The Detroit Pistons need some help from beyond the arc. Blake Griffin needs someone to take some pressure off of him. Bradley Beal is the guy.
There are some players being talked about as potential trade candidates and the Detroit Pistons should be a buyer.
John Wall, absolutely not.
Bradley Beal, absolutely yes.
The Washington Wizards are spinning down the toilet, and it seems the Wizards front office has noticed. Woj reported that the Wizards are now open to trading anyone on the roster, including their two stars.
And the Pistons should be going all out to get Beal. Do the Pistons have enough to get Beal?
Who knows, but they need to find out. Why Beal? Well, he’s exactly what the Pistons want and need.
Dwane Casey preached all off-season about the Pistons needing to get more three’s up this year. So far into this season, he’s delivered on this sentiment. The Pistons are fifth in the league in three point attempts per game at 35.1 attempts.
The Pistons have almost eliminated the mid-range game from their scheme, which is analytically what you want to happen. The only problem is the Pistons are the second-worst three point shooting team in the league at 31.6 percent.
Beal would immediately help the Pistons in this area. This year, Beal is having a down year through 17 games from beyond the arc, shooting 33.1 percent on 7.5 attempts a game. The Wizards have been a circus and an example of dysfunction so far this year, so this may have to do with his struggles.
However, Beal is a career 39 percent three-point shooter on 5.5 attempts. The last two years he has shot 37 and 40 percent from long range on 6.5 and 7.2 attempts a game. This is great efficiency on so many attempts a game.
Where’s everyone at with this Bradley Beal thing?
— PistonPowered (@PistonPowered) November 21, 2018
The Pistons best three point shooter so far this season is Blake Griffin, at 37 percent on 5.8 attempts a game. After that, Reggie Bullock checks in at 35 percent on 5.4 attempts a game. Everyone else after that is under 33 percent.
Yes, getting more three’s up is ideal if you want to win in this era. However, the Pistons don’t have many shooters on this team. In fact, they only have two so far this season are shooting at or above league average from beyond the arc (35.2 percent).
Beal would immediately become the Pistons best shooter on the team, on larger volume than anyone else on the team as well.
Beal is not just a shooter either. The guy is just a flat out scorer. He’s an All-Star in the east, and the type of scorer the Pistons have needed on the wing since Richard Hamilton.
The last three seasons, Beal has averaged more than 20 points a game on more than 26 percent usage each season. This guy isn’t just catch and shooting, he’s capable of creating his own shot and getting a bucket.
Only Griffin has a higher usage rate on the Pistons so far, and there’s worry that Griffin could wear down during the season if he keeps carrying this big of a load. Instead of forcing
and
into a role their skills simply can’t match, the Pistons could get someone who is capable of doing it a high level.
Bringing Beal in would immediately take some of the pressure off of Griffin’s body to perform at this high of a level every night. This is something that should be a priority considering Griffin’s recent injury history.
However, Beal would also excel working off of Griffin should the Pistons trade for the star shooting guard.
The Pistons offense has went through Griffin all season, having almost all their shots come from Griffin creating them for himself or others. Whether he’s assisting on the score, or drawing attention from the opposing defense for other players to get an open shot.
The Pistons offense starts and ends with Griffin. His teammates are making it pretty hard for this to work. As of right now, Jackson and Bullock are the Pistons two best catch-and-shoot players from long range.
Jackson is shooting 36.2 percent on 4.9 attempts, and Bullock is shooting 36.5 percent on 4.7 attempts. After those two, the rest of the team is shooting 33 percent or under on catch and shoot three’s.
Again, the idea to get as many three’s as possible up instead of taking a bunch of mid-range shots like the
led Pistons is correct.
But, not having the players to fit the system will hold the team back.
Beal would, once again, immediately fit into this scheme and one could argue would benefit much more from Griffin than he has from Wall.
Last year, Beal shot 43 percent on 3.8 catch and shoot threes per game.
43 PERCENT!
If Griffin and the Detroit Pistons can create 4.9 catch and shoot attempts for Jackson, and 4.7 attempts for Bullock, you’d have to assume Beal would get just as many, if not more, than those two.
Beal would immediately make this team better on all fronts, and the Pistons may just make Beal a better and more efficient player than he has been in his career.
Speaking of efficiency.
True shooting percentage is a statistic that measures a players efficiency shooting the ball, much more accurately than field goal percentage.
In Beal’s best season (2016-17), Beal had a 60.4 true shooting percentage on 17.2 shots a game. For comparison, Kevin Durant has a true shooting percentage of 61.3 on 18.9 attempts so far this season.
This year, in what is a down year for Beal, his true shooting percentage is 56.6 on 17.2 attempts a game. The Pistons only have two players on their team with a higher true shooting percentage, Griffin and Langston Galloway. Galloway is doing it on 7.6 shots a game, however.
The Pistons don’t have anyone on their team that’s as good of a shooter, that good of a scorer, on that kind of efficiency outside of Griffin this year.
Of course, it’s assumed (hope) that Bullock will eventually get back to his 44.5 percent from deep and 61.5 true shooting percentage from last year.
However, that would only give the Detroit Pistons one player to rely on. Not mentioning Kennard, because he’d have to be involved in a trade for Beal.
And unlike his teammate Wall, Beal is not going to be getting paid a trillion dollars in 2019-2021. He will be getting paid, respectfully, 25, 27, and 29 million dollars over the next three years.
Oh, and he was drafted in the same draft as Andre Drummond so he’s only 25 years old.
And will be 28 years old at the end of this contract.
His contract would be ending at the same time as Drummond, one year before Griffin if he were to opt-in to the final year of his contract.
If it were to have not worked out, the Pistons will be able to rebuild and blow it up in 2021.
So, no Detroit Pistons fans. John Wall is not who the Pistons want. Wall isn’t a player very many teams should want right now.
But, Beal? The Pistons should absolutely want him.
And they should do just about everything to get him paired with Drummond and Griffin.