Last season, Reggie Bullock was one of the NBA’s best 3-point shooters. This season, the Detroit Pistons’ swingman has struggled hitting the outside shot. Joye Pruitt explains why his 3-point shooting is so vital to Detroit’s success.
The Detroit Pistons looked really good until Saturday night.
The Boston Celtics were the first complete team they faced this season. Challenged by a club with more depth and a noticeable gap in offensive skill, the Pistons crumbled quick.
It was not that Detroit wouldn’t respond, consistently, to Boston’s 41.3 percent clip from behind the 3-point line. The Pistons couldn’t respond. Coach Dwane Casey searched for another spark. Just one more player that could get the game going at home.
It never came.
I couldn’t help but wonder, “Where are the shooters? Where is Reggie Bullock?”
Sure, shooters have slumps. Unfortunately for the Detroit Pistons, Reggie Bullock’s valley has yet to peak and his shots continue to fly off the rim.
Detroit’s 3-point shooting woes are not solely on Bullock. Langston Galloway is leaving offense on the table, shooting 15.0 percent from beyond the arc this season. He’s admittedly “one of the snipers on the team”, according to an article from Dana Gauruder of the Detroit Free Press.
More is expected of Galloway as well because he is a career 36.1 percent 3-point shooter.
But Bullock is averaging 6.7 more minutes per game than Galloway, and is in the starting rotation as the team’s marksman. The margin of error is slim against the more elite teams in the Eastern Conference, let alone out west.
His lack of efficiency has him stumbling right around 20.0 percent in 3-point field-goal shooting and 32.6 percent overall.
Not really what fans expected when Reggie Bullock came off of a career-best 44.5 percent from three in his 2017-18 campaign. The promising outlook for the shooter comes with how potent his offense can be, and how that will affect the Pistons’ ability to spread the floor.
This is not a problem that bloomed in the Detroit Pistons’ single loss. After Bullock missed the season opener against the Brooklyn Nets due to illness, he averaged only 17.9 percent in 3-point shooting before Saturday.
That’s important to remember, because 40.6 percent of the shots he took in those three games were long-range. He likes to shoot the three, so for the Pistons to get better, he has to start seeing those shots fall.
NBA Math has an intriguing graphic that sums everything up adequately.
After their 109-89 loss to the Boston Celtics, the Detroit Pistons are now 4-1. Here's how all #DetroitBasketball players have fared in TPA during the 2018-19 season: pic.twitter.com/qqYkirWYkn
— NBA Math (@NBA_Math) October 28, 2018
NBA Math explains the statistic of total points added as a calculation that takes both offensive and defensive efficiency per possession for a player along with the amount of time said player is on the floor.
It levels the playing field in regards to comparing the effectiveness of players who may not have as much playing time, and therefore, have fewer opportunities to make an impact.
That said, Bullock comes second-to-last in offensive points made at -9.09 and 13th on the squad in defensive points saved with -5.08. That puts the guard-forward’s total points added (TPA) at -14.17. Putting this number in perspective, it is 5.68 points worse than Galloway’s TPA.
Analytics can sometimes make the truth more complex. Let’s keep it simple. Reggie Bullock has not been good enough on defense to complement his shooting woes. He spends a lot of time on the floor, and the Detroit Pistons need to spread opponents more to free Blake Griffin from possible double and triple-teams.
Bullock has very specific responsibilities this season: Be dangerous enough at 3-pointers to stretch the defense, and efficient enough to hit the open shots when defenders don’t close in.
Hopefully, his slow start is indicative of great things yet to come. Because right now, Bullock is the guy.
The only guy the Detroit Pistons have for the job.