Today's TC notes:

Three days into training camp and the Pistons practice facility is still full of energy. Players seem to be back in the swing of things and are look forward to the upcoming season. Keep checking in for the latest on Piston practices, transactions, quotes, and injury reports.

Saunders
Starting Fresh
With an entire new system involving new play calls and new rotations, Pistons players have a lot to learn. Not to fear, Coach Flip Saunders says he is used to starting over every season. “I learned a long time ago that I never assume that players remember or know anything from the past. So basically every year I start over. Depending on how much they know depends on how quick you can put things in or you might not have to work on things quite as long because they understand it.”

Saunders has started training camp with the basics and hopes to expand from there. “In my playbook, we have a lot of plays, but the terminology stays the same. There are different plays because we are putting different people in different positions, but we stick to the same concepts and the same terminology for what we are trying to do. [The Pistons] have picked up things and are doing really well from that standpoint.”

Pistons players are also getting used to a new coaching philosophy compared to that of year’s past. The defense will show a little more zone, while the offenses will rely more on what’s happening and what decisions are made from the point guard.

“The game is not black and white, the game is played gray,” Saunders said. “If I could tell you what is going to happen with everything, it would be real easy. But we can’t do that, so what happens is that when the game is played gray, you have to make decisions. That’s why in my practices I try to do a lot where we do things quickly. I just try to develop mental quickness so that guys have the ability to make those decisions quicker. When they get more confident with what their doing they’re going to make quicker and better decisions.”

Saunders also says that he has a lot of plays, but likes to stick to the ones that work. He works under the philosophy that if a play is successful, run it again. Make the opponents stop it or make them make an adjustment.

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Week One: Training Camp Opens
Jason Maxiell’s Rookie Diary


What up, everyone? How’s everyone doing? Well, I guess it is about time I introduce myself to the greatest fans in the world. My name is Jason Maxiell, one of the most recent additions to your Detroit Pistons. I was selected by the Pistons as the 26th overall pick in the first round of the 2005 NBA Draft. That means I’ll be starting my NBA career in Detroit, home of the 2005 Eastern Conference Champions. I don’t think I could ask for much more than that. The next few months are going to be crazy and a big change from the University of Cincinnati where I played college ball, but I’m ready for the challenge.
Well, it’s early October and the 2005 NBA season is just under way. Pistons training camp started on Monday and I was thrown into a whirlwind of new things right off the bat. It started with Media Day followed by two-a-day practices that will last the rest of the week. Media Day was better than I thought it was going to be, just a bunch of interviews, posing for pictures, and shooting promotional spots. There’s a lot of answering the same questions over and over again, and a lot of posing for the same pictures, but it was nothing compared to the amount of stuff the veteran players had to do. They constantly had a gang of reporters surrounding them to pick their brains about the upcoming season. But everything we did was important to promoting our team. For example, even though pink isn’t my color of choice, I sported a pink Pistons baseball hat in a photo to support Breast Health Awareness. I’ve heard the picture is already up on Pistons.com. I guess that is my first lesson that when I’m in that uniform I am now an entertainer. It was all in good fun, though, and I’m happy to support a good cause.

Media Day also gave me the chance to meet the Pistons staff members and the beat reporters. Most of the reporters will be covering us in depth all season long, so it’s important to develop a relationship with them. Besides, I’ll probably be seeing them more than my family, especially when I’m on the road. But after the flocks of media cleared, and we concluded our team meeting, it was time for me to think about the game and prepare for the following day’s practice. It was time to get down to business.

Two-a-days officially started yesterday. I was so anxious to get started that I got to practice a couple hours early. Plus, Coach Saunders let us know that he’d be closing the doors on us if we were late – and that was not going to happen. Coach, who will also be experiencing his first year in Detroit, kept practice at a high-energy. There was a lot of running up and down the court with few breaks in between. It was tough, but that’s training camp. Everyone is really excited about getting the season started, but training camp is just something that has to get done. Besides, I’ve been in town for a couple of weeks, playing pick-up with the guys in preparation for the season. I’ve also been working out to get as strong and as tough as possible so that I would be ready. However, it doesn’t matter how good of shape I think I’m in, Coach let us know that for a coach, his players could always be in better shape.

Training camp was little different this year for the entire team though. Even though most the players have been around awhile and have been through several training camps, this year we were all sort of like rookies. With a new coach, everyone had to adjust to a new style of practice. There was a lot of running and a lot of teaching. Everyone was kept moving though. For the most part, thanks to the weeks of pickup, we were all in pretty good shape and pretty comfortable playing with one another. It will just take a little time to learn the new system.

Playing in the NBA has been a dream I’ve had for a long time. Now that its here I definitely have some goals for myself. One of my goals for my rookie year is simple: get back to the Finals. Winning a championship is what everyone strives for and this year is no different. We have the talent and the experience; we just have to do it. I know that I can help. Another aspiration of mine is to be known as more than just a rookie. I want to be able to fit in so well that I don’t want people thinking that I am a rookie. I want to play like a veteran.

That’s all I got for now. I have to get some rest before the next workout. But I’ll be sure to keep checking back with you guys.

I’m out.

Jason Maxiell
#54

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thanks mercury. nice read and cool to get that wide-eyed rookie perspective.

i can't wait to see JMax on the court.

You don't want to see Max in that pink hat, though. Ugh. And what a terrible photo gallery they have on pistons.com! The guy taking pix for the league shot players against a crappy white paper background ... as if we only ordered the "Wallets" package in the school photo program or something.

Speaking of pix, the best Piston portraits the last couple of years have been by Robin Buckson of the Detroit News. She's good.

Not sure if this was posted from yesterday... more TC notes:

Flip Saunders plans to implement the rarely used zone defense this season with the Pistons. Under Saunders the Minnesota Timberwolves were regarded as one of the best zone defensive teams in the league. He is confident that this year’s Pistons will be even more successful with the zone. “[After] one day I can tell you we are going to be a lot better zone defensive team with this team than we ever were in Minnesota.”

The zone will be used as a change of pace defense only, not the main defense. Saunders states that they will continue to rely on “their ability to protect the paint, play aggressive, give up no lay-ups, contest every shot, and give up no second shots.”

Saunders doesn’t believe that the zone will deteriorate these basic principals. He lightheartedly calls his atypical zone defense the “hypatholic parapaloid transistional floating zone”. He describes it as a man-to-man with zone type principals.

Billups a Natural Leader
Veteran point guard and Pistons captain Chauncy Billups is instrumental to the team’s transition to a new style of play under a new coaching staff. Billups, who played for Pistons Head Coach Flip Saunders for two seasons in Minnesota, has helped to prepare the team for what Saunders is trying to accomplish. In addition, Billups is familiar with a lot of the offensive sets. Having your point guard understand where he needs to be is key to setting up the rest of the offense.

“In most of your sets the guard has the ball,” Saunders explained. “So the first thing you have to do is get him in the right spot. 20% of our problem is solved because [Billups] knows pretty much where to go.”

This season Saunders also plans to give Billups some freedom to make some play calls on the floor. “My hope for the point guards is that within two weeks there are many times that I am getting ready to call a play, and that at the same time we’ll call out the same play because they’ll start thinking how I’m thinking.”


Progress of Darko
Flip Saunders feels that Milicic has noticeably improved his strength during the Pistons brief off-season. While it does not appear that he has gained much weight, Milicic has definitely gotten stronger. Saunders plans to give the young center a chance to prove himself and will not be forcing him to play in the low post. Milicic has excellent passing skills and moves off the dribble.

Great stuff Merc. Did you steal his diary or something?

My first confident prediction of the season is that Jason Maxiel becomes a fan favorite really fast. The work ethic & the humble yet confident personality...this guy has 100 percent Piston DNA and I've never even seen him play, lol. Man, I'm thinking a mix of Big Ben, Rodman (the good stuff only), Dumars...I'm really glad they drafted him and can't wait to see him play. I think we are really going to see a very exciting team this year.

I wanna see Sheed in that pink hat instead of Maxiel

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"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

Does the good stuff include marrying Carmen Electra?? Because it does in my book.

Fox Sports rates Pistons acquisitions better than Pacers or Heat
I apologise if this has already been posted...

Summer Progress

You gotta love the vibe we get from these few days of camp. I get tingly wanting to have our Pistons hoisting that trophy again at the end of this year.

And our rookies are great, the multi-talented Acker, the underrated phenom Amir (that dunk probably looked crazy, whew), and the humble and confident Maxiell.

Go Detroit!

Arroyo is OK without Brown
http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/1...05100710.shtml

Evans works his way up from `penny' unit
http://www.mlive.com/pistons/stories...180.xml&coll=1

Checking the Pistons
http://www.mlive.com/pistons/stories...180.xml&coll=1