The Detroit Pistons are in another rebuilding phase, with longtime president Joe Dumars out and Stan Van Gundy taking over both as chief executive and coach. He inherits a roster that remains largely intact, with the addition of some much needed 3-point shooting.
Brandon Jennings, Josh Smith, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe are all back. Jennings and Smith are either untradeable or Van Gundy isn’t interested in selling low, while Monroe took the somewhat unprecedented step of spurning long-term contract offers and financial security, instead signing his one-year qualifying offer. Monroe either wants out of Detroit, thinks he can net himself a maximum contract next summer, or both.
Free agent signings were solid but unspectacular, the rotation will be reworked and additional moves are likely. But can one of the best coaches in the NBA take over a team with the fourth-worst record over the past six years and turn it into an actual playoff contender?
Here are five things to watch from the Pistons.
1. The Stan Van Gundy effect. Van Gundy took over a 25-win Miami Heat team and finished 42-40 in year one. He 
took over a 40-42 Orlando Magic team and went 52-30. Van Gundy has never had a losing record and never missed the playoffs.
Van Gundy had Dwyane Wade entering his rookie year in Miami and Rashard Lewis taking the offensive pressure off of Dwight Howard in year one in Orlando. While he comes to Detroit with an enviable piece –Drummond – he doesn’t have the kind of skilled player to build an offense around.
Instead, Van Gundy must make his odd pieces fit together. Detroit’s strength is its bigs, and Van Gundy has spent his first offseason trying to find players that complement them. While the offense has been overhauled, the defense must improve with nothing but better coaching. Detroit finished 25th in defensive efficiency last season and will rely on most of the same players.
When Van Gundy went to Orlando, he was able to build a top defensive squad despite playing Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu more than 3,000 minutes apiece. It just goes to show how far a team can go built around a dominant paint presence and good coaching.
2. The defensive growth of Andre Drummond. The Pistons will go only as far as Drummond can take them. That might be a lot to ask of a 21-year-old, but that is often the case with budding NBA superstars. Drummond is well known 
for his freakish athleticism and non-existent offensive game, but his biggest deficiency is at the defensive end. In his two seasons Drummond has actually proved to be an extremely valuable offensive force thanks to his ability to rebound and finish at the rim (think Tyson Chandler), but he has yet to become an impact defender.
Yes, he blocks shots, but Drummond is prone to lose his man, is late on rotations, and plays smaller than his 7-foot frame would dictate. Of the 75 players who defended at least five shots at the rim per game last season, Drummond allowed his opponent to hit 53.1 percent, ranking 52nd.
Some of these defensive shortcomings are a team-wide issue attributable to poor coaching. Prior defensive game plans were an incoherent mess. Van Gundy, meanwhile, is known as a meticulous coach with a track record of defensive success and has already molded one big man into an elite defender. The players are now out of excuses, and if Drummond doesn’t take the next step on that end of the floor, it says more about Drummond than it says about Van Gundy.
3. The end of the Big Three experiment. When fans talk about a “Big Three” it is usually a positive. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami; Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker in San Antonio; Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen in Boston. Detroit tried its own version of a “Big Three” – in size if not in stature – and the results left a lot to be desired.
Dumars signed Smith to the biggest contract in franchise history and asked the 6-8 big man to play small forward and 
guard the perimeter. It did not go well. Smith hoisted a career-high 265 3-pointers and converted only 26.4 percent for one of the worst 3-point shooting displays in NBA history. But even more disappointing was Smith’s perimeter defense. He constantly was sagging off his man and ball-watching, allowing his man wide-open 3-pointers and easy cuts to the basket.
The Pistons were a pretty good team when only two of their bigs were on the floor. In 1,540 minutes with any duo of Drummond, Monroe or Smith, the Pistons outscored opponents by 36 points. But in the 1,360 minutes all three were on the floor, the Pistons were outscored by 185. This obvious fact eluded the now-unemployed Maurice Cheeks and interim replacement John Loyer.
Every indication from Van Gundy is that the Big Three experiment is over and either Monroe or Smith is coming off the bench. How he will create a workable three-man rotation, find enough minutes for each player and who starts and who finishes games remains to be seen.
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4. Improved 3-point shooting. New additions Jodie Meeks, D.J. Augustin, Caron Butler and Cartier Martin are all deadly from long range, especially above the break. They will be joined by Kyle Singler, who was one of the most deadly 
corner 3-point shooters in the NBA last season. Van Gundy’s teams have always prioritized the 3-point shot, and he’s rebuilt his squad from one of the worst perimeter teams (29th in the NBA last season) into perhaps one of the best.
This is especially true of the underrated signing of Jodie Meeks. Not only is he a good long-range marksman (38 percent career including 40 percent last year) but he is prolific. Meeks has never gotten much recognition in the NBA, but in the past two seasons he’s hoisted 746 3s, more than all but 17 other players. Quality and quantity are just what Detroit needed, and he brings more than just a jump shot.
5. The point guard battle. The Pistons have spots up for grabs all over the floor, but nowhere is the fight more interesting than at point guard between Brandon Jennings and D.J. Augustin. Jennings is young and has proven to be a superior passer, but his defense is nonexistent and his decision-making late in games is highly suspect.
Augustin, meanwhile, came out of nowhere in Chicago to drag the Bulls’ struggling offense into the playoffs. He’s also a much better defender than Jennings and can execute in the pick-and-roll style that Van Gundy prefers. If Van Gundy can turn Jennings into just an average defender and emphasize that he look more for his teammates than shoot off-balance jumpers, Jennings could be one of the better point guards in the NBA. But if he doesn’t defend at an acceptable level, he will quickly lose his starting job and maybe even a spot in the rotation.
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Sean Corp is an editor at DetroitBadBoys.com. You can follow him on Twitter @Sean_Corp. You can also find Detroit Bad Boys on Facebook and follow @DetroitBadBoys on Twitter.