Fans there weren't always going to get the opportunity downtown to drive all the way up to Auburn Hills. But I wish I would’ve gotten an opportunity to play downtown because I feel as though that’s the heartbeat of the city. That’s always going to have a special part in my heart and my life. So you have all of your teams right there. I think that having all the sports teams down there, if you’re a fan of the game and you’re a Detroit fan of the Tigers, the Red Wings, Lions, Pistons, they’re all in the heart of the Detroit district. I wish that we had the opportunity to play in Detroit. What has it been like to see owner Tom Gores to make it a priority to move the team from Auburn Hills to Detroit and invest in the Detroit area? What have you seen from the identity of this team so far? But I do think we’re moving in the right direction.
They’re playing against the best players in the world, guys that have been on teams multiple years and are understanding each other’s game. Do I think it’s going to happen overnight? No. The thing that I do know is that Troy’s doing his best to go out and get the right players that fit. It’s a lot of different intangibles that people don’t look at when it comes to winning and having that type of success in the NBA. Learning a new system, coach (Dwane) Casey. Guys are not in the gym as much as they were in previous years, especially in the summertime building that chemistry. You’re learning the other guys on the team. You watch them play this season, it’s not like we’re getting blown out every game. Jerami Grant was the big offseason signing and is playing like one of the best players in the East. You look at the team now, Josh Jackson who started off in Phoenix and Memphis and is now playing well. You have Chauncey, who bounced around before establishing himself here. You mentioned yourself, starting off with the Wizards and then coming to Detroit. One thing about the Goin' to Work era is that most of its core players weren't drafted by the Pistons, but found their niche in Detroit. What has it been like to see him embrace the past? Weaver said he is drawing inspiration from those past championship teams - yourself and Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups and everyone else. I just think that he has the right mindset, but we all have to be patient. That’s what the city of Detroit is going to get behind. You need to build that identity and that culture with the team, especially in the locker room, because that’s what the fans are going to get behind. Two-way players, guys who can play on both sides of the ball. The one thing he has done, especially with a lot of changes, is bring in guys who fit that model. We’re not just going to relate to anything, but we bought into that because that’s what represents the city. The people from Detroit can identify with that. We fell in line with that, our 2004 championship team, Goin’ To Work, put on your hard hats. If you look at the previous championship teams with the Bad Boys, when we came in, the Bad Boys had an identity. Just from a conversation standpoint, trying to figure out how do we get the team back to where it was. You just look at his track record, what he was able to do in OKC and now coming over here and the first thing that I love about him, that he has reached out to the alumni, reached out to the guys. This is prior to Troy actually getting the job with the Pistons. A lot of my friends and former colleagues, especially in that area, had nothing but great things to say about Troy. and playing for the Wizards for the first couple of years of my career, and he’s a Maryland guy, D.C. How much did you know about Troy before he took this job, and what do you think so far? Weaver came in and he had a good reputation across the league for being able to identify talent.
The Pistons changed a lot in the past seven months.
0 kommentar(er)
