Optimism is universal on the eve of training camp. Every team starts out believing it will fill the upper end of its expectations.

But the Pistons haven’t had expectations like this since … well, since there were players on the team whose jerseys now occupy space in The Palace rafters, guys with names like “Billups” and “Wallace.”

If Stan Van Gundy actually wrote out the speech he gave his team Monday afternoon, before he and his players talked to reporters on media day, it undoubtedly would have carried “Why not us?” as its title.

As in, why can’t the Pistons win the fourth NBA title in franchise history – and not just somewhere down the road. This season.

“What you don’t want to do is have a ceiling on this group,” Van Gundy said. “I look at it and say I have great respect for what’s out there. We know how difficult it’s going to be. Cleveland has won a championship. Toronto was really good and competitive with them. Boston’s added Horford. I get it all. But at the same time, I look and say, ‘Why not us?’ ”

There’s no doubt how that message was received by the players Van Gundy has assembled in two years on the job and massaged into a team that’s gone from 29 wins to 44 and the playoffs.

So, yeah, optimism is universal across the 30 NBA training camps ready to roll. But Monday’s mood at the Auburn Hills practice facility went beyond wistful optimism to full-blown confidence.

“We just talked about,” Stanley Johnson said. “We want to win a championship. We’re not going to come out and do training camp and go through 82 games to fall short. We want to be the last team standing, holding the trophy up. That’s what would make us happy. We’re not going to stop until we can get that.”

Those last three sentences fairly echo the mission statement Tom Gores uttered at his introductory press conference as Pistons owner five years ago. No wonder he was smiling so widely when it was his turn at the big table Monday.

“It was great to hear,” Gores said. “I can’t do it myself. They have to feel it. More than any other year since I’ve been the owner, I’m not sure we’ve had this kind of core. Stan has really created a great culture. We added some great bench players. They have great chemistry. At the same time, we have to go to work. No one’s going to give us a win.”

Oh, they got that part of the message, too. Van Gundy talked about it. He grinned when I reminded him his stated goal for his first day of training camp two seasons ago was for his team to get back on defense in a timely manner. They’re a little further ahead of the game now, but he’s still as mindful as ever of the importance of the tenets of offense and defense that hang over the practice court.

“You have to understand that it’s a new year and you have to go through the process and you can’t skip steps,” he said. “We made the point to the guys that this isn’t a continuation of last year. We don’t start at 44 wins and the eighth seed. You start at zero wins and no guarantee of anything.”

“We’re at zero and zero right now,” Andre Drummond said. “As of right now, nobody’s done anything. We need to come out with the same mentality, even better, and try to play, not worry too far ahead and take a step at a time.”

They mostly went their separate ways when last season ended with the first-round playoff loss to Cleveland, but stayed in touch with each other as is increasingly easier to do in this age. They gathered in Southern California for a week of team bonding centered around Navy SEAL training in late August and, to a man, they say they left feeling like a band of brothers already.

“It was huge for me,” newcomer Ish Smith said. “We’re right there. I’m not being facetious. I’m not being crazy. But we have a really, really good chance to be champions. I know people might think I’m crazy, but I mean, that’s what I got out of it – we’re really, really close. Coach is going to push us to another level, but just being out there in Malibu, we’re right there.”

Up and down the roster – a roster whose oldest player, Aron Baynes, is a mere 29, with Marcus Morris the oldest starter, having turned 27 a few weeks ago – players feel more confident in their individual games, too.

Somebody told Tobias Harris that he’d heard from his teammates that they expected him to bust out this season.

“This summer’s been real productive for me,” he said. “It’s been a big summer. And just like people are expecting that, I’m expecting that myself.”

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said much the same. But, being Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, he said it in very few words.

“I’m very confident in anything I do,” he said.

And on it went. When they weren’t literally saying “why not us?” they were effectively saying exactly that. They’re optimistic, as is every team in the NBA on Sept. 26. But they’re a good deal more than that.

“If we’re willing to do what it takes and people take a step forward and we commit defensively, why not us?,” Van Gundy said. “That’s my outlook.”