Let’s take a chill pill, Pistons fans

The sky is not falling guys. The Pistons are okay right now, and here’s why.

The sky is not falling, Chicken Little.

I mean, Pistons fans.

Everyone needs to put their big boy pants on and take a chill pill, seriously.

Things aren’t going great right now, but Pistons fans must be able to look at the whole picture. Do not allow what’s happening in the present to cloud your view of the situation.

That’s not to say whats been happening now isn’t bad.

The Pistons have lost eight of their last 10 games, and have fallen 6.5 games behind the eight seeded Miami Heat. The Pistons are actually closer to the 12th seed, Chicago Bulls, where they are only ahead 6 games.

They might as well be eliminated from the Playoffs, and are playing the rest of the season simply to get a feel for next year.

This is pretty bad, and not at all what Pistons fans wanted from the year.

But, lets calm down and have some perspective guys.

The Pistons do not need to blow things up. In fact, they should retool and just run it back again next year with the exact same core.

Why?

Well, to start off, they’ve been without their starting point guard since the end of December. When Reggie Jackson was healthy and in the lineup, the Pistons were 19-14. They had wins over the Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Boston Celtics.

In those first 33 games, the Pistons had an offensive rating on 108.5 and a defensive rating of 107.3. They were outscoring teams by an average of 1.2 points, and were competing for a top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. They were holding teams to 101.6 points a game while forcing 15 turnovers a game.

Since Jackson’s injury, the Pistons are 11-25 and as said earlier, pretty much eliminated from the Playoffs. In the 36 games without Jackson, the Pistons offensive rating has fallen 3 points to 105.6 and the defensive rating has sky rocketed to 110.1. They’re being outscored by an average of 4.4 point a game. They’re allowing 5.2 more points a game since he went down, at 106.8 point per game.

Point being, this team is not only completely different with Jackson, but extremely better.

This is not making excuses for the Pistons, it’s simply keeping perspective on this whole situation. When they’ve had their second or third best player, they’ve been really good. Without him, they’ve been really bad.

If anything, I think this season has proved that Van Gundy (or whoever is in charge next year) must find a better replacement for Jackson if he were to go down.

Sorry Ish Smith, you’re just not cutting it.

Like my guy and fellow writer at PistonPowered Joe Truck tweeted, look at this. Seriously just look at this. Smith’s guy is no where near him, and the paint is completely clogged for Drummond and Griffin. This happens all game, and it leads to bad shots and turnovers, which also lead to easy buckets for the opponent.

Along with the Jackson topic, I think fans are forgetting something.

Blake Griffin is a star, I believe a superstar.

The Pistons just got him 20 games ago.

20 games, people.

You get such a big piece like that mid season, and you’re missing your second or third best player, things are not going to go well.

Not even mentioning the fact that the team around Griffin and Drummond isn’t helping either. Smith makes it hard for Griffin to have much of a driving lane, and when he gets close to the paint he gets double teamed because of Smiths lack of shooting.

And it’s not like Griffin can just kick out to Smith when he’s doubled, because Smith can’t even throw a rock in the ocean.

To make matters worse, Van Gundy has changed the rotation so many times since Griffin has joined that it’s literally impossible to expect consistency  from your players, when you can’t even get consistency from your coach.

Remember, Van Gundy had the Pistons best shooter sit out the two most important games since Jackson went down. With a chance to come within a game of the Miami Heat, Luke Kennard did not play against the Orlando Magic and the Heat on a back-to-back.

On a team that absolutely needs spacing with Griffin and Drummond, I think we all know how those games went.

So, without consistency from its coach you cannot expect a team (that just got such a huge piece in Griffin) to play consistently well.

However, there’s still good to take away from these last handful of games.

Griffin has started to get comfortable in this offense, and has been showing his star power.

Before I get into his stats the last nine games, really everyone should go rewatch that Toronto Raptors fourth quarter and overtime game against the Pistons. Like seriously, Griffin had a backpack on carrying every Piston player in it. Griffin hit clutch shot, after clutch shot, clutch shot for the Pistons.

If Reggie Bullock makes an open three off a kick-out in the final minute from Griffin, or if ANYONE picked up Demar Derozan before he went full court untouched for an and-one poster on Anthony Tolliver AFTER a Griffin post move put us up one with under 20 seconds to go, the Pistons would have won that game only because of Griffins heroics.

That game was really something special to watch. I haven’t seen a Pistons performance like that since Jacksons fourth quarter against the Trail Blazers almost three years ago. Griffins performance was probably better than that.

But, anyways.

Over the last nine games, Griffin is averaging 21 points per game, six rebounds a game, and six assists a game. The most notable stat is his shooting percentages.

In Griffins first 11 games, he shot 40 percent  from the field and 27 percent from three on 5.6 attempts a game.

Before I get the, “Well, that’s probably what he realistically shoots from three, he’s just feeling hot right now”  I’ll debunk it.

Before he came to the Pistons, Griffin was shooting 34 percent from three with the Clippers on 5.7 attempts. Oh, maybe he was a little more comfortable in their system. It’s almost like being traded to a whole new system and new players can mess with a guys play until he gets comfortable.

However, in Griffins last nine games he’s shot much better. Griffin is shooting 43 percent from the field (a three percent  increase over his first 11 games) and 41 percent from three (a whopping 14 percent increase over his first 11 games) on 5.1 attempts.

Griffin is starting to feel himself into the Pistons rhythm and you must give credit to Van Gundy as well. He’s put shooters around Griffin the last nine games, and has helped Griffin play inside-out, instead of outside-in.

You guys should really follow my guy I mentioned earlier, Joe, to see how Van Gundy actually is making good adjustments for Griffin lately. He also usually writes second looks a day after the game, going over everything. Click here to see one of his second looks.

Anyways!

No, Piston fans. The sky is not falling.

There’s actually a lot of good happening inside of the bad things happening!

And look! Rod Beard of the Detroit News was told by Van Gundy, that Jackson could return this week! So, we may get to see our big three for a handful of game this year.

Yeah, this season sucks. Injuries can do that to a team.

But, this team is not lost.

Give this team an offseason to actually incorporate our big three together.

Give this team an offseason to get the right pieces around our big three.

If Griffin, Jackson, and Drummond don’t make it work next year, then the sky will start falling.

And it will fall for awhile…(checkout out salary cap for the next few years)

But, right now, there’s actually good things happening and good signs for this team.

This team is going to be fine.