It is no surprise the Detroit Pistons struggled to shoot the ball from deep last season. Here are 8 ways the Pistons can improve on that this season.
It seems like every season the Pistons are cursed by the same 3-point shooting demons. Every offseason the Pistons enter they go into looking to upgrade their shooting and every time they acquire a guy or two who is supposed to change that only for him to put up a disappointing shooting season.
Perhaps, there is a breeze in Little Caesars Arena or if the rims are slightly off but it seems that the Pistons can never have a good season shooting the three-ball. The 2018-19 Pistons could not break that trend.
When Casey took over as head coach he looked to modernize the Pistons offense looking to take mainly 3-point shots or point-blank layups. The three pointers were up from the season before, in shooting 2,854 three pointers or 34.8 attempts per game. The season before they shot a total of 2,373 three pointers or 28.9 attempts per game.
This change in play style is encouraging as this is the way the best teams in the NBA play. What is discouraging is the fact that the Pistons shot a mediocre 34.8 percent from 3-point range for the season which was ranked 23rd out of the 30 NBA teams.
Even more depressing is the fact that Pistons were eighth in the NBA last season for wide-open 3-point attempts (player shot with six or more feet of space), but were ranked 23rd at knocking them down (36.7 percent three point percentage on wide-open three’s).
Random Stat of the Day - 129 players shot better than league average (35.5%) on at least 100 3PA last season. Here's how many of those guys each team has after summer movement. pic.twitter.com/KVFuSRxsz2
— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) August 2, 2019
This is a bittersweet statistic as it shows that Casey’s offense is clearly working, the Pistons just lack the personnel to maximize Casey’s offense. This season appears to be different as going into the upcoming season the Pistons are tied for the most players to shoot above league average from three during the 2018-19 season (with a minimum of 100 three’s taken).
With several new faces on the roster and room for internal improvement, let’s take a look at the ways the Pistons can improve upon their poor three point shooting this upcoming season.