Can Dwane Casey get the Pistons back on track?
Andre Drummond grabs the rebound, stops, turns and momentarily freezes. For years, he had been used to the same routine: Pass the ball to a specific player, or turn to Stan Van Gundy to pick up the next play.
Now, there is none of that. For a second at a recent practice, Drummond thinks, "What the heck am I supposed to do here?"
The blueprint he has played with for so many years is changing. Dwane Casey, the reigning NBA Coach of the Year and first-year Detroit Pistons coach, is ensuring it, shifting from a stricter play-call offense to an up-tempo, free-flowing offense in which everything has options.nike nfl jerseys wholesale cheap
Casey believes trusting his players to be in the right positions during practice will translate to games -- particularly on the road, where noisy crowds can create miscommunication issues.
Grasping this took a moment for Drummond.
"I've always had coaches that dictate every play, like, 'This play is happening,'" Drummond says. "So it's like, 'You guys figure it out for yourself, you have a feel.' I catch myself turning around like, 'What's next?'
"And I mess up the transition because it's like, 'Oh, s---, I'm not supposed to look back because I know we can actually play now.'"
The 61-year-old isn't sure where he picked it up -- maybe in Minnesota, his first NBA head-coaching job from 2005-07 -- but it worked in Toronto. To explain how he has implementing his changes, a team dinner in Birmingham, Michigan, just before practices began at the start of training camp, might provide the best example.
In front of the team, Casey took out a stack of laminated index cards -- three for each player. On those cards -- one for the player, one for his locker and one for his agent -- Casey defined each player's role. He read each of them aloud. Everyone understood the expectations for their teammates.nike cheap nfl jerseys
"Guys, when they question their role or get confused or forget, just look at their role card," Casey says. "That way there's no confusion in your role. Just like being in a company, there should be no confusion in your role, in your alley, in your lane for what you can do to help us win or be successful."
