Detroit Pistons: Dwane Casey’s habit of playing lineup roulette

Coming into just his second season as the Detroit Pistons head coach, Dwane Casey has had several obstacles to overcome. This forces him to play an assortment of different lineup combinations.

Dwane Casey has seem some success in his short tenure as the coach of the Detroit Pistons, going 41-41 a season ago and making a successful playoff push. There’s more significance to this than just the fact that they made the playoffs, as Casey was at times dealt a bad hand.

Last December, former Pistons’ point guard Ish Smith went down with an adductor tear that sidelined him for 26 games. Detroit only went on to win 8 of those games, and Casey had a problem on his hands. Smith’s presence on the floor was so detrimental to the Pistons’ success that him being injured caused coach Casey to have to play a dangerous game – lineup roulette.

“Lineup roulette” is exactly what it may sound like. There are times when a coach’s hand is forced, and you’re attempting to play as many different lineup combinations as possible until something sticks. This is inevitably a bittersweet experiment, as you’ll have sequences spanning mere minutes or in some cases entire games where nothing seems to be going the way you’d anticipate. Conversely however, sometimes it proves to be fortuitous and a coach may find a highly efficient lineup.

Heading into this season, Pistons’ fans learned that Blake Griffin would be sidelined until at least early November with a few small injuries. Then, we learned that starting point guard Reggie Jackson was having some back injuries flare up, which has temporarily sidelined him as well.

So what does that mean Casey will have to resort to? Lineup roulette.

With the lingering uncertainty surrounding what exactly Detroit should do with Luke Kennard – whether they should start him or have him remain as their sixth man – Casey has plenty of options. How many options does coach Casey have? How many lineup combinations can he possibly come up with?

Through their first four games of the season, the Pistons have pieced together 71 unique lineups.

That number is tied (with the New York Knicks) for the fifth most across the entire NBA. For reference, the team with the fewest number of lineup combinations is currently the Orlando Magic, with just 38.

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It’s worth nothing that there are admittedly a lot of variables that go into this figure, with the biggest being certain players only being on the floor with a certain lineup for less than one minute before a substitution is made. However, this shows two major things. One, that Casey is capable of creating longevity with the current roster despite its temporary injuries. Two, that Detroit has an incredibly versatile roster, with multiple players being capable of playing several different positions.

This method allows for some unorthodox combinations to come to light, here’s an example:

The floor combination of Derrick Rose, Bruce Brown, Tony Snell, Markieff Morris and Thon Maker have a total true shooting percentage of 92.9 percent. They also have the best assist/turnover ratio of any Pistons’ lineup at an even 5.0. This group of players have only been on the floor together for a total of five minutes this season.

However once again, that’s the beauty of lineup roulette – sometimes you’ll find small increments of time where lineups that you may assume are inefficient turn out to get you some of the offensive help that you need. So albeit a sample size of an example, it goes to show that this method can work.

Lineup roulette is also used to see which players mesh together and which ones don’t, in order to allow the maximum potential for an individual. For example, most who have watch the Pistons play this season know that Luke Kennard tends to play better when paired alongside Rose in the backcourt, this is also true when you look at the numbers. Lineups that include both Rose and Kennard as the guards have a higher true shooting percentage than any lineup that substitutes Rose for a different point guard.

Coach Casey didn’t have to try too hard to figure this one out, as Kennard has drawn more assists from Rose this season than he has from any other player.

Where lineup roulette can become a significant issue is when Casey has been so focused on trying new things out, that it seems like he forgets to go back to what has worked in the past. The best example of this was just last week against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Pistons opened the game with a lineup of Tim Frazier, Brown, Snell, Morris, and Andre Drummond. They played just under four minutes together, shooting 2 for 6 from the field and committing 7 turnovers. With a net rating of -5.6  and a true shooting percentage of just 58.8, it was disheartening to see that Casey sent that same unit out to open the second half.

On top of that came the mishap against the Atlanta Hawks, where Maker saw 19 minutes of action while Christian Wood saw zero. When asked about it, Casey admitted that he was frustrated with himself for not allowing Wood to see any action.

This was significant because Wood brings an impact to the game on both sides of the floor that Maker often lacks. While the mistake was quickly amended within the next few games, it was frustrating to fans that Casey failed to work Wood into his plethora of lineups.

Ultimately there’s an art to what coach Casey brings to the table. His infrequent in-game lapses do not overshadow his ability to develop players and properly formulate a game plan. As the head coach in Detroit, he’s frequently been forced to make the best out of a bad situation.

Lineup roulette will always be a bittersweet experience, but it provides the Pistons with temporary stability.