Detroit heads to Memphis for regular season opener tonight

October 28, 1:35 PMDetroit Pistons ExaminerDave Ryan

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(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Get ready Pistons fans, the exact same team that a unanimous group of ESPN pundits claims is overflowing with turmoil (chuckle), happen to open up their regular season tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies. After a summer filled equal amounts of both optimism and confusion, fans are chomping at the bit to see all of these new faces in action for the first time. It doesn't get much better than this folks, so dust off that old Bison Dele jersey, grab a case of your favorite beverage and get ready for some NBA basketball!

Not that it diminishes the importance of this opening game or anything, but Allen "They lied to me" Iverson won't be suiting up for tonight's contest. Shame. It would've been really nice to shut Iverson and his new squad down to kick off the year. The weird thing about Iverson right now is that there are still hordes of his fans who have his back and are willing to write the  "Detroit thing" off as an error on Joe Dumars' part, and not Iverson's. I know I've covered this before and it's probably been beaten to death by every publication out there, but I just can't get past Iverson's comments...

"They told me, straight up, 'Allen, we would never disrespect you or your career like that' by making me come off the bench,'" he said. "That's what they told me to my face. And after that, I never thought about it again. I just went back to playing. Then, they came to me saying that they felt it would be in the 'best interest of the team' if I came off of the bench behind Rip "

As far as I know, the coach makes the decisions on which players get on the court at what time. Just because Dumars and Michael Curry might have told Iverson that he was a starter when he arrived in Motown doesn't mean that he deserved to keep that same job 20-30 games later. This only happened because the Pistons were under the belief that the trade would work out in the long-run. The fact remains that every time Iverson started a game and the Pistons lost, team morale fell through the floor. The decision to drop AI from the starting lineup wasn't some devious act devised by Dumars in an effort to ruin his career, it was because the guy simply wasn't living up to his own hype. His contract was clearly up after the season, and it made perfect sense for the sake of the franchise to sit sit him down and forget about the miserable trade. Why are both sides so hell-bent on blaming the other? The way I see it, it's a 50/50 split. The Pistons made a boneheaded deal to get a guy who they never should have went after in the first place, and Iverson basically quit on the team when they told him he was needed off the bench. Seems to me like everybody screwed up.

With or without Iverson, the Grizzlies are one of the more explosive teams in the league. Athletes like Mike Conley Jr., O.J. Mayo and Rudy Gay all look poised for career seasons. Then there's rookie Hasheem Thabeet, a 7'3" monster who looks like the NBA's next great shotblocker. And yet, playing defense looks like an afterthought once again in Memphis, so expect plenty of points on both sides. You can watch all of the action at 8pm ET on Fox Sports Detroit.

Not Playing
G - Allen Iverson (Hamstring, 3 weeks)-Memphis
F - Darrell Arthur (Pectoral, 4 months)-Memphis

Stopping Memphis

The Grizzlies love to get out and run with the basketball, and they certainly have brought in the correct weapons to suit that style of offense. But when they scooped up Zach Randolph to be their starting power forward, it essentially told the rest of the NBA that defense was far from a priority. Randolph is notorious for being one of the laziest defenders in the NBA, so Pistons big men should go right at him from the opening tip. The key with an inexperienced team such as the Grizzlies is to force them to take bad shots, preferably from the three point line. Mayo and Gay are each dangerous from behind the arc, but they never seem to both get hot in the same game. It's always one or the other who has a big performance, and you can usually beat this team if you keep one of them contained somewhat. The smart money is on bottling up Gay, who is more reserved and doesn't exactly have a killer instinct yet like Mayo does. Guarding Gay, Tayshaun Prince will likely be needed to play huge minutes tonight, since there's not much experience at the small forward position for Detroit right now. Don't fret however, as Prince's length will certainly make things tough on Gay. The biggest key to stopping him is to play as physical as possible on both ends of the floor. Gay is a finesse player who loves to attack the rim, so the more contact he endures, the further away from the basket he'll start to gravitate. If that scenario ends up happening then the Pistons have a significant advantage in this game.

Prediction

114-106 Pistons
I've never been impressed with Mike Conley Jr. as an NBA point guard, and I think he gets exposed on defense pretty badly tonight. It might be either Will Bynum or Rodney Stuckey doing most of the damage. Regardless, strong point guards who can get into the paint off the dribble present a huge issue for Conley on defense. The Grizzlies have the size and athleticism to make a game of it, but I think really think point guard play will be the reason Detroit starts off the season 1-0.