In Stan Van Gundy’s off-season exchanges with Josh Smith, he’s gleaned Smith’s restlessness with his public perception. He’s gently nudged Smith to the conclusion that the way to change it is to lead the transformation of the Pistons. Do that, the rest takes care of itself.

“He wants to be a leader. He wants to prove that he can help lead a team to success,” Van Gundy said Sunday, the last of five days with two practices scheduled in Pistons training camp.

“He was a part of some good success in Atlanta. He didn’t get a lot of credit for that, not as much as he feels he should have. So this is an opportunity for him now. The only point we made – and he understands it as well as I do – is to get that kind of credit, you have to win. That’s the bottom line. You have to win and then people start looking at you differently.”

No current Pistons player has ever cracked an All-Star roster, but Smith came close more than once in Atlanta. As a 10-year veteran, it’s fair to say he has the most impressive career resume of any of his teammates. It makes sense that he’s emerging as a Van Gundy disciple and leader. It figures that Smith’s demeanor during the early practices of Van Gundy’s reign will resonate with his teammates.

“He’s working hard. He’s trying to really step up defensively,” Van Gundy said. “I think he’s trying to take some leadership and maybe even more so today made some very good passes. He’s getting back down the floor defensively. I think he’s trying to do the things we want done and I think people notice those things. Everybody talks about leadership in terms of what people say, but it really starts more with what they do. Obviously, people have noticed.”

Part of that was Smith showing up, as Van Gundy requested of everyone, in early September to start forging team chemistry and soaking up the Van Gundy way. Veterans are often particular about their off-season workouts – ex-Pistons like Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton, for instance, rarely trained in Auburn Hills in the off-season – but Smith was quick to comply.

He called the three-hour practices challenging, even fun. But …

“Our main concern is we want to concentrate on getting better more so than the fun aspect of it because I think for five, six years, this team has had a lot of fun. But not a lot of winning, so we’re more focused on the winning.”

Further, he says he’s willing to play whatever role Van Gundy sees as most likely to lead to winning. Even if that means coming off the bench as Van Gundy looks to get the most out of Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Smith.

“I’m not really necessarily concerned with it. I’m more so about winning than anything. I can only be the best player I can be under Stan Van Gundy’s system and that’s how I’m taking it. Whoever starts, it really doesn’t matter to me. I know that I’m going to get a lot of playing time and a lot of minutes, probably finish a lot of games. So starting doesn’t really matter.”

Van Gundy hasn’t completely written off the possibility of the three continuing to play together, he reiterated Sunday.

“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We talked about it today. We won’t do it the first three (preseason) games, for sure. But then, getting to some things, a package where we can play all three of them together and see if we can be more effective than a year ago playing that lineup. Everything’s on the table right now in terms of what we do, both starting and rotation wise. We’ll just have to see where we go.”

One thing Van Gundy knows with certainty: Smith is a critical component of the top-10 defense he intends to field.

“I certainly think that he’s capable of being as good a defender at the forward spot as there is in the league,” he said. “He’s got quickness, he’s got the strength to play people down on the low post, he’s a shot blocker. There’s really nothing he can’t do. There’s no reason to me he couldn’t be a first-team All-Defense-level defender. If that’s something he were highly motivated to do, I don’t think there’s any doubt he could get to that level.”