Duncan Robinson was brought in this offseason to play a crucial sharpshooter role off the bench for the Pistons. Many see him as the replacement for Malik Beasley and expect him to shoot at a similar efficiency to Beasley last season. But in the preseason opener, Robinson showed that his value doesn’t have to be solely reliant on making threes.
Duncan Robinson has a more versatile game
Robinson showed the value of his shooter’s mentality right away. After airballing his first three-point attempt in a Pistons jersey, Robinson confidently fired another one just a couple minutes later and connected.
After years of being an elite shooter at the highest level, Robinson has the utmost confidence in his shooting stroke. He approaches the game with a short-memory mentality, where each shot attempt does not depend on the results of prior ones but rather the hours and hours of work outside of games.
Because Robinson is such a respected shooter who has been terrorizing defenses for seven seasons now, he draws the defense’s attention. Arguably even more important than making threes is his willingness to keep shooting them and keep defenses on their toes. Against the Grizzlies, he kept firing away and finished 2/6 from three.
In addition to his long-distance attempts, Robinson also had two rim finishes that came within the flow of the offense. One was on a fastbreak following a turnover, which is a point of emphasis and strength for the Pistons. The other was on a self-created drive that came from leveraging the threat of his shooting coming off a screen. Robinson is a smart player with more ways to exploit the advantage of his shooting than more one-dimensional snipers like Beasley.
Robinson also added one defensive highlight in the game when he sped into the backcourt to pick off an inbounds pass and hit Jaden Ivey for a wide-open three. Robinson will unquestionably help the Pistons offense as a connective shooter, but giving solid effort on defense will go a long way in maintaining the team identity and keeping him on the floor in the playoffs. In recent seasons, the Heat have taken him off the court more and more in late-season and postseason action due to his defensive weaknesses. But he can remedy this flaw by giving full effort and buying into Detroit’s defensive philosophy.
Duncan Robinson cannot be a direct replacement for Malik Beasley’s historic shooting last season. Short of Stephen Curry and prime Klay Thompson, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee any player can replicate that sort of shooting efficiency and volume. But Robinson can provide his own brand of value as a bench shooter by adding additional elements, such as driving to the rim and playmaking, to his relentless shooting. If the preseason opener is any indication, he will prove his worth in many ways beyond knocking down threes.