Ish Smith is the Detroit Pistons last hope

Ish Smith has been sidelines since the beginning of December. The Detroit Pistons have struggled in his absence, and his return may be their last hope.

Ish Smith has been out with a hamstring injury since the Detroit Pistons December 5th game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Detroit Pistons were 13-9 before he missed any time, and were sitting in a pretty good position with Blake Griffin playing the best ball of his life.

Since Smith has been out, the Pistons have lost 12 of their last 16 games and find themselves outside of the playoffs.

Heading into what will likely be their most important stretch of the season, the return of Smith may be the Pistons only hope to resurrect this season.

In the games Smith played, he was a +2.5 on the court. With Smith in the lineup, The Pistons had someone who could change the pace and tempo when starting point guard Reggie Jackson sat down.

Dwane Casey liked to also have Jackson and Smith on the court at the same time, because the Pistons lack ball handling/play-makers outside of those two and Griffin.

In his absence this has been a big weakness for the Pistons, as Griffin has had to do most of the ball handling all by himself.

Maybe Casey could ask his starting point guard to do some ball handling like he has his whole career, but that’s a different topic for a different day.

In Smith’s absence, the Pistons have had to rely upon the ghost of Jose Calderon.

After doing a decent job when Smith first went down, Calderon has destroyed the Pistons every time he’s touched the floor.

In a comment under the Detroit Bad Boys (yuck)* review of the San Antonio Spurs game, a user by the name of Crosseyed provided some insane, but expected statistics of Calderon’s time in the rotation.

Stanley Johnson’s true shooting percentage drops from 50.4 percent with Calderon off the court, to 43.3 percent when Calderon is on the court.

Reggie Bullock true shooting percentage drops from 57.4 percent with Calderon off the court, to 50.6 percent when Calderon is on the court.

Glenn Robinson III true shooting percentage drops from 53.5 percent with Calderon off the court, to 25 percent with Calderon on the court.

The Pistons true shooting percentage AS A TEAM drops from 54.4 percent with Calderon off the court, to 48.8 percent with Calderon on the court.

First off, I’d like to say thank you to Crosseyed for putting himself through the pain that only rivals a Saw game of going through those stats.

But, I think the point is clear.

Calderon is killing the Pistons bench.

Just look at the game against the Spurs.

Everyone in the starting lineup, besides Andre Drummond, had a plus four on the court or better.

Drummond was forced to run with the bench this game due to injuries to the front court, and you could tell just by looking at the plus/minus.

Calderon, Johnson, Galloway, Drummond, and Luke Kennard all had a plus/minus of -15 or worse.

The loss of Smith and the replacement of Calderon has absolutely destroyed the Pistons.

Oh.

And your head coach played and has been playing Calderon damn near the same minutes as Jackson.

In the Spurs game, Calderon played 23 minutes.

The exact same minutes as starter Jackson.

Let me stay on topic.

The bench was playing so much better with Smith in the lineup.

Remember when Johnson was moved to the bench and he was playing fantastic? Wanna know what changed?

Smith went down.

In the games with Smith in the lineup when Johnson was coming off the bench, Johnson was averaging 11.4 points , 4.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals per game while shooting 45.1 percent from the floor and 33 percent from deep.

Since Smith has went down and Johnson has ran with Calderon, the numbers and quality of play has plummeted.

Johnson is averaging 5.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, on 30 percent shooting from the floor and 19 percent from three.

Calderon is destroying the Detroit Pistons.

Ish Smith is the Detroit Pistons last hope to save this season from getting completely out of hand.

Smith has to come back and stop Calderon from doing this Ish’.

It’s the Pistons last hope.

*Detroit Bad Boys isn’t yuck, all in fun.