<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>oe Dumars knew he wasn’t replacing Ben Wallace’s numbers or contributions when he responded to Wallace’s free-agent defection in July 2006 by signing Nazr Mohammed. He figured he was adding another big body to a frontcourt that would plug Big Ben’s void by committee. And for the first two months of the season, Mohammed was producing at right about the level Dumars expected. Through 33 starts, Mohammed gave the Pistons 7.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 19.6 minutes a night. Then Chris Webber fell into the Pistons’ lap, a possibility too tantalizing to ignore. </p> Mohammed not only fell from the starting lineup, but from the rotation altogether. In the 46 games that remained after Webber joined the team, Mohammed didn’t leave the bench in 31 of them, reaching double digits in minutes played only twice, once in the last home game of the season when Flip Saunders rested many key players. </p> Mohammed enters training camp fighting for minutes again. Though he’s the only true center on the roster, a changing NBA and the fact the Pistons have four players commanding minutes whose natural position is power forward – Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson – means it’s possible the Pistons will quite frequently be playing without a natural center.</div></p> Source: Pistons.com</p>
