Ten Years of Detroit Pistons Basketball Reviewed
Record: 29-53 (11th in Eastern Conference)
Head Coach: Maurice Cheeks (21-29), John Loyer (8-24)
Offensive Rating: 105.9 (19th in NBA)
Defensive Rating: 109.7 (25th in NBA)
Draft Additions:
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (1st round, 8th pick)
Tony Mitchell (2nd round, 37th pick)
Peyton Siva (2nd round, 56th pick)
Free Agent/Trade Additions:
Josh Smith
Chauncey Billups
Josh Harrelson
Depth Chart:
Point Guard: Brandon Jennings, Will Bynum
Shooting Guard: Rodney Stuckey, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Chauncey Billups, Peyton Siva
Small Forward: Josh Smith, Kyle Singler, Luigi Datome
Power Forward: Greg Monroe, Jonas Jerebko, Charlie Villanueva, Tony Mitchell
Center: Andre Drummond, Josh Harrellson
Best Players: Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings
Ahh, the infamous 2013-2014 season. I remember it just like it was yesterday. This season as a whole is marked by questionable decisions.
I’ll begin with the hiring and eventual firing of former head coach Maurice Cheeks after just half of a season, leaving interim head coach John Loyer running the helm until the season’s completion. The Pistons head coaching position had been a bit of a revolving door up to this point and the short run of Cheeks only added to that.
The early firing of Maurice Cheeks is an afterthought in comparison to the boneheaded signing of Josh Smith. At least once we fired Cheeks we did not have to pay him for nearly an entire decade later. The signing of Josh Smith is something that does not make sense looking back on it now. Even back when news broke of the free agent signing with Detroit it made zero sense.
Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond are both traditional backs to the basket centers. Monroe had an inconsistent mid-range game to slightly space the floor for Drummond who at this point had next to no offensive game aside from putbacks and finishing lobs.
For the twin towers experiment to work out, we would have to build around the two big men with a plethora of knockdown shooters. So who better to sign as our star small forward than the greatest shooter of all time? That’s right folks, our front office genuinely believed it was a good idea to put together a core of Josh Smith, Greg Monroe, and Andre Drummond.
For context, at that point in his career, Josh Smith was a career average 28 percent three-point shooter on an average of 1.4 three-point attempts per game. His career high was in the 2010-2011 season when he shot 33 percent from deep on two attempts per game. I am not sure if the front office thought Smith would magically improve his horrific career averages or if they simply didn’t care about shooting threes.
Whatever logic the front office used to make themselves believe that those three could coexist together was clearly wrong, and Piston fans feel the effects of the signing to this very day. The Pistons finished out the season 29-53 once again finishing 11th in the eastern conference. The Pistons frontcourt had an apparent logjam and whether it be Smith, Monroe, or Drummond clearly someone would need to leave for this team to find long-term success.