In head coach Stan Van Gundy’s offense, the shooting guard must be able to space the floor and shoot the ball efficiently from the three-point line.
The Detroit Pistons have some shooting at the 2-guard, but the players on the roster, most notably their third-year guard from Georgia have struggled a bit.
As the regular season draws nearer, let’s take a look at the depth the Pistons have at the shooting guard position and how the group should match up against the rest of the NBA.
Who’s on the roster: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jodie Meeks
Who could possibly see time at the position: Brandon Jennings, Danny Granger, Adonis Thomas
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Caldwell-Pope is entering a very important year of his career. The eighth-overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft has had a lackluster career so far. He’s posted PERs of 9.4 and 11.2 in his first two seasons, shooting just 33.7 percent from beyond the three-point line and just 39.9 percent overall in his career.
Those shooting numbers simply aren’t good enough. Caldwell-Pope came into the league billed as a guard with potential to be a solid shooter and defender. Unfortunately for the Pistons, Caldwell-Pope hasn’t performed well on either end of the floor. He has a defensive rating of 109 throughout his career, which is 12.4 points higher than San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, who led the league in defensive rating last season. Caldwell-Pope also had a defensive win shares of just 1.8 last season, far behind the league leader, DeAndre Jordan, who registered 5.4 defensive win shares.
No one is expecting Caldwell-Pope to become an elite defender, but he should be better than what he is. The physical tools are there, but the level of play isn’t.
Caldwell-Pope has a lot of work to do in order to live up to the expectations he came into the league with. He needs to become a weapon from the outside in order for the Pistons’ offense to operate efficiently. He is the best option for the Pistons at shooting guard, but he has underachieved in his first two seasons in the league.
Jodie Meeks
Meeks, who signed a three-year deal with the Pistons last offseason, played in 60 games last year. Meeks came off the bench in all of those games last season, serving as the team’s primary shooting guard and scorer off the bench.
Meeks shot well under his career three-point percentage last season, hitting those shots at just a 34.9 percent clip. For his career, Meeks has hit 37.3 percent of his threes.
He has all of the necessary tools to score off of the bench and provide floor spacing for the Pistons, but he is not a great defender by any stretch of the imagination. His defensive stats are actually very similar to Caldwell-Pope. Meeks’ defensive rating last season was also a 109, and Meeks accounted for just 0.9 defensive win shares.
If the Pistons are going to have production off the bench, Meeks will need to hit more shots. He is a shooter at heart, and if he doesn’t shoot the ball well then he barely has any use on the court.
Other options
Getting Brandon Jennings some time at the shooting guard position could give the Pistons a third option at the 2-guard. Jennings never played shooting guard last season, but played with a combo guard in Monta Ellis in Milwaukee. In Jennings’ last season with the Bucks, his best lineup included a combo guard (Ellis), shooters at small and power forward (Mike Dunleavy and Ersan Ilyasova) and Ekpe Udoh at center. If Jennings plays the two this season, chances are he will play with a lineup that is similar in style but better in talent.
Adonis Thomas and Danny Granger would likely see most of their time at small forward, and they might not even make the roster. If they do make the final 15-man roster, both of them could serve at shooting guard in a pinch. Neither of them would be better options than Caldwell-Pope, Meeks or Jennings.
Grade: C-
The shooting guard position as it stands now is very average. Caldwell-Pope has potential on both ends of the floor, but he hasn’t panned out quite yet. Meeks is a one-way player who struggled doing what he is supposed to do well last season. Combine that with the fact that Thomas and Granger might not even make the roster, and lack of depth at shooting guard is apparent. Detroit will need Caldwell-Pope to improve if the Pistons will make the playoffs. Making the playoffs becomes a much more daunting task if Caldwell-Pope continues to underachieve.
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