The two biggest criticisms against head coach JB Bickerstaff are that he’s not a great offensive coach and that he isn’t great at making adjustments in the playoffs.
These types of narratives tend to get overblown, and fans start talking about them as if they are given facts that can’t be changed, though coach Bickerstaff did give his critics more room to run with it last season.
The Pistons weren’t terrible offensively, in fact, coach Bickerstaff deserves a lot of credit for squeezing a top 10 offense out of the roster he had considering he only had one real scorer and ballhandler and only one decent 3-point shooter.
It was through unconventional means, but you could argue that the Pistons overachieved offensively last season.
But Detroit still came up short of the Eastern Conference Finals, which has been the big knock against coach Bickerstaff, who wasn’t able to find scoring when he needed it.
Fair or not, these criticisms of coach Bickerstaff will continue until he takes a team deeper into the playoffs, and the Pistons may have given him the roster to do it.
The Pistons are more playoff proof than last season, so the pressure is on coach Bickerstaff
Any discussion of the roster has to include the Jalen Duren disclaimer, as he is still not signed, and until that happens, we still don’t know what the final group will look like, but I’m still running under the assumption that he’ll sign, though I am wavering slightly with each passing day.
Duren aside, the Pistons have added another elite 3-point shooter in Isaiah Joe and replaced Tobias Harris with a better long-range shooter in John Collins.
They added Taurean Prince as another forward who can shoot the 3-ball, and an electric rookie in Ebuka Okorie who hopes to make an impact right away, so the Pistons should have more offensive weapons than they had last season.
More shooting equals more space which should have a ripple effect on Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson.
Even if this group doesn’t win 60 games, they should offer more versatility and more ways to win games than just trying to dominate the paint.
It’s up to JB Bickerstaff to figure out the configurations and make sure the Pistons’ offense evolves from what it was last season. And the pressure will be on.
JB Bickerstaff will be judged by the postseason
Regardless of how things go in the regular season, the Pistons and JB Bickerstaff will be judged by playoff results.
There wasn’t a ton of pressure the last two years, as the Pistons were just out of a decade plus of being terrible, and we were all just happy to be there.
That won’t be the case any longer, as Detroit is now expected to win and advance further in the playoffs. Even with an extension in hand, coach Bickerstaff won’t be immune from the hot seat if the Pistons fail to advance in the playoffs, in which case we’ll be hearing all the same criticisms on repeat.
The Pistons have hopefully given coach Bickerstaff a roster that is more playoff ready, and the pressure will be on him to make it work.
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