Hired Gun: Reviewing Wayne Ellington’s season with the Detroit Pistons
By Ryan Love
The Detroit Pistons picked up Wayne Ellington mid-season to bolster the offense on their run to the playoffs. The Ellington Experience was an adventure, to say the least.
Wayne Ellington joined the Detroit Pistons shortly after the February trade deadline in the 2018-19 season. The team signed Ellington after he was waved following a trade from the Miami Heat to the Phoenix Suns.
Ellington, 31, played 25 games for the Heat before being included in the trade that sent Tyler Johnson to Phoenix and Ryan Anderson to Miami. The Suns waved Ellington before he played a game.
The Pistons picked up Ellington on February 9 for a cheap deal to keep him for the rest of the season.
The Pistons acquired Ellington in direct relation to the hole in the offense created by the trade that sent Reggie Bullock to the Lakers before the trade deadline.
Related Story. Detroit Pistons trade Reggie Bullock. light
Ellington had an immediate impact on his new team — starting 26 of his 28 games in Detroit. and averaging about 27 minutes per game. However, the University of North Carolina product had his fair share of ups and downs.
Ellington averaged 12 points, 1.5 assists, and two rebounds during his tenure with the Pistons. The spot-up shooting specialist shot 42 percent from the floor on nearly 10 shots per game. He shot 37 percent from three-point range on nearly eight attempts per game.
The Pistons — who often go through offensive droughts — often relied on Ellington to help shoot them out of it, or at least space the floor enough to make room for others.
The sharpshooter himself had his fair share of droughts, but when he was hot he seemed to be unguardable.
Ellington’s scoring helped keep the Pistons in the playoff hunt late in the season in crucial Eastern Conference games. Blake Griffin’s injury and the bench unit’s scoring struggles hindered the team’s offense even more than it was at full strength.
Ellington shot 7-for-13 from three against the Orlando Magic in a key game with playoff implications on March 28:
These were the games that created hope for the Pistons heading into the playoffs. Unfortunately, the matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Griffin injury were too much to overcome for the team and for Ellington.
The importance of a knock-down, 3-point shooter in the playoffs is vital to any team’s success. Ellington must have lost his lucky shooting sleeve somewhere along the way.
He averaged under eight points in 32 minutes per game In the four-game sweep at the hands of the Bucks.
Ellington shot 31 percent from beyond the arc on over five three-point attempts per game — well below the 40 percent mark he shot during Heat’s playoff run the prior season.
Ellington posted a PER of 5.7 in the playoffs — about seven under his season rating.
It is easy to hide poor defense with good offense. However, Ellington and the Pistons struggled as a whole guarding opposing perimeter players — something the team is expected to address to some degree during the off-season.
Next. 15th overall picks from the last decade. dark
Picking up Ellington after the departure of Reggie Bullock was the correct choice by the Pistons. Ellington showed he is capable of getting hot and winning a few key regular season games for an average team. The Pistons should entertain the thought of bringing him back if he is willing to play for cheap again as they are more-or-less handcuffed to the current roster as it is.