Last Season: The Pistons streak of six-straight Eastern Conference finals came to an end as the Cavs easily swept Detroit in the first round of the playoffs. They went from 59 wins two years ago to just 39 last year. The trade of Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson was a complete failure and signaled that the Pistons are now resigned to rebuild after their amazing run in the East.

Acquisitions: F Charlie Villanueva, G Ben Gordon, C Ben Wallace, F Chris Wilcox, F Austin Daye, F DaJuan Summers, F Jonas Jerebko

Departures: G Allen Iverson, F Rasheed Wallace, F Antonio McDyess, C Amir Johnson, G Arron Afflalo, F Walter Herrmann

Starting Five: F Charlie Villanueva, F Tayshaun Prince, C Kwame Brown, G Richard Hamilton, G Rodney Stuckey

Bench Mob: Ben Gordon, Will Bynum, Ben Wallace, Austin Daye, Jason Maxiell, Chris Wilcox

Most Interesting Man in the World: Charlie Villanueva – The guy has alopecia areata, aka he can’t grow any hair. A 6’11 Dominican who doesn’t have eyebrows? Sound pretty interesting to me. Then there’s his Twitter addiction. He loves it so much that he actually tweeted during the halftime of a game against the Celtics last year.

Over the Hill: Ben Wallace – Since leaving Detroit in 2006, Wallace has been a big disappointment. Last season with the Cavaliers he was practically non-existent, especially during the playoffs. Moving back to the Pistons might make for a good story but for a guy whose entire career is based on athleticism on the defensive end, it can be changed by the fact that he’s 35 years old.

Ready to Break Out: Charlie Villanueva – This pick is out of sheer necessity. Villanueva is the only inside scoring threat they have now that Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess left for greener pastures. Villanueva averaged 16.7 ppg and 6.7 rebounds last season for the Bucks and he has a good chance to improve on those numbers this year.

Outlook: This is not the same Pistons team that was a perennial contender for years prior to last season. The only remaining pieces are Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. They have a lot of unproven commodities and it’s unclear how they will mesh as a team. How will new head coach John Kuester balance their guard situation? Stuckey will be the starter and run the point but last year he played more like a two-guard. Gordon was unhappy coming off the bench last season but will be doing the same for a worse team. Kuester better find the right balance between these two and Richard Hamilton or things could get ugly.

They have the talent to make it back to the postseason but no chance of getting past the first round.

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