Pistons news: Catch-and-shoot, reading Cade Cunningham and phone booths
The Detroit Pistons should be better next season, though clearing 14 wins isn't exactly the bar for excellence.
The Pistons schedule is brutal right out of the gate, but with more veterans and shooting on board and far less dead weight, Detroit can hopefully and finally make a move in the right direction.
But if we are being realistic, this is not a title contender or even likely a playoff team, so while we can expect modest improvements next season, I wouldn’t bet big on the Pistons being one of the top 10 teams in the Eastern Conference next season.
Like for most of the past decade, we’re going to hear a lot about player development, a tired old tune that eventually has to lead to actually winning some games for it to matter.
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Trajan Langdon is still trying to learn what he has in his young players, particularly Cade Cunningham, who will have his most coherent roster to date, which should allow the front office to get a good read on him and the other young talent.
Detroit Pistons: Catch-and-shoot key to Cade Cunningham
We’ve heard a ton about spacing and the lack of it since the Pistons drafted Cunningham back in 2021.
Since then, the Pistons have consistently been one of the worst shooting teams in the league, with less space than a phone booth for Cunningham to work in. Detroit’s offense has been one of the easiest to defend, as teams can just collapse into the middle where Cade wants to be and dare anyone else to shoot.
We’ve not seen Cunningham operate in an offense with shooters that have to be respected, which should change next season.
The Pistons now have several players who are good in the catch-and-shoot from long range, which should finally open up the court some for Cunningham:
-Malik Beasley: 42.3 percent
-Simone Fontecchio: 40.5 percent
-Tobias Harris: 36.2 percent
-Tim Hardaway Jr: 35.3 percent
-Isaiah Stewart: 38.1 percent
Cunningham finally has some players to kick out to when he draws multiple defenders, which should hopefully stop teams from constantly double and triple teaming him.
Cunningham has a physical advantage over many defenders when he’s got them on an island, so additional space should mean easier looks for him, more assists and a more balanced offense overall that doesn’t rely entirely on him.
One of the biggest mistakes Troy Weaver made was not getting shooters around Cunningham from the start, which has not only stunted his development but made him a tough player to evaluate.
Is he just putting up numbers on a bad team or can this guy actually impact winning on a better roster? We should be able to find out this season.
The veteran additions Langdon made were not just short-term assets, they were tools to help him read his young players, something that has been very difficult to do in past years because of the complete lack of complementary talent around them.
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