What each Pistons player must improve to make a leap next season
By Tyler Dutton
Isaiah Stewart: Attacking the rim
To Stew’s credit, he has done a fantastic job evolving his game to better reflect the front office’s vision. After primarily being a five in college, Detroit’s FO tasked Isaiah with developing an outside shot so he could play the four position more often. And that’s exactly what Stewart did. Last year, Isaiah was quietly one of the best three point shooters on Detroit’s roster. He improved his three point percentage from 32 to 38 percent last year.
This upcoming offseason, Isaiah now needs to take the next step after developing an outside shot and begin attacking closeouts. Opposing defenders now have to respect his ability to connect from deep, and will begin to close out hard on the big man. Rather than forcing a difficult shot above the incoming defender, Isaiah needs to work on his footwork and ball handling to maneuver around the closing guy and get into the lane. Showing his ability to do that will take his game to the next level.
Quentin Grimes: Getting healthy
The games following the trade deadline did little to make Pistons fans happy about the Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks trade return. At the time, it did seem like a decent return, especially before it was confirmed that Bogey was included, but that’s neither here nor there. Grimes is a perfect complement to Cade. When healthy, that is. Quentin is a three-and-D player who happened to fall out of the good graces in New York and was due for a scenery change. During his time in Detroit, however, Grimes never got going. He suffered an injury, one that was reportedly incurred after Detroit had acquired him, and his shooting was not only less than elite, but actively bad.
The offseason for Grimes is simple. Rehab so that he is 100% recovered from the injury that plagued him after the deadline, and return to form shooting-wise. He shooting even before coming to Detroit was on a slight downward trajectory so he may have to do more work than originally expected, but the groundwork is there.