Second Look: Detroit Pistons at Sacramento Kings

The Pistons got their first road win since the Blake Griffin trade by beating the Kings 106-90. What are the things that are for real and what are things that are just a result of the Kings being bad?

So the Kings are very bad.

Yeah, they are, but they are not on as comical a level as some other teams in the tanking race. The Kings are bad because they have a lot of young and bad players playing a lot of minutes. They’ve been bad all season, but they are normal levels of bad. There are some teams who have completely thrown in the towel in a naked attempt to tank to reach new heights of bad down the stretch, the Kings are not that.

For example, since the all-star break, the Kings have five wins and ten losses, over their last 11 games they got all five of them! That’s right, the Kings had a stretch of ten games where they played .500 ball! The Grizzlies and Suns, on the other hand, have each won just a single game apiece since the break and most of those losses were absolute blowouts.

Essentially the Kings have been comically bad all season, they own the second-worst net rating in the NBA on the season (-8.5 points per 100 possessions), but that is about where the worst few teams in the NBA usually are in a season. Since the break when the tank really got on they have had the 24th net rating (-6.6) basically meaning that some meaning can be wrought from this game because even though the Kings suck, they suck as an actual semi-functional NBA team.

Ok, so they are actually still playing NBA caliber basketball, even if it is very bad NBA caliber basketball. What can we learn then?

Blake Griffin is very good at basketball. It did not come as any sort of a shock, but the Kings did not really have anyone who could guard Griffin in any situation which was not helped by the fact that the Kings’ sloppy defense often resulted in switches and open lanes that made a bad problem worse.

Blake Griffin is very good.

We also got a nice sign of the Griffin at center lineups not being awful. And this is the basic idea here:

Kota Koufos is not a bad player. He’s actually a pretty solid backup center, but he doesn’t stand much chance to defend Griffin. The defense has been a struggle and the offense has often looked disjointed in these lineups, but in theory, it should work. Play at least some defense and watch Griffin roast backup centers who are totally overmatched.

How about Reggie Bullock, he had another good game.

Yes he did, 17 points on 13 shots is a really nice night. I’ve brought up him and Griffin’s two-man game quite a bit in this space, but Bullock himself is looking more comfortable with the ball in his hands than even a month ago.

Watch here where he doesn’t try to do too much but hits Zach Randolph with a hesitation dribble to get enough space to get to the hoop.

And here he hits an easy floater in the lane.

He and the coaching staff really have figured out fun and smart ways to try and get him looks while not making him dribble in traffic too much. Bullock himself has gotten much better at getting balanced for shots off the dribble as well. Plus he can still do this which is bordering on the absurd.

And he still has great movement off the ball to get himself open.

How about the defensive performance?

I don’t know that it was all that good. They locked down to pull away in the fourth quarter but I’m not sure how much of that was the Pistons playing well or the Kings playing poorly. I will say that Andre Drummond had several very nice defensive plays that show how much better he is reading the floor and the game these days.

On both of those plays, Drummond lurks away from the ball, watchful, and waits until the last moment when the offensive player’s head is down and definitely not looking for a shot. Then in a flash, he is there to swat the ball before they really even get it up. Those are both plays that he is not making last year.

Let’s also talk about Luke Kennard’s defense in this game. He will always have to overcome a lack of speed, but he really is a heady defender who plays with an anticipation that you usually only see in veterans.

On this play, he manages to close out on Buddy Hield without letting him drive past even though it is a transition chance where the Pistons are kind of in panic mode.

Once again, they are in panic mode there. If Kennard closes too hard and forces Hield to drive into the paint then that is still a decent effort play to keep a really good three-point shooter from getting an open look. But he closes with control and then sticks with Hield and essentially kills off the transition opportunity.

On that play, he just sorts of sticks with it and then slips in at the exact right moment to steal the ball. Once again, I’m not sure that there is an easy way to quantify it, but Kennard just has a nose for the ball and it is also evidenced in the fact that he is a really good rebounder for his position. His defensive ability has been a really nice surprise this season and gives a lot of hope for how good a player he can become.

What about little things?

With Reggie Jackson having returned against the Suns we have likely seen the last of Dwight Buycks as a rotation player and even though he has plenty of faults he filled in admirably. Most people would point to his occasional scoring outburst, but I actually point to plays like this where he just does the little things that help you win.

First, he boxes out a much bigger player on one end, then on the other, he makes a nice cut to bail out James Ennis. I would be surprised if Buycks is not a Piston next year, especially if Stan Van Gundy is retained.

Also, Ish Smith has decided he can shoot threes now and I’ve never been so simultaneously angry and happy about something at the same time.

Including their next outing against the Suns, and Smith has taken three three-pointers in over the last three games (wow too many threes maybe its a sign) and he has hit over half of them. On one hand: Yay! If Smith can manage to even hit the occasional open look it would make him much more workable as a player, on the other hand, why didn’t he start doing this like a month ago?

Either way, it will be an interesting thing to monitor going forward. In his 75 games with the Sixers, he took over two per game and hit 32.8% of them. That isn’t good, but it is something.

Also, given that this was against the team that stole Anthony Tolliver for a year it is a prudent time to mention that Tolliver did not have this in his game when he was first with the Pistons.

I’m not sure what the deal is, normally guys don’t get better like this after turning 30. Maybe it is that he finally got to spend a couple of full off-seasons with a team instead of constantly trying out and just trying to get on one. Either way, he’s really improved himself.

Anything fun?

Yes. I am 100% here for Andre Drummond taking the ball on the break.

That is just fun and I hope they give him allowance to do that sometimes.

There was also this gem from Vince Carter who did not approve of a foul call on him,

So what’s the final verdict?

Good to get a win no matter what. I would’ve liked it if they could’ve pulled away a little bit more but you can live with this. Blake Griffin continues to destroy everything which is nice, although it has often come at the expense of Andre Drummond recently so they need to work on finding ways to get Griffin his own while still letting Drummond do stuff. Reggie Jackson will help in a big way there, but it will still be a challenge.

Another storyline emerging as Reggie Bullock continues to be awesome that is going to grow this off-season and into next year. Both Bullock and Stanley Johnson will be free agents after next year and there is a real chance that the Pistons will have to pick between them. Something to watch.