Detroit PIstons: Bruce Brown may have been playing the wrong position

With the Detroit Pistons dealing with multiple injuries to open the season, it has forced Dwane Casey to resort to some unorthodox lineups. This has lead to a very interesting development at point guard.

Over the last three games, the Detroit Pistons have been severely undermanned. All three point guards in the rotation have been sidelined with injuries, so without Reggie Jackson, Derrick Rose, and Tim Frazier, who could Detroit have turned to? Bruce Brown.

Dwane Casey has a remarkable ability to consistently play lineup roulette when injuries have plagued Detroit. Doing this has resulted in the team finding success in lineups that you least expect, as well as the complete opposite. It’s a frustrating and bittersweet experience, but Casey may have stumbled across something interesting.

Albeit a small sample size, we’ve begun to see that Brown may be an interesting option at point guard.

In the 3 games Brown has played point guard for the Pistons, he’s averaging 15.0 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game on 39 percent shooting in 37 minutes per game.

Through 74 games he played a season ago at shooting guard, he averaged 4.3 points, 1.2 assists, and 2.5 rebounds on 39 percent shooting in just 19.6 minutes per game.

First of all – yes, there are a ton of variables that go into these figures. The main one being the current absence of Blake Griffin, who would more than likely take away a few of those points Brown is currently averaging. Brown also only started in 56 of those 74 games played last season, which left 18 games of non-starter minutes, but even when he was starting, his floor time was regularly inconsistent.

Brown is being forced to step into a more involved role this season, but has been coming through in a major way, helping the Pistons win two of the three games that he’s been running the offense. He’s been developing a more consistent perimeter shot, although he still has his struggles. Playing point guard allows him to mask his inconsistent shot making ability by using pick and rolls to drive to the basket and finish at the rim.

Here’s an interesting quote from Brown’s former head coach at the University of Miami:

Bruce’s court vision

As it was previously mentioned, Brown has been averaging an impressive amount of assists per game for someone who was thrown into a role to kick off the season. However, Pistons fans received a glimpse into the future just a few months ago, when Brown exclusively played point guard for Detroit’s Summer League team. He went on to record just the second ever triple double in the Summer League’s relatively brief history.

Here we see the Pistons running in transition, and Brown has the opportunity to force the ball inside to Andre Drummond. Despite his position in the low post, Brown avoids passing into tight coverage and defers to Tony Snell for the wide open three-pointer. Brown fed the hot hand, (Snell finished with 24 points while shooting 100 percent from the field.) and it paid off.

Here we see Brown make a baseline drive to the basket, and with two defenders closing in on him the odds are that his shot would be blocked, or at least heavily contested. Brown is able to see that Markieff Morris is open on the perimeter, and keeps his body under control as he makes the pass.

Drummond sets up at the top of the key as he and Brown perfectly execute a pick and roll.

Brown has clearly learned a thing or two from Jackson when it comes to putting up floaters on pick and rolls. (Beautiful screen set on Kyrie Irving by Drummond)

What Brown has showed us in just a brief stretch of games, is that he’s capable of maintaining the Pistons offense if it is absolutely necessary, which lately it has. As it was previously mentioned, it’s been beneficial for him to run point guard instead of shooting guard because it allows him to operate differently on offense. He’s not forced to patrol the perimeter and reluctantly shoot three-pointers.

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He’s able to use Drummond to help get himself to the basket, where he’s most efficient and clearly the most comfortable. It doesn’t change much defensively, as Brown has frequently been tasked with defending the opposing team’s best guard in his short career. There are times when he appears to be one of – if not the Pistons’ best on-ball defender.

However this season Detroit’s defense as a whole has been lackluster, but the blame isn’t solely on him.

This opens up a very interesting dialogue. If Brown continues to put up adequate numbers in a position where he certainly seems to be a better fit, what does Dwane Casey do? With three point guards already in the rotation, they’ll all return from injury eventually. It allows even more flexibility not just at that position, but with shooting guard as well, because Brown would no longer be taking some of those minutes away.

What it could ultimately do is give Casey a contingency plan for if and when either Jackson, Rose or Frazier under performs for a few games. It gives the Pistons options.

Casey’s obsession with lineup roulette seems to have inadvertently discovered a very interesting development with one of Detroit’s youngest players.