Detroit Pistons: No Time For Hero Ball
By Adam McGee
The Detroit Pistons went down 89-79 to the Denver Nuggets Wednesday night in a disappointing but not entirely surprising opening night defeat. It was the start of a new era marking Stan Van Gundy’s first competitive game in charge as coach in Detroit, yet there weren’t a whole host of positives to take forward.
If anything, the game acted as a stark reminder of how just much work there is for Van Gundy and his team to do if they are to push themselves back towards relevance.
Although there were multiple problems with the performance, one aspect in particular stood out. Josh Smith had a good game overall, doing his best to keep Detroit in it with his 25-point, five -rebound and three-assist effort.
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Sure, it was an admirable individual performance, and shows the team have players capable of elevating their play and taking control, but the real question is, is that how the Pistons really want to play?
With a roster packed with talent but no real coherency, the Pistons have had a slew of “hero ball” performances over the past twelve months. It’s easy to blame results on players not fitting together, but the reality is, that if they don’t approach games as a team, fit becomes irrelevant.
The Detroit Pistons need to become more consistent when it comes to scoring and sharing the basketball, and there are a number of reasons why this could benefit them.
Let’s return to last night’s game as an example once again. At the end of the first quarter, Josh Smith had 15 points. It was an outstanding burst of scoring, but it was never going to be sustainable.
After that start, Smith, naturally started to attract greater attention from the Nuggets on offense, and instead of letting that play to their advantage, the Pistons attack clogged up.
The Pistons had a terrible shooting night, averaging 36.9 percent from the field, and 23.1 from 3-point range, yet the stat that highlights an inefficient offense making bad choices is the assist tally of only 15. Some might argue that that’s just a product of missed shots, but last night it wasn’t.
It was indicative of Detroit playing static offensively, and not creating easy opportunities for themselves.
When people marvel at the San Antonio Spurs, and their success “in spite of” the “Big Three’s” advancing years, they’re truly missing the point. If you’re a professional basketball player, age isn’t as much of a factor if you’re always left with an easy shot, and that’s exactly what the Spurs do.
San Antonio swing the ball around until a great opportunity presents itself, and when it does, they couldn’t care less if it’s falling to Tim Duncan or Boris Diaw.
Aside from Smith, only Andre Drummond and D.J. Augustin reached double figure point tallies last night, and that’s simply not enough to win a game in the NBA.
Stan Van Gundy has spoken about his desire to get the Detroit Pistons firing from behind the 3-point line, and has signed players accordingly, but unless he can get his squad moving the ball, there won’t be easy shots for his shooters to hit.
As it’s only the first night of the season, we can let the Pistons off this once, and just chalk it down as a bad night. On the other hand, if a pattern of sub 20 assist games begins to emerge, the Detroit Pistons could be in real trouble.