Potential building blocks in place for Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons have three young players with the potential to be key contributors. Will they get the chance?

Bruce Brown, Sekou Doumbouya, and Luke Kennard have all shown the potential to be key contributors for the Detroit Pistons. Will these three young players get a chance to develop alongside each other and how high is their collective ceiling if they do?

A second-round pick, at 6-foot-4, initially brought in to play shooting guard who’s shown enough playmaking ability to log minutes at the point and even start a significant amount of games in his second season.

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A 19-year-old rookie, selected in the first round, who can play both forward positions at 6-foot=8 and showed the tenacity to grab double-digit rebounds in each of his first two career starts.

A 6-foot-5 shooting guard, in his third season, who’s shot 40 percent from 3-point range so far in his career and played two years of college ball for the legendary Coach K.

From their descriptions alone, Bruce Brown, Sekou Doumbouya, and Luke Kennard would pique the interest of any NBA general manager looking for solid pieces from which to establish a young core. We’ll take a closer look at why these three promising prospects could be given the reins in the Pistons’ not-so-distant future with the responsibility of turning the franchise around.

After a promising rookie campaign in which he appeared in 74 games, Bruce Brown has doubled his scoring average from 4.3 points per game a season ago to 8.7 points per game this year. While on the surface those aren’t eye-popping numbers, consider the fact that Brown was a second-round draft pick who wasn’t expected to get much playing time at all as a rookie.

The fact that he was able to work his way into coach Dwane Casey’s rotation speaks volumes about his work ethic. Even more impressive is the fact that Brown has increased his production while being asked to fill a role few imagined he would be in a season ago, starting point guard.

With usual starting playmaker Reggie Jackson sidelined since the second game of the season, Brown has stepped up big time and been more than serviceable for a team that’s been plagued by more than one injury setback this year.

A closer look at Brown’s stats show he has stepped up his leadership in two very important categories: 3-point shooting and playmaking. As a rookie Brown shot 25.8 percent from behind the 3-point line; this year he’s shooting just under 34 percent.

He’s also stepped up his assist numbers as the move to point guard mandates that he set up his teammates for open looks more often. His 3.7 assists per game are a nice improvement over the 1.2 he averaged as a rookie.

Casey has been so impressed with Brown’s improvement that he said after a December loss to the Toronto Raptors:

"“I’m not saying Bruce Brown can be Pascal Siakam, but it’s the same trajectory.”"

That’s high praise considering Siakam was last season’s Most Improved Player and Casey was his coach during his first two seasons in Toronto.

Casey was also impressed with the effort of Sekou Doumbouya on Thursday after the rookie got his first career start in a loss to the Clippers.

"“I was impressed with his physicality … he was one of our leading rebounders and that was just as impressive as anything.”"

Doumbouya’s upside is evident to anyone watching a Pistons game. At only 19 years old, he is 6’8″ and capable of playing both forward positions. Being that young means Sekou may not even be done growing; a couple more inches in height, combined with a couple more summers in the weight room could make him a real force on the glass.

He’s already shown the potential to be an elite rebounder if he puts his mind to it, grabbing 11 rebounds on Thursday against the Clippers and 10 rebounds on Saturday against the Warriors. His production has increased right along with his playing time, as he also posted double-digit points in both of those contests.

Neither Blake Griffin nor Markieff Morris played in those two games, or in Sunday night’s loss to the Lakers at Staples Center; Detroit is counting on Doumbouya to give them quality minutes in these two players’ absence and so far he’s filled in admirably.

Speaking of injuries, the news hasn’t been great pertaining to Detroit’s promising third year shooting guard, Luke Kennard. The 6’5″ sharpshooter was averaging almost 16 points per game and shooting almost 40 percent from 3-point range before he went down with a knee injury last month.

According to Keith Langlois of NBA.com, he’s scheduled to be re-evaluated on Tuesday. Injuries aside, Kennard has looked really promising this year and he and Bruce Brown could form a dangerous backcourt; one that combines Brown’s improved playmaking with Kennard’s ability to knock down the 3.

Before the injury, Casey praised Luke’s progress from his second season to this year when he told the Detroit Free Press:

"“In year 3, guys start getting into their roles and he’s a natural shooter. The way we play fits him, the drive-kick-swing philosophy.”"

Imagine a backcourt with a 6’4″ point guard who’s learned the art of playmaking, next to a 6’5″ shooting guard who’s capable of spacing the floor and shoots 40 percent from 3-point range.

Now imagine there’s a high-energy forward on the front line who can be counted on to grab double-digit rebounds every night, is a versatile defender and can also score double-digit points when called upon.

That’s the potential that Bruce Brown, Luke Kennard and Sekou Doumbouya bring to the table when healthy.

For Pistons fans, these thoughts may bring flashbacks to the glory days when a playmaking point guard by the name of Chauncey Billups shared the backcourt with a sharpshooter by the name of Richard Hamilton, while Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace controlled the glass.

And while today’s young Pistons are a long way away from being able to impact the game the way those greats did, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that if healthy at the same time and given the chance to play together, they could form the core of a competitive team. During a season that has been marred by injury, sometimes the best case scenarios land in the realm of “what if.”

For Pistons fans, thinking “what if these three get a chance to develop together” is as good a scenario as any.