NBA Power Rankings: 2014-15 Eastern Conference Forecast
By Shane Young
10. Detroit Pistons — 36-46
“Fun” wouldn’t be the way to describe the wait for Greg Monroe to be signed through free agency. Everyone is glad it’s over with, and Stan Van Gundy should feel relieved nobody else took a crack at him for a steep price. Being a restricted free agent this summer, some GM could’ve pulled him away from Detroit.
People will look at Monroe as an offensive power forward that can’t defend, but that may not entirely be the case. The Pistons, as a unit, were shameful and abysmal at getting stops last season. In Defensive Rating, they finished 25th by giving up 109.7 points per 100 possessions in the East, where the offenses weren’t as high-powered. In points allowed per game, they were third-worst overall, allowing 104.7 a night.
Putting all of that into an individual perspective for Monroe, he still recorded a positive Defensive Real Plus-Minus (0.87). That number was higher than who? The glorified Anthony Davis, who just so happened to play on another appalling defensive team. Monroe’s speed and agility need to highly increase, and there’s no better mentor for this group than Van Gundy. After all, he has the best experiences handling big men in Orlando. Well, at least until the nightmare started.
Brandon Jennings may have a little bit of hope, since he began to transform his game into more of a point guard fit for the team. Still, he’s battling with the deficiency of poor shot selection when he wants to score, but we should all be a proponent of better coaching. He now has to come face-to-face with Van Gundy every day in practice, and this is the same coach that got the most out of Jameer Nelson, Courtney Lee, and Rafer Alston in 2009.
The Pistons are now have their head on their shoulders frontwards, instead of backwards.
Given that Andre Drummond and Josh Smith attempted 629 total free throws last season, how many would you have guessed they nailed?
Any human being would guess in the neighborhood of 375 or 400, if you knew Drummond was hopeless at the line. When I told you 297 was the answer, I would expect a heart attack. That’s just 47.2 percent combined from the two cornerstones of the team, per say.
Smith doesn’t belong with this lineup, and it’s the primary reason his name was in trade rumors when Van Gundy took over as president and head coach.
The amount of wins this team produces in the upcoming year, which is slated at 36, has everything to do with Jodie Meeks‘ spot-up shooting and knowledge of moving without the ball. It also has much to do with the promise Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has given Detroit in the Summer League, and how he’ll get more chances without Stuckey there stagnating the offense and being unreliable from beyond 20 feet.
Of all things Detroit will do to give them this +7 increase in win total from the previous year, the most impressive will be them finally figuring out how to use their physically alarming frontcourt to an advantage.
Up to this point, it’s been misused and overrated. National television may want to start putting these guys on when they become a cohesive bunch.