The Pistons walked away with mostly positives after their season opener against the Celtics, but their small-ball lineup with John Collins at center was not one. Detroit generally controlled the paint throughout the game with their interior presence, but gave that up when Collins was the biggest Piston on the court. JB Bickerstaff must take note and be careful not to use this lineup in the wrong situations again.
Collins at center didn’t work at all
There’s a reason Collins had the worst plus-minus of any Piston at -13 and it had more to do with how he was deployed than his own skillset. During some of those minutes, he was matched up at center against 7-footer Mitchell Robinson. That was a mismatch from the beginning, and the Celtics took advantage by using Robinson on hard rolls and offensive rebounds.
The Pistons didn’t get their desired result on the other end either. Having Collins at center was meant to provide more spacing for developing ball handlers like Ausar Thompson, but Collins didn’t do enough offensively to warrant the size tradeoff. Collins finished with 6 points in the game, shooting 3-of-7 from the field and 0-of-3 from three-point range.
During those moments, the Celtics chose to guard Thompson himself with their center. Collins wasn’t able to punish his own defender with his size, rendering the Pistons’ supposed advantage moot. He’s not much of a shot creator at this point in his career, but the small ball lineup almost forced him to be.
Small ball could work in very specific situations
The Pistons were still able to pull out the win against the Celtics thanks to some clutch heroics and a comeback led by their wing shooters. But the small ball lineup ended up being a massive failure against the Celtics’ center rotation of Robinson and fellow 7-footer Neemias Queta.
Detroit actually dominated those centers when they played their own bigs in Jalen Duren and Paul Reed. Overall, the Pistons won the rebounding battle by 10.
But it’s still too early to write off the small ball look entirely. There could be some opponents and situations where it makes sense to run Collins at center. For example, maybe the other team is playing a similar lineup and neither Duren nor Reed are able to take advantage.
The early season is also a good time to experiment and get a good grasp of situational lineups. But the minutes with Collins at center need to be used strategically. Next time it’s rolled out, hopefully the Pistons won’t be going up against a lineup with a giant center known for his rebounding or interior finishing.
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