How the Detroit Pistons can get their assist numbers up

The Detroit Pistons are a middle of the road team in terms of the number of assists they dish out. How can they improve on this moving forward?

The Detroit Pistons ranked 15th in the league in total assists per game during the 2019-2020 season. They had nights were their ball movement was completely stagnant, and some nights where it looked to be near the best in the entire NBA.

For example, in what was one of Detroit’s best wins of the entire season against the Boston Celtics on January 15th, their offense exploded.

Shooting 60.3 percent from the field and assisting on 63.8 percent of their made shots, it was a historically great performance. The Pistons became the first team to shoot over 60 percent on the road in Boston since the legendary Phoenix Suns team in 2006.

This was also the game where Sekou Doumbouya scored a career high 24 points, before his season started to hit a decline.

What you saw in this game versus a majority of there other ones was pure cohesion. Players were setting each other up in ways that we didn’t usually see.

Andre Drummond was surprisingly the assist leader of the game with 7, and three total Pistons totaled at least five.

8 of the 11 players that saw action in that game recorded at least one assist.

Anomalies happen all the time in the NBA, and this was one of them. Detroit has proven themselves to be an average team with their distribution, but how do they continue the success they saw on January 15th?

Naturally it starts with consistency. Although the Pistons rank 9th in the league in total three-point percentage (36.7 percent) they’re getting their shots up at a relatively low volume.

Detroit only shot 32.7 three-pointers per game, which ranks 18th in the league.

So you can look at that and say they’re actually decently efficient as a team, or you can say that there’s opportunity for higher volume. Both would be true in their own ways.

It doesn’t help that the Pistons played a majority of their season, especially the tail end of it, with lineups that they never anticipated having to play. Injuries sent this team into a world they never thought they’d be in.

Brandon Knight isn’t someone that they’d prefer taking a majority of their three-pointers, but that’s what they had.

In the 9 games that Knight played in Detroit, 82.7 percent of his shot attempts were from three.

He hit them at a decent rate (38.8 percent) and was assisted on 53.3 percent of them, so the issue doesn’t really fall on him.

The Pistons also desperately need more versatility in their offensive weapons. Blake Griffin, Luke Kennard, Tony Snell occasionally and Derrick Rose are really the only players on the roster who can consistently hit mid range shots, and the former two were injured for a majority of the season.

Adding better spacing to your team, as well as more of a consistent force in the paint will go a long way.

Christian Wood undoubtedly proved that he can be a legitimate force in the paint, but he’s not playing 48 minutes per game.

Detroit may not re-sign John Henson, and Thon Maker‘s consistency comes and goes on a nightly basis, and it can generally be difficult to rely on him for a basket regardless of its location.

Health will go a long way for this team, but there’s a piece that they do have that needs to be better utilized.

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Bruce Brown needs to be able to make a full transition to point guard. He’s much more effective as a ball handler and a play maker than he is anywhere else.

His court vision is superb, and although he’s had his occasional mental lapses, he’d make a much bigger impact in the assist column this way.

The final and most notable way that Detroit can fix this issue is by selecting a point guard inthe upcoming NBA Draft. They’ll most likely have a top-five pick and in a guard heavy class, will have multiple options to choose from.

Their selection will be largely contingent on what their final position actually is. The higher they are means they could go with LaMelo Ball. If they drop, it could mean Killian Hayes or Tyrese Haliburton.

All three are solid options and would undoubtedly put the Pistons in a marginally better situations. All of the named players have a tremendous feel for the game and are some of the most gifted passers we’ve seen in recent memory.

They’re all quality scorers as well. The tide could really turn if Detroit is able to land any of them.