The Detroit Pistons had one of the best players of the late 90’s in forward Grant Hill, who was the prototype for the modern two-way point forward.
The Pistons had a couple of good teams with Hill but were never able to put the right supporting cast around him. The 1996-97 group was one of my favorite teams and they did win 54 games, but ultimately got beaten in the first round of the playoffs.
Hill did have some good players around him, guys like Joe Dumars, Lindsey Hunter and Jerry Stackhouse, but they could never get the right complementary players at the right time to take advantage of Hill’s immense talent. He played just six seasons in Detroit, making the All-Star game five times, but never making it out of the first round of the playoffs.
Part of the reason is that the Detroit Pistons kept filling the roster with long-in-the-tooth veterans or mediocre young players, many of whom were in the starting lineup during Hill’s time in Detroit.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the trade that sent Grant Hill to the Orlando Magic and brought Ben Wallace to the Pistons, a move that looked terribly lopsided at the time, but actually worked out much better for Detroit. Hill was never able to stay healthy in Orlando and Detroit went on to win a title with Big Ben, but you do have to wonder how the Hill era might have gone if the Pistons had put better starters around him.
Here are the five worst, ranked from best to worst.
Ranking the 5 worst Pistons starters of the Grant Hill era
#5: Oliver Miller, 1994-95
The Detroit Pistons never had great bigs around Grant Hill, which was a big problem in an era largely dominated by bigs (and Michael Jordan) like David Robinson, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal.
Detroit had a couple of bruisers on this team, including Oliver “Big O” Miller, who wasn’t terrible, but was hardly in the elite of NBA bigs at the time. Miller averaged 8.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocks for the Pistons in this season in 22 starts, so he wasn’t awful, but Detroit only won 28 games.
Big O was a fan favorite because he was built like a professional wrestler or beer league softball player, but somehow managed to block shots, but in the end, he wasn’t enough at power forward or center to really help Grant Hill in his rookie season.
Ranking the 5 worst Pistons starters of the Grant Hill era
#4: Mark West, 1994-95
Mark West had a long and very productive NBA career, but he was near the end of it by the time he got to Detroit. West did average 1.5 blocks in this season as a 34-year-old, but didn’t do much else, as he averaged just 7.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game to go with it.
These numbers don’t seem horrible, but when you consider this was still the post-up era where offenses were running through centers in the lane, getting 15 points per game out of your frontcourt was not ideal. West also has the dubious honor of being the 3rd-worst free throw shooter in Pistons’ history, hitting just 47 percent from the line that season.
The shot-blocking numbers also have to be taken with a small grain of salt, as players got a lot more chances to block them with fewer 3-point shots being launched and more play in the paint.
So the Detroit Pistons had two bruising bigs in Hill’s rookie season, but neither of them were really scoring threats. Consider that David Robinson won MVP that season averaging more than 27 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1.7 steals per game.
Ranking the 5 worst Pistons starters of the Grant Hill era
#3: Terry Mills, 1999-2000
Terry Mills had some very good seasons for the Detroit Pistons, but this one was in his second stint with the team when he was 32-years-old and near the end of his career. This was a running theme during the Hill era, as the team kept trying to patch holes with veterans around their young star.
Mills averaged just 6.7 points and 4.8 rebounds in 78 starts, and was largely reduced to a guy who stood at the 3-point line and didn’t do much else. Mills looked more and more like George Foreman in this era, and moved about as well.
He did shoot 39 percent from 3-point range that season but only 43 percent overall, so most of his damage came from behind the arc.
Mills was a bit ahead of his time in that regard, but by the time Hill’s final season rolled around, he was limited as a player. The team won 42 games but got bounced from the first round again, just before Hill hit free agency, which prompted the sign-and-trade that brought in Wallace.
Ranking the 5 worst Pistons starters of the Grant Hill era
#2: Grant Long, 1996-97
This was by far the best team of the Grant Hill era, as they won 54 games, but still managed to lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Long was part of this pattern of getting good players that were past their prime or hadn’t yet reached it, as he had some very good years in the NBA, but was well past his peak by the time he got to the Motor City.
Long started 24 games at power forward and managed to average just five points and 3.4 rebounds on just 44 percent shooting. It wasn’t easy to average only five points as a big in the NBA in the mid-90’s, but Long was playing just 18 minutes per game at this point.
The Detroit Pistons had solid guards around Grant Hill but were never able to land the right power forward or center to complement him.
Ranking the 5 worst Pistons starters of the Grant Hill era
#1: Don Reid, 1995-96, 1997-98, 1998-99
Don Reid has the dubious distinction of being the worst starter on three different Grant Hill teams, as he got at least 30 starts in each of these seasons.
Reid was another power forward who couldn’t score, as he never managed to average more than five points per game in his time in Detroit. Reid never played big minutes for Detroit, but averaged just 3.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 253 games played for the Pistons.
The teams won 46, 37 and 29 games in these three seasons with Reid as a spot starter at power forward while Hill was putting up MVP-caliber numbers around him.
The Detroit Pistons had one of the best players of the era in Grant Hill, but put teams around him that didn’t really fit in the era, as they mostly featured bigs who couldn’t do much on the offensive end.