Morning Shootaround: Pistons 2011-2012 home opener edition!

The Pistons open their home for the 2011-2012 season tonight against some team from Cleveland I've never heard of before. In observance of that, let's do a little morning shootaround. (Apropos of nothing really, I'm having amusing flashbacks to about 13 years ago when one of my best friends ripped off his really cool tear-aways prior to one of our AAU games only to reveal he was wearing nothing but tighty whities. Mannnn, was he embarrassed.)

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• Believe it or not, Lawrence Frank doesn't like people getting too worked up over a team's bad start to a season:

"I think that's one of the most grossly overrated things in basketball," he said. "Philadelphia had one of the worst starts you could have [last year]. Bad luck, the perfect storm, yet they came back and made the playoffs.

"One of the worst starts you could have" got Frank canned. But he's right in the sense that the Pistons can't let one game affect their next like it sounds they did last year when they blew a seven point lead in the final two minutes of the opener. However, he could be bracing fans for the worst -- take a look at the Pistons next ten games after tonight's.


• I mentioned in the recap the other night that it'd be good for Ben Gordon to get into a rhythm of shooting 10-15 shots per game. I should've just said 15 shots per game because that's the only way to maximize a shooter like Gordon. Gordon had a bounce back season last year in terms of shooting percentages, but was underused -- Gordon needs to find that early swagger.
• My favorite part of the Austin Daye interview Watson linked to is where Daye talked about working out with Kevin Durant:

"KD just loves hoop ... "


Probably a typo, but it'd be cooler if it wasn't. "How U? Good, I love hoop."

• Yahoo!'s Kelly Dwyer on Pistons season opening loss:

  The Pistons are a bit of sad right now. Rodney Stuckey ran his usual with 17 points, and Jonas "Ders" Jerebko got the start and 17 points despite looking a little less bounce than he did before his season-killing injury from 2010-11, but the Pacers just seemed primed for something special in this win.

  Blasphemy.
• Pistons want that home-court love and feeling back at The Palace this season. Like they've done for years when the team isn't attracting fans, they'll roll out some music entertainment tonight -- The Temptations featuring Dennis Edwards, Mike Posner, and Taio Cruz.
• Ben Wallace hasn't lost a step in his limited minutes through two preseason games and a regular season game, but he's also providing leadership off the court, mentoring the young players.
  Hopefully we can see Macklin earn some minutes and he can show us what he's learned from Big Ben.
• Speaking of young bigs, I would like to see Keith Benson in a Pistons uniform, very much so.
• Screenshots aren't very good at showing how one reacts to a P&R. Monroe, who was in foul trouble minutes into the first game, only defended a couple P&R's in the opener (one was in the form of help defense, too) and it was one of his stronger suits last season.
• Congrats to Wrong DaJuan on making the Hornets. Tough luck, Terrico.
• I watched the Jazz-Lakers game last night, expecting to see the Lakers fall to 0-3, seeing as they were playing their third game in three nights and the Jazz were opening their season. Nope; the Lakers won by 25. Man, the NBA is weird. At least Kevin Harlan, with no regard for human life, impersonated The Penguin.
• Everyone's swooooooning over Ruuuuuubio.
• In case you don't hate the Heat enough, here's their season intro video, which includes plenty of sweaters, Shane Battier with double (possibly triple!?) popped collars, Mike Miller, Chris Bosh, and LeBron's chin.
  
• We can all take solace in the Celtics being 0-2.
  
  MFMP will be by shortly with the 'stons-Cavs preview full of talk about Ramon Sessions' assist to MFMPboner ratio.