The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: The Pistons
Welcome to the newest weekly feature at PistonPowered!
Initially, I wanted to call this “Thirsty Thursday” since this Pistons team is driving me to drink, but I feel like the current title suits it well. The hope is that some day there will be room for sarcasm and self-deprecating humor in the ugly category, but as of today it’s pretty much a lot of bad and ugly with a dash of good thrown in.
THE GOOD
Brandon Jennings is actually playing well. Seriously, he’s be pretty solid in his past five games after struggling in his first two games. Throw out those odd, 15-minute games — and that’s what they were, weird — and he’s averaging 15.8 points, 6.6 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals with 44 percent from 3-point range. For a team that lacks shot creators (and shot makers) his scoring and general aggressiveness was big against Utah and Washington — arguably his best game in Detroit. Someone’s gotta create offense.
Josh Smith’s secondary contributions. I wrote something before the season essentially figuring out what Smith should focus on this season. To save you a long read, it was basically stop shooting and worry about rebounds, shot creation and defense. We’ll get to the shooting part, but his secondary numbers have been impressive so far. He’s the only player in the NBA averaging 8-rebounds, 4-plus assists and 1-plus block per game. He’s only the 10th player to do that in the last 20 years — and he’s done it twice before.
THE BAD
Consistency on the perimeter. If the most consistent perimeter player on your team is Caron Butler and you’re not the mid-2000s Wizards, you’re in trouble. The thing is Butler hasn’t been that bad, but he cannot be your most consistent option. Kyle Singler looks unsure on the floor, possibly because he spends too much time camping out in the corner. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is streaky, which is better than just plain bad last season, I guess. Jodie Meeks and Cartier Martin would help, but right now they’re just a millionaire MASH unit with courtside seats.
It’s almost like this team could use a Joe Johnson-type player. They need a fire-starter, a dude who can just come in off the bench and create his own shot. I’m not sure Meeks or Martin will provide that in the same way Jamal Crawford does in Los Angeles, but if those two eventually returning means less Butler playing 30 minutes and limits those toxic 3-for-11 nights from Caldwell-Pope, it’s a start.
THE UGLY
Oh hey, remember when we talked about Josh Smith’s shooting? Well here’s where we can talk about that. His shooting splits right now are some of the ugliest numbers I’ve ever seen. Field goals? Thirty five percent. Three pointers? Nine percent. Free throws? Fifty percent. That 35/9/50 line isn’s realistically sustainable (right? right?!) over the course of 82 games, but man it’s been bad. I could write more about this, but the comments will add the necessary “he’s ruining Detroit” commentary.
Pretty much everything about Andre Drummond. The big guy’s slow start to the season may feel worse considering draft-mate Anthony Davis has become a force of nature with the Pelicans. Either way, Drummond has been horrific so far. It’s unfair to think that Stan Van Gundy would magically make him into Hakeem Olajuwan in the post, but he’s not close to being a constant threat on the block. He should be rolling on pick and rolls more than he’s posting up.
Maybe this is just SVG’s way of teaching Drummond — trial by fire — but it’s only a part of his struggles. His defense has consisted of fouling and he’s really only been a factor on the boards. I don’t think the Pistons are this bad of a team, and if you asked me to explain why I think that my only answer would be that Drummond is better than this. The fouling issues are correctable and the more he becomes comfortable with extra responsibilities (defensive structure/system, offensive responsibility) the more he’ll just play basketball and not think about playing. This ship isn’t going to be righted until the franchise centerpiece starts playing like one.