Stan Van Gundy stated on Thursday that he believes the preseason has no analytical value. Is there nothing worth observing in the Detroit Pistons preseason?
The jury is out on how much value can be found in analyzing the preseason. Detroit Pistons‘ president and head coach Stan Van Gundy, for one, strongly believes that there is nothing to be gained from observing the preseason.
Speaking to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press on Thursday, Van Gundy shared his thoughts on the value of analyzing preseason basketball.
"“The analysis is it’s preseason basketball,” Van Gundy said. “That’s the analysis.”"
In typical Van Gundy fashion, he says it like he sees it. However, is it that open and shut? Is there nothing of value to be gained from observing the preseason from an advanced and aware point of view?
While he’s the expert, this might be a bit simplistic on his part.
I get SVG's point about not analyzing the preseason, but we've had no basketball for four months. We're going to analyze SOMETHING.
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) October 6, 2016
First off, to my point, the Detroit Pistons played their last game on April 24th. For those keeping track at home, that’s about four and a half months.
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Since that time, the Pistons have turned over the bulk of the second unit. The team that takes the floor Thursday night against the Brooklyn Nets will bear very little resemblance to the one that bowed out of the first round of the playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Let’s break down just what we should be watching going into the preseason that DOES hold value.
- The Pistons have position battles at multiple spots, the most fascinating being at point guard. Particularly now that Reggie Jackson is out for the next six-to-eight weeks, the elevation of Ish Smith means that instead of scrapping to make the roster, Ray McCallum and Lorenzo Brown will be battling to be backup point guards in the NBA.
- Stanley Johnson will be the Pistons’ shiny new toy again this season. After an offseason spent working on his weaknesses and emphasizing development, we’re going to get to see how the whole package has come together.
- Reggie Bullock surprised and delighted in the final third of the season. Over his final 18 appearances, he averaged 18.7 minutes per game and scored 6.4 points per game on 53.2 percent shooting and a glittering 48.8 percent from long range. Was that a flash in the pan, or is there something more to the sharpshooter than we thought over the first four months of the 2015-16 season? In addition, Bullock is eligible for an extension. He’s playing for his first significant pay day this preseason.
- How good are the rookies going to be? We know that Henry Ellenson and Michael Gbinije won’t be active rotational players to start the season, and barring injury likely won’t be for the majority of the season. That means that the only chance we’ll get to see the Pistons’ 2015-16 rookie class play decent minutes at the NBA level will be in the preseason. Can the young guys ball, or are they going to be buried on the bench or the Grand Rapids Drive in the NBA D-League?
Again, Stan Van Gundy isn’t wrong. None of these things are going to make the difference between the Pistons getting the third seed or the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. They probably won’t even make the difference between the third seed and the fourth seed.
Next: Detroit Pistons: Three storylines to watch this preseason
But this is a team we haven’t seen play in almost 20 weeks. Deep analysis or not, there is plenty to learn about the Pistons this preseason, and that starts at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night in Brooklyn.