Piston Weekly Watch: Gordon & Villanueva Investment Return

The Pistons have rolled off 3 straight wins in their third week to raise their overall record to 5-4.

The Pistons defeated the 76ers 88-81 and the Bobcats 98-75 at the Palace. They earned their first road victory in a hard fought battle at Washington 106-103.

Richard Hamilton (ankle) and Tayshaun Prince (ruptured lower back disc) were out again this week with their injuries.

It hardly seemed to matter as the Pistons stepped up their play. The rookies Jonas Jerebko and Austin Daye have been holding the fort down at the small forward position with Jerebko starting and Daye coming off the bench. DaJuan Summers, who has been working hard in practices, is being inserted into games now to begin gaining experience and earning his stripes.

Ben Wallace has been the Pistons’ defensive and rebounding heart, playing like the Ben of old in an average of 30 minutes per game.

Kwame Brown has continued to contribute solid backup play for Wallace at center providing a defensive and rebounding presence and garbage points.

Jason Maxiell had a solid week also with quality defense and rebounding and some scoring with a midrange shot and low post game.

Will Bynum continues to spark the Pistons off the bench with two monster dunks against Charlotte that made the ESPN highlight reel. He has also contributed assists and rebounds along with his scoring.



Rodney Stuckey has contributed with modest points and assists production and excellent rebounding at his position. He has also played excellent defense at both point guard and small forward when Coach Kuester employed the 3 guard lineup.

Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva have combined, though, to carry the Pistons offensively, scoring over half the team’s points over the last week. Touted as excellent scorers and indifferent defenders coming into the season, Gordon and Villanueva have also worked hard on the defensive end, contributing to the Pistons’ defensive averages of 89.62 points per game (fifth best in the league) and 0.471 field goal percentage for opponents (third best).

Both Gordon and Villanueva have committed to playing defense with the Pistons and becoming all around players.

This week shows that Joe Dumars’ decision to sign Gordon and Villanueva as free agents during the past offseason was another stroke of his low key genius.

Tayshaun Prince is expected to be out of the lineup indefinitely, receiving treatment on his lower back and being evaluated on the need for surgery. Richard Hamilton is expected to return on the tail end of the Pistons’ upcoming 4 game West Coast trip. He will miss the Pistons’ 11-15-09 Sunday game at the Palace against the Dallas Mavericks. When the Pistons open their West Coast swing on 11-17-09 against the Los Angeles Lakers, time will tell.

The young new-look Pistons are showing excellent progress at coming together under Coach John Kuester.

Next week’s opening game at the Palace and the upcoming West Coast trip in which the Pistons play the
Mavericks, Lakers, Trailblazers, Jazz, and Suns will be a stern test that would challenge even the accomplished Piston teams of the Going to Work era.

If the first few weeks are an indication, the new Pistons will compete from beginning to end in each game.

Also available on Midwest Sports Fan

Not bad.

This young Piston team is better than I expected.

Looking forward to seeing how it stacks up in LA on Tuesday.

Crusher wrote:Looking forward to seeing how it stacks up in LA on Tuesday.

Same here.

I won't be surprised to see Artest erupt when he gets matched up with Jerebko. Jerebko has a way of getting under people's skin.

Piston Boris wrote:I won't be surprised to see Artest erupt when he gets matched up with Jerebko. Jerebko has a way of getting under people's skin.

That's why Mitch brought Chuck Person on board: to manage Artest.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do for the players you got on your squad.

Great writeup Boris.

Any word on when Prince and Hamilton will be back?

Nice blog, Boris. This Pistons team has been surprising, to say the least, and Ben Wallace has been the biggest surprise of them all, in my opinion.

ucatchtrout wrote:Great writeup Boris.

Thanks! I just try to tell it like it is.

ucatchtrout wrote:Any word on when Prince and Hamilton will be back?

Prince is out indefinitely. Before it was said Hamilton could return on the tail end of the Pistons' West Coast swing. Now they've rescinded the timeline and are back to saying that he's day-to-day.

The team and fans will just have to carry on till whenever either or both Prince and Hamilton come back.

IMHO, I won't be surprised if Prince is out for most of the season because of his lower back.

Cavalier Marcus wrote:Nice blog, Boris. This Pistons team has been surprising, to say the least, and Ben Wallace has been the biggest surprise of them all, in my opinion.

Glad you think so, Marcus.

The Pistons are surprising in part because they're so now, they're unpredictable unlike the older Going to Work squads who'd fallen into a routine.

The new Pistons have potential and they're having a blast making it come out on the court.

But no one predicted Ben would do as well as he has. Not even Ben himself.

I'm enjoying the ride so far.