2 Biggest challenges facing the Pistons so far this season

The Detroit Pistons have had a promising start to the season, but are entering a dangerous part of the schedule without their best player. 

The team will likely be on the fringes of the play-in discussion all season, but will have to overcome two challenges that are currently holding them back. 

Injuries 

It seems like we talk about this every season, but the Pistons have yet to have their full roster. 

A lot of teams could complain about this, but when you are a team living on the margins like the Pistons, even one injury is significant. 

Ausar Thompson missed most of the season and is still getting into game shape. As soon as he came back, Cade Cuningham and Tobias Harris went on the shelf and both are still questionable for tonight’s crucial (if you care about the NBA Cup) matchup with the Pacers. 

Rookie Bobi Klintman has yet to play, not that the Pistons were counting on big minutes from him, but he could have provided some depth, size and shooting off the bench. 

This team isn’t good enough to be missing key players, so health is going to be a big factor in whether they are a play-in team or fall back into the meatgrinder of the lottery. 

Offensive inconsistency 

The Pistons have improved defensively enough to keep them competitive in games, but eventually they are going to have to play better offensively, especially when they start playing the much better Western Conference, as most of their games so far have been against the mediocre East. 

The Pistons are just 25th in offensive efficiency, pretty much right where they were last season. They still aren’t even averaging 110 points per game, while the top offenses in the league are scoring more than 120. 

Their shooting percentages from both two and three-point range are virtually identical to last season, so shooting is still an issue for Detroit even after adding veteran shooters in the offseason and jettisoning one of the worst shooters in the league in Killian Hayes. 

Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris are the main culprits here, as they are both shooting just 44 percent from the floor and that number has to go up. But the Pistons only have one non-center shooting at least 45 percent and that’s Jaden Ivey, who is shooting 45.3 percent from the floor. Marcus Sasser is hitting over 56 percent but he has barely played. 

The Pistons have improved on one side of the ball, which is great, but they have stayed stagnant offensively with the same problems they’ve had for years.