Detroit Pistons: Discouraging loss shows biggest problems

The Detroit Pistons can’t or won’t pass

This is an issue I’ve been harping on about lately, but it’s getting tiresome watching a team with no great individual scorers that refuses to pass the ball.

It’s just selfish basketball, and we saw it again last night, as the Pistons racked up a pathetic 16 assists to 21 turnovers. Detroit didn’t have a single player log more than three assists, but had three guys turn it over at least three times, and there entire bench unit had at least one turnover each.

Part of the problem with the lack of assists goes back to their inability to hit shots, but it’s not just assists where they are lacking. This team is near the bottom of the NBA in just about every passing stat there is, almost to the point where Dwane Casey might have to install the “Hoosier” offense that requires four passes before a player is allowed to shoot.

Again, some of this goes back to losing Cunningham for the season (and Killian Hayes being out last night), as he is the one that gets the offense going, creates open shots and more passing opportunities for his teammates.

But a lot of this is just guys holding the ball too long, taking forever to make their move and dribbling too much when they should be passing the ball.

With Cade out everyone is in an unfamiliar role, but instead of using that as motivation to gel as a team and pass the ball more, this team has retired to their separate rooms, choosing inefficient shots over ball movement on nearly every possession in the half court.

I’ve been seeing a lot of discouragement among fans and you can’t really blame them. Losses are one thing but this is just ugly basketball that is really joyless to watch.