In Carlisle's last year as a Piston coach the Pistons had a pretty good bench. Brown inherited that bench it helped him get his first and probably only ring in 2003-04. He then dismantled the bench and basically went with 7 guys last year. (Only 7 guys played more than 50 games and averaged more than 10 minutes a game).

I think that with the addition of Davis and Evans as well as Mixiell, whose game I really like, the Pistons have added 3 solid off the bench guys this year. I would expect Hunter's minutes to be cut down.

I see the first five off the bench as as Milicic, Maxiell, Davis up front and Arroyo and Evans in the backcourt. I am not exactly sure where Hunter and Delfino will fit in. Delfino could start the year ahead of Maxiell and wind up battling Evans for the #4 spot off the bench. Hunter could be the 12th man on the bench or fall to the taxi squad behind Acker.

In any case after a one year hiatis I think that the Pistons may have their bench back, which should bode well for a good year.

I'm not sure that LB dismantled his bench. Mike James couldn't be retained. Corliss was traded "for salary cap flexibility" and Memo got a massive offer sheet, significantly larger than his qualifying offer.

I've read a lot of misinformation about Memo leaving. Joe had to choose between Memo and Rasheed Wallace. It was an either or scenario. Once Memo signed that offer sheet, the Pistons could not get him for the MLE which was eventually (and very wisely) given to Antonio McDyess.

I agree that the bench this year has a lot less marginal players on it than in years past. Davis is a possible every game replacement, something that EC might not have been able to do. Evans is an up and comer with a much nicer resume than Smush Parker or Horace Jenkins.

It's all up to Flip. He has a history for making radical rotation changes. I think there will be much more integration and less platooning.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

Lets make it Milicic McDyess and Maxiell up front and Evans and Arroyo in the backcourt. That would leave Davis as the 11th guy and either Hunter, Delfino or Acker as the 12th guy. It is also possible that Davis could start the year ahead of Milicic and Delfino could start the year ahead of Maxiell.

In any case I think that there will be some serious bench competition and a good second unit for the Pistons this year.

The possibilites are almost endless except for McDyess, who I still can't believe I forgot in my original post. Maybe the reason I left him off originally is because I consider him more of a 6th starter than a bench player.

Buddha buddy, welcome aboard.

Oops! Ya lost our number one producer off the pine in your relief crew, McDyess.

The jury's really still out on it, I think. McDyess is fantastic, and Davis I expect to be solid, but beyond that we really have a lot of unknowns. Evans I think is a nice pickup, but we are going to need one or more of the young guys (Arroyo/Darko/Delfino) to make a contribution if we are going to improve significantly in that respect.

I would be very surprised if any one of our rookies gets a lot of floor time this year (even though I'm high on the potential of all three). Maxiell I think is the most ready to contribute immediately, but he's so far down the depth chart at this point that something (injury or a Darko debacle) would need to occur for him to play much.

Corliss just never did it for me. It just seemed like he would always lose the ball in traffic, had a hard time finishing easy layups in close and had a Mahorn type waddle to him. The guy just looked "bottom heavy" and slow. Plus, he had man boobs.

I liked the energy that Mike James and Jon Barry brought to the table. I think we're still missing that kind of energy off the bench. Maybe Arroyo will bring it this year.

I'd love to see CD really step it up this year too. We really need an aggressive, take it to the rim, Ginobili/Wade type player.

This is a make or break season for Darko. From both the Piston's point of view and for his own battered confidence.

I like to see Hunter turn it on come playoff time, until then (assuming he doesn't retire) he should get as much rest as possible so he'll be fresh and to give some PT to the "kids".

Dice just needs to bring it like he did last year. With a full year of confidence in his knees now under his belt, I'm expecting great things from him.

I don't think AJ, Maxiel & Acker will see much time initially, but I hope at least one of them can really step it up this season. AJ might be NBDL material.

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I think we're gonna see A LOT of player development this year and as a result, will suffer some close game loses. We've proved that we don't need the BEST record to go to the big show, so we can work some of the younger guys into the rotation. The good is that the starters get to rest, but the bad is seeing the bench go through some growing pains. I think Amir is the odd man and we'll have 15 on the team to start. Dupree may be around as incintive for Delfino at the 3 spot. If Delfino can't cut it, look for him to be traded or banded to the bench. We will see Max but I think the surprise will be Acker. If he catches on then we can field a REALLY big line up. That gives us Hunter, Delfino and Dupree as trade bait for a more productive 3. Maybe.

I disagree with this. I have nothing against the young kids, but we would have won the title last year with homecourt. Rasheed screwup, Brown rumours, short bench and all. Homecourt is so important, particularly when we blow teams out at home and rest the starters but on the road the game always comes down to the last 5 minutes.

Homecourt needs to be the mission this year. Not winning the division means the 4th seed and probably 3 series on the road. The odds would not be in our favour.

I did a quick scan back when I was at the Detnews. The average win total of an NBA champ in the last 20 years is 60 games. Think about that. Only 1 team has won a title in modern history with less than 54 wins. And only 2 teams with less than 58. This is from memory but I know it's damn close.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

I have to agree with the homecourt being priority it took way too much out of our 7 man rotation winning those games on the road.

As far as Flip goes he will give these guys besides the starting 6 some time to develop some confidence.A clean slate with the coach and the way the core group of players on this team are I see them giving up minutes to have the bench we need come playoff time.Except for runaround Rip they know they need rest and foul trouble will dictate the starters sitting out.

As competitive as they may be they are just as unselfish.I see Ham and Dupree gone Amir in development if that happens but the potential for these other guys to come on I think come playoff time we will be more than happy with the bench holding it's own.

I haven't been able to get close to the concept that Delfino should get the nod over Dupree... Never saw Dupree as this lousy shooter folks are talking about... he actually hit a fair amount of his perimiter shots... I saw a guy that quickly took it to the rack ... and finished unlike Delfino. I saw a guy that could actually cover his man and was an agressive rebounder... a guy who excelled in the transition game.
No complaining when he was designated to the bench so that Delfino could get his PT... when he finally came off the bench there wasn't any signs of this unfair rustyness that infiltrates our boards... just a guy willing to strap em up and go hard every minute... in otherwords he deserved a real shot to prove himself.
Maybe he doesn't have the handles that Delfino has... but our team is already strong in that department... we don't need all 5 guys dribbling around.
In my book Dupree s/b considered before C.D.

I do agree with Joe's thoughts on going to camp with 16 able bodies... we can not predict what might happen as far as injuries/trades etc.

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