The Detroit Pistons have gotten off to a rough start offensively and that is putting it mildly.
They have failed to score 100 points in four of their seven games and have yet to get to 110 points, which is more or less average for a modern NBA offense.
The defense and rebounding have been fine, but if the Pistons can’t make shots it doesn’t really matter.
Things have been especially bad from 3-point range, where the Pistons are shooting just 26.7 percent, good for dead last in the NBA.
Some fans blame Dwane Casey’s offense, and while I do agree that he needs to run more creative sets that play to the strength of his roster, ultimately it comes down to players making shots and the Pistons are missing a ton of wide-open ones.
The Detroit Pistons are simply missing wide-open shots
If you look at the numbers a little more closely, you’ll see that Casey’s offense is creating the wide-open 3-point shots that he wants, the Pistons just are’t making them.
The Pistons are 8th in the NBA in the number of wide-open 3-pointers they have taken, but just 24th in makes.
They are dead last in wide-open 3-point percentage, hitting just 28.6 percent as a team. To put that in perspective, the two top teams (the Chicago Bulls and Golden State Warriors) are shooting 46.8 and 44.5 percent, respectively.
Most NBA players are fairly automatic from anywhere if they are wide-open, evidenced by the workout videos fans drool over every offseason where a guy like Ben Simmons is draining three after three alone in a gym.
Defenses are essentially leaving the Detroit Pistons alone in a gym right now and they still can’t hit a shot, which is concerning.
Eventually percentages will balance out and I don’t think Detroit will be this broke on wide-open 3-point shots all season, but right now the bricks are flying and most of them are on wide-open shots that NBA players should make.
I do think Dwane Casey needs to make some adjustments but the biggest change that needs to happen is for the Detroit Pistons to start shooting the ball like NBA players.