Stan Van Gundy’s Identity Crisis In Detroit
By Simon Smith
Identity Crisis
Van Gundy can harp on all he wants about the teams’ recent struggles on the defensive end. For the season, it’s the offensive end that is clearly killing them.
As both the head coach and president and basketball operations, Van Gundy has had the final say on the players currently on Detroit’s roster. And it is clear from the overall content of the roster that he’s been trying to emulate what he had at his disposal in Orlando. But at this stage it looks as though he’s completely chosen the wrong players.
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During the 2009-10 season, Van Gundy had some of the elite three-point shooters in the league at his disposal. Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter had proven track records, whilst J.J. Redick and Ryan Anderson were coming into their own as outside marksmen. Throw in Mickael Pietrus and Jameer Nelson and his Magic teams were primed surrounding superstar center Dwight Howard.
This contrasts vastly to the current season. Van Gundy certainly has players capable of hitting from deep, but none you could class as an outright sharpshooter. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has impressed this season hitting at 40.4 percent from behind three, but the remaining threats have proven to be fairly mediocre.
Furthermore, it’s been the combination of a lack of both volume and accuracy that has let Detroit down. As touched on earlier, Orlando led the league in three-point attempts in 2009-10 with 27.3 per game. This years’ Pistons are attempting just 22.8 per game this season, a mile behind the 39.9 per game attempted by the league leading Houston Rockets.
Van Gundy made yet another move this offseason to shore up his perimeter shooting with the addition of Jon Leuer. Whilst Leuer has proven to be a stretch-4, he has never been a volume three-point shooter. And this season, his return has been just 31.9 percent on 2.5 attempts from behind three.
Whilst Leuer is by all means a solid player, it appears this could be yet another player who seemingly doesn’t fit the Van Gundy blueprint.