Pistons lay an egg

The Pistons were one of 2 undefeated teams in the East, playing an 0-3 Pacers team that is a bit like a doughnut - all the goodness is on the outside, nothing in the middle. This looked like a perfect team for Detroit to exploit and walk away with an easy win. Naturally, they were blown out.

There are really only three things worth talking about from this game - Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson the point guard?, and the bench. So, not to be accused of burying the lede...

Andre Drummond - 25 pts on 12-17 shooting, 29 rebs (11 Off), 3 stls, 1 blk



Drummond was an absolute beast. He could not be handled by anybody on Indy's roster. If a rebound was near him, he got it. If a Piston missed a shot, he was often there to tip it in. His post game looked better than ever. In fact, I wanted the Pistons to run more plays for him in the low block. Most of his buckets came off of put-backs or tip-ins, and most of the rest came off of lobs. When he did post up, he was about 50%. Drummond attempted only 2 FTs (he attempted at least 10 in the other 3 games), which was largely a product of the way Detroit used him on offense. More post-ups would equal more FTs (you know the offense is failing when you'd rather Drummond shoot FTs than anyone else on the court take a shot). Also, I don't trust Reggie Jackson to run the PNR effectively right now (more on this later). So, despite the fact that Drummond catching a lob is a more reliable shot, I wish they'd posted him up more.


Reggie Jackson, PG? - 20 pts on 8-20 shooting, 6 asts, 6 tov, 1 stl, 1 blk
Jackson was the next most effective scorer after Drummond, but that's not saying much. You need to score more than 20 points on 20 shot attempts. And when Drummond has a game like he had in this one, the PG should NOT lead the team in shot attempts. Reggie's inability to run a cohesive offense has been a storyline all year. He just doesn't get it. It's not that he looks for his own shot too often, it's that he looks for it ALL THE TIME. And that's only a small part of the problem.

6 turnovers is good if you're a baker, bad if you're a point guard. Most of Reggie's turnovers were off of "self-inflicted steals". What I mean by that is, yes, the defender made a play on the ball, but only because the Piston PG basically put the defender in position to make the play and telegraphed where the ball was going. I keep holding out hope that Jackson will become a better PG as he learns the offense, but the kinds of mistakes he's making are not encouraging. I usually don't have a problem with shoot-first PGs, except when there's a much better option. In this case there ABSOLUTELY is a much better option in Andre Drummond, yet Jackson plays as though he is the first, second, and third option in the offense. His orientation is flipped from what it should be as a PG. That has to change, or his contract will be a waste.

the bench


I'll include Stan Van Gundy in this category, although I primarily mean the subs. The Pistons might have the worst bench unit in the NBA. The 2nd quarter began with the Pistons up 30-24 and all 5 starters were resting. 4:47 later, the Pistons were down 30-44 and the starters were forced to come back early to staunch the bleeding. I don't want to put this ENTIRELY on the reserves, but the starting unit had an average Plus/Minus of +3.2 and the bench unit averaged a -12.7. Indiana's bench outscored Detroit's bench 43-2. Whenever that happens, you're going to lose.

A particularly telling sequence came with about 9 minutes left to play. Detroit was down 13 points when Rodney Stuckey was called for a flagrant 1 on Stanley Johnson. It was a legit call, dangerous foul, but still this was a big break for Detroit. They get 2 shots and the ball, which meant they could cut the deficit to 8, the lowest it had been since early in the 2nd quarter. What happened? Well, Stanley missed his two FTs, Anthony Tolliver missed his 3pt attempt, and the long rebound went to Indiana, who then knocked down a jumper. That's a 7 point swing right there.

Van Gundy is partly culpable in all of this. The turning point in this game was Indiana's 20-0 run to start the 2nd quarter. Stan didn't call his first timeout until Indiana had scored 10 straight, and he didn't make any substitutions. He didn't call his second timeout until Indiana had scored another 10, at which point he finally brought the starters back in. That's a 5 min stretch of time where the opponent out-scored you 20-0, yet you only called 1 timeout and made no personnel adjustments? That is bad coaching.

Outlook

The overall team performance was pretty soft. The defense was usually late to close out on a shooter, and the passing was as bad as I've ever seen it. It reminded me of a game when Stuckey & Knight were sharing PG duties a couple of years ago, I can't remember the opponent. Almost every pass was tipped, batted, or otherwise affected by the defense. I had thought our PG play was supposed to be a lot better.

The team's weaknesses were more glaring in this game than they had been in the previous 3, although the signs were there.

1. Our PG doesn't effectively run the offense
2. We lack a consistent 1-on-1 scoring threat
3. Our bench is terrible

I think Drummond can be that consistent 1-on-1 scoring threat as his post game develops. Marcus Morris was covered by Paul George in this game and was clearly out-matched, but I think most of the time he can provide that as well. I'm starting to get worried about weakness #2, and weakness #1 terrifies me. We invested a lot in Jackson as the PG of the future. We swung a trade that gutted the team last year to get him, we signed him to a pretty nice second contract ($16M/yr for 5 years), and in doing so, announced that we would be moving on from Brandon Jennings at PG. Jennings was having a pretty good year last year, until he blew out his Achilles tendon. I'm not calling Reggie Jackson a wash just yet, but he definitely is not a "natural" PG.

Short of praying guys like Bullock and Stanley Johnson take a leap, I see no easy answers for the bench unit problem either. The only positive there is Brandon Jennings is expected back before Christmas. If that holds, we can cut Blake or send Dinwiddie back to the D League, and the bench unit will have at least SOMEONE who can hit a shot from time to time. But until Jennings returns, the Pistons will be very up & down.