Joe Dumars has his Pistons in the playoff with the top seed in the Eastern Conference and in order to do so again in the future, he will aim to keep his core group of players together.

"I have no intentions of breaking up our core," said Dumars, "It's not so important to break up the core as it is to keep adding to the core. Usually when you break up a core, it's because you don't like the core any more. That's far from the case with me.

"That's why I look at our team and believe you have to keep adding to the core," Dumars said. "That's how you stay fresh. That's how you continue to be one of the elite teams. That's how you can lose a guy like Ben Wallace (now with Chicago) and still come back and have the number one seed in the East (Conference)."