Anthony Tolliver: Detroit Pistons' Answer At Power Forward?

March 16 just seemed like another body blow to the reeling Detroit Pistons. The Pistons had just lost their 10th consecutive game, and also lost starting power forward (and second-best player, according to PER) Greg Monroe.

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Monroe was putting together one of the best seasons of his career, and, although his contract is up this season and he may not be re-signed by Detroit, he was still a valuable player to head coach Stan Van Gundy.

It didn’t help matters that the player selected to start in Monroe’s absence was essentially a salary dump from Phoenix who was in the middle of his worst shooting year since his rookie season. Anthony Tolliver was a 29-year-old power forward who could occasionally sink threes but hadn’t averaged more than seven points or five rebounds per game in five years.

Things seemed hopeless for Detroit. They now had to face one of the best teams in the cutthroat Western Conference with a then-struggling new point guard in Reggie Jackson, and now a career-backup power forward in Tolliver. Then something funny happened.

They won. The Pistons beat Memphis 105-95, with most of the praise going to Detroit’s starting backcourt, which combined for 45 points in the win. Although this game would also be the start of Jackson’s recent hot streak, he hasn’t been the only one playing well since that Memphis game.

Tolliver quietly scored 15 in his first start of the season and has only gotten better since (outside of an off night against the Celtics where Tolliver missed all seven of his attempts).

In 11 starts with Detroit thus far, Tolliver has averaged 9.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Not blazing scoring or rebounding, but not bad either. The more interesting parts of his game since cracking the starting lineup is his shooting percentages, though. Tolliver has shot 41.7 percent from the field, a solid 6.6 percent higher than his tenure in Phoenix earlier this season.

In addition to picking up his shooting from the floor, Tolliver has been scorching from the three-point line. He’s shot 42.6 percent from long-range since he became a starter, a number that would lead the Pistons and be seventh-best in the entire NBA.

I wrote an article about a week ago (Bobby Shmurda voice) about free agents Detroit could target, and it contained a couple of power forward replacements that can shoot threes and help space the floor and let Andre Drummond do his thing inside. But why look elsewhere for such a player when the Pistons already have one?

Tolliver isn’t 20 years old, but he also isn’t exactly ancient. He’ll be 30 at the beginning of next season, but you have to consider that he doesn’t have that many minutes played for a guy drafted in 2008. Tolliver has played 7,453 NBA minutes since 2008. His 21-year-old teammate Andre Drummond has played 6,209 minutes since 2012. So Tolliver should still have a lot left in the tank.

In addition to not being an NBA senior citizen, Tolliver is also cheap. He has a team option for just $3 million for the next season, and can probably be re-signed to a multiple year contract for fairly cheap as well. I think that’d be a good risk to take for Van Gundy and the Pistons.

With the salary cap set to spike soon anyway, signing Tolliver to a two or three-year extension for a couple million dollars a year will be an absolute steal should he continue his recent production.

Tolliver’s three-point proficiency is a huge boost to the Pistons’ floor spacing. He, Brandon Jennings, Tayshaun Prince and Caron Butler are the only Detroit players currently shooting better than 35 percent from long-range. Prince and Butler are both five years older than and also sporting worse field goal percentages than Tolliver and Jennings is coming off of an Achilles tear and will struggle to find a starting spot with Jackson’s resurgence.

Three-point shooting is crucial in today’s NBA. The best 13 three-point shooting teams in the NBA this season are all in the hunt for a playoff spot this season. The top two of those teams just happen to be the leaders of their respective conferences, the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks.

That means the Pistons will need to be able to shoot from long-range to turn their team around for next season. Detroit currently ranks 23rd in the NBA and is shooting just 33.8 percent from three. If the Pistons believe in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and continue to start him, that means there will be at least two minus three-point shooters on the starting lineup between him and Drummond.

That makes finding long-range threats to fill Detroit’s forward spots incredibly important. The small forward spot is wide open and Van Gundy should be able to find a quality shooter through the draft or free agency. But there aren’t as many options available at power forward. Thaddeus Young and Paul Millsap will most likely be expensive and hard to convince to come to Detroit without breaking the bank.

That’s why for the foreseeable future, the Pistons should roll with Tolliver. Give him the starting job to start the season and let him hold that spot and help Detroit improve without overpaying for replacements who might not even be much better. Who knows if he’ll still be starting by the time the Pistons are ready to contend, but having Tolliver coming off of the bench to splash threes over backup big men would be a boost to Detroit too.

At this point re-signing him seems like a no-brainer to help the Pistons continue their growth as a team. He’ll either be a spacing solution coming off the bench, or potentially a quality starting stretch four helping Detroit make the playoffs next season. Acquiring him for a D-League player now seems like highway robbery, and Van Gundy looks like a certified con artist in his trades thus far.

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Anthony Tolliver: The Pistons’ Answer At Power Forward?

By Ti Windisch | Apr 8, 2015

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