Now that the dust from the Jerami Grant trade and NBA Draft have settled, it’s time for the Detroit Pistons to start addressing their other roster needs.
One of those needs is outside shooting, as the Detroit Pistons were abysmal in that department last season, coming in 29th in the NBA in team 3-point percentage.
The lack of shooting clearly had an effect on Cade Cunningham, who had to shoulder the burden of the entire offense, and without shooting around him, it made it easy for teams to double team, pack the lane and force him into tough decisions.
It also cost him a ton of assists, as Cade is adept at drawing in the defense and then finding the open guy, but it doesn’t much matter if that guy can’t knock down the shot.
So the Pistons will be trying to add shooting any way they can and have already taken flyers on two elite shooters to potentially add to their system.
The Detroit Pistons have added these two elite shooters
The first guy is Buddy Boeheim, son of legendary coach Jim Boeheim of Syracuse.
According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, the NBA's Detroit Pistons have signed former Syracuse basketball shooting guard Buddy Boeheim to a two-way contract!!
— InsideTheLoudHouse (@LoudHouseFS) June 24, 2022
Boeheim is coming off a season in which he averaged 19.2 points per game while shooting 34 percent on over eight attempts from long range. The percentage may not jump out, but consider that Syracuse wasn’t very good this season and that Boeheim had to create far more for himself than he ever would at the NBA level.
He averaged 36 percent over his four-year college career and took over eight attempts per game from long range in all but one of them. He’s 6-foot-6, so does have good size for a shooting guard, but there are big question marks about whether he’ll be able to defend anyone in the NBA.
The Pistons also announced that they will be adding Kyle Foster to their Summer League roster.
Howard's Kyle Foster will play summer league with the Detroit Pistons, a source told ESPN. The 6'5 guard led college basketball in 3-point percentage, hitting 46% of his attempts.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 26, 2022
Foster actually played parts of five seasons for HBCU Howard, and the 6-foot-5 guard led the entire nation in 3-point percentage, hitting a crazy 46 percent on 7.9 attempts per game.
Foster will get his chance to let it fly in Summer League and may be able to shoot his way into a two-way contract or spot on the G-League team.
After adding Gabriele Procida in the draft, the Pistons are clearly taking the strategy of trying to find a shooter (similar to Duncan Robinson) who went late or un-drafted altogether. It’s definitely worth taking a flyer on these three players, as elite shooters are extremely valuable in the modern NBA, especially if you can find a gem on a minimum deal.