The Detroit Pistons are not even a lock for the playoffs but they could be the dark horse in the East.
While many will question this assumption, it should be recalled that the last time Stan Van Gundy coached a quality center, they went all the way to the NBA Finals.
Andre Drummond is fast projecting to take the role that used to belong to Dwight Howard, and SVG is mentoring him to be a beast. In the season opener against last season's Eastern top seed, Drummond scored 18 points and collared a menacing 19 rebounds.
The AP report (h/t CBS) stated that "the Pistons, who haven't had a winning season since 2008 and finished 28 games behind the Hawks a year ago, began to pull away just before halftime. They led by double figures through most of the final two quarters and held on despite missing 20 of their last 22 shots from the field."
The dominating performance was led by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was not really expected to lead the scoring surge with 21 points. For this, fansite Detroit Bad Boys gave him an "A" in their player grades.
"KCP caught fire in the third quarter and was the driving force behind the Pistons extending their lead," DBB stated. "He scored 21 in the game on 7/14 shooting including 4 threes. He also held Kyle Korver to just 7 points on 3/9 shooting. This is exactly what the Pistons were hoping for out of their starting shooting guard."
The Pistons were expected to try and look for more outside shooters in the offseason, but Van Gundy had enough faith in Caldwell-Pope.
Marcus Morris, who is known as the less talented twin brother of controversial Markieff, seems to be right at home in Motown with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Stern warning to the Eastern Conference powers-don't sleep on the Pistons or end up on the losing end like the Hawks