4 Ingredients to building a great Detroit Pistons team

3. A Stretch Big

Though the modern game is heavily dependent on stretch bigs who can take opposing players away from the paint, in past generations, this was rare, which makes its inclusion that much more interesting. Every single championship Detroit team had a Forward/Center who could shoot the 3-point shot at a high percentage. This opened up the driving lanes for guards and added dimensions to their offensive gameplan.

The two bigs that epitomized this for the Pistons are Bill Laimbeer and Rasheed Wallace. Both players were hard-nosed in their approach to the game, but were nightmares for opposing defenses who played primarily in the paint. Though both had a decent low post game, both were equally comfortable with getting to the perimeter and drawing traditional bigs out to either knock down the three or get the rest of the team into the paint without a shot-blocker down low. With stretch bigs more common in today's NBA, Detroit needs to revisit this model of player.