g as a ball boy at train

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The Detroit Pistons can certainly attest to how long the NBA season is.

For two months , they looked like a team on the rise in the Eastern Conference during a 19-14 start that included victories at Golden State, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Boston. Then an ankle injury to point guard Reggie Jackson derailed Detroit’s season, and even a bold trade for Blake Griffin wasn’t enough to push the Pistons to the playoffs.

Detroit’s promising start now feels like a long time ago, and the big question for this offseason is the status of Stan Van Gundy, who has just one playoff appearance in four seasons as coach and president of basketball operations.

”I think we have to make changes,” owner Tom Gores said earlier this week.

It’s not clear if those changes will involve moving on from Van Gundy, who never had much of a chance to coach the Pistons at full strength after Jackson’s ankle injury Dec. 26. He didn’t come back until the latter half of March.

After faltering badly following Jackson’s injury, the Pistons acquired Griffin in a blockbuster trade at the end of January. Detroit went on a brief run after that deal but quickly regressed and finished 39-43.

The Pistons have made the playoffs only once in the past nine seasons.

”Hopefully we can have a more healthy year next year,” Jackson said.

Jackson has played only 97 games over the past two seasons, a big reason the Pistons have been unable to build on their playoff appearance in 2016.

LIMITED FLEXIBILITY

The Pistons now have Griffin and Andre Drummond locked into expensive deals, and they’ll probably need to make that combination work because they sent the Los Angeles Clippers a protected first-round draft pick in the deal for Griffin. Although there are always health concerns with Griffin, his production wasn’t an issue. He averaged 19.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 25 games with Detroit.

YOUNGER OPTIONS

The first-round picks Detroit has had under Van Gundy have produced decidedly mixed results. Stanley Johnson can provide a boost defensively but is still limited at the offensive end, and Henry Ellenson played in only 38 games this season. Rookie Luke Kennard shot over 40 percent from 3-point range , but even that felt like a missed opportunity since he was taken one spot ahead of Donovan Mitchell in last year’s draft.

BRIGHT SPOT

Drummond came into the season with a lot to prove, and he delivered with perhaps his best season as a pro. Not only did he improve his free throw shooting to a more respectable 60.5 percent, but he also averaged 15 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

NEW ARENA

This was the team’s first season at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. A glaring number of empty seats early in the season indicated that the Pistons couldn’t expect packed houses just because they were in a new venue, but the team hadn’t been drawing well at its previous home either, and the move downtown could still pay dividends if Detroit wins a few more games.

VETERAN

Anthony Tolliver did an impressive job as a role player for the Pistons this season, shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 8.9 points per game. He’s carved out a decade-long career after going undrafted out of Creighton.

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— Adam Vinatieri vividly remembers his last game against Morten Andersen.

Andersen had already logged more than 20 seasons in the NFL, was well into his 40s, nearing the end of his career and still kicking as well as anyone in the league. Back then, Vinatieri marveled at how the seemingly ageless Andersen managed to excel for so long.

Now, more than a decade later, Vinatieri finds himself grinding through his 23rd NFL training camp, hoping to join the NFL’s career scoring leader in the Hall of Fame. Andersen was inducted last year.

“I would have liked to have seen a handful more kickers and punters make it in there, but finally getting a second kicker in and Ray Guy getting in, it’s good that we have some representation in there because those guys did a lot for the league,” the Indianapolis Colts kicker said.

Andersen’s induction last year provided hope to specialists such as Vinatieri that they , too, could be headed to Canton, Ohio, one day.

Until Andersen’s selection, Vinatieri wasn’t sure. The only one other “pure” kicker to earn pro football’s highest distinction was Jan Stenerud in 1991. Guy was elected in 2014, ending the shutout for punters.

Some believe Vinatieri could be next.

His sterling resume glistens with Hall of Fame credentials: four Super Bowl rings, the league record for 100-point seasons (20) and second all-time in career scoring (2,487 points). Anderson finished with 2,544 and Vinatieri needs 58 points to break the record, which could happen at midseason if all goes well.

He owns the career record for scoring in postseason games (234), is the only player to top 1,000 points and make 200 field goals with two teams, has celebrated a league-record 225 victories, including playoffs, and made a league-high 44 consecutive field goals. If Vinatieri completes this season , he would become only the third 46-year-old player to suit up for an NFL team.

His highlight reel contains some of the most memorable kicks in league history: two last-minute field goals to win Super Bowls and the tying and winning kicks in the infamous Snow Bowl, which helped New England win the first of its five Lombardi Trophies. He has been dubbed the best clutch kicker in league history and there’s no indication “Automatic Adam” is slowing down.

“It’s ridiculous,” holder Rigoberto Sanchez said. “It’s honestly out of this world, I think. Twenty-three years in the league, still kicking the ball the way he kicks it, 60 yards out in practice. It’s unreal.”

Just how much has Vinatieri seen and done during his career?

He is the last link to the NFL’s developmental league in Europe, the one Andrew Luck’s father worked with, and one of only two players left from the 1990s. Former teammate Phil Dawson is the other.

Vinatieri joined the league before former teammates Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, still reminds people he once tackled Herschel Walker and acknowledges missing on Desmond Howard and Devin Hester as they returned his kickoffs for Super Bowl scores.

He played for Hall of Fame coaches Bill Parcells and Tony Dungy, in addition to Bill Belichick. His newest coach, Frank Reich, actually threw for 281 yards against the Patriots during Vinatieri’s rookie season in 1996.

Somehow, though, he remains the epitome of consistency.

Last year, with a new long snapper and a new holder , Vinatieri still made 85.3 percent of his field goals and scored 109 points and now he’s back with his oldest son, A.J., serving as a ball boy at training camp.

“It comes to a point where Adam is Mr. Clutch over here, so (long snapper) Luke (Rhodes) just tries to do his job right and get the 12 o’clock laces and I try to get the ball in the spot that he likes and let him do the rest,” said Sanchez, who wasn’t even born until a week after Vinatieri’s NFL debut in 1996. “He’s been kicking it straight for a long time.”

Despite the honors, the nicknames and the Hall of Fame predictions, Vinatieri knows he may still need more to follow the kicker he has been watching since his younger days in South Dakota into the NFL’s most hallowed halls.

“I don’t think it hurts, that’s for sure,” Vinatieri said. “It’s one of those things that I haven’t really though too much about it. I’m still just trying to help my team win games and keep on putting chapters in this book and if that happens, fantastic.”

NOTES: The Colts have activated starting safeties Clayton Geathers and Malik Hooker from the physically unable to perform list Thursday. Both were coming off knee surgery. … Guard Jeremy Vujnovich also was activated from PUP. He had been out with an injured calf after starting all 16 games last season.
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