Detroit Pistons: Addition By Subtraction

No matter how bad they were playing as a team, at the time it seemed like a drastic measure for the Detroit Pistons to waive Josh Smith. Things have changed though and the performances the Pistons are putting on help to justify it further with every passing game. Detroit have gone from barely having a pulse to roaring past teams in just over a week.

The Pistons were 5-23 when they decided to call time on Josh Smith’s spell in the Motor City, but it’s been all change since.

Detroit has now rolled off three straight wins by big margins having toppled the Pacers by 10 points, and then following that up with a 23-point victory over LeBron James‘ Cleveland Cavaliers, and a win by the same margin over the Orlando Magic.

Just to make things clear, this isn’t exactly something that Detroit have been doing often. In fact, it’s so rare in the recent history of the franchise that it’s the first time that the team has had back-to-back 20-point margins of victory since way back in late February 2008.

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It’s easy to attribute this swing in momentum and sudden success to Josh Smith’s departure, but that alone doesn’t really explain how it’s possible. So what’s actually happening, and what are the Pistons doing differently?

Well, first of all, almost overnight, they have become an offensive juggernaut. Prior to Smith’s departure, Detroit ranked 28th in the NBA in offensive rating, only averaging 97.6 points per 100 possessions. For the time since though, they’re posting a league-best figure of 116.8 points per 100 possessions.

In real points, the jump translates, too. Having averaged 94.4 points per game before Christmas, the Pistons are now up to 110.3 for the time since. What exactly is behind that massive leap in the team’s offensive production? Well, they’re finally playing how most people would envision a Stan Van Gundy led team to play.

When Van Gundy came into the fold over the summer, all the talk was of floor spacing and three-point shooting, two areas where the Pistons had struggled to the point where they had been non-existent features of their game for a number of years.

All of a sudden, having moved one of their three bigs who were clogging up the court, Detroit’s shooters are finding themselves with much better shots, and they seem to have been given license to bomb away when the opportunity presents itself.

Prior to Smith’s departure, the Pistons were only attempting 23.3 three-pointers per game, but in his absence that number has rocketed up to an incredible 30 per game now. It’s not as if Detroit are just launching shot after shot with little success either, as over the past five days, their accuracy has been phenomenal.

They’ve gone from averaging 33 percent on their long shots, to a spell of shooting 45.6 percent over the past three games.

Van Gundy had started to retool his roster over the summer, adding shooters to his rotation, but until there was space for them to work with, there was no real benefit. A great example of this is Jodie Meeks, who has only recently returned from injury.

In working his way back to fitness, he had generally looked quite ineffectual, but in the three games since Smith’s departure he has averaged over 20 points a game, while shooting 66 percent from the field and over 76 percent from downtown.

Is any of this sustainable? Of course it probably isn’t, but it’s worth keeping an eye on. With the team finally starting to play in a way in which Stan Van Gundy will be able to identify, this could be the start of their gradual progression up the ranks. If nothing else, the Detroit Pistons are worth watching again anyway.

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