Dating back to Joe Dumars' days at the helm, the Detroit Pistons have consistently excelled in the art of creating hope. The hope came from bold offseason acquisitions—from Ben Gordon to Josh Smith, would-be stars who were supposed to make the difference.
Again, the outlook is rosy. Again, there is hope. The question is whether it's well-founded this time, whether team president and head coach Stan Van Gundy can restore some pride to the franchise in his second year on the job. To do so, he may have to restore something else, too: that late '80s "Bad Boys" identity.