Nazr will likely start, so Dyess and Hunter are still coming off the bench. Trading Mo Evans plus the public support from Dumars seemingly gaurantees Delfino 10-15 mins. at the start of the season, and maybe he can live up to the imaginary hype a lot of people have spontaneously/randomly thrown his way. Since a 9-10 man rotation is what most fans think is ideal, I have to think that either Maxiell, Blaylock, or Amir Johnson will see a decent chunk of minutes.

Saunders knows he made a mistake in underutilizing the bench last year, so common sense has to take over, and hopefully this team sees a 9-10 man rotation.

As for the eastern conference:
1) I still don’t think the Heat were the best team in the conference this year. But if we learned anything, it’s that officiating can take you places talent can’t. Don’t get me wrong, the Pistons shot themselves in the foot. But Dallas was clearly superior and were about to go up 3-0 when all of a sudden EVERY SINGLE CALL went Miami’s way. Throw in Game 5 (maybe the most lopsided officiating I’ve ever seen in an NBA game) and Game 6 (where the game was close and then a couple phantom fouls were called) and Stern was rejoicing that he didn’t have to hand the trophy to Cuban. Anyhow, the Heat will still be alright, but Shaq will clearly lose a little more of his game.

2) The Bulls actually intrigue me a lot. They do have a couple guys who can score, which takes the pressure off of Ben offensively. I also think they’d be willing to run some plays to get him open layups and dunks on occasion. That’s something Flip refused to do as the season went on. I don’t think Ben’s game will ever be as good as it was, and I definitely don’t think the Bulls will be #2 in the conference.

3) I think the Cavs and Pistons are pretty even. The Cavs will rely on LeBron with NO supporting cast and the Pistons will rely on a few good guys to collectively play like a star. But the Pistons clearly have NO depth at this point. I hope Delfino looks better this year, because I thought he was atrocious last season.

This is where I see the positive in all of this. No longer can the Pistons of the last few years go about business as usual i.e. use the same 7-8 player rotation for seven months. One person who’ll be (hopefully) greatly impacted by Ben’s departure is Jason Maxiell. Like most of the non-starters, Max hardly saw the floor. But when he did he seemed to do something good - often a nasty throw down. He tries to dunk everything (which is awesome) but he’s also confident in his turnaround jumper - Max’s offensive skills are definitely better than Ben’s. He is shorter and he’ll never defend like Ben but he’s got a nice wingspan and he was a shot blocker in college (3/gm). I don’t know if he’ll be able to defend 5’s for long stretches but the league is moving to small ball, right? Anyway, Joe said he was a lot like Ben Wallace when he drafted him so let’s see him do his thing.

I’m also interested in seeing what Delfino can do with a consistent 15-20 minutes a game. Detroit should approach the regular season like Miami did. Use it to create a deep rotation, increase productivity of the younger players, and establish chemistry. They have enough talent to make the playoffs without obsessing about their seed. Improving from within would be something new for Detroit but that’s what has to happen.

Ben played almost exactly 2x the MPG of Nazr. In that time he averaged:
11.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.78 steals, 2.21 blocks, 7.3 ppg

Double Nazr’s stats:
10.4 rebounds, 1 assist, .5 steal, 1.2 blocks and 12.4 ppg

It’s clear Nazr is not the defender Wallace is, but keep in mind he’s trying to fill the shoes of a man who played the most relelentless defense for a generation. Defensive ferocity is EXPECTED of the Pistons center and I think that we may see some improved D out of Nazr.

Great observations, LanierFan. I think Boris is just jealous that Billups has a better bobblehead than he does.

Maybe losing that crutch is a good thing.

If the guards have to crash the boards and work harder on their men, good. If the team has to share the load more at both ends, good. And if the “six starters” mentality that’s hindered this team’s player development like a slowly contracting ice floe for two years is finally broken up, that’s really good.

The cliche is that teams without their star often rise to make up for the loss collectively. And Ben was hardly the only star this team had. Look for the naysayers to make an about-face during the upcoming 52-54 win season. And look for Ben to find that it isn’t much fun to have Scott Skiles chewing on his ass every day.