Brooklyn Nets 102, Detroit Pistons 90
Brandon Jennings – C+
Jennings never technically lost his starting job. But he was definitely not playing the lead role prior to this game. It seems he won back the primary point guard spot for at least one showing. He even slightly outplayed an admittedly underwhelming Deron Williams.
I hope to see more games in which Jeenings duplicate his 18 and 9 effort. But hopefully he won’t rack up three turnovers next time. And some Piston has to start hitting shots.
Andre Drummond – B-
Drummond was a beast when he was on the floor but was severely limited by foul trouble. Those of you who have been reading my game write-ups for a while may be tired of my repeated tirade against coaches pulling him because of foul trouble, but I’m tired of that game-calling lunacy. Drummond, at this point in his career, is a liability at the end of a close game anyway. So let the man foul out.
Get as many minutes out of your best player as you can, Van Gundy. The fact that Drummond only played 22 minutes is embarrassing. He could give one more foul and he racked up 14 and 9 in that limited floor time.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – F
KCP was abysmal on both sides of the court. He really needs to start hitting some shots, too. He is now 11-42 for the season and 2-16 from three. That’s just awful. Furthermore, Joe Johnson posted a 34, 8, and 6. For a 5 minute stretch in the middle of the 4th quarter, he single-handedly outscored the Pistons 15-2 after they had just seized the lead. If he had been held to his typical 16, 3, and 4, the Pistons would have won handily.
Josh Smith – D+
Smith has massively cut down on his three point attempts so far this season. He is just 0-6. However, he is taking way too many long twos as evidenced by his 20-47 mark inside the arc. Smith sucks at shooting threes and it’s easy to make fun of him for it as they stick out in their own column of the box score. But I’d still rather have him shooting threes than long twos.
However, if you ignore the ugly 6-15 from the field and 2-8 from the line, his 14, 9, and 5 line looks pretty good.
Kyle Singler – F-
Singler was abysmal on both sides of the court. He shot poorly, he had no rebounds that probably wouldn’t have gone to another teammate anyway, he didn’t set anyone up, he wasn’t consistently getting himself open to space the floor, and Joe Johnson obliterated him. It’s hard to say whether Singler or KCP defended him worse.
I very rarely give out non-real grades (A+ or F-). It takes a very special night. Singler was a special kind of terrible.
Greg Monroe – A
As often happened in the preseason, the big who played best was easily the one coming off the bench. I don’t know if that stems from some sort of additional motivation (though I’m skeptical), complete chance, easier competition, or something else. But Monroe had a fantastic game that the Pistons squandered.
His defense wasn’t fantastic, but 18, 11, and 3 with a steal, no turnovers, and efficient shooting more than made up for any shortcoming ont hat end.
D.J. Augustin – D-
Augustin earned four free throws in 19 minutes. That’s about everything positive there was to say about his game.
Caron Butler – C-
Butler basically posted the exact same line as Augustin but in just 16 minutes. And his defense was slightly better. And my bar for him is a bit lower.
Stan Van Gundy – D
I’m pleased with SVG’s rotations (although I’d like to see more Dinwiddie). But these Pistons just don’t look prepared at all. Missing easy shots isn’t on the coach, but Detroit is getting precious few easy shots. They are instead missing a lot of not very good shots because their system isn’t yielding anything better. Van Gundy has so far gotten Josh Smith to shoot fewer threes, but his shooting looks even worse with those replaced by more long twos. Why did he leave Singler on Johnson so long? KCP didn’t do any better. But at least it was reasonable to expect he would. And please, please, stop pulling Drummond out of the game for foul trouble. You threw away Bynum to have Anthony, so be willing to use him. Let Drummond foul out, just get him as many minutes as possible.