Stan Van Gundy’s Coaching is the Elephant in the Room for the Pistons

The Detroit Pistons have had a tough start to 2018 with injuries hitting the team in a big way, but the most pressing issue they face could be Stan Van Gundy’s coaching.

Stan Van Gundy is the easily the best coach the Detroit Pistons have had in about a decade, however, his shortcomings are starting to become more and more apparent in his fourth season a the helm.

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There are no doubts that Van Gundy gets this team playing incredible basketball at times, which is evident from a number of big wins they’ve had already this season.

In wins against the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets they’ve looked like a great basketball team capable of making some noise in the playoffs.

Handing these teams convincing defeats is no easy task considering the difference in talent on their respective rosters

But too often, and most evidently in their seven-game losing skid in December, this team looks like a mess.

Much of this mess comes down to the players.

There are nights where it’s extremely obvious that the team is playing with no energy and just going through the motions for the entire 48 minutes.

However, there are other nights where it seems Van Gundy gets in his own way and contributes to his own team’s downfall.

One thing that has become incredibly clear is that he struggles with getting his rotations right.

Van Gundy is often prone to leaving certain units on the court for way too long.

This is generally seen with the bench unit, where Van Gundy will stick with the group even if they are getting played off the floor or when the opposition coach has already brought back the starters.

It feels like he’s hesitant to stray from the concrete plan he’s devised in the pre-game and while sometimes it works perfectly, many times it results in the Pistons giving up huge runs on defense.

How many times this season have we seen the Pistons go scoreless for an extended period to give a team a huge lead, or even worse, to let a team back in the game after having a huge buffer.

Pistons fans will be screaming at their televisions to substitute in Tobias Harris or Andre Drummond to help clot the bleeding, but Van Gundy will almost always keep what he has going no matter the result.

Stan Van Gundy is stubborn when it comes to his rotations – far too stubborn for his own good.

Cast your mind back a short time ago to when the Pistons faced the Miami Heat on January 3.

Van Gundy was so stubborn with his rotations and matchups that he preferred to play Boban Marjanovic and Eric Moreland, two traditional centers, on Kelly Olynyk who was torching the team.

Only when the game was on the line did he switch to using Anthony Tolliver, who was far better suited to that assignment.

In the same game, Dwight Buycks (14 points) and Luke Kennard (13 points) were shooting the lights out and were leading the team in scoring alongside Marjanovic.

Unfortunately, neither Buycks or Kennard saw the court after the five-minute mark of the final quarter, with Van Gundy opting to use Ish Smith and Avery Bradley who shot a combined 9 of 29 for the night.

It would make sense that at least one of Buycks or Kennard (a combined 13 of 19 shooting) would close out the game, but instead Van Gundy was stubborn and stuck to his planned rotations.

Miami outscored the Pistons by seven points in the final quarter of that game and went on to win by exactly seven points.

Van Gundy’s shaky game management was perfectly on display as the Pistons suffered a frustrating three-point loss last game to the New Orleans Pelicans.

With 5.1 seconds left in the game, a three-point make was required if they wanted to extend the game to overtime.

You’d think in this situation you’d have four shooters out there with Drummond in the middle just in case you miss a quick shot and need a rebound to get another attempt off.

Instead of having Kennard (43.4 percent from three) come back into the game or Langston Galloway (36.9 percent from three) Van Gundy opted for Ish Smith who is shooting 18.2 percent from deep.

The real kicker is that Smith inbounded to Bradley who was guarded closely by Rajon Rondo, allowing Smith to stand wide open at the three-point line, completely unguarded.

Bradley didn’t even give Smith a second look, knowing that there was almost no chance he’d make the shot, and instead hoisted an extremely contested prayer.

Pistons lose.

Now imagine that scenario, but instead of Smith, Kennard is the man inbounding.

That whole play unfolds in a much different way and at the very least the Pelicans are forced to guard all five players on the floor.

This also leads to another point about Stan Van Gundy’s coaching, which is his refusal to give Kennard an increased role.

Kennard has been making it rain from deep all season long, yet he can’t get an extended run of minutes.

Even when Bradley missed seven games, allowing Kennard to join the starting lineup four times, he still only averaged 18.6 minutes across the stretch.

Kennard shot a staggering 73.3 percent on three-pointers during this time, yet somehow wasn’t worthy of an increased role.

Van Gundy’s dislike for playing rookies has been grossly exaggerated in the past, mostly because he hasn’t exactly had many ready-made rookies to give a lot of minutes.

However, Kennard is different and should be treated as such.

Kennard’s shooting opens up the offence so much and it’s crazy that he isn’t being used to his full potential.

Arguably the most egregious of Stan Van Gundy’s coaching decisions is the one to hand Langston Galloway six DNP – Coaches Decision’s with only 39 games played so far this season.

I mean Galloway has been such a liability on defense with his -15 point swing in defensive rating when he's off the court, and DEFINITELY a liability on offense with a synergy breakdown like this: pic.twitter.com/Bz5hbOdqxE
— Sham (@shamshammgod) January 7, 2018

Van Gundy went out and signed Galloway almost immediately as free agency opened, which tied up the Pistons’ cap room.

This isn’t a bad decision on its own, as bolstering a bench that had been laughably poor in the past is actually very smart.

Deciding to not play the player you tied up your final cap space with for no good reason is not smart.

Galloway hasn’t set the world on fire and has had games where he has struggled, but overall he’s been a positive influence on the team.

This season he’s averaging a career-high when shooting two-pointers and his three-point percentage, while not quite as good as last season, is the second-highest it’s been in his four-year career.

With injuries to guys like Reggie Jackson, Avery Bradley and Stanley Johnson there is no good reason for why Galloway is spending the whole night in his warmups so often.

Whenever I hear Stan Van Gundy speak I get the impression that he’s extremely knowledgeable and has a great basketball brain.

However, when it comes to game time too often it seems like he’s lacking in many areas.

The positive about all of this is that these are relatively easy problems to solve and are not nearly as serious as some of the problems other coaches in the league have.

If Van Gundy opens himself up to being less stubborn with lineups and more willing to put faith into guys like Galloway and Kennard, r trust a guy like Dwight Buycks when he’s on fire, the team will benefit greatly.