Twitter questions Thursday: Detroit Pistons mailbag 2.0

The Detroit Pistons have opened training camp and had an eventful media day. Here are Pistons’ fans most pressing questions.

Detroit Pistons training camp is underway and there are plenty of storylines and camp battles to watch. A pressing issue at the top of fans’ minds is who gets the 15th roster spot. It’s possible the final roster includes Joe Johnson and Christian Wood, who don’t have full-guaranteed contracts yet but could when Oct. 23 rolls around.

Thank you to the Pistons fans who submitted questions for Twitter questions Thursday, our Pistons mailbag column. This week’s questions have been sifted through by Site Expert Aaron Ferguson.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Final roster spot

To answer JMO’s question, there are 19 teams in the NBA that don’t have 15 roster spots filled by guaranteed contracts, according to salary cap guru Keith Smith. Most rosters are over 15 players and filled up to the 20-player maximum, including two-way contracts, so there’s a good chance guys with non-guaranteed contracts make the final roster. An ideal trade could be offering a second round pick swap to a team that takes on a potential contract. That way the Pistons don’t have to get a player in return.

If it were up to me, I believe the Pistons should keep Johnson and Wood. The small forward position is thin, even with Johnson, and Wood is a better offensive option than Thon Maker, despite not having the NBA playing time.

Langston Galloway‘s deal gets more valuable as the trade deadline nears. His $7 million expiring could help the Pistons get a valuable rotational asset or upgrade their star power, coupling with Reggie Jackson liked you said.

Ultimately, if both Wood and Johnson make the roster, I believe it’ll come down to Galloway, Khyri Thomas and Maker for who gets the last two spots. I broke down the three key training camp battles that I think decide who gets the final spot on Wednesday.

Rose vs. Reggie

This is tricky because not all production is created equal. Rose could be better coming off the bench as opposed to in the starting unit. Whoever is coming off the bench will have a higher usage rate because they won’t be playing much alongside Blake Griffin.

To start the season, it’ll likely be Rose and Luke Kennard handling the ball with the bench unit. Both will get run with starters in the game, though.

Jackson revamped his game last season, giving up playmaking responsibilities to Griffin and becoming a better shooter off the ball. That’s a fine role for him to continue to thrive in.

For those reasons, I believe Jackson keeps the starting role for the duration of the season. But the key to the ignition for Rose becoming a starter is how he performs late in games alongside Griffin. It’s bound to happen, since Dwane Casey should go with the hot hand, and if Rose has become the 3-point shooter his numbers last year suggest, it could work playing alongside Griffin.

If you’re looking for more rotational-related content, I’ll refer you to our 2019-20 preview guide that has a page worth of content dedicated to our writers thoughts and analysis.

Production surprises

I’m going to stick to guys with guaranteed contracts for this questions, in part because I think Johnson and Wood could surprise people in a positive way.

Tim Frazier may have been the most underrated offseason signing the Pistons made this summer. The reality is he’s going to get more opportunities than most third-string points guards. With Jackson and Rose’s injury-plagued careers and the Pistons attention to load management, he’s going to get a solid amount of playing time this season. In my opinion, Pistons fans are overlooking his signing as a whole and I believe there’s plenty of opportunity for him to impact games.

On the flip side, and I’m not sold he makes the roster yet, Maker has yet to prove himself as a solid NBA player. His numbers have dipped after a strong rookie season. As I highlighted in the training camp battles story, he doesn’t perform well off the bounce so he’s fairly limited with what he can do offensively. If his shot isn’t consistent, then he doesn’t provide much value on the court.

He does look stronger from the media day festivities, but there’s still a “what if” factor that needs to be proved during the preseason/early regular season.

Kennard’s usage

It was telling that Ed Stefanski acknowledged Kennard was the best Pistons player in the playoff series against the Bucks. Then you had Casey say, “I didn’t know he was that good with the ball.”

Those are pretty compelling statements in favor of Kennard expanding his role offensively. It also tells me that they viewed Kennard primarily as a shooter, which is the attribute that landed him in the NBA. I don’t think people are incorrectly labeling him as JJ Redick though.

Over the last six seasons, Redick has a usage rate of 21-22.6 percent. He has a lot of catch-and-shoot or one-dribble opportunities, which is where he thrives, but he can also hit at a high rate off the bounce.

I distinctly remember seeing this great breakdown from Jordan Sperber (see above) that features a lot of Kennard at Duke. He’s already familiar with the horns, dribble hand-off series and being able to score in a variety of ways.

In fact, if the Pistons were in need of scoring, this is one way they could maximize their offense with the starting unit alongside Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond. In the final year of the Stan Van Gundy era, Drummond showcased his passing skills in DHO sets and we know Griffin has the unique combination of size and strength that could lead to limitless options out of this set.

To wrap it up, I do believe that Kennard has a greater role in the offense. I also think it’s fair to compare him to Redick and Kyle Korver. His game mimics both of theirs to an extent.

Tip of the cap to our Aaron Kellerstrass, who think Manu Ginobili would be another player Kennard could model his game after.

Sekou’s season

Sekou Doumbouya is likely to spend a lot of time at the end of the Pistons bench but he will also get a lot of run in the G-League. He’ll log plenty of miles because I believe Detroit will want him with them as much as possible to learn the game but also want Doumbouya to get experience playing instead of completely redshirting.

Rose-Drummond PnR

Is this fair, given that Rose and Drummond haven’t played a minute together? You got me going down a pre-injury rabbit hole with Rose highlight videos in Chicago and I’m in awe of what he was and how he’s recovered to what he is now.

Joakim Noah was athletic in his prime years playing alongside Rose. It was difficult to find videos of them running the pick-and-roll but they were a great combination in transition. I have no doubts that Rose and Drummond will be fun to watch when they share the floor together.

"“I’ve never played with bigs like this … I’ll have a lot of room coming off the picks,” Rose said. “With them rolling to the rim, Dre is a lob threat every time he rolls to the basket so that opens up the floor even more when in the action of pick-and-roll.”"

It’s clear that Rose believes so, which is enough for me to agree.

Mind you, Jackson in the pick-and-roll wasn’t too shabby when he first arrived in Detroit, either.

Upgrading weaknesses

There are two urgent needs – a reliable backup wing and a reliable backup big. Johnson could prove serviceable but there are instant impacts out there, too. One option that I’ve floated around previously was Andre Iguodala, who the Memphis Grizzlies won’t buyout. There were a few other suggestions in our Pistons Twitter trade piece that included Robert Covington, Jae Crowder and Danilo Gallinari. Covington would be a great Plan A but his price is likely through the roof. I’d sign up for Gallinari, though.

A backup big is a little tougher. As previously mentioned, it would be great to see Wood get his shot. One name that’s familiar to Pistons fans is Aron Baynes. He is a gritty, physical player that gets after it defensively. Another would be Nerlens Noel. I’ve always like his athleticism and ability to protect the rim. He could run in transition and be a solid pick-and-roll guy. Anyone else have solid ideas?

A day in the life of…

As a natural storyteller, this is easy.

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Derrick Rose is, hands down, my top choice. I’d love the run around with his neighborhood in Chicago, his relationship with Chicago Simeon, which could form a starting five of active NBA players right now, and the entire Memphis saga. That’s before getting into the well-known superstardom, becoming the youngest MVP, horrific knee injury and the comeback trail.

Blake Griffin is equally intriguing for a variety of reasons. I’d love to get to know his family and Blake, through the eyes of his older brother, Taylor Griffin.

Luke Kennard is such an intriguing story. He was a five-star recruit that went to one of the richest programs in all of college basketball from a small town south of Dayton, Ohio. I’d love to visit the town, his high school teammates, coach and family while also learning Luke’s story from his humble beginnings to what has motivated him.

Really, each person has a unique story so I’m interested in everyone on the team but these are at the top of the list.