Pistons entered training camp eager to erase bitter sendoff Restless Summer by Keith Langlois Editor’s note: Pistons.com looks back at the 2007-08 Detroit Pistons season with a month-by-month review, starting with training camp and concluding with the Eastern Conference finals, which the Pistons reached for the sixth straight season. Part I: October. AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Joe Dumars sent the Pistons into what he intended to be a restless summer of 2007 with a firmly delivered and unambiguous message: Shape up, fellas. Hard work and a common goal got us a championship in 2004 and brought us painfully close a year later, but we’ve strayed too far for comfort from that model. “Complacency,” he said, was out. The off-season couldn’t have gone much better for Joe D and his staff. They got the guy they targeted in the draft, Rodney Stuckey falling all the way to the 15th pick, the one Orlando owed them in the Darko Milicic trade. With their own first-rounder, they plucked someone Dumars believed lived and breathed Pistons ideals – Arron Afflalo embodied hard work and an instinctual desire to sacrifice body and statistics for the only goal that mattered, winning. Point guard Chauncey Billups’ free agency was wrapped up quickly and neatly. Because Ben Wallace – along with Billups, the face of the reclamation project Dumars undertook when he assumed the office of president at the turn of the millenium – had bolted as a free agent the summer before, Pistons fans spent an angst-filled season believing the worst for Billups, as well. With his point guard in tow to ensure his present, Dumars tacked left to ensure his future by signing second-year forward Amir Johnson – stolen with the 56th pick in the 2005 draft out of high school – to a three-year extension after his NBA D-League exploits had fanned interest from numerous NBA franchises, reigning champion San Antonio foremost among them. And just when his roster appeared set, Dumars in August added Jarvis Hayes, a fourth-year player crowded out in Washington by an abundance of perimeter scorers and the addition – one pick after Stuckey – of Southern Cal gunner Nick Young. Hayes was looked to for two things: quality minutes behind Tayshaun Prince at small forward and a scorer’s mentality off the bench the Pistons hadn’t had since Jon Barry led the group he dubbed “The Alternatorz” in the early days of the Dumars reign. That was the bunch Flip Saunders greeted when training camp opened on Oct. 2. While NBA observers were abuzz over the flurry of off-season activity that had imported no less than a virtual All-Star team to the Eastern Conference – Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to Boston, Zach Randolph to New York, Rashard Lewis to Orlando and Jason Richardson to Charlotte – the Pistons thought their roster calibrations again made them the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. Joe Dumars targeted Eastern Washington guard Rodney Stuckey in the 2007 NBA Draft, eventually snagging him with the 15th overall pick. And, among the veterans, there was both a sense of relief that Dumars still believed strongly enough in them to keep them intact and a sense of reinvigoration from the promise of help arriving in so many different forms. “No question,” Billups said when asked if he saw Dumars’ summer as a tacit vote of confidence. “As we look at the run we’ve had, the things we’ve done, you just don’t let that go. It’s crazy that a bad season for us – losing in the Eastern Conference finals – is like a dream season for 28 other teams. We’ve raised the bar really high and we’re happy about that. “When people talk about our run being over, they look at it as we have older guys on the team, and we did. But now you look at bringing in some really, really talented younger guys. That’s going to enable us to strengthen our team and to lengthen our run. I think it’s a great move.” Partly because “complacency” was ruled out and partly because so many fresh, young lions were there with the promise of merit-based playing time, the Pistons also came to camp in fighting shape. Dumars, one day just before camp opened, poked his head out of his office to the practice facility’s court, looking for Rasheed Wallace, and asked, “Where’s Slim Jim?” Wallace had shed more than 20 pounds in the off-season, as had Jason Maxiell. “No question, as a team we’re in much better condition than a year ago,” Saunders said. “Not even close.” The first sour note of training camp came at the end of the fourth day’s second practice session when Johnson came down hard on a teammate’s foot and rolled his ankle. He would miss the preseason – time missed that cost him a chance to compete for his spot in the rotation. As October wound down, an even more serious blow was absorbed. In the final preseason game, Stuckey – who in that game against Washington flashed star potential – came off the floor holding his left hand immobile and grimacing. In a completely freak accident, he’d gotten his hand caught inside an opponent’s jersey while fighting through a screen and suffered fractures on three fingers. The initial prognosis: four to six weeks on the sidelines. “I remember looking at him and saying, ‘I think he’s figured it out,’ ” Dumars said afterwards. “He was so good in that game and you just sat there and realized he’s figuring it out real quick what he’s able to do and how much impact he can have on a game for us. … When guys get injured, it’s a shot to the gut and then you hear he’s going to be out for several weeks. You sit there and kind of swallow hard. It is what it is.” That black cloud aside, the Pistons left October eager to start a new season and erase the bitter pill of their Eastern Conference finals ouster to Cleveland, when they lost four straight after taking a 2-0 lead and got pushed into a restless summer on the biting words of their boss. 活塞队带着渴望抹去难堪季末的心情进入训练营 没有休息的夏天 本文作者：Keith Langlois 作者注：Pistons.com 已一个一个月轮流的方式回顾今年(07-08)的活塞球季，从训练营开始到连续第六次进入的东区决赛结束。第一部分：十月： 奥本山，Mich。—Joe Dumars 坚定地传达了一个含糊不清的讯息：「表现好些吧，各位！凭着努力，以及一个共同的目标，我们成为了总冠军，也在一年後带给了我们痛苦的结束。不过，我们现在从原来的模子中走失了。满足，已经『下台』了。」并以这番话将活塞队送进了他所打算的2007一夏无休。 而这两季交替之间的时光不能再好了。Joe D 和他的工作人员获得了他们想要在选秀中获得的球员。Rodney Stuckey一路掉到第15顺位—魔术在Darko Milicic的那次交易中欠活塞的选秀权—才被活塞选中。而透过原有的第27顺位选秀权，活塞队选了Arron Afflalo。Dumars相信Arron Afflao是最适合活塞队的人选，因为他能够努力工作，且拥有牺牲身体与数据的本能，只为了完成一件大事：赢球。 控球後卫Chauncey Billups的自由球员很快的被处理妥当。因为Ben Wallace—和Billups同样是改造计画中Dumars在千禧年接任总裁时就着手的部份—在前一年就脱离球队而成为自由球员，令球迷们也为Billups做最坏的打算而度过了一个不安的球季。 随着控球後卫想要保障他现在的生涯，Dumars也变的更激进欲保住他的未来。在Amir Johnson的NBA D-League年功绩结束时，许多球队都对他产生了兴趣(圣安东尼奥马刺第一个找上门)，所以Dumars签下了他—这位在2005年选秀以第56顺位「偷得」的前锋—的三年延长合约。 当Dumars的名册要确定时，他又在八月增加了Jarvis Hayes及北卡的射手Nick Young (从巫师队签来的)。Jarvis Hayes是由於华盛顿州已有太多边缘射手而被排挤出来的。而他在活塞被期望做到两件事：代替下场後的Tayshaun Prince，以及当他不在板凳上时的得分者心态。而现在的板凳是自Jon Barry带领球队—在Dumars治理活塞的早期被他封为The Alternatorz的团队—以来活塞队所一直没有的。 这是Flip Saunders在十月二日训练营开始时所迎接的。当NBA球迷正在活跃地讨论球季结束後的旋风，也就是东区不逊於明星队的阵容—Ray Allen和Kevin Garnett到了波士顿，Zach Randolph到了纽约，Rashard Lewis到了奥兰多，而Jason Richardson到了夏洛特，活塞队把全体球员再仔细思考一遍，并藉此让球队在东区维持佼佼者的姿态。 Joe Dumars仍然相信活塞队的老兵们并愿意努力维持现在的阵容。他也从各方不同形式的援助感觉到了振作。 「毫无疑问。」Billups在被问到他是否把Dumars的这一夏视为无言的信任时，他如此回答。「当我们回顾我们的连续演出和我们已完成的，是决不可能就让他这样过去的。这是一件很疯狂的事。一个不佳的球季—我们东区决赛的败战—对另外28队来说像是一个梦幻的球季。我们把这个障碍提到更高的难度，而我们为之欢喜。」 「当人们说我们的连续演出要结束时，他们只看到我们这一群『老人』，虽然我们的确是。但是现在应该看看我们新得的天赋异禀的年轻球员。这将增强我们的队伍并延长我们的连续演出。这真是伟大的一步。」 部分原因是「自满」被消除了，另外的原因是有如此多的年轻虎将，随着优质的场上时间，抵达了，活塞队以战斗阵形参加训练营。Dumars在训练营开始的前一天，把头伸出办公室外找寻Rasheed Wallace时，如此询问：「『Slim Jim』在哪？」 Wallace在球季後减了20磅的体重。Jason Maxiell亦是如此。「没问题，现在全队的状况比之去年，好太多了。」Saunders如是说。「和去年可差的远了。」 训练营的第一个噩耗是Johnson因为重重的踩到了队友的脚而扭伤了自己的脚踝。他失去了球季前的准备时间，也失去了竞争轮流上场的机会。 当可以放松一下的十月到来，更严重的事发生了。在最後一场季前练习赛时，Stuckey—在对上华盛顿巫师队潜力明星的比赛中—摔倒在地，左手无法移动而脸部现着奇异的鬼脸。在这个完全反常的意外是因Stuckey在掩护对抗时手不慎卡在对手球衣中。 最初的诊断预估是：四至六周内不可打球。 「我还记得我看着他，说：『我觉得他找出了诀窍。』」Dumars事後说。「他打的如此好，让你只需坐在一旁看他，发现他非常快地找出了他能做到的事和他能在比赛中给我们的影响(印象)。球员受的伤像一发直接命中他的子弹。然後你听到他必须休息数周。你又只能坐着，努力吞下这事实。这就是这样。」 撇开乌云般的噩耗，活塞队离开了十月，渴求新的球季来抹去上一季东区冠军赛悲惨回忆—2-0领先却被逆转，然後就被推进老板训话中「没有休息的夏天」。 --

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