After reading today's Detroit News and Pistons.Com, it appears that our roster is now set with the addition of these two players.

The only additional trade that MAY BE forthcoming is Nazr & Flip Murray for a serviceable big man.

I wouldn't even hold my breath here folks, because it may not happen.

All of us who wanted to see young, athletic, run & gun, youth served type pistons team, we have our wish.

We are gonna have a LOT of youth infused into this year's team. Along with that the normal growing pain and dumb mistakes. But they will sure enough be fun to watch.

Will we take a step back???? I think we will lose a few more games than last year (maybe a lot more), but in the long run it just might be worth it.

One thing for sure, the starters will be given time to rest and the youngsters will play much, much better as the season goes on.

Say what?

We still have 6 or our main 8 guys back from last year including 4 of our starters (Not counting Nazr) and not counting the unknown about C-Webb.

So at this point we replace C-Webb? and Delfino (we still have Murray and Hunter) with AJ and Hot Rod.

This is a big step up from Nov 1st.

So our core 8 will be better than it was last year.

Going forward from the git go not backward.

We had our core when we started the year last season. That didn't get us very far because again, the core pooped out.

I am not saying this in a bad way, but it's a very postivie statement. Joe has said that the starters will not play major minutes next season.

What does this mean?.....It means our young guys will chew up a lot of minutes.

They will have to adjust, and they will...as a result, we will be better down the stretch

Stuckey was throwing some bad passes at times in Vegas. Afflalo's shot looked flat. Mejia was dissapearing. So, yeah, I think that it is safe to say that they will struggle at times as they are gaining experience.

If Flip has learned anything, he will let them play through these patches and sacrifice some wins for the experience they gain by being trusted down the stretch.

He should pick certain games to include at least 1 rook with 4 starters in real crunch time by the 2nd half of the season. Just give them a taste of real basketball so that when the Playoffs come, they will know how to respond.

So, I think you're both right. We will be worse in the short-run because Flip will manage the team differently (not because we are actually worse). We should be better in the post season because of it.

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"Will was rolling, wasn't he? I roll with the guy that's hot." MC

As Joe and Flip sit engaged in intense back and forth discussion outlining a stepwise progresson of how the youngstars will be integrated into the rotation, I wonder if the above quote circles Dumars mind about Saunders.

best record gets you nothing

best seed in the east gets you nothing


we have 4 starters who won a championship and know how to win on the road if they have to.... they want to coast thru the season, fine they can coast from the bench instead of on the court... instead of trying to switch it on and off on the court.

i'll be happy to be .500 at the mid season break if that means the kids are all playing and getting better... then 2nd half the season i expect to see us starting to peak and be a tough force ready to take the play offs on full force.

Sort of like how the Spurs do.

Have they signed Mejia? McCoskey's report on Samb signing says that Mejia will still have to compete for a roster spot in training camp.

I'm guessing they signed him to a non-guaranteed deal. That means he either makes the team or we lose our rights to him.

I cringe every time someone utters this phrase. It's become cliche lately and synonymous with "not going to win anything." I seriously hope Joe has some kind of mastermind, behind the scenes thing going on where we will be completely blown away and happy by the time training camp starts. Because if all we have to look forward to is the same cast (and coach) mixed with a bunch of first year players...you're going to have a great deal of frustration to tune in to this season.