An overloooked area where the Detroit Pistons haven't improved
Trajan Langdon has mostly been applauded for the moves he’s made as president of the Detroit Pistons.
He didn’t do anything crazy in his first offseason, but instead added solid veterans to his core who are durable and can shoot, two areas where the Pistons have been horrible in recent seasons.
The focus of the offseason has really been about the shooting, as we all knew Cade Cunningham needed better spacing, an issue that Troy Weaver ignored for the last three seasons.
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And the shooting is better, but there is far more to the game than shooting. The question now is not whether this team can score, but if they can stop anyone else from doing it, as the defense hasn’t seen much improvement this offseason, at least on paper.
Focus is on the shooting, but the Pistons defense needs work too
The Pistons had one of the worst defenses in the league last season no matter which metric you want to use.
They were 26th in the NBA in points allowed at just under 120 per game. They were 25th in defensive efficiency and 28th in opponent’s field goal percentage and just 20th in blocks per game. They were 27th in the league in both fast break points allowed and points in the paint allowed, so pretty much any way you look at it, the Pistons’ defense was terrible.
Tim Hardaway Jr., Malik Beasley and Tobias Harris will all help the Pistons’ offense, but these additions aren’t going to do a lot to fix the D.
Having a better offense should lead to a better defense, as teams will be taking the ball out of the net more and getting fewer chances in transition, but when you take a look at the particulars, it’s going to take some huge leaps for this team to have a passable defense.