The Detroit Pistons came into the season knowing they had two areas where they had to improve.
They had to get better defensively, as they were 25th in the NBA in defense last season. So far, so good, as the Pistons have been much better, jumping to 13th in the NBA in defensive rating and 8th in opponent’s points per game.
JB Bickerstaff has to be given credit for having his young team more organized and giving energy on the defensive end.
The other area was 3-point shooting, something Trajan Langdon went to great lengths to address in the offseason, adding Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley in free agency, trading for Tim Hardaway Jr. and re-signing Simone Fontecchio.
The results haven’t been there so far, as the Pistons are just 22nd in 3-point percentage and all of their additions have struggled with the exception of THJ, who has been outstanding, hitting an absurd 48 percent on his 6.4 attempts per game from long range.
The other three have ranged from terrible to mediocre and one shot in particular is killing the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit Pistons stats: Corner 3-pointers
The Pistons are shooting just 33.4 percent from 3-point range as a team and there have been some notable bad starts from behind the arc to go along with some pleasant surprises.
As I said, Hardaway Jr. has been lights out and Jaden Ivey has also been much better than expected, hitting 41 percent on over five attempts per game from 3-point range.
Ron Holland II has struggled, as you would expect, though there are positive signs, as his shot looks fluid and he knocked down a couple last night that will hopefully get him going.
It’s been the Pistons’ veterans who have struggled, as Tobias Harris has hit just 16 percent of his 3’s, Beasley 33 percent and Fontecchio just 31 percent. These are all well below their career averages, so you assume at some point this will balance out, but right now they are not getting it done from behind the arc.
That’s been particularly true from the corners, as Harris shooting just 15.8 percent and Beasley 30 percent. They are leading the team by far in attempts from the corner, as both are taking more than two per game.
Fontecchio is also taking more than one per game from the corner and only hitting 30 percent, so it’s been the shortest 3-point shot that has killed the Pistons in the early season.
In the case of Harris, it feels like nearly all of them were in clutch moments, which happened again last night, when he left a wide-open one short late in the game that would have changed the outcome.
The good news is that these players have a history of hitting shots and eventually they will rise back to their norms, but it’s an old problem that is currently holding these new Pistons back.