It’s a good time to be a fan of the Detroit Pistons, as the team may finally be ready to take a step towards relevancy, a place they have not been to in quite a while.
Since releasing Josh Smith, Detroit has been winning at a blistering pace, currently sitting at 17-26 after starting the season with a 5-23 record. Smith took a lot of bad shots for the team and wasn’t quite the floor spacer and combo forward he was envisioned to be when the Pistons signed him to a long-term deal, so getting him off the roster wasn’t exactly an unexpected surprise.
With Smith gone, this frees up the Pistons to spread the floor more on offense and let perimeter players with more reliable jump shots be the ones responsible for scoring the basketball, while feeding big men Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond in the post of course.
The player that has arguably had the most positive impact from the Smith release has to be point guard Brandon Jennings, who has flourished during Detroit’s current hot streak.
Over the Pistons’ last 15 games in which the team has gone 12-3, Jennings has averaged 20 points per game on 41.4 percent shooting to go along with 7.2 assists and 1.9 turnovers per game. Jennings has looked like a completely different basketball player, one who is more focused and confident in his abilities.
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Jennings has embraced his role as a leader and playmaker on this team, and has certainly taken advantage of his newfound opportunities being the primary ball handler on offense.
“I just felt like it wasn’t really my place because Josh was the leader at the time,” Jennings said, according to the Detroit Free Press’ Jeff Seidel. “He was the captain, him and Caron Butler were the vets. I backed off. I didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes.”
Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy also spoke highly of Jennings’ ascension from quiet perimeter player to vocal floor general.
“I think some guys are more comfortable in getting more opportunities, and so they’re playing better,” Van Gundy said, according to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. “You’ve taken the guy who had the ball in his hands more than anybody on our team out of the equation. You’ve split those possessions up among other guys. Everybody’s getting more opportunities, so everybody’s more comfortable, more confident and in a better rhythm.”
What Jennings has been able to do for this team has been no short of incredible, as he has been connecting on shots from deep that have plagued his shooting percentages his entire career.
Jennings has always been great at penetrating the defense, getting into the lane and finishing with a floater from either hand, but never has he been as prolific a jump shooter like he has been for Detroit during their current streak.
Even though he has had some games where he’s been streaky, there have been more times than not where he’s pulled up comfortably from beyond the arc and knocked down shots without hesitation, like he’s been making those shots his whole life.
Hitting perimeter shots is key for Jennings as with the rest of the wing players in Detroit’s rotation because it allows the team to create space for Monroe and Drummond to go to work on the inside.
Back when Van Gundy coached the Orlando Magic, he also had another big, athletic center in Dwight Howard to build an offense around, and he did it by placing three to four shooters on the court with the big man at a time, giving Howard room to breathe and operate without having to worry about the lane being clogged up.
Van Gundy’s perimeter players in Orlando were above average at hitting the three point shot, and they also knew how to operate the pick-and-roll with Howard, creating masterful looks at the basket for lobs and quick looks inside.
Jennings has been able to play that same kind of game with Monroe and Drummond, and it has paid off, as both players have been more active on offense than they previously were to start the season. However, Jennings has done a better job at distributing the ball among all of his teammates, not just the big men down low.
Jennings has had much better control over the ball, and has made more efficient decisions than before, primarily because he has so many more effective wings around him that can hit jump shots. Before, Jennings ran a drive-and-kick game with Smith being the primary spot-up shooter, be it in the mid-range or from beyond the arc.
Naturally, Smith bricked a lot of those shots, so Jennings wouldn’t always have the highest assist totals. Now, he’s playing with the likes of three-point snipers like Kyle Singler, Jodie Meeks and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope much more consistently, guys who know how to shoot the ball at a high level, especially from the corners.
Because Smith isn’t there taking so many minutes away from other players and making life difficult for Van Gundy to run the same offensive schemes he used in Orlando, Jennings has had a better supporting cast around him because of it, and his excellent performance has been noted by a lot of scouts and analysts around the league.
Is Jennings rising to a star level? Probably not, because he has played good basketball before during his time with the Milwaukee Bucks. Sure, he wasn’t always efficient, but there were also times where you saw the quickness and penetration skills and were able to come away thinking that he could be the next big thing at the point guard spot.
Jennings needed to be in the right kind of offensive system in order for his talent to be truly maximized. In Milwaukee, Jennings didn’t have any shooters to kick the ball out to if at all, and he didn’t have big men capable of finishing at the level that Monroe and Drummond can.
To put it simply, we haven’t seen Jennings play with real talent until now, so it’s hard to criticize him for how he played before.
Jennings isn’t going to have games every night like he had against the Magic on Wednesday, in which he went for 24 points and 21 assists. What he can bring to the table on a consistent basis is ball control and decision making, two things he is capable of doing for a team that is still in the running for an eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Jennings has a shot at being a real game changer for Detroit over these next few months. The Pistons aren’t making it into the postseason without him playing at the highest level he can.
He may not be a star, but Jennings has all of the tools to be a quality point guard in the NBA for quite some time.
*Statistics courtesy of ESPN.