Detroit Pistons: Just Where Is The Offense?

The Detroit Pistons entered the season with unclear expectations, but nobody expected them to have one of the worst offenses in the NBA.

In spite of a scoring flurry on Monday night against the Houston Rockets in which the Detroit Pistons scored a season-high 116 points, the Pistons offense has largely been absent this season.

Perhaps it’s by design, a result of the confidence the Pistons have in Andre Drummond’s ability to grab any rebound on the offensive glass, or perhaps it’s a team-wide shooting malaise.

It highlights Drummond’s value to this team that the difference is more or less indistinguishable, and it clearly shows that he’s the most valuable player the Pistons have.

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On the season, the Pistons are shooting 41.5 percent from the floor, better than only the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers (all stats as of Tuesday morning), and their 31 percent shooting from three-point range is better than only the Brooklyn Nets and the Houston Rockets.

As for the advanced numbers, the Pistons have the worst true shooting mark in the NBA with 49 percent. That means that the Pistons are scoring 49 points per 50 field goal attempts, factoring in free throws.

Their effective field goal percentage is also damning, and their 46 percent mark is better than only the Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies. That means that the Pistons are scoring 46 points per 50 field goal attempts, not counting free throws. That’s an amazing level of offensive ineptitude, and it shows how valuable their defense and rebounding has been to allow them even this 9-9 record they currently enjoy.

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Is Anybody Immune?

The Pistons now have five regular rotational players shooting under 40 percent, and you can call it six if we count Spencer Dinwiddie as a regular. Reggie Jackson and Ersan Ilyasova are scarcely better, shooting 42 and 42.7 percent from the floor respectively.

The only players on the roster shooting better than Ilyasova’s 42.7 percent are Aron Baynes at 50 and Andre Drummond at 53.2 percent.

It’s concerning to note that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is shooting 38.9 percent, which is only slightly below his career shooting average of 39.8 percent. In addition, his three-point percentage this season is 30.5, which is below his 33.3 career rate.

KCP is playing almost six minutes per game more than his average last season, but shooting just .4 field goal attempts more than last year. It stands to reason that his role as primary perimeter stopper is causing his offensive role to scale down, and his drop in offensive productive is a natural result.

Caldwell-Pope’s defense has been excellent this season, as demonstrated below against James Harden of the Rockets on Monday night.

It’s somewhat less excusable what is happening with Marcus Morris and Anthony Tolliver on the offensive end.

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Morris has never shot under 42 percent in a full season, but this season he is shooting just 38.7 percent and an awful 25.7 percent from three-point range. His shooting volume has dropped some since an early season surge, and is just shooting 11.6 field goals per game over the past ten games, hitting only 36.2 percent of those and 19.5 percent from long-range.

Anthony Tolliver’s primary role on this team is to stretch the floor with his outside shooting, and maybe grab some rebounds while he’s at it. He’s averaging just 5.5 rebounds per 36 minutes, and hitting only 29.9 percent from the floor and 31.1 percent from outside the arc, well below his career rate of 35.4.

While Morris and Tolliver are essentially house money for the Pistons at this point, Morris has been especially inefficient and Tolliver has simply not filled the role the Pistons need him to.

The Drummond Difference

This team’s saving grace has been the overwhelming presence of Andre Drummond. I’m not going to argue that he’s been perfect, as it’s well documented that he has not.

We all know about the free throws, and while he shows spectacular flashes in the post, he’s particular inefficient when he posts up. Drummond scores just .7 points per post-up, but he’s one of the most productive players in the NBA on putbacks, scoring 1.16 points per possession.

His ability to crash the offensive boards and convert is worth more than just the immediate points that come from him grabbing rebounds and putting them back up, because his presence in and around the paint forces defense to collapse to defend when shots go up from Piston shooters.

That’s going to be significantly more valuable to the Pistons once these cold shooters heat up, if they ever do, because it’s going to force defenses to pick a poison and live with the consequences.

The Upside

The Pistons are populated with players who are shooting well below their career averages, and have a .500 record. There are things to like about this team, and they are magnified if these shooters get back on track.

As I described earlier, Morris and Tolliver are shooting considerably below their career numbers. Reggie Jackson’s 42% is also a touch below his career average, although his three-point percentage is a career high of 35.4 percent. Ilyasova’s pattern is similar, with a near-career low in field goal percentage but an above average three-point percentage.

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All hope is not lost for the offense, and it stands to reason that the strokes will return. Almost nobody on this team is as bad a shooter as it seems right now, and Drummond is keeping the ship afloat until the shots come back.