Ask someone with the Detroit Pistons to explain a season that has skipped from good to bad to good again faster than Ben Wallace’s 'fro styles and the answer falls from their lips before you’ve finished the question: "Don’t know."

This isn’t a media stiff-arm, though the team lost some of its love for the Motor City press when the players' commitment was questioned after a 2-12 run followed a 14-6 start. That’s why they didn’t tell anyone about the Jan. 12 players-only meeting that inspired the current 18-5 surge. But also credit their reticence to the fact that it’s either play dumb or launch a list of loopy answers that would make John Nash -- the psychotic math genius, not the former GM -- seem lucid.

Coach Rick Carlisle keeps it simple: "We’re a team of many different parts. Tied together we can beat anybody. Not tied together we can get beat badly by anybody."

The easiest synopsis of Detroit's stomach-lurching season would be that Carlisle recognized the team had a soft opening schedule with lots of practice time and prepared the team accordingly. When the schedule toughened with a long trip West, a team with too many new parts to fully grasp its strength stumbled. After losing to the Lakers and Celtics by 29 and 14 points, respectively, the players gathered before facing the Hornets and agreed to get back to basics, summarily toasting Charlotte by 28.

With this team, though, there are no straightforward equations. Besides a first-year head coach, they’ve got seven new faces -- and it should be eight, considering Jerry Stackhouse barely resembles his old self -- but still got out of the gate better than teams that stood pat. Carlisle, a strong coach-of-the-year candidate for his effect on Jerry Stackhouse alone, is an offensive wizard but the source of the team’s success has been a defense overseen by assistant coach Kevin O’Neill.

They are one of the league’s worst rebounding teams, even though Wallace is flirting with the individual title. They are ninth in the league in team field-goal percentage (44.9), even though their top two scorers, Stackhouse and Cliff Robinson, barely shoot better than 40 percent. A recent USA Today summary of the best benches in the league didn’t mention the Pistons, even though they have the league’s top scoring reserve squad. And while point guard has become the most important position under the new rules, they don’t really have one.

"We aren’t trying to figure it out," says veteran guard Jon Barry. "But we play playoff-style basketball already, so when we get to the postseason we have to like our chances."

Just don’t ask them exactly what they are.

AND ONES:

Brian Winters, Warriors interim coach, won’t be back next season. Questions remain about GM Garry St. Jean’s status. Meanwhile, the Warriors are so intent on getting Duke point guard Jason Williams that they passed on a deal that would've landed them Travis Best and a No. 1 pick for Marc Jackson. The fear apparently was that Best might've helped them win a few games, which would've meant a few less ping-pong balls. Re-signing Best also would've threatened to put them over the luxury tax while simply letting him walk would've been bad PR for a team needy of point-guard help whether or not it gets Williams. ... For what it’s worth, the deal that the Bucks turned down for Nick Van Exel and Raef LaFrentz would’ve cost them Sam Cassell, Joel Pryzbilla and Tim Thomas, who would’ve been then packaged with Tariq Abdul Wahad and Avery Johnson to Dallas ... The Blazers’ surge is being credited, in part, to coach Mo Cheeks using the recent skein of negative press about the team to forge an us-against-the-world bond. Having Scottie Pippen back from injury to run the offense has helped mightily, too ... Former Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy could resurface behind the mike for NBC before the season is over.

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ric.bucher@espnmag.com.