Detroit Pistons Shooting This Season, Colder Than a Polar Vortex

The Detroit Pistons haven’t had the best time on offense. But how much has their offense struggled this season? Do they need a change in offense?

It has been a struggle on offense this season for the Detroit Pistons. Not only do they not have an extremely reliable offense set; but they also can’t get a shot to fall contested or wide open.

It has been no secret that Casey’s offensive sets have not been the most creative sets. In fact, their most reliable offensive set; the Blake Griffin post-up play, has also been their worst offensive set.

Now I’m not saying the Pistons shouldn’t run Blake post-ups. It’s actually a pretty good offense when Blake scores himself on those types of possessions. It’s also a great option when he passes it out to a wide open Reggie Jackson, Reggie Bullock, and Luke Kennard. But passing it out to a wide open Glenn Robinson III, Stanley Johnson, Langston Galloway, and a couple other Pistons players hasn’t gone the way they’d like it to go.

Many fans were pumped with the signing of Glenn Robinson III. His shooting and athleticism surely should have helped the team. Well, that’s not the case. PistonPowered Contributor Joe Truck wrote in the summer that the fans should pump the breaks on Glenn. His piece is just about spot on. He hasn’t been the best of shooters for the Pistons. In fact, he’s been a nightmare for the Pistons; averaging 28.6 percent shooting from three. If he had shot an average of 36 percent from three this season; the team would be in a much better position in the standings.

Now I know that sounds crazy to say. But a Twitter user pointed out that Casey isn’t to blame for their team’s offensive struggle.

This got me thinking. What kind of shots are the Pistons generating? Are they wide open shots? Open? Contested? Heavily contested? I started to dig through a bunch of the shooting stats.

Lets start with the basic stats. The Pistons are 25th in the entire league in points per game. Already you can see that this isn’t ideal for a team looking to make the playoffs. Moving onto the 3 point stats; the Pistons attempt the 7th most threes in the entire league. That is a recipe for success BUT; they are dead last in three-point percentage. Yup that’s right, 30th in the entire league in percentage.

Now you might ask yourself. Why are the Pistons attempting so many threes if they aren’t hitting them? Well there is a good reasoning for this.

That’s extremely good because obviously wide open shots are high percentage shots.  They just need to start making these shots.

Boiling Hot

As I mentioned before. There are players that Blake Griffin loves to pass to out of the post. Reggie Jackson is shooting 42.5% on wide open threes. Out of Reggie’s 281 total three-point attempts this season; 167 of them are wide open. That’s good offense.

Warm

Reggie Bullock has clearly had a down year shooting the ball. That hasn’t kept him from shooting the ball at a high rate. Of his 272 three-point attempts this season, 248 have been wide open, or open(4-6 feet). He’s shooting 38.3% on those attempts.

The only types of threes you want Bruce Brown shooting is wide open. Luckily for Bruce, 41 of his 60 threes have been wide open. He’s shooting 39% on those attempts.

Luke Kennard is one of those players that whenever he shoots the ball; you feel like he’s going to make the shot. Well you’re probably not wrong because of his 116 three-point attempts; 107 have been wide open or open. He’s shooting 37.3% on those attempts

Ice Cold

Ish Smith isn’t known for his three-point shooting. Sure enough if you look up his shooting stats; you won’t be surprised. Of his 81 attempts this season; 43 of his attempts are wide open. With a shooting of 34.9%; hes sitting at the point of melting ice than a solid cube of ice.

Hypothermia

I mentioned that Glenn Robinson III left many fans pumped after signing with the team. Well I can probably assure you that most fans will be pumped when he is not on the team next season. He is shooting 27 percent on wide open threes! The Pistons brought him in to stretch the floor. And he’s done just the opposite of that.

Reggie Jackson has shot the ball extremely well from wide open range. But it hasn’t stopped him from shooting a ton of open threes. In fact, he has shot 100 open threes and has only connected on 20 of them! He’s connected on 20 percent of his open three-point shots! Let’s just hope Blake dishes out more wide open shots.

Any Pistons fan who has watched the games knows that Jose Calderon has been probably the worst shooter on the team. Well the stats don’t lie *Rasheed Wallace voice*.  31 of his 56 total attempts have been wide open. He’s made 8 of them to put himself at 25.8 percent. Yuck!

Langston Galloway is a weird shooter. He shoots 36.9% on his open threes! That’s pretty impressive. But when you look at his wide open threes; you might think the stats are wrong. Well, the stats aren’t wrong. On Galloway’s 232 three-point attempts; he’s attempted only 102 of them in wide open range. And the worst part is that he’s only shooting 28.4 percent on those shots! How is it possible to be way worse when the defender is farther from you?

And finally… Stanley Johnson. Unlike Galloway, Stanley is a poor three-point shooter no matter how open or guarded he is. Of his 171 total attempts, 105 have been wide open. And his percentage? A sickening 27.6 percent. I feel like I have hypothermia just reading those stats.

So if anything needs to be fixed; this is where the Pistons need to start. Start making some of those shots, you’ll likely see a change in those standings.