The Detroit Pistons added Taurean Prince over the offseason, and he’s already been quick to schedule summertime workouts with his new teammates
During the offseason, the Detroit Pistons made a handful of trades to retool during the summer, but only one deal involved another Central Division squad. When the Pistons agreed to trade Caris LeVert to the Milwaukee Bucks for Taurean Prince and Gary Harris, Detroit chose to look past their sordid divisional history so that they could move off LeVert’s contract in exchange for two cheaper deals for sharp-shooting vets.
While Harris will be returning to the state of Michigan after playing his college ball as a Spartan, Prince will be adjusting to a new state and a new squad simultaneously, but that pales into comparison to the adjustments he had to make while rehabbing surgery for herniated discs in his neck during the middle of last season.
With the seriousness of that situation in mind, Prince opted to address the issue in early November and ended up missing the majority of the next four months due to rehab. Prince needed a little time to find his form after returning to the court in March, but the longtime NBA vet was logging 30 minutes a night and scoring nearly 17 points per game during April to close out the regular season.
At that point, the Bucks had already been knocked out of playoff contention, so Prince was working alongside a lot of young players to close out the Giannis Antetokounmpo era on a positive note, if possible. But during that stretch, Prince was able to use his leadership and experience to set the right example while he took full advantage of some timely in-game repetition for the 6-6 wing.
Zeroing in on one particular late-season matchup, Prince helped lift the Bucks over the Memphis Grizzlies in a 131-115 affair on Sunday, April 5 with an efficient 19 point outburst on 7-for-8 shooting overall, which included a 5-for-5 display from behind the three-point line. Prince was dialed in from distance in Milwaukee’s 78th game of the regular season, a game that also doubled as his season-high scoring performance.
“Getting his rhythm, making plays, a bit more aggressive going down hill,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said after the game of Prince’s effort. “You would see where he wouldn’t even go downhill earlier, so this is why these games, even though we’re out of the playoffs, they’re meaningful to a lot of guys and Taurean is one of them.”
Even though Milwaukee had already been bounced from the playoff chase, Prince worked to reestablish himself as a perimeter scoring threat and valued the opportunity to be back on the court after such a major health scare, and he’s the type of player that led by example for his younger accomplices on the Bucks’ roster despite the stakes.
Now that Prince is on the Pistons, the 10-year NBA vet out of Baylor has already participated in a handful of offseason workouts with his new Detroit teammates. Footage was recently released showing Prince in the gym with Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson, but the whole group was together for a players-led mini-camp in San Diego from within the last two weeks as well. So, there’s a chance that Prince already has some chemistry built up with his primary floor general when the team’s training camp starts in full later this month.
On that note, Prince is expected to begin his Detroit career as a rotational player on the second unit, but he has clearly shown that is a role he can excel within. Prince could provide depth at the two or the three with fleeting minutes at the four if the Pistons are in a bind, so the offseason addition will serve as another quality shooter to turn to for the upcoming season.
