The most common narrative around the Detroit Pistons this season is that they are a regular season team whose offense will get exposed in the playoffs.
Most of this revolves around the Pistons’ lack of 3-point shooting and consistent second scoring option next to Cade Cunningham, which has led a multitude of fans and pundits to declare that the Pistons need to make a move if they want to make a deep playoff run.
They may be right.
This team has only played one playoff series, which they lost, so until they have some success in the playoffs, questions are going to remain about whether their offense is good enough for the big stage, which is fair.
But if the Pistons are so easy to stop, why haven’t teams done it? Are they just waiting for the playoffs to reveal their super-secret plan? I get that the playoffs are different than the regular season, as games generally slow down and pressure ramps up, which can take its toll on a team that does struggle in the half court at times.
Teams also have more time to game plan and come up with ways to stop key players, but there has been little evidence of that happening so far, as the Pistons continue to bury the idea that their offense isn’t good enough for the playoffs.
Are the Pistons going to implode in the playoffs?
Look, there isn’t a perfect team in the NBA, all of them have weaknesses that they’d love to strengthen at the trade deadline, including the Detroit Pistons, as there are concerns about how their offense will perform in the playoffs.
The numbers don’t support it, but I get the concerns, which will remain until the Pistons win a playoff series or two.
Detroit has the second-best record in the NBA, they are 22-6 in the Eastern Conference, often washing teams with their backups. Detroit is 17-6 against teams with winning records this season, and they are 12-5 against the mighty Western Conference after beating the Nuggets on the road last night.
Detroit has the second-best net rating in the NBA this season at +7.3 and have shown again and again that they can win games without making a ton of 3-point shots, as they did last night, hitting just 19 percent from long range.
The Pistons are not slaves to the 3-point shot, and the physicality and athleticism they use to overwhelm teams is there every night. They can physically dominate a lot of teams, which is a big strength, even in the playoffs.
Teams have tried running zone, trapping Cade Cunningham, forcing Ausar Thompson to make plays out of the short roll as a means of disrupting their offense and none of it has really worked, as the Pistons' offense is like a battering ram in the paint that just keeps pounding the door until it falls down.
Maybe that won't be enough, we’ll see, but this notion that the Pistons are going to get exposed in the playoffs may be overstated. It’s not like their opponents aren’t trying to win these games, so at what point do we accept that the Pistons are just good?
Their style of play may not match with cookie-cutter modern aesthetics, but it’s effective in its barbarism, so if the Pistons can keep imposing themselves on other teams, it should carry over to the playoffs.