Eight predictions for the Detroit Pistons’ season in 2016-17
By Duncan Smith
The Pistons’ starting lineup will be back among the NBA’s most productive.
Even before making a prescient trade to send Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Tobias Harris, the Detroit Pistons had one of the most productive starting lineups in the NBA.
They took it to another level after the addition of Harris into the starting lineup on February 22nd after an injury to starting power forward Anthony Tolliver.
The unit of Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris and Andre Drummond had an offensive rating of 107.2 points per 100 possessions after moving him into the starting lineup with 25 games left. They also excelled on the boards, taking down 52.8 percent of all possible rebounds, courtesy of stats.nba.com.
In much the same tradition of the Going to Work Pistons in the early-to-mid 2000’s, the Pistons will again go as far as the starting five will carry them.
It’s worth noting, since Stanley Johnson is going to supplant Morris in the starting lineup, that the five-man unit of Andre Drummond, KCP, Jackson, Harris and Johnson has an offensive rating of 119.7 points per 100 possessions according to NBA Wowy. Mind you, this is over a very small sample of 71 possessions, but we should get to see this borne out over a much bigger sample size this season.