Discorporate. It’d be hard to blame any Pistons fan who prayed to do just that last season: Leave their body cradled in a hard plastic seat at the Palace of Auburn Hills and project their consciousness somewhere, anywhere, else.
Sure, the team boasted some promising young talent. Yes, their 29-53 record saw them finish 11th in the East, and with a better winning percentage than six other teams. But this was a club whose two signature highlights both involved the absolute shaming of second-year guard Brandon Knight. It’s no wonder, then, that Detroit’s full-season attendance (606,094) ranked 28th in the league—the Pistons have been one of the NBA’s least-relevant teams for a while now.
In an effort to change that (and save his job) GM Joe Dumars went as all in as he could this off-season, with relatively stunning results. In addition to bringing in a new head coach, Detroit signed the second-best free agent on the market (Josh Smith), swung a deal for an all star-calibre point guard (Brandon Jennings) and managed to bring back ’04 Finals MVP Chauncey Billups for one last run. It may not be enough to win them their first playoff series since 2007–08, but one thing’s for sure: The 2013–14 Pistons aren’t just relevant, they’re one of the Association’s most interesting teams.
Additions: Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings, Chauncey Billups, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Luigi Datome, Josh Harrellson, Tony Mitchell, Peyton Siva
Departures: Jose Calderon, Brandon Knight, Jason Maxiell, Kim English, Viacheslav Kravtsov, Khris Middleton
Pretty clearly, the Pistons got back more than they gave up this summer. Calderon’s shooting and play making will be missed, but Brandon Jennings is a top-25 scorer who can get into the lane without compromising his ability to take care of the ball. Currently sidelined (completely immobilized, actually with a hairline fracture in his jaw, he should nevertheless make it back into the lineup without missing more than a handful of regular-season games, and will be deadly running the pick-and-roll with a pair of freak athletes like Josh Smith and second-year centre Andre Drummond.
In addition to his offensive value, Smith brings truly elite-level defence to a club that desperately needs it. The Pistons ranked 23rd in points allowed per 100 possessions last year and got beat like they owed someone money on the defensive glass, posting a DREB% of 73 percent (tied for 23rd). Though his offensive rebounding is a bit streaky, Smith is human Windex on D, and his shot blocking should make for one hell of a back line alongside Drummond, who boasts a similarly impressive defensive skill set.
Key Storylines:
– Spacing, the final frontier. In Smith, Drummond and Greg Monroe, Detroit now has one of the most talented frontcourts in the NBA and a potential paint-clogging trainwreck. At the rim last season, Smith, Monroe, Drummond and Jennings shot an excellent 66 percent (if you take the bigs on their own, the number jumps to 70.6). But expand the range to anything further than three feet from the basket and the foursome, combined, shot just 27.7 percent. For the whole season. Wow.
Four-fifths of the Pistons’ starting lineup, then, can score efficiently only on dunks, layups and tips, and making matters worse, the roster lacks a single shooter other than Billups who’s proven he can hit threes consistently in the NBA. Eighth-overall pick Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has a reputation as a shooter, but hit just 34 percent from deep while at Georgia; Italian league MVP Luigi Datome showed a sweet stroke in this year’s EuroBasket tourney, but has yet to prove himself in the NBA; and no other player on the team—apart from Andre Drummond, who went one for two—managed even a league-average three-point percentage in 2012–13. Oh, and Billups is 37, has 16 seasons in the rearview and has only played 42 out of a possible 148 games in the last two years. Again, wow.
– Will Greg Monroe still be on the team at season’s end? Monroe could be the key to solving the spacing issue. He’s got great passing skills for a big man and could do serious damage facilitating from the elbow, but he’ll need to develop a mid-range stroke steady enough to force opponents to respect it. On the plus side, he showed flashes of just such a stroke in his rookie year, and his less-god-awful-than-Smith’s-or-Drummond’s FT% suggests better mechanics than his fellow starters. If the spacing issues prove too big to overcome, though, Monroe is the most likely trade chip. Drummond is younger and a better athlete with a higher ceiling; Smith just signed a fat four-year deal; and Jennings’s RFA experiment this summer showed that he’s not exactly the hottest ticket in the NBA. Monroe is still on his rookie deal and has enough all-star potential to net some serious pieces in return.
Breakout Player:
Andre Drummond. The second-year centre would’ve been a lock for ROTY last season if he hadn’t been limited to 20 minutes of court time a night. His per-36-minute numbers (13.8 points, 13.2 boards, 2.8 blocks and 1.7 steals) were ridiculous, and with the uptick in playing time he should see as a starter this season there’s a decent chance he’ll be able to replicate them on a per-game basis. An elite-level rebounder, shot blocker and finisher at the basket even in his rookie season, Drummond already looks like a future franchise centrepiece.
Scale of Decency:
Half-decent. The Pistons have the talent necessary to top the 40-win plateau for the first time in five seasons, maybe make the playoffs, and maybe even put up a fight before being bounced in the first round. But the spacing issue, the lack of bench depth and the huge question mark at the two could all be pretty disastrous. If they stall out, it will be in the worst kind of ball-stopping, ugly-mid-range-shot-taking way. So here’s hoping they sort it out and instead become a pick-and-roll juggernaut with an elite team defence.
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