Three Things We’ve Learned About The Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons went 1-4 this week and are riding a three game losing streak. It’s time to digest what we’ve seen from them and take a look at their outlook moving forward.

This week’s edition covers the following games: Thunder, Grizzlies, Magic, Suns

Asking more of Andre Drummond on offense likely won’t lead to more wins this season

Andre Drummond has been bad on offense. Miserably bad. After shooting an impressive 62-percent from the floor last season Drummond’s field goal percentage has dropped to about 40-percent. Over the last five games he’s shot only 36-percent.

While those numbers make it seem like Drummond can’t contribute as a go-to post player, the reality of the situation is that Drummond is an extremely raw player and it’s going to take a little more time for him to develop than say Dwight Howard, who Drummond is most often compared to thanks to the Stan Van Gundy connection.

I really like that SVG is asking Drummond to shoulder more of the load offensively, and I wish the previous coaching regimes would have done this sooner. Luckily, it doesn’t look like the Pistons will be much of a competitor in the east this season so the Pistons aren’t losing anything by sticking to the plan.

Which brings me up to my next point…

 The Pistons should play their young players as much as possible

The Pistons are in such an awkward position. They have enough talent to make the playoffs, but the pieces don’t match and as a result they are pretty middle of the road at best. With the way the roster is built SVG probably wants to remain competitive, but is remaining competitive worth sacrificing the development of the young guys on the roster like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Drummond?

I think SVG is fully aware that this is a poorly built team and at this point he’s probably just trying to get the best feel for every player on the team as possible. But if I’m him, I’m not far away from extending minutes to the younger players on the roster, especially late in games where the experience could be invaluable.

It’s time to start getting a feel for the trade waters

The issue you run into when you sacrifice your best chance to win in exchange for developing the younger players  is that players like Josh Smith, Caron Butler, and even Brandon Jennings start making less sense on the roster.

If SVG decides to go this route, which I think is inevitable at some point this season, then he should probably start to get a feel for what he could get in exchange for some of the players that could contribute on a team that has playoff aspirations.

Don’t get me wrong, there is tremendous value in veterans like Butler who can help guide the first and second year players, but when you have too many veterans that are ball dominant, you run the risk of stomping the growth of the younger guys.