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There's almost a week until the Detroit Pistons open the 2014-15 NBA regular season in Denver. In the meantime, he's a recap of what transpired over the Pistons preseason.
October 7th
Pistons beat the Bulls
The Pistons opened up their preseason against their long time rival the Chicago Bulls. Though he played for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup, the primary story of this game for most basketball fans was the return to NBA action for Derrick Rose. For Pistons fans, it was seeing what Stan Van Gundy had up his sleeves. The game was a back-and-forth grind out game (as is tradition between the Pistons and Bulls) with the Pistons barely coming out on top, 111-109.
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October 9th
Pistons beat the Bucks
A year removed from the trade, Jennings visits Milwaukee and the Pistons get to see how Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton are doing. The Bucks controlled the first half until the very end. The Pistons came out of the 3rd firing and never looked back. Middleton made us question the trade (Knight not so much) and KCP led the Pistons in scoring with 20 points as the Pistons won 94-80.
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October 12th
Pistons lost to the Wizards
In a game that was back and forth, the Wizard barely pulled out a win against the Pistons. Drummond beasted, Moose moosed, and Pope was on his way to another good game. Unfortunately, KCP slipped and injured his knee. The Pistons ended up losing 91-89.
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KCP Injures Knee
In a spot on the court that seemed to cause multiple Pistons to slip, KCP went down with a knee injury. Thankfully, there was no structural damage and he should return for the start of the regular season.
October 14th
Jodie Meeks out 8 weeks with back injury
After playing the first game of the preseason, Meeks had to sit out a couple of games due to stiffness in his back. Further tests identified multiple stress fractures in his vertebrae.
October 15th
Pistons sting the Hornets
In a game that started out sloppy, the game was never close after the first 6 minutes of the game. SVG experimented with this game, starting the Big 3. Drummond and Smith ended up with double-doubles and Monroe finished with an efficient 13/6 as the Pistons beat the Hornets 104-84.
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October 17th
Pistons lost to the Magic
In SVG's return to Orlando, the Magic brought back Piston nightmares of last season's 4QCs. The Pistons were only trailing by 2 entering the fourth quarter. While Josh Smith had his worst game of the preseason (1-7, 1 rebound - though 7 assists), Monroe had his best game of the preseason (10-15 for 24 points to go with 10 boards, 3 assists, a steal and a block). This was another game where SVG started the Big 3, but it ended up in a Pistons loss, 99-87.
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Pistons and Celtics trade expirings
In an effort for the Pistons to shore up the center position (due to uncertainties on Aaron Gray's heart condition) and for the Celtics to shed a little bit of cash, the Pistons traded Will Bynum to the Celtics for Joel Anthony. With Dinwiddie close to playing status and the efficiency of Jennings (at least passing) and Augustin, Will Bynum was looking at the end of the bench (not that it looked much better considering all of the guards Boston had already). With Monroe out the first two games and no updates on Aaron Gray's condition, a big was needed to spot Andre Drummond in the first two games.
October 18th
Pistons beat the Hawks
Josh Smith returned to Atlanta (where Packey was in attendance) as the Pistons barely surpassed the Hawks. SVG decided to bring Monroe off the bench in this game trying to get ready for the first two games of the season. All three bigs had good games capped with Drummon's 9-14 for 19 points, 17 boards and 3 blocks. The Pistons outscored the Hawks by 12 in the fourth quarter to win by 4, 104-100.
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October 20th
Pistons waive camp invitees
The Pistons had 20 players in camp with them and they're only allowed to start the season with 15. With 16 guaranteed contracts already, the Pistons waived the 4 camp invitees Hasheem Thabeet, Brian Cook, Lorenzo Brown and Josh Bostic.
October 23th
Pistons beat the Sixers
In a game that should have been a blowout, the Pistons barely scraped by the Sixers. Both teams were injury depleted. The Sixers were without MCW and Joel Embiid while the Pistons were without Meeks, KCP, Gray and Jennings. And Spencer Dinwiddie gave us a glimpse of some efficient PG play. The Pistons didn't pull away until the final two minutes of the game and eventually won 109-103.
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