Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far

Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far

The 2-big lineup can work!

No. Just no.

If you just look at the box scores for Jalen Duren and James Wiseman, it looks as though they had huge games, as they averaged a 36.5 points and 19.5 rebounds combined after starting together in both.

They had some good moments together, but ultimately both players had negative net ratings when sharing the floor. There were two plays versus Orlando that encapsulated the advantages and disadvantages playing two bigs.

There were two possessions (one in each half) where the Pistons got multiple offensive rebounds with Duren and Wiseman on the floor, giving themselves second and third chances. However, they failed to actually score on either of them, and both led to wide-open 3-pointers for the Magic on the other end.

Offensively it doesn’t matter how many chances you get if you can’t make shots, and crashing those boards with two bigs leaves you vulnerable defensively. It wasn’t just that Wiseman was late getting back, on both occasions he ran straight to the rim (which is what centers are taught to do) while the man he was supposed to be defending was at the 3-point line.

It was even worse in the half court against Houston, as Jabari Smith Jr. pretty much did whatever he wanted with little resistance from Wiseman or Duren.

So aside from the obvious spacing issues on offense, it’s even a bigger catastrophe on defense, so let’s hope this is not something Monty Williams sees as anything more than a Summer League experiment.