3 Takeaways from the 2024 playoffs for the Detroit Pistons

2. Spacing is key

Spacing is one of those aspects of basketball that even a casual fan could tell you lead to success. If a team has limited scoring options, no off-ball movement, and non effiicent shooting ability, offense is doomed to be lackluster. In some of the most successful teams like the Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and Boston Celtics to name a few, we saw great spacing that created efficient offense.

The Pacers had options outside of Tyrese Haliburton that could create opportunites without having the ball, whether it was through Andrew Nembhard creating space on the perimeter in preparation for a catch-and-shoot three, or if it was Obi Toppin cutting on the baseline to set up a lob opportunity. The 2024 NBA champion Celtics also were highlighted by numerous scoring options, seen in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum's ability to be the number one option on any given night, Derrick White's ability to find holes in defenses, or Sam Hausers readiness to catch-and-shoot on the perimeter. In both of these examples it is clear that winning teams had great spacing that opened up the offense.

The most glaring issue for the Pistons this year was the inability to space the floor and open up scoring options on the offensive side of the ball. As the foundation of the future of the franchise, Cade Cunningham had very little help. There are very few shooters who could add options from deep, and those who they have are not the most efficient or desirable 3PT threats. The team was 4th-worst in 3PT percentage this season, shooting a dissapointing 34.8 percent from deep along with being bottom-five in the league in field goal percentage at 46.3 percent. With those numbers, it's obvious that Cunningham has no options to pass out to or rely on to score. Without spacing, there's no true flow to the offense, which limits opportunities to score. Hopefully, newly hired president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon sees this obvious problem and adds shooters and off-ball options to add next to who they want to be their point guard of the future.

He also added shooting coach Fred Vinson, who should be able to help some of Detroit's worst shooters.