Pistons gearing up for home opener

Let's go guys. The Pistons open up the season next week at home against the Boston Celtics. Those hated Boston Celtics, by the way. Detroit finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference last year, but fell short in the postseason. Let's talk to current Pistons analyst, former Pistons player, Grant Long. Grant, how you doing, my man? I'm doing great. Excited about the season coming up, man. And a lot of reasons to be excited and enthused. Tuesday, the Pistons will open up the NBA season for everybody at 3 p.m. at LCA. How exciting is that, first and foremost? It's exciting, and it's an honor, too. I think it's sort of a reward for winning 60 wins last year to be able to open up the season. You know, we're the first game that the NBA community gets to see, and I think, again, that's a tremendous honor to be on the big stage. It's almost like being in the finals, so to speak, because everybody will be watching the first game to open up the NBA. 60 wins last year. The playoffs didn't turn out the way they wanted to, but this team got better in the offseason, and they might not get 60 wins, but, Grant, they could be a much better team down the stretch. I like your attitude because you're right. 60 wins last year, they fell a game short of getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. So a lot of people might look at that as a bookmark to say, get back to 60 wins, and then you proceed into the playoffs. I'd take 55 wins and get to the Eastern Conference Finals and call that a very successful season. So don't get hung up on the 60 wins because this team is a little bit different than it was last year. So I think that's the reason that you get excited and that you get enthused about what the possibilities are because at the beginning of the season, you have to think that everybody across the NBA feels like it's their year. They feel like they're good. Well, the Pistons won 60 games last year. They have a very good reason to feel like their chances of getting to that coveted trophy increased because everybody's a summer better. Everybody's made some improvements. So let's wrap it up. Let's get going and get this season underway and see what happens. And I think that's the big reason that everybody should be excited because there's so much optimism around this team and what they can do. You know what? Little Caesars Arena became, over the last season and a half, two years, the place to be. Everybody wanted to be at LCA and see the Pistons, the rebirth of Pistons basketball, one of the best teams in the NBA. And now this season, each and every night, you're going to want to be at LCA because the East is so much better than it has been over the last couple of years. And I take that as a nod to the Pistons because when you win at the high clip that they did last year, everybody behind them is saying we've got to get better if we're going to overtake the Detroit Pistons. So you saw a lot of movement. A lot of teams try to get better in an effort to try to overtake the Pistons. So, again, that's a feather in the cap for Detroit. but as you mentioned it's going to be competitive the great thing is that it's all in the east and we'll be able to see these teams three four or five times sometimes Philly's coming to town three or four times you got Indiana who is on the cusp of possibly uh coming back from their players being injured they're going to be good the Boston Celtics are going to be good Miami made a move to get Jonathan Tucker to the Bull so they're going to be good a lot of parity in the eastern conference right now so it's going to be a worth the watch and we were talking before even Indiana a little bit with Tyrese Haliburton. They made the finals two years ago. Exactly. They made it. He got hurt. They missed it last year. So there's a lot of optimism around what they could possibly do having him back in the fold. But their team is a little bit different right now too. But again, a reason to be excited is the fact that they did make the finals two years ago. So they're pushing the envelope to try to get back there. Again, that's going to make the Eastern Conference much more tougher. I can't go an entire conversation with you and not mention Cade Cunningham one of the best players in the entire NBA one of the faces of the NBA expected to take another step this season talk to me about Cade well his leadership has been on display ever since he arrived here as the number one pick a few years ago he has not disappointed anyone as a matter of fact I believe he has met and exceeded expectations when you consider where he came from as the number one pick where the franchise was when he came on board and where it is now he's had to weather some some difficult seasons some adversity 14 win season not too long ago now a 60 win season just last year and he's been the guy that's been here the entire time and you've never heard him complain about it so that's a true mark of a leader and i think that's why this team is destined to be great because he's at the helm tuesday 3 p.m tip off they are kicking off tipping off the entire nba season 3 p.m tuesday activations begin actually at 10 a.m on tuesday i'll be there you'll be there I know Little Caesars Arena will be the place to be not only Tuesday, but all season long.