Pistons forward Austin Daye's mission: Bulk up for next year

Since the Pistons drafted Austin Daye two years ago, he has grown about a half-inch.

Still just 22 and almost 7-feet tall, the Pistons and Daye would like to add bulk to his 205-pound-plus frame.

Armed with a regime from Arnie Kander, the team's strength and conditioning coach, expect Daye to fill out about another 20-pounds or so over the next two years.

"He asked me once if I could do something to slow down his metabolism," Kander joked last week. "As he gets older he'll naturally add more weight."

Right now Daye has a problem that most of us would like to have -- he sheds pounds quickly during the course of the season.

"He was probably up to 215-pounds by the start of the season," Kander said of the forward who's in line to replace Tayshaun Prince at small forward if the veteran free agent leaves.

"By the end of the year he had probably lost close to 10 pounds. ... He'll gain weight during the summer, guaranteed, every year. The problem is once you start to run during an NBA season, you're going to lose at least 10 of that during a season just because of the nature of the schedule. You're constantly running, not much recovery and all of that.

"After two years of an NBA life, the body starts to adapt and it starts to learn it has to push through different levels of soreness. He has to be able to eat when the body is extremely exhausted and tired. You have to push fluids when you can't put anymore in your system. It's as much a mental adaption as it is a physical one."

On the court, Daye started the season at power forward, which proved to be a disaster, but by the end of the year had found a role as a scorer off the bench.

He finished the year averaging a respectable 7.5 points per game along with 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists. He started 16 of the 72 games he played, and become a clutch shooter in a couple of fourth-quarter victories for the Pistons.