It’s no secret that the Detroit Pistons had a serious problem with their bench unit last season, but could former Piston and upcoming free agent Arron Afflalo help solve these issues?
Arron Afflalo has bounced around quite a bit since being drafted by the Detroit Pistons with pick 27 of the 2007 NBA Draft. He’s played for five different teams, including two seperate stints with the Denver Nuggets.
His stats have unfortunately also been as erratic as his choice of team, having impressive years from 2011 to 2014, but having a not so impressive record on either side of those years compared to the standards he’d set himself.
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At his best he would offer the Pistons a great scorer who strikes at over 40% from three, while also being a strong rebounder and distributor of the ball for a shooting guard.
At his worst however, he can be an erratic shooter who has turnover and foul troubles.
Afflalo’s 2015-16 season is very hard to read in terms of where he stands going forward. He started 57 of the 71 games he played for the New York Knicks last season and averaged 12.8 points per game while shooting 38% from three, which are encouraging numbers.
He wasn’t exactly in a great situation to succeed, with the Knicks well and truly in the middle of a rebuild, but for one of the older and more experienced heads on their roster it’s a little disappointing we didn’t see him take charge more.
He took 11.3 field goal attempts per game with the Knicks, his lowest since the 2011-12 season (excluding 2014-15, where he was traded to the Portland Trailblazers midseason), while he took 3.4 threes a game, his lowest since 2010.
Playing with such a ball dominant player like Carmelo Anthony no doubt had an effect on these numbers, but in an age where three-point shooting is so important you would have liked to have seen him take more shots from deep as he can be a destructive shooter.
Pistons’ head coach Stan Van Gundy opted to use either no backup shooting guard or rookie Darrun Hilliard in games last season as preferred backup Jodie Meeks suffered a serious foot injury that pretty much only saw him play the opening and closing games of the regular season
Hilliard seems to be destined to be the reserve shooting guard for now, so it appears that it would come down to whether Van Gundy thinks Afflalo is a better option as a backup point guard than Meeks who has a guaranteed contract for 2016-17.
One thing that might make Afflalo more attractive over Meeks is his durability.
In his two season with the Pistons Meeks has played just 63 games, while the lowest amount of games Afflalo has ever played in a single season across his entire career is 62 back in 2011-12. In fact, most seasons Afflalo has come quite close to playing all 82 games.
Having a backup shooting guard the Pistons can rely on to be healthy for the majority of the season would be a major addition to their bench.
When comparing Afflalo’s most recent season with Meek’s most recent proper season Afflalo also comes out ahead.
Afflalo averages more points per 36 minutes and he also has better shooting splits apart from free throw percentage, and .443/.382/.840, as Meeks is one of the very best free throw shooters in the league.
If the opportunity is there I think Van Gundy would pounce on Afflalo immediately, however he would need to worry about potentially trading Meeks away.
More importantly, this all hinges on whether Afflalo opts out of his current contract and if he wants to come off the bench. He has a player option worth $8 million for 2016-17 with the Knicks, but has said that he still has the desire to be a starting shooting guard.
According to ESPN’s Ian Begley he’ll be looking for a team that will offer him a starting role next season.
"“I still believe I’m one of the premier two guards in this league and part of being an elite two guard in this league is opportunity,” Afflalo said. “You have to be in a certain environment where you can excel and show what you can do and hopefully that contributes to winning. And I still believe I’m that player so I’ll find the best opportunity for me whether it’s in New York or anywhere else.”"
With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope well and truly the Pistons choice of starting shooting guard for the foreseeable future, it looks like the Pistons may not be in the race for Afflalo’s services.
However, if the opportunity arrises and Afflalo was open to coming off the bench, he would make for a great addition to the Detroit Pistons.