The Detroit Pistons Have A Shooting Problem
By Ti Windisch
The Detroit Pistons have showcased a lot of positives through the first month of so of NBA basketball. Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond look like two franchise-altering pieces when playing with each other. The Detroit defense is getting back to its staunch former ways. But there is something missing on this Pistons team.
Detroit’s accuracy from three-point territory has been horrendous thus far this season. The Pistons rank 29th in three-point percentage, with only the train-wreck Rockets shooting worse than Detroit’s 30 percent from downtown. Yikes.
As bad as that is, if not for one Ersan Ilyasova, the Pistons would be by far the worst shooting team in the NBA. Good ol’ Turkish Thunder is shooting 45.8 percent from deep this season, and leads the team with 22 made three-pointers.
Only Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are shooting in the 30s, at 33.3 and 31.1 percents, respectively. Looking at the Pistons’ team shooting numbers is kind of like staring directing into the sun–it’s painful.
| Rk | Player | G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% ▾ | eFG% | FTA | FT% | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ersan Ilyasova | 13 | 333 | 46 | 101 | .455 | 22 | 48 | .458 | .564 | 24 | .750 | 132 |
| 2 | Reggie Jackson | 13 | 414 | 97 | 223 | .435 | 19 | 57 | .333 | .478 | 62 | .839 | 265 |
| 3 | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope | 13 | 489 | 66 | 158 | .418 | 19 | 61 | .311 | .478 | 30 | .833 | 176 |
| Team Totals | 13 | 3145 | 477 | 1124 | .424 | 99 | 330 | .300 | .468 | 313 | .665 | 1261 | |
| 4 | Anthony Tolliver | 12 | 240 | 12 | 49 | .245 | 10 | 39 | .256 | .347 | 7 | .429 | 37 |
| 5 | Marcus Morris | 13 | 487 | 68 | 176 | .386 | 13 | 52 | .250 | .423 | 59 | .763 | 194 |
| 6 | Steve Blake | 9 | 134 | 11 | 39 | .282 | 6 | 25 | .240 | .359 | 0 | 28 | |
| 7 | Stanley Johnson | 13 | 264 | 40 | 103 | .388 | 8 | 34 | .235 | .427 | 15 | .600 | 97 |
| 8 | Spencer Dinwiddie | 5 | 81 | 12 | 29 | .414 | 1 | 6 | .167 | .431 | 15 | .600 | 34 |
| 9 | Reggie Bullock | 8 | 58 | 1 | 15 | .067 | 1 | 8 | .125 | .100 | 1 | 1.000 | 4 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/23/2015.
These numbers are disappointing for several reasons. Most obviously because outside of Ilyasova and maybe Jackson, nobody on this team is shooting a decent percentage from three-point territory. But it’s more disappointing for Pistons fans because this group should be able to rain three-pointers.
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Anthony Tolliver is a career 35 percent three-point shooter but currently sits at nearly ten full points below that mark. Steve Blake has shot 38 percent from deep throughout his career, but has been some 14 percent worse than that this season. Marcus Morris is typically good for over 35 percent of his three-pointers, but is only making 25 percent with the Pistons this season.
Even the rook, Stanley Johnson, shot over 37 percent back at Arizona last season! He’s been one of the most disappointing Pistons as far as shooting goes, managing just 38.8 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from deep. But he’s a rookie, so that’s fairly understandable.
Tolliver, Blake and Morris don’t have that excuse. All of them are seasoned veterans, and although players do lose some aspects of their game as they age, shooting isn’t typically one of them. So it’s doubtful these three players just suck at shooting now.
What’s more likely is that the team is just in a shooting slump at the moment, outside of Ersan of course. It’s been a tough stretch of games for Detroit, but they’ve held steady and remain over .500.
Looking at the difference in wins and losses for the Pistons helps show the importance of shooting from distance. In their seven victories, Detroit has shot 32 percent from three-point range. Not great, but good enough to move the club up to 21st in the NBA in three-point shooting. Still in the bad tier, but no longer at the very bottom of the list.
In losses, the Pistons have shot 27.5 percent from deep. That’d be by far the worst mark in the association. Even though Detroit hasn’t been lights-out from three-point range in their victories, they clearly have a better chance of winning when they’re making more than 30 percent of their attempts from deep.
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Therein lies the good news for the Detroit Pistons–it’d be remarkable if Anthony Tolliver, Steve Blake, Marcus Morris and Stanley Johnson all remained terrible at shooting this season. There’s almost no chance that happens–four players on the same team don’t just all forget how to shoot over the summer.
And once those four get their acts together, the Pistons will become a much better shooting team, and thus, start to win more. If they’ve managed to beat teams shooting 32 percent from deep, imagine if Detroit merely moved into average territory and shot 35 percent from beyond the arc.
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That’s definitely possible: maybe even probable. The Pistons just need to keep shooting, and soon those errant shots will start falling. And then the Detroit Pistons will start winning, even more than they have so far this season.