Detroit Pistons: Why The Pistons Will Be Worth Watching This Season
There’s definitely some excitement in Detroit these days, although it’s been universally agreed upon that the Pistons’ offseason moves were questionable (at best).
From a statistical standpoint, it seems like adding a 27-year-old forward who has averaged 15 and eight for his career and adding a 23-year-old point guard who has averaged nearly 17 and six for his career wasn’t a bad plan for a franchise that hasn’t been better than .500 for since 2008. However, landing two of the most enigmatic and frustrating lefties in the game could cripple the Pistons for a handful of years.
Personally, I’m not endorsing the moves, but as a fan, it’ll be interesting to see what new coach Maurice Cheeks can do with this group. Even if they aren’t any good and all we see are a collection of comical mental mistakes and a boatload of left-handed jumpers clanging off the back iron, this team will still be worth watching this season.
Instead of trying to evaluate how the team will fit together, which seems nearly impossible at this point due to all the questions regarding starting spots and rotational minutes, let’s take a deeper look into their five most interesting players:
While the much-maligned Smith is the owner of a flawed and perplexing game, he is serviceable as a third or forth option. From his third year in the league to last season, Smith averaged 16.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.1 blocks and 1.4 steals per game, while shooting 47 percent from the field, 28 percent from the 3-point line (yikes), and 64 percent from the charity stripe. At this point, it’s become obvious that Smith’s perimeter skills work against his game as a whole, causing him to wander out on the wing instead of using his strength to repeatedly jockey for position down low (a la Zach Randolph).
The way the Pistons choose to use Smith will be interesting, as whispers of a three-big lineup of Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond seems nearly impossible to make work, but will certainly be worth watching. Both Monroe and Smith pass better than the average big man and Drummond has freakish athleticism, so if Mo Cheeks can somehow find a way to make those three work together, it would create mismatch problems on both sides of the floor, resulting in some fine Detroit shootouts, something we didn’t see much of even when the Pistons were an elite squad.
Statistically, I expect Smith’s numbers to stay around the same, and even if the three-big lineup doesn’t work, a three-man rotation inside with each guy playing 32 minutes a game would still provide some excitement. Aside from Smith’s numbers, it’ll be worth noting if he and Jennings can take on the task of being on-court leaders, something they failed to do on their previous teams.
Two years ago, when we knew Brandon Jennings was set to be a restricted free agent this summer, we figured this guy would command big dollars in a market that was sure to be filled with teams that swung and missed on D12 and CP3. Well, it didn’t turn out like that for Jennings (although there were a lot of swings and misses). Last season really killed Jennings’ image and wallet and although his numbers weren’t noticeably better or worse than the year before, his lack of improvement and his disappearing acts cost him big money in free agency.
Can Jennings still emerge as a very good point guard? I think he could, but the odds are probably on the wrong side of 50/50 at this point. Jennings has been electric at times, showing quickness and craftiness with the dribble and the pass, but he’s a volume shooter that puts up poor percentages and rarely gets to the line. Last season, he shot about 40 percent from the field and 38 percent from the 3-point line, but he’s shot as low as 32 percent from distance over the course of a season (2010-11), while jacking up 5.3 long balls per game over the course of his career. Much like Smith, Jennings has a boatload of potential that has yet to be refined and maybe the change of scenery will do him some good. If it doesn’t, then watching him lazily and single-handedly shoot his team out of games will serve as a reinforcement to NBA junkies everywhere that talent isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (one of the many beauties of basketball).
Greg Monroe
Monroe is still just 23 years old and heading into just his fourth season as a pro, but he seems like he might be the odd man out in Detroit; I can’t tell you specifically why, it just seems like a possibility after the signing of Smith and with Monroe becoming a restricted free agent this summer. The former Hoya brings so much to the game with his ability to score in the post, rebound consistently, defend and to top it all off, he’s one of the better passing big men in the league (dished out four or more assists 37 times last season, including an 11-assist game that gave him a triple-double last November). Offensively, Monroe isn’t dominant, but he’s definitely above average and consistent, scoring 10-plus points in 70 of 81 games last season, while averaging a career-high 16 points a game.
When his team improves (whether that be the Pistons or wherever he lands next), I think Monroe will serve as a glue guy and a great teammate. Is he a No. 1 offensive option? Of course not. Is he a second option? On a mid-level Eastern Conference team, maybe. Would he be an ideal third option? Definitely. Hopefully, Cheeks can use Monroe in a creative high-post role, where he can serve as a facilitator and elbow jump shooter (a la David Lee or Marc Gasol), which could take some play-making responsibilities away from Jennings, softening the workload on the young point guard.
Monroe certainly doesn’t possess the physical gifts that Smith and Drummond do, but he has the polish that they both lack. He has a throwback game that’s fun to watch if you’re a basketball purist. If everything goes right for the Pistons, Monroe will emerge as an All-Star this season and lead the Pistons back to the playoffs (my odds on both those things happening are 6-to-1 in case you were wondering).
Andre Drummond
The former first-round pick amazingly dropped to the Pistons in the 2012 NBA draft and despite already having Monroe, Detroit picked the best player on their draft board (in case you forgot, Dion Waiters shockingly went fourth to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Terrance Ross was picked eighth, although most mock drafts had him in the mid-to-late teens or early 20s). Last season, at age 19, Drummond played in 60 games for the Pistons, averaging a respectable 7.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Compare Drummond’s numbers to LaMarcus Aldridge’s rookie season, where as a 21-year-old he averaged 9.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, and you realize how Drummond’s modest statistical success is extremely encouraging.
Drummond is a freak athletically and at 6’10” and 270 pounds, you can barely see his ceiling with binoculars. Who is Drummond going to turn into? We can only speculate on that, but hopefully he amounts to something more than JaVale McGee. Although Drummond is already heavier than the 25-year-old McGee, their athletic gifts are similar to one another. McGee has spent his NBA career trying to block every shot that goes up (running himself out of rebounding position much to the chagrin of George Karl last season), catching alley-oops and after five NBA seasons, he’s proven to be nothing more than a backup center. Hopefully, Drummond, who has more overall talent, girth and more guard skills than McGee ever did, amounts to something more than just a darling of 30-second highlight shows, but the possibility of turning into a McGee-like center still remains.
This season, it’ll be interesting to see how Drummond’s post game evolves and how much he impact a game defensively. With his size and strength already being up to par by NBA standards, it’s his skill level out of the post (or with a face-up game, but judging by the way he shoots free throws, I think the post looks like a better option) and his overall knowledge of defensive positioning that will be interesting to watch evolve over the course of the year. Will he become another JaVale McGee? Will he become an non-entity offensively and just become a great defender like Tyson Chandler? Or will he put everything together and become one of the better centers in the NBA, taking the crown from D12? Noting his progression throughout the season will inch us closer to that answer.
Kantavious Caldwell-Pope
KCP (I don’t know if he already has that nickname, but he should) was statistically successful in his sophomore season at Georgia, averaging 18.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, while hitting 84 3-pointers in 32 games. Georgia finished just 15-17 on the year, going 9-9 in SEC play, and the fact that Caldwell-Pope couldn’t lead his team to a better record is something of a red flag. Great players can lift their teammates to new levels and he didn’t do that. That being said, he isn’t a play maker; He’s a pure scorer. Detroit needs someone who can fill it up from the wing and he might be able to fit the bill.
As of right now, the Pistons have combo guard Rodney Stuckey as their likely starter at the 2 and Josh Smith as their likely starter at the 3. Off the bench, they have 6’8″ second-year wing Kyle Singler (who surprisingly played in all 82 games for Detroit last season and averaged 8.8 points and four rebounds a night), veteran Chauncey Billups (who if healthy could see some minutes at the 1 and the 2) and two more rookies in Luigi Datome and Tony Mitchell (probably more of a 4, but he could see some minutes at the 3); In other words, there are minutes available at the wing for Detroit’s 2013 first-round pick.
As a fan, it’ll be interesting to see how Cheeks decides to use the young scorer. Last season, I criticized coach Lawrence Frank early in the season for playing Jason Maxiell more than Andre Drummond, as it was obvious that Frank was just trying to save his job, instead of aiding in the development of Drummond (you can’t really blame Frank for trying to save his job, but you can blame the league for constantly using recycled coaches and using them as scapegoats). Will Cheeks show faith in KCP early in season or will he go with Singler in the same role? At this point, the Pistons need to develop a wing and Caldwell-Pope was their top-10 pick, so he should get a chance to win a reserve role that gives him 15 to 20 minutes a game from day one. Personally, I think he should have a chance to start, as Stuckey has proven time and time again that he’s nothing more than a decent backup combo guard. Hopefully, Caldwell-Pope is part of the team’s early-season rotation and becomes an All-Rookie performer on a successful Pistons team (hopefully for Pistons fans, but not probably)
To sum this whole mess up, for better or worse, the Pistons will be worth watch this season. Detroit’s moves this offseason were definitely questionable, but maybe, just maybe, Cheeks can get the most out of this talented roster. I haven’t seen too many people come out and endorse what Joe Dumars has done this summer in free agency, but maybe he knows something we don’t. Whether he did the right thing or not this offseason, there’s a reason to tune into Pistons’ basketball this year.
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