Just a year ago, the Detroit Pistons were coming from a 59-23 record in the regular season - 2nd best of the NBA and they had just lost to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals by 2-4, despite having won at Boston in the first game of the series (they were the only team to win in Boston in that Postseason). With the same core of players, they were ready to make another run through the Championship, when GM Joe Dumars decided that the Pistons didn't have an adequate team to win the championship and decided to trade Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson.

We already know what happened to this team last season and so I will not take any action in criticizing Joe Dumars, as he has another plan for this franchise and this includes the 2010 free agency. However, the Pistons decided to give to Ben Gordon almost the same money that Billups was receiving in Detroit and this needs some reflection at least. One of the reasons for such disastrous season last year was the fact that Dumars elected a rookie coach Michael Curry to be the head coach of a veteran team. When you have a championship caliber team, you need your head coach to be a battle tested coach who can bring some experience for the team. Instead, the Pistons had a young coach still in the middle of a learning process. The result was evident: hundreds of poor coaching decisions and a divided locker room.

For this season, John Kuester will be the Pistons' head coach and like Curry, this will be his first season as a NBA head coach. Last season, Kuester played a major role in helping Cleveland to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, but at least he won't have the pressure to win it all, like Curry had.

The biggest off season addition for the Pistons was without a doubt Ben Gordon, who is that kind of player who only has one specialty: scoring. Even though he is a streaky shooter, when he is on-fire, he is practically unstoppable. But when he is cold, he insists in taking bad shots. The biggest example of that is to look to the playoff series between the Bulls and the Celtics last season. In the game 4 of the series, the Bulls defeated the Celtics by 121-118, with Gordon connecting 10 of 22 from the field, however in the next 3 games, he converted only 17 of 58 FG's - 29 % from the field! Nevertheless, he led the Bulls in scoring for four years in a row and last season, he averaged 20.7 points per game, while shooting 45.5 % from the field.

With Gordon now in Detroit, we have to automatically wonder what will happen with Richard Hamilton. In a disastrous season, Rip Hamilton led the Pistons in scoring with 18.3 ppg and he's one of the toughest guards to defend in the league. However, Hamilton is averaging 33.3 minutes per game on his career, while Gordon is averaging 31.4 mpg so, unless the Pistons are planning to play some overtime games, someone will have to play less minutes and this could be a problem for the team chemistry. I remember that both Gordon and Hamilton don't have playmaking abilities and they are undersized to play in the Small Forward position.

Without Chauncey Billups, Rodney Stuckey is the Point Guard of this franchise. However, he didn't have a great season last year by averaging 13.4 points per game and dishing only 4.9 assists per game. He shot only 43.9 % from the field and he lacked to be consistent, as he averaged 15.6 ppg and 6.3 apg in December, but only 9.6 ppg and 3.6 apg in February. But let's not forget that Stuckey was playing only his second season of his NBA career and he was a starter for the first team on his NBA career, having the tough task of replacing the former leader of the team, so we can only expect better numbers from him in the future.

Joe Dumars also signed Charlie Villanueva in the off season and that is a clear sign that Dumars wants his Pistons to be a more offensive team in the future because Villanueva isn't exactly known for his defensive skills. Last season, he enjoyed his best career season in Milwaukee by averaging 16.2 ppg and 6.7 boards per game. He can shoot from anywhere, but he lacks aggressiveness for a player who will play in the Power Forward position. His backup will be Chris Wilcox (another free agency signing) and despite he is an athletic big man with a lot of potential, the fact is that he has never lived up to the expectations and this will hardly change this season with the Pistons.

Tayshaun Prince is one of the last pieces of the 'real' Pistons and his presence will be enigmatic this season. We all know that this new Pistons' version will be noted as an offensive happy team and Prince is well known for his great overall defense. How will this work for Detroit this season?  He is a pretty durable player, as he didn't miss a single game in the last 5 seasons (!) and he's a great piece for a championship caliber team. He's been on the NBA's All-Defensive Team four of the last five seasons. If the season goes wrong for the Pistons, I wouldn't be surprised if Prince gets involved in trade rumors before the trade deadline.

For the center position, the Pistons have Kwame Brown and Ben Wallace and surely this isn't the strongest position of the team. Brown will probably get more minutes than he really should this season and he will be forever thankful to Joe Dumars for signing him when he doesn't really belong to the pro basketball elite. Talking about Ben Wallace is talking about an one dimensional player who is far from being as effective as he was on his prime on his strongest department: defense. He is battling through several injuries in this stage of his career, but at least he can bring some hustle and passion to this team.

The Pistons drafted Austin Daye with their 15th pick and he is a hard-working kid who can learn something from Prince. The problem for him is that the Pistons have a lot minutes to give to the backcourt players (Hamilton, Gordon and Prince) and Daye will struggle to earn his minutes.

The Pistons have a completely new team for this season and an once defensive force in this league is now trying to be a terrific and scary offensive team. This transformation won't be easy at all, but the Pistons have three veteran players (Prince, Hamilton and Big Ben), who know how to win and they will try to implement a winning dynamic on his team mates. Team chemistry killed them last season and it will be their biggest challenge for this season. Forget about those days where the Pistons were a lock to be in the top of the Eastern Conference, as right now they will be satisfied by earning any kind of a Playoffs spot.