Caron Butler and DJ Augustin introduced as Pistons

Caron Butler, right, already knew what to expect when he signed with the Detroit Pistons and head coach Stan Van Gundy, left -- a reality his new teammates are learning.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

AUBURN HILLS -- There never was any question who is in charge of the Detroit Pistons after Stan Van Gundy was given the dual role of head coach and president of basketball operations. But in case anyone harbored doubts, he did exactly as he promised the first week of training camp, working his team as if to sweat out the failed culture of five consecutive non-playoff seasons.

One day, he expressed understanding that five of his holdover Pistons have had at least four head coaches now; the next day, another three-hour marathon practice awaited, longer than Maurice Cheeks or John Loyer ever ran, and even longer than taskmaster Lawrence Frank crammed in during the lockout-shortened 2011 training camp.

There is no greater authority sitting courtside and analyzing practices, or for players to use as sounding boards for quibbling complaints anymore. Tom Gores sat through the first practice of training camp but never has shown any indication of being the meddlesome owner who gets in a coach's way. Three hours was enough for him, too. He didn't return the next day.

No, there is only the boss and his staff, and their pupils, and a crash course in all things Van Gundy, which several of these Pistons certainly didn't anticipate lasting so long.

That does not include Caron Butler.

Butler knew. He played his first two years with the Miami Heat, with Van Gundy an assistant the first year and head coach the second, before Pat Riley packaged him to the Lakers for Shaquille O'Neal. Butler signed with the Pistons for his 12th NBA season to help Kyle Singler nail down the small-forward position. He also has become a senior spokesman for The Van Gundy Way, saying on multiple occasions, "Stan is the man for this job."

"As professional athletes, let's be honest, we've always been told how good we are. Everyone's kissed our ass since we've been in high school," Butler said. "But it's to the point now that this is a grown man's game and you've got to be able to take constructive criticism on the fly. And if you really want to win, and you really want to fight through adversity, and overcome it, you've got to be able to be told the things that you did good, and the things you did bad, and accept it."

Van Gundy does that willingly.

The Pistons have only one more two-a-day session, scheduled Monday, after running eight practices Tuesday through Friday, with Saturday off. The morning practice is the harder one, and Van Gundy wasn't happy with the first-day effort. He showed his team "a very short film" and was gratified by a "180-degree difference" the second day, including a couple of occasions when offense worked through multiple pick-and-roll executions on the same possession, and defense defended them all.

"I think that's the kind of practice possessions you're looking for," Van Gundy said.

The fourth day was the worst scrimmage of the week, Van Gundy said, and he acknowledged that defensive rebounding by guards virtually was nonexistent the first week. Particularly for shooting guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jodie Meeks, Van Gundy said balance between rebounding and fast break has to improve.

"We've got to get it to the point and we've got to convince them that they can do both, that they can stay in and rebound the ball, particularly on long rebounds, and then still get out," Van Gundy said.

He doesn't expect everyone to grasp everything at the same pace. Teaching is done in what he called a "whole-part-whole" method -- install the entire package and make the group work through the kinks, then break down the package and teach its separate elements, then reassemble the package -- and that process is ongoing.

It may not look good when preseason opens this week, with home games Tuesday against Chicago and Thursday against Milwaukee, but it's a work in progress.

For now, basics. Details come later.

Defense is the focus of the month, beginning with getting back in transition.

Van Gundy also has made multiple references to the Pistons' imbalance in rebounding percentage -- fifth overall in the league last season, and first on the offensive end, but only 23rd defensively -- as a sign that players didn't give the same rebounding effort if it didn't involve a chance to score. To what limited degree Van Gundy focuses on past ills, defense and rebounding have offered convenient opportunities to purge the past by preaching his method.

There has been, and will continue to be, extensive scrimmaging. Van Gundy said the values in conditioning, evaluation, and keeping players engaged can't be duplicated any other way.

"Camp can be drudgery," he said. "It's long and hard. Ours will be long and hard. But they'll get to do what they want to do, which is play the game of basketball."

It also is noteworthy that Van Gundy liked how his team worked through the worst practice of the week on Friday.

Reestablishing culture in a place once praised for that trait rests in the daily ritual of practices and shootarounds, and maximizing every one. That doesn't mean great practices every day, just honestly working toward that end.

Van Gundy is empowered to make sure that happens eventually. With the Pistons one guaranteed contract over the 15-man roster limit, the season will begin with either five or six newcomers. Of the 10 holdovers, six are in contract years, and how they embrace and fit Van Gundy's vision largely will determine who stays.

Van Gundy told his team the story this week of his first year as a head coach, 2003-04, when Miami started 0-7 and was still 25-36 with 21 games left.

"I talk to my brother all the time and he was worried," Van Gundy said, referring to his brother Jeff, the veteran NBA coach and now television analyst. "I can be pretty negative, so he was worried about me being depressed. But I kept saying to him all year, 'I don't know, there's just something about this team, they're a great practice team.' I mean, every day, you saw it."

The Heat went 17-4 in their final 21 games and won a playoff series.

Van Gundy told his players that story last week -- Butler lived it, of course -- to exhort them toward the same type of daily improvement.

"I told them that if you just have a great belief and you're a great practice team -- eventually, I don't know, is it going to be in the first week, the first month, whatever it is, I don't know, maybe it's February or March -- but if you hang with it and you're a great practice team, in terms of effort and concentration, that you'll end up being a good team," he said.

There is reason for concern about giving one man as much power as Van Gundy. Still, after the Pistons' scattered and uncertain climate of recent years, crystallization via autocracy may have been the quickest method to reverse fortunes.

No one is looking over the boss's shoulder. Only two of his players earn more than he does. It's still a player's league. But as this roster is built into something cohesive, it is very much this coach's team.

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