by Juan Leer

Created on: June 26, 2009

The Detroit Pistons are a team that seems to be going in the wrong direction. After years of being one of the top challengers for the Eastern Conference crown, they struggled to make the playoffs in 2009, sneaking in as an 8 seed before getting pummeled by the Cleveland Cavaliers in round 1. The changing of times culminated with the trade of long-time PG Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson. This showed that Detroit was turning over the reigns of the team to Rodney Stuckey, looking toward the future, and acknowledging that they were no longer among the elite in the Eastern Conference.

When looking at their roster, it seems like big men should be the target of their draft. As noted, they have made Rodney Stuckey the new face of their franchise and their point guard of the future. At 2 guard, they just gave Rip Hamilton a contract extension before last season, and they appear to be pleased with him. He is still one of the premier shooters in the NBA. At the wing, they have Tayshaun Prince, one of the most steady players in the NBA. He continues to improve offensively, and is one of the best wing defenders in the NBA. He uses his giant wingspan and great timing to shut down opponents. But the posts are where they struggle. Rasheed Wallace is getting old quickly, and there have already been lots of trade talks involving his name. Antonio McDyess is getting very old at the 5 spot. They do have guys like Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson, young posts with talent, but neither of them has proven to be a consistent NBA player as of yet.

So you figured they would go big. They wound up taking Austin Daye out of Gonzaga. He is tall, but not necessarily a big man. At almost 7 feet tall, his frame resembles Tayshaun Prince, in that he is very tall and lanky. Offensively, he is probably more suited to be out on the wing, but if he puts on muscle he could eventually play some in the post. His offensive game seems to be similar to Prince's in that he is a solid outside shooter, good pull-up jumper, and can score in a variety of ways. He is not a high-volume scorer and he will never be that prolific of a scorer, but he is a nice offensive complement with the things that he does well.

Defensively, he is not very effective right now. He is not big enough to guard good post scorers, and he's probably not quick enough to guard athletic wings. It will be interesting to see how the Pistons play him... presumably he will backup Tayshaun Prince and they will simply try to play him in a similar role. In the end, the Pistons are a team in transition... trying to rebuild while keeping a few of the pieces in place. Austin Daye could be a piece of that puzzle... in reality there was not a lot of great talent on the board when they picked. They will get a chance to slowly work Austin Daye into their rotation and hope he can develop into a quality NBA starter.

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