The Detroit Pistons lost their 13th game in a row last night to Indiana even though they got big games from Cade Cunningham and Saddiq Bey.
Normally you would expect the Pistons to win a game where two of their starters accounted for 47 points but the combination of a porous defense and a lack of scoring from the other starters ultimately left them short of a “W” once again.
When you only get 11 combined points from 40 percent of your starting five, you won’t win many games.
The Pistons now haven’t won in a calendar month and they might not get another win before the year is over.
The Pistons are threatening to break the franchise-worst losing streak if they are not careful, and two of their starters have been a big part of the problem this season.
You simply can’t have guys in the starting lineup who are playing big minutes and not scoring at least double digits unless they are named Ben Wallace and Big Ben is not on this team.
The Detroit Pistons have two guys in the starting five who rank among the worst scorers in the NBA and they must get more from them.
The Detroit Pistons need some kind of offense from Isaiah Stewart
Isaiah Stewart is currently 179th in the NBA in scoring, notching just 7.5 points per game while playing 25.9 minutes on average.
Beef Stew is sandwiched between Caleb Martin and Kenyon Martin Jr. on the scoring list, two guys who play 19 minutes and 17 minutes per game, respectively.
It’s not just that Beef Stew doesn’t score, but he’s not even really a threat to score, as teams are absolutely willing to allow him to shoot jumpers all night, which he rarely does.
Stewart doesn’t do enough other things well to offset this lack of scoring, as like I said, you basically need to be a Ben Wallace-level defender or a Draymond Green-Swiss army knife type to be a starter in the NBA who doesn’t score in double-digits.
In Stewart’s defense, he is literally the only playable big man the Pistons have and gets stuck defending pretty much all of the bigs on the other team, so there is a lot on the 2nd-year center’s plate.
But at some point he has to develop some type of offensive game, whether it is rolling to the hoop or popping out for jumpers, or his ceiling might be a high energy bench guy.
Killian Hayes is one of the worst scorers in the NBA
I know that Killian Hayes does a lot defensively and that he is a good passer, but he is one off the worst scorers in the NBA.
Hayes is currently 225th in the NBA in scoring at just 6.1 points per game, by far the lowest of any guy playing at least 25 minutes per game. He is sandwiched between Aaron Holiday and Andre Drummond on the scoring list, two guys who play 16 and 19 minutes per game, respectively.
Drummond literally only scores on put backs and he still gets the same number of points as Killian in fewer minutes off the Philly bench.
I like Killian and think he can be a fit with Cade Cunningham but he has to score more, it’s that simple. There isn’t another player in the NBA who starts, plays 25 minutes a game, and scores this little for his team and the fact that he is a “shooting” guard makes it even worse.
The Pistons could afford to have one guy in the starting lineup who doesn’t score in double-digits, but you can’t have two. Well, you can, but that’s how you end up losing 13 in a row and having the worst record in the NBA.