when Van Gundy signed DJ Augustin to a two-year contract during the offseason. Jennings was coming off of a so-so first season in the Motor City, Augustin shoots a higher percentage from 3pt land and, most importantly, he was hand selected by Van Gundy. However, on Tuesday night Jennings ran the offense much more smoothly than Augustin did. The offense had more pace with Jennings running the show, he did an excellent job of finding teammates in transition and in the half court and he finished with ten assists and zero turnovers. Augustin wasn't bad, especially at the end of regulation, but Jennings will be running the show this year and it doesn't seem like he'll have to look over his shoulder.
2. Drummond was not the same… From the start of the game, you could tell that Van Gundy plans to use Andre Drummond in the offense a lot more than Maurice Cheeks, John Loyer and Lawrence Frank did. Under those three Drummond's role was limited to finishing off alley oops and scoring after getting on offense rebound. On Tuesday night, the Pistons were actually dumping down low to Drummond and letting him go to work in the paint. In the first half, the Pistons offense looked much better with him on the court than without him, perhaps because he was playing so much with Jennings. The second half wasn't as pretty as he had trouble finishing and was committing offensive fouls, but he finished with 13pts in only 28 minutes in large part because Van Gundy was calling plays for Drummond… On the flip side, Drummond only blocked one shot, only grabbed five rebounds and only brought down three defensive rebounds. Coach Van Gundy wasn't pleased to see that four Pistons, including Jodie Meeks, finished with more defensive rebounds than Drummond and said after the game that he hopes Drummond won't forget what made him great (defense and rebounding) as he becomes a bigger part of the offense.
3. Derrick Rose is not the same and may never be the same… D-Rose finished with six points and was 0-for-4 from the field on Tuesday night. I know that four shots is a small sample size and it's just the preseason (we talkin' bout practice), but Rose didn't pass the eye test either. On consecutive possessions in the second quarter, Rose blew a driving layup then turned it over in transition. That's the disappointing Rose that this country saw this summer for Team USA, not the electrifying Rose that won the MVP a few years ago and made the Bulls into a title contender. I didn't get the sense that the players inside the Pistons locker room thought that Rose was falling off, but I did. It's been a long time since Rose has looked like a great player and the drought continued on Tuesday at The Palace.
4. The fan experience is better, but not perfect… The new jumbotron at The Palace is awesome. I don't know if it needs to be compared to the one at Jerry's World, but considering Cowboys Stadium seats 100,000 and The Palace seats about 20% of that maybe the comparison is just. The screens are large and in high definition and there are even two that angle down toward the courtside seats to ensure that those who paid big money can see replays as well as those in the nose bleed seats… Automotion (I know they call themselves The Pistons Dancers, but I like the name Automotion better so that's what I'll call them) is fantastic. First of all, and most importantly, they are very attractive. Whether you like white or black, whether you like blonde, brunette or red head, there will be plenty of eye candy to fill up on. They're also in sync. I remember watching Automotion back in the days of the Going To Work Pistons and those dancers had no chemistry and it seemed like half of them were off beat. Not so with this season's group… The one negative from the fan experience is the t-shirt toss. They threw out t-shirts to fans after every made Pistons 3pt shot and I mean EVERY made Pistons 3pt shot. They didn't wait until the next media timeout. They were throwing out t-shirts to the fans as the Bulls were running up the court and setting up their offense. If you're a kid who wants a souvenir, it's great. If you're trying to watch the game and you're sitting in the first fifteen rows it can be a real distraction. Considering this year's Pistons will shoot more three's than last year's team and make a higher percentage of them, this could get old in a hurry to those with good seats.