Isaiah Joe's signature skill is about to make Cade Cunningham's life much easier

Isaiah Joe is an elite 3-point shooter, and that signature skill is going to help unlock a Detroit Pistons offense that was already surprisingly good, at least in the regular season. 

The Pistons had the 9th-highest offensive rating in the league last season but did it in an unorthodox way by pounding teams in the paint and scoring in transition. 

They did all of this despite having only one elite 3-point shooter on the roster in Duncan Robinson. 

This formula caught up to them in the playoffs, when the offensive rating dropped seven points, and the Pistons could no longer count on paint dominance alone to win games. 

As good as Cade Cunningham was in the playoffs (28pg, 7.5 assists, 5.5 rebounds), he was also plagued by turnovers that were a direct result of the lack of spacing the insane burden he had to carry on offense. 

I don’t know how much the Pistons have done to address the latter issue, as Cunningham is still going to be the primary engine of the offense, but the Pistons finally have more than one good shooter, so that job should get easier. 

Isaiah Joe and Duncan Robinson are the best two shooters the Pistons have had 

I’ve been following the Pistons for a long time, and I can’t remember a roster that had two better 3-point shooters than Duncan Robinson and Isaiah Joe at the same time, as these two are the best in the business at what they do. 

The Pistons’ rebirth started when they added two shooters in Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr, with Beasley putting up one of the best 3-point shooting seasons in history. 

I’m not saying Isaiah Joe is going to do that, but he does have a chance to have a bigger role in Detroit, which will hopefully mean more attempts from beyond the arc, where he is deadly accurate. 

The Pistons will finally be able to have an elite shooter on the floor at all times and have the option of surrounding Cade Cunningham with several floor spacers instead of just one.

It’s going to be more difficult for teams to constantly double and triple team Cade now that his gravity will be creating shots for players who can actually make them.  I envision lineups with John Collins, Robinson and Joe which will open up the middle of the floor and hopefully reduce some of Cade's turnovers there.

Isaiah Joe was 43 percent on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last season and had an effective field goal percentage of 64 percent in c&s situations. 

Compare that to Caris LeVert, who shot 35 percent and 52.8 percent, respectively. 

Joe is a guy teams have to guard, or he will make them pay, and he’s already very good at working off a ball-dominant lead guard, so should be an easy fit with Cade Cunningham. 

Isaiah Joe gives the Pistons something they lacked last season, which is a second elite shooter, which should open up space and make life easier for Cade Cunningham. 

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