Detroit Pistons: The John Beilein conspiracy theories are just silly

When former coach John Beilein was hired as the Senior Player Development Advisor for the Detroit Pistons, most fans were excited, mostly because we had heard of him.

Beilein was a very successful coach at the University of Michigan, posting a .650 winning percentage and guiding the team on several deep runs in the NCAA tournament.

He was reportedly brought in to help fix the Pistons’ woeful shooting and so far the results have not been there, as the team has gotten worse and currently has the worst offense and shooting in the NBA.

Even though most fans could not name another Player Development Advisor in the NBA, nor really tell you what they do, suddenly it is John Beilein’s fault that the Pistons can’t shoot.

I’ve seen Internet sleuths breaking down shooting forms and film to come to the conclusion that the villain Beilein has single-handedly destroyed the shot of every Piston, forgetting that these guys have been playing basketball their entire lives and most of them have never worked with Beilein one-on-one. So what is going on here?

Did John Beilein suddenly forget how to coach shooting or is he a spy trying to destroy the Pistons in some sort of Machiavellian revenge plot on the state of Michigan?

John Beilein is not to blame for the Detroit Pistons’ poor shooting

Beilein had a lot of success at Michigan and produced some pretty good NBA shooters, including guys like:

• Jordan Poole
• Duncan Robinson
• Tim Hardaway Jr.

Those three are just off the top of my head but guys like Isaiah Livers, Trey Burke, Caris LeVert and Glenn Robinson III all had good shooting careers under Beilein as well. I guess he just forgot how to coach shooting?

The truth that we all know is that no one who is blaming Beilein would be doing this if this were another team because they’d have no idea who the Player Development Advisor even was.

These theories exist because fans in Michigan happen to know the name of the guy, it’s that simple.

The only player that I know for a fact worked with Beilein a lot one-on-one this offseason is Killian Hayes, whose shooting has improved, but no one wants to talk about that.

It’s time that the players were forced to take some agency for their failures, as they are professionals who should be able to make an average amount of wide-open shots. The Pistons take the 3rd-most wide-open 3-pointers in the NBA but are 29th in percentage, so they are getting the shots they want and just not making them.

I get that fans are frustrated and want someone to blame, I am just confused why the players are never the ones at fault and it’s always some sinister outside force.

Maybe it’s the Dancing Usher, I heard he has been tinkering with Beef Stew’s jumper. Maybe it’s the Detroit Pistons Dancers, are we sure they’ve not been getting shots up with Cade Cunningham after practice?

Or maybe the players just need to start hitting shots. When they do, I am certain no one is going to give John Beilein any credit, so he shouldn’t be the one taking the blame now.