Detroit Pistons: 3 goals for Thon Maker in the 2020-21 season

Thon  Maker had some flashes in 2019-20 and earned Detroit Pistons head coach Dwane Casey’s trust. He’ll need to take further steps next season.

Thon Maker has shown signs of electrifying athleticism in his career, and from time to time last season he demonstrated what he could do. While he’s incredibly lengthy, standing 7’0″ with a 7’3″ wingspan, his skills didn’t always match up with the physical package in his first full season with the Detroit Pistons.

He’s going to be a restricted free agent this coming offseason, and for the purposes of this exercise, we’ll assume that the Pistons will bring him back in the 2020-21 season. Let’s take a look at three goals for Thon Maker as we continue our ongoing series.

Thon Maker’s first goal: Stand out in camp

While Pistons head coach Dwane Casey has said that their currently ongoing bubble camp is not a tryout by any means, it’s not like coaches aren’t paying attention to who is shining bright and who can’t keep up in intense workouts and scrimmages. Casey has also described the center positional matchup between Maker and newcomer Justin Patton as a battle, but unfortunately, Patton injured his finger in workouts earlier this week.

Whether Patton is his foil or other players on the roster, this is Maker’s time to shine and stand out, and he’ll need to make the most of it.

Thon Maker’s second goal: Add size and build strength

Maker is almost impossibly slender, weighing just 213 lbs to go with that 7’0″ height. It leaves him at a major disadvantage against opposing big men who can simply overpower him around the basket and on the glass. Case in point, Maker’s rebounding percentage of 11.0 left him eighth-worst among centers who appeared in over 40 games and averaged more than 10.0 minutes.

If Maker wants to be a contributor in the NBA, he’ll need to add both size and strength in order to hang with opposing bigs. Otherwise, he’s only going to have utility in specific matchups against unskilled big men who cannot use their size against him as a weapon. As you might imagine, there aren’t many of those in the NBA.

Thon Maker’s third goal: Develop fine skills

Even if Maker bulks up and adds strength, he’s probably never going to be a real banger. As a result, he’s going to need to refine his existing skills and add another trick or two to the bag. For starters, let’s work on some of the simple things like receiving passes. Too often a Piston guard would penetrate and create a scoring opportunity for Maker around the basket, just for him to fumble the pass and turn the ball over.

Consequently, he had a sky-high turnover percentage of 15.7, a mark that’s simply unacceptable for a player who doesn’t distribute or make plays for others. On that topic, it would be a major benefit to the Detroit Pistons if Maker did develop something of a playmaking element to his game, perhaps in the dribble handoff game with Luke Kennard or (assuming he returns next season) Langston Galloway.

There are building blocks of a decent NBA player in Thon Maker’s archetype, but he’s going to have to work to bring them to the forefront.