How many times in the last six years — with the last four coaches — has the Detroit Pistons' locker room resembled a toxic waste dump?
The dysfunction often exhibited on the floor spilled over from the infighting, backbiting and general pettiness within a poisonous environment. Before Stan Van Gundy can mold a winning basketball product on the floor, he must first clean up that mess.
And that's why signing Caron Butler, 34, was the new coach's most important off-season move.
When Butler interacts with his new teammates, it's as though he's channeling Van Gundy — administering praise with an eyedropper so as not to foster complacency. He was quite complimentary of rookie Spencer Dinwiddie's professional debut last week. Of course, the Pistons' second-round pick in the June draft wasn't in the locker room yet.
"You didn't hear me say anything good about you, did you?" Butler asked Dinwiddie as the 13-year veteran got up to leave the locker room.
"No," Dinwiddie answered.
"Good," Butler chirped, breaking into a devilish smile.
Butler sneers at the suggestion that he's a locker room mole for Van Gundy. A hidden snitch could just as easily tear apart a locker room as a player openly assassinating the coach's influence in the locker room. It's not Butler's responsibility to hold clandestine meetings with Van Gundy, sharing notes on which players not doing what they're supposed to do.
What's most important in this dynamic is that the coach finds the right player that shares his vision and trusts the methods the player uses in conveying that message to his teammates. The best thing Van Gundy can do is stay out of Butler's way and let players run the locker room.
Van Gundy doesn't have a stronger advocate in that locker room than Butler.
"I love honesty," Butler said. "Stan is not a guy who's going to stand around and pump fake you. He's going to give it to you straight."
Van Gundy was Butler's head coach in Miami in 2003. A second-year player, Butler thought he knew everything. He was an All-America at Connecticut, drafted 10th overall in 2002 following his sophomore year. Butler surrounded himself with sycophants, cliquish apologists constantly assuring him that he was destined for immediate stardom.
And contributing to that impression was a rebuilding franchise with a first-time NBA coach — a time-proven recipe for players hearing but not actually listening.
"Youngsters are constantly being told how good they are," Butler said. "When that happens, they're not getting the constructive teaching and instruction they need."
But Van Gundy never hesitated keeping the rookie professionally grounded, never lacking areas where Butler must improve. It's an approach that can work only with athletes capable of a little honest self-awareness. Butler possessed such depth, distinguishing the difference between criticism and coaching.
That becomes a valuable commodity for a Pistons franchise lacking such complexity in the many coaching regimes preceding Van Gundy. The coach needs the right player to explain to everybody else why he is doing what he is doing.
"Stan's going to be straight up, right in your face with a direct explanation as to why he's doing this," Butler said. "He's telling you 'This is what it is. This is what I expect. This is your role. This is the identity of the team. If you don't fit in, then maybe this isn't the place for you.' The criticism's going to be honest. It's going to be real. As a player, that's all you can ask for."
Butler arranged for a team dinner at a swanky Washington restaurant the night before an exhibition game earlier this month. The purpose of the meeting was educating everybody about what he has learned about Van Gundy, appreciating the man as much as the message.
He'll never look happy. Butler recalled the Heat winning 20 out of 24 games in his first year with the Miami and Van Gundy never once cracking a smile. He'll relentlessly push and pound the players. But Butler assured them that Van Gundy won't "BS them."
Perhaps a little more direct honesty can help eradicate the stench of past Pistons teams.