Pistons Playbook: Week 1

Each week, we look at some of the important plays, schemes, and sets that have been successes and failures for the Detroit Pistons.

After the first week of the season, the Detroit Pistons have won two of their first three games.  The Pistons’ early success has come, in large part, because of their impressive offensive output.  Through three games, the Pistons rank 11th in offensive rating, a dramatic improvement over their 25th-ranked offense last season.

The Pistons’ early offensive success is largely a result of their emphasis on ball movement.  Through three games, the Pistons have averaged 332.8 passes per game.  In 2016-17, the Pistons averaged only 294.2 passes per game.  A lot of the Pistons’ improvement in ball movement has come about because of a change in scheme.

Adding Avery

One of the key questions coming into the season was how the Pistons would incorporate Avery Bradley into their offensive scheme.  One week into the season, it’s become quite clear that Bradley will be called upon to initiate offense, taking some of the burden off of Reggie Jackson.

One of the most common way that the Pistons have initiated offense through three games is through Andre Drummond hand-offs to Bradley.  Early in the first quarter against the Hornets, Bradley curled to the top of the perimeter and Drummond handed the ball off to him.  Bradley made a sharp turn to the basket, essentially turning the hand-off into a pick-and-roll with Drummond.  The Hornets defended this action pretty well and Bradley was unable to finish the drive over Dwight Howard.  As Bradley becomes more comfortable with his teammates, though, the timing and execution of this play should improve.  It serves as yet another way that the Pistons can get Drummond running to the rim, rather than posting up and shooting inefficient hook shots.

Later in the Hornets game, the Pistons ran a variation of the same play.  This time, Drummond and Bradley ran the hand-off with Bradley driving toward the sideline rather than the middle of the floor.  Bradley learned his lesson from the first play and got this shot up early enough that Howard was unable to block it.  If Bradley can consistently finish on this hand-off set, defenses will begin to be more aggressive in defending him, which will open up driving lanes for Drummond.

In the second quarter of the Hornets game, the Pistons showed one of the counters when defenses play the Drummond-Bradley hand-off aggressively.  On this play, Bradley’s defender overplays him trying to deny the hand-off action.  Bradley recognizes it and Drummond hits him with a beautiful bounce pass which leads to an easy layup.

Finding Space for Drummond

One of the consistent problems for the Pistons offense in 2016-17 was the lack of space that Andre Drummond had while driving to the rim in pick-and-roll situations.  Against the Knicks, the Pistons showed a bit of a wrinkle to address that issue.

Time and time again last season, Reggie Jackson got too deep into the paint on pick-and-roll possessions and it completely threw off the spacing of the play.  Jackson and Drummond would get too close to each other, allowing defenses to shut down the play easily with one or two defenders.

Next: 5 goals for Reggie Bullock this season

Against the Knicks, Jackson didn’t make the mistake of getting too deep into the paint.  Rather, he picked his dribble up along the perimeter, threw up alley oops to Drummond, and let the Detroit Pistons’ center do his thing in a more open paint.