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Examining the Pistons in the preseason

By Brady Fredricksen

Oct 7, 2014; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy talks to his players in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bulls at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Detroit won 111-109 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 7, 2014; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy talks to his players in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bulls at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Detroit won 111-109 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /
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For the most part, the NBA’s preseason is much like it’s professional sports brethren — useless.

That may be a little harsh, but outside of player conditioning, the preseason leaves a lot to be desired from an analysis standpoint. The stats can be so deceiving. Golden State’s Klay Thomspon is averaging 20 points per game, reasonable? Yeah, sure.

But do you know who’s leading the NBA in rebounding this preseason? Rudy Gobert. The day Gobert and his infinity arms lead the NBA in rebounding will be the day we look back upon Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure as a cinematic classic.

Starters don’t play starter minutes and coaches don’t draw up regular season game plans, so my point is it’s hard to pin down what’s sustainable and what’s a flash in the pan.

The Pistons are an interesting case. They’re 3-1, which you can totally throw out the window since preseason win/loss means less than the stats accumulated, but what can you buy?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE’S IMPROVEMENT

While his current knee injury is a bummer, Caldwell-Pope looks like a completely different player right now. Prior to his injury, he led the Pistons in scoring at 16.7 points with a nice 51/47/78 line. It’s almost as if the lightbulb flickered on with that 30-point outing against Oklahoma City in the season finale.

The preseason numbers are a bit extreme from an efficiency point of view, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see a confident Caldwell-Pope scoring like that. In many ways, Caldwell-Pope could be this season’s Terrence Ross.

Ross spent his rookie year struggling for a bad Raptors team, but as the Raptors grew into one of the East’s top teams last season, so did Ross. The same could be said about Caldwell-Pope and, to a lesser extent, the Pistons.

SHOOTING STRUGGLES, STILL

Detroit’s struggles from the perimeter are no secret and they haven’t been a whole lot better from deep in the preseason. Through four games they’ve shot 30-for-100 from 3-point range. With Jodie Meeks, the main elixir to that issue, out for two months, it’s going to be an uphill climb for this to be a good shooting team.

Luckily when you were as bad as the Pistons were last year, there’s really nowhere to go but up.

Is Caldwell-Pope going to shoot 46 percent from deep over an entire season? No way, but the trio of Brandon Jennings (18 percent), Kyle Singler (18 percent) and D.J. Augustin (14 percent) isn’t going to shoot as poorly as they have, either.

DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT

Like the Pistons shooting struggles, their lackluster defense is something that needs to be addressed.

Well, they’ve had a top-five defense in the preseason. The questions is how real is that defensive improvement? Between Orlando and Miami, Stan Van Gundy-coached teams finished in the top 10 in points allowed in five of his eight seasons. Van Gundy inherited two teams that were relatively strong on that end to begin with, but even when the roster changed the defense remained strong.

The Pistons have allowed opponents to shoot just 26 percent (21-for-80) from 3-point range and 39.8 percent overall, both significant upgrades. It’s hard to gauge how much of that defense is the Pistons doing and how much is rusty opponents, but as Detroit show more and more of their style under Van Gundy the more we’ll know.

They should be better on that end, but how much better is the real question.

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