Detroit Pistons report card: Position grades for October

Detroit Pistons report card: Position grades for October

Forwards: B+

Ausar Thompson: 4 GS, 8.5 PTS, 10.5 REB, 4.3 AST, .5 STL, 2.5 BLK, 2.5 TO

Joe Harris: 0 GS, 1.3 PTS, .3 REB, .8 AST, .3 STL, 0 BLK, .5 TO

Isaiah Stewart: 4 GS, 13.8 PTS, 9.3 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, .3 BLK, 2.3 TO

Bojan Bogdanovic: N/A

This forward group is missing one of their key offensive pieces, yet they still are deserving of a B+ simply based on Ausar Thompson and Isaiah Stewart. So far, Ausar is doing exactly what he was drafted at five overall to do. He is playing stellar defense, running in transition, and acting as an elite glue guy every time he steps foot on the court. He’s rebounding and blocking shots like a man possessed and is making all his teammates better. Unfortunately, he is also experiencing the shooting issues that were expected. Just 32 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from deep is concerning, to say the least.

Isaiah Stewart, fresh off his recent contract extension, is showing that he can do exactly what Detroit needed of him. Be a stretch big man. Similar to Joe Harris in terms of sample size, but Stewart has his three-point percentage at 42.9 percent as of Tuesday morning. That’s far and away better than last season’s 32 percent clip. Detroit needed Stewart to be able to play away from the basket if he was to be successful next to Duren. And he’s doing just that.

Joe Harris has been nothing but a disappointment thus far. He, unfortunately, looks his age and his one-time, elite weapon, his three-point shooting, seems to have been lost. Obviously a small sample size, but Harris is shooting just 20 percent from deep. That clearly is not ideal from a guy you brought in essentially to just hit threes. With a career average of 43 percent, he will likely figure out his three-point shooting foes, but hopefully, that comes sooner rather than later.