Brought on to provide depth and backup minutes at the small forward position, Glenn Robinson III had a disappointing and underwhelming season.
Armed with very little financial flexibility last summer, the Detroit Pistons were able to sign former Indiana Pacers small forward Glenn Robinson III to a modest 2-year, $8 million deal with a team option in the second season.
Robinson was coming off an injury-plagued season in which he only played 23 games. In those games, he shot a blistering 41.2% from three, albeit in a small sample size (14/34 shots).
Robinson, the winner of the 2017 NBA Dunk Contest, came to the Pistons ready for a fresh start and a return home to the state where he played his college ball at the University of Michigan.
The move made sense both financially and strategically: bring in an affordable shooter and athletic defender to shore up the depth behind starting small forward Stanley Johnson.
Glenn Robinson III started the year playing frequently, averaging 15.3 minutes in the first three months of the season and even starting a few games. But he had an awful December, posting a net rating per 100 possessions of -27.1.
His poor December performance appeared to be his undoing, and he was quickly yanked from the rotation. But from January on, in limited minutes, he actually posted a halfway decent defensive rating average of 99.13.
But it was likely his offense that kept him off the court. With Robinson on the court, the Pistons had a 105.5 offensive rating as opposed to 110.3 with him off.
After the trades of 6’7″ small forwards Stanley Johnson and Reggie Bullock, the Pistons were left very small on the wing, with 6’4″ Bruce Brown playing at the small forward spot. This was Robinson’s chance to step in and earn more playing time by defending opposing team’s larger wing players, being the only wing player on the roster 6’6″ or taller.
Despite the golden opportunity to prove his worth, he was unable to make much of it. He did see a bit of an uptick in minutes in March when the Detroit Pistons were playing well, but most of those minutes were in garbage time.
He ended the season with 4.2 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.4 assists while shooting 42% overall and only 29% from three.
After an underwhelming season, what does the future hold for Glenn Robinson III?
Despite the team being very small on the wing, he was still not able to earn many minutes, leading many to believe that Dwayne Casey doesn’t have much faith in Robinson moving forward.
The Detroit Pistons have the team option to bring him back next year, but Robinson under-performing coupled with the Pistons salary situation will likely cause them to decide to move on. But there is always the chance he may return, hopefully as the player, the Detroit Pistons signed him to be.