2 Areas where the Pistons could make shocking leaps next season

Last year, Detroit was 25th in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage as a team at just 34 percent. Individually, Detroit only had one player represented in the top 100 three point shooting percentages in Simone Fontecchio. Fontecchio didn’t even play a full season with the Detroit Pistons, and came in at 40th overall with 40.1 percent. 

In addition to Detroit’s three point shooting woes, the Pistons were horrendous defensively. They were also 25th in team defensive rating, finishing with a rating of 118, which is just 1.6 off the league worst Utah Jazz, and a whole 9.6 from the leading Minnesota Timberwolves.

Both of these were obvious areas of weaknesses, and Trajan Langdon did well to address both this offseason. 

Shooting Improvements for the Detroit Pistons

• Hired Fred Vinson
• Signed Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley
• Traded for Tim Hardaway Jr.
• Drafted 6’10 three point shooting wing, Bobi Klintman

We’ll get into the defensive improvements in a moment, but the shooting for Detroit was easily the largest aspect that Langdon zeroed in on. As mentioned, Detroit was terrible from deep last season. Starting the year, they had some perimeter shooting in Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, but after they were shipped out, Detroit was left bare.

Jaden Ivey proved to be far too inconsistent to be considered a weapon. Cade Cunningham eventually caught fire, but whether it’s sustainable is to be determined. Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren are non-shooters and Marcus Sasser, one of the better shooters, has other limitations. That leaves Isaiah Stewart as Detroit’s only good three-point asset given his position.

Trajan Langdon clearly wanted to solve that issue in two different ways. He is attempting to solve the lack of in-house shooting with the hire of Fred Vinson. We have spoken at length on Fred Vinson and his shot coaching abilities, and it’s expected that he can help improve Jaden Ivey and Ausar Thompson’s perimeter shooting along with rookie Ron Holland II.

Secondly, Langdon brought in cheap (outside Tobias Harris) veterans who all have great to elite perimeter shooting. Tim Hardaway Jr. put up 7.6 3PT attempts last season, connecting on almost 36 percent of them. Tobias Harris is a career 37 percent three-point shooter, and Malik Beasley hit on 41 perent from deep last year. He, alone, gives Detroit another top 100 three point shooter, coming in 17 spots higher than Fontecchio at 23rd overall. 

Add these players to Fontecchio, and suddenly opposing defenses will have to respect Detroit’s perimeter game. It’ll likely open the lanes for guys like Ivey and Cade to operate properly, meaning Detroit’s offense could be leagues better than the last five years. 

Defensive Improvements

• Hired defensive minded head coach in JB Bickerstaff
• Drafted plus defensive wing, Ron Holland
• Claimed Paul Reed

No team in the NBA feared Detroit’s defense last year. It’s been a few years, actually, but Trajan Langdon seemed to be done with the weak defense in Detroit. It starts from the top so Langdon went ahead and hired JB Bickerstaff, who is a defense-first head coach. In 2018, JB had the Memphis Grizzlies as 9th in defensive rating. In 2021, 2022, and 2023 he had the Cavs at 5th, 1st and 7th. 

It’s expected he will elevate Ausar Thompson, who was 7th in perimeter isolation defense according to BBall index, and Langdon gave him even more tools to play with by drafting Ron Holland. In addition to Ausar and Holland on the perimeter, Detroit claimed Paul Reed to provide defense in the paint.  

There is even more hope that one of the best defensive assistant coaches, Dan Burke, returns to the court this season. He was an underrated addition last season and has the ability to transform this defense. We don’t need to speculate on why he took time away, or when he’ll be back. But having him would improve Detroit’s defense. 

A top 15 defense is on its way, and if Jalen Duren can take the much needed defensive leap, don’t be surprised if Detroit courts a top 10 defense soon.