Detroit Pistons vs. Washington Wizards - Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015

Detroit Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince (22) watches from the bench in his first game back with the team on Sunday, but is expected to start tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

AUBURN HILLS -- When Tayshaun Prince left the Detroit Pistons in a January 2013 trade, Joe Dumars and Lawrence Frank were on the outs, new ownership was about to be forced to take sides in yet another coaching ouster, and a team for which he once won a championship and enjoyed years of competitive prosperity was broken.

That is the last memory Prince had of the Pistons, a shattered, dysfunctional unit suffering through a sequence of transitions and poor decisions, one of which he viewed as trading him, a trusted veteran of 10-plus seasons here, without forewarning one afternoon in Indianapolis.

If he seemed less than overjoyed to return in his initial press conference since the Pistons reacquired him in a Thursday trade with Boston, he said that was the reason.

"That's why there wasn't a lot of energy in my press conference yesterday, because obviously, how I left, things were upside-down," Prince said Monday, after his first practice since the trade. "When you leave a place, that kind of sticks in back of your head."

Prince again was not expecting to be traded when the Celtics sent him to the Pistons for Jonas Jerebko and Gigi Datome, and he admitted he was "pissed off from the get-go" about being traded anywhere for the second time this season.

Memphis traded Prince to Boston on Jan. 12.

Offenses don't change much but terminology does with each move.

"The last month has been some of the same plays but three different play calls," Prince said.

Prince likely will start at small forward at 7:30 tonight when the Pistons host the Cleveland Cavaliers, Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said Monday.

His first start back with the team comes in a small forward matchup against LeBron James.

Prince said he was more concerned about conditioning than his role.

"I haven't played in two weeks," he said. "That's my only concern, it's really more as far as my wind, and being able to help right away, which that's what every player wants to do once they step on the court, they want to help right away."

When the Pistons traded Prince on Jan. 30, 2013, they were pulling in different directions internally.

Hiring Van Gundy as president of basketball operations and head coach has created a different structural environment.

"I haven't been here long enough to see how everything's going," Prince said. "I know Stan is doing a good job of getting it in the right direction. I haven't been a part of that yet. So we'll see."

Days after Prince was traded, then-rookie Andre Drummond suffered a back injury and was sidelined two months. Only after Prince was gone did Drummond and Greg Monroe first start together, a delay which might have cost Frank his job as head coach.

"Those two big guys are the key to our success," Prince said. "A lot of people think it's because of the offensive side, how they finish around the rim and stuff like that, but it's the defensive end that's most important for us to keep winning."

Prince said he wants to be respected simply for being a veteran contributor "not the history and everything that I've done here."

Late-game fan chants of "We Want Tayshaun" and "We Want Prince" during Sunday's win over Washington was such an example. Prince was in uniform but had not practiced and there was no plan for him to play.

"They were chanting 'Tay' yesterday in the crowd, and stuff like that, and all the young guys were looking at me like, 'Hey, man, see how you've got it around here.' Nuh-uh. Chill out, young fella. That ain't how it is," Prince said.

Van Gundy started Caron Butler at small forward the two games since Thursday's pair of trades, one of which sent starter Kyle Singler to Oklahoma City.

Also in that trade, the Pistons acquired Reggie Jackson, which made them bigger at point guard. He and Prince gave the Pistons more size and longer arms on the perimeter.

"We're getting longer, we're getting more athletic, we're getting the kind of team I think you need to have to defend well," Van Gundy said. "Now, we've just got to be more committed to it."

The Pistons have only one floor-stretching power forward with their roster realignment, Anthony Tolliver, which could result in Prince and/or Butler playing there against smaller lineups, Van Gundy said.

It's a different environment than the one Prince left here two years ago, except for his veteran role in it.

The Pistons are in a youth movement, and have succeeded at four of five positions, save for small forward.

They will rely on a mix of Prince, Butler, Cartier Martin, NBA Development League call-up Quincy Miller, and three-guard rotations against smaller lineups to cobble together the other spot.

"The most important thing now is you saw how they've played the last couple of games, try to get them to keep playing that way, but also just add another experienced veteran to the mix," Prince said. "Hopefully, I don't just mess things up."

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