He acquired Iverson and paid a nice chunk of change to sign Zach Randolph. Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo, his top draft choices of the previous three seasons, had supposedly improved.

"I said to people, 'I'm going to build this team through the draft,' and we're still doing that," Heisley said. "Everybody, on one hand, says I'm too cheap to make a move. Then we had a chance to manage the salary cap and get two outstanding players who might be able to help us put a team in the playoffs ahead of time. So I did it.

"If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. As far as I'm concerned, we have to take risks."

He doesn't think Iverson and Randolph are risks.

"There are two types of risks," Heisley said. "You take a risk on a person's ability. There's the risk on character and stuff like that. If you let one of those overrule the other, you end up paying the piper. I don't feel like I'm taking a huge risk with these guys.

"There's nothing about Allen Iverson that I don't like. I admire him. I admire a guy who hasn't forgotten where he came from. I don't do that. Whatever happens, I'm happy to have him. As for Zach Randolph, I don't know how anybody could say a guy who was 20 and 10 (points and rebounds) last year is a risk."

PISTONS 96, GRIZZLIES 74: On opening night in Memphis, the new-look Grizzlies looked like they all just stepped off different buses and were introduced to each other. Except for center Marc Gasol, the Grizzlies were absolutely awful. They played lousy help defense, had no offensive flow and had absolutely no energy, darned near impossible in a season opener. Needless to say, the crowd of 17,212 -- not a sellout -- didn't rush to the ticket window to buy tickets for Friday's home game against Toronto.