Bumpy roads ahead in Auburn Hills

"Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in.."  -Al Pacino, "The Godfather: Part III."

There was a time in the past few years where I had just fell out of sync with the NBA.  Moving to Mount Pleasant, less free time, a full-time relationship (now engagement), boring and uninspired regular season basketball by players who mostly didn't care; I was just about out.

Not to mention the complete decimation of the core of 2004 Championship Piston teams (starting with Ben Wallace leaving for Chicago in 2006) and Joe Dumars' inability to flip any of those starting five for anything of value.

Now, I would still watch in the playoffs and would catch "Inside the NBA" on TNT whenever I could, but the days of me being devoted to the Pistons, were mostly gone.  Maybe it just happens to most of us when we get older, maybe Ben Wallace leaving took some of love for the game as Grant Hill leaving did, whatever it was, the passion just wasn't there.


Cut to this summer where I was actively hoping the lockout would cancel the 2011-12 season and completely change the league's business model the way the 2004-05 lockout and cancelled season did to the NHL.  Its not that I hate the NBA or the sport, it just needed to hit RESET.

You wouldn't think a national book retailer going out of business would lead to my interest in the NBA being reborn but I never would have thought a black Hawaiian guy would be President, so here we are.

Walden Books in Lakeside Mall was going out of business over the summer and was having a massive liquidation sale that was too good to pass up, even considering that me and my fiancee received a Kindle for our birthdays over the summer.

On its shelves sat a paperback copy of Bill Simmons' 700-plus page love letter about the NBA, not so cleverly titled, "The Book of Basketball."  A 700-page book for $8 was too good of a deal to pass up, even though I think Simmons can come off as a major snob when it comes to the NBA, I like the guy, so I bought it.

As summer to came a close and other activities kept me from reading "The BoB," my fall semester strict "no for fun reading" was invoked and "The BoB" sat on my bookshelf until Christmas Eve.  The book that I had bought four months prior turned out to be the best Christmas present that I gave myself.  For whatever reason, Simmons' style has sucked me in like Season 1 of "The Wire" and haven't put the thing down over the past four days and the book has gotten me legitimately excited for the shortened Piston campaign, along with the addition of Kentucky rookie Brandon Knight.

My expectation were low, considering the Pistons had only won 57 games in two years and they failed to improve at all through free agency, and for some reason that only Dumars understands, the team spent $52 million on re-signing Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey.

After watching their home opener, an uninspired 105-89 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers (one of the few teams in the league with less talent) that wasn't even that close (if that can be possible in a 16-point loss at home), the only reason to watch this team is Brandon Knight.

Knight, at only 20 years old, has the talent to truly special and brings a real excitement that the Pistons haven't had in a young player since Grant Hill.  Even during their run of six straight trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons took pride in being a team of cast-offs and also rans.

Knight's 10-third quarter points and game total of 23 electrified the Palace in an otherwise depressing loss from the Pistons.  Other than Ben Gordon's 25, no Piston scored more than 11 points and other than Knight, the Piston bench tallied just two points, a garbage time dunk from Vernon Macklin with 1:24 left in the game that happened with the Pistons trailing 18 at that point.

Which brings me to my final beef, Brandon Knight needs to be either starting or playing at least 30 minutes a night.  I don't care if Rodney Stuckey and Ben Gordon make a combined $47 million* (approximate figure) this season, this squad isn't anything more than a lottery team and Knight needs the chance to grow and develop his skills, and watching Stuckey and Gordon engage in personal shooting contests wont do that.

Its going to be a long year in Auburn Hills, but for whatever reason...I'll be watching.