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The Detroit Pistons entered the 2016-17 season feeling mighty good about themselves.
Sure, the prior campaign had ended with another sweep at the hands of LeBron and the Cavs, but it was as encouraging as a 4-0 tally could be. The Pistons hung tough throughout much of the series and 19-year-old Stanley Johnson played like a fully grown man against some of the league’s best players.
Beginning this season, there were some experts in NBA circles that pegged the Pistons as a dark-horse contender to oppose Cleveland in the Eastern Finals; and maybe even grab a victory this time. With Atlanta and Chicago losing major core pieces, Boston maybe playing over its head the previous spring, and Toronto not really making any huge roster moves, there was a reasonable expectation that the Pistons were ready to at least join the big boy conversation.
Turns out that the hoops public might have jumped the gun on that one.
For lack of a better term, the Pistons just feel stale. Like a loaf of wheat bread that’s been in the pantry a week too long. No, it hasn’t started growing that funky mold on the crusts just yet, but it’s still not something you want to center your lunch around.
The Pistons aren’t technically poisonous and watching them play basketball won’t kill you, but it’s close enough to where you might to check with a physician before doing so.
Stan Van Gundy called the blowout loss on Monday night in Chicago “disgusting.” He said the Pistons “lacked effort” and “lacked heart.” Keep in mind that just a week ago, the Pistons were hammered at The Palace by the Philadelphia 76ers, a franchise that has come to be known these last few years as one of the least successful road teams in league history. That game should have been the wake-up call for Van Gundy’s bunch. You sleepwalk through that Sunday nighter against Philly, do a whole lot of yelling and screaming, then come back with a vengeance in the week to follow. The opposite has occurred.
They took down the Mavericks, the team with the NBA’s worst record, then suffered three consecutive double-digit defeats to very mediocre competition: Wizards, Pacers, then the aforementioned Chicago massacre, 113-82, last night. It was as if the Pistons were in Pamplona, taking part in the annual Running of the Bulls -- only, instead of desperately sprinting from the beasts, doing anything they could to escape with a triumph, they just stood lazily in the streets, getting gored repeatedly until 48 minutes on the clock had thankfully elapsed.
But where does the blame lie? This was a roster that seemed youthful and upbeat just a handful of months ago. Now the group looks lifeless. On most nights, it doesn’t look like the Pistons are having any fun at all on the court.
Reggie Jackson
Is Reggie Jackson That Good?
Without jumping to exaggerated conclusions with the season still just 30 games old (14-16 record), it is fair to question whether Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond are genuine franchise centerpieces capable of taking the Pistons on an extended playoff run.
This is Jackson’s sixth season in the league, which means he is coming dangerously close to, “What you see is what you get” territory. It’s not to say that a player just 26 years of age can’t still improve as his career goes on, but in all likelihood, he won’t suddenly become a completely different guy, either. It’s one of the tricky parts in being a sports executive; trying to determine how a supporting piece on a contender will look in a more featured role with a new club. Van Gundy saw flourishes from Jackson in Oklahoma City and rolled the dice that the production and success would continue upward as playing time and responsibility increased. Reggie is given some leeway for his struggles, having missed the first month of the season with knee and thumb issues. But regardless, it is a troubling, inarguable fact that the Pistons looked like a much more fluid and cohesive team when he was not in the lineup.
What is Jackson’s identity as a player? The question might not have an answer, and therein lies the problem. Is he a scoring point guard in the Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis mold? Those guys, at least in their primes, were more explosive, more capable of taking over a game.
Or is he a Tony Parker type, getting his 15-18 points while still mainly playing the role of facilitator? He doesn’t really have Parker’s steadiness, or creativity around the rim.
A great outside shooter? Not that, either. He’s 35% on the year from beyond the arc and just 31.6% for his career. Sure, you can still be a good NBA player without necessarily mastering a certain skill or claiming a particular identity, but you’re also probably not going to become a perennial All-Star, or Finals MVP, either.
Numbers Can Mislead
As for Reggie’s partner in crime, Andre Drummond doesn’t exactly look like a guy playing with his hair on fire, either. The numbers on the year look just fine, 14 points and 14 boards; but looking beyond the stats for a moment, I challenge you to watch this team on a nightly basis and genuinely come away thinking, “Boy, that Drummond plays HARD. He doesn’t take a possession off!”
Let’s all be honest about those gaudy rebounding numbers for a moment. Drummond is the only real inside player in the Pistons starting five. The other frontcourt members, Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris, are shooting guards disguised as forwards. Just looking at the situation as plainly as can be, the other team is going to miss shots and the Pistons are going to haul in a fair number of defensive rebounds. A large number of those will naturally fall to Drummond. It’s simply how the game works. (He is also a load on the offensive glass, and that is not to be discounted.)
The point being; you can glance at a box score, see that Drummond went for 13 and 18, and come away thinking he dominated the night’s action. It’s not always the truth, and could in fact be hiding a worrying list of flaws that don’t seem to be improving with age. The free throw shooting, unfortunately, appears to be an Achilles heel that will remain just that throughout his career, much like Ben Wallace. Big Ben lasted 16 long years in the NBA, but never once finished at or above 50 percent in any season -- Drummond could very well accomplish the same unenviable feat. Yes, he has “improved” this season to 45%, but when the bar was set so low last year (career worst 35.5%), it’s not exactly a reason to celebrate.
But unlike Mr. Wallace -- at least the “early Pistons Ben” -- Drummond doesn’t really display max effort every single night. In the first half of the 2000’s, Ben was able to overcome his lack of skill or polish by just playing his tail off every minute he was on the floor. There'd be a night when he wouldn’t score much, or a game when he’d miss a truckload of free throws, but one thing was certain; nobody was going to outwork him. You don’t come away with that same feeling watching Andre Drummond. His overall demeanor is reminiscent of Greg Oden, another player that was able to snatch rebounds and block a bunch of shots because of height and a dose of athleticism, but never a guy that wowed you with grit or determination.
SVG and the Reggie-Andre Gamble
And of course, Van Gundy must join the blame game, too. Jeff Bower is technically the Pistons GM, but it’s no secret that Van Gundy also has a great deal of say in how this roster is composed. Given, he inherited the Detroit job equipped with a strange mix of players and far too much Josh Smith. He has cleaned things up considerably, but you have to wonder if he has invested too much of the team’s future in a pair of guys that might not necessarily fit the bill as franchise-altering athletes. He splurged on a massive contract to keep Drummond in town, and Reggie’s deal the year prior was similarly nothing to sneeze at.
For all intents and purposes, SVG has married the Pistons future to the ascension of this duo, and the jury is most definitely out on whether that was a wise choice. The most consistent player the team has had this year has been Jon Leuer, an afterthought summer signing that drew very little in the way of headlines or fanfare. It’s terrific that Leuer has worked out so well in Detroit, but if he is the one guy you can rely on most nights, your team is in grave danger.
There is still plenty of meat left on the bone for this Pistons in 2016-17. If you broke it down by percentages, about 63.5% of the schedule remains. So it’s not as if the team needs to rattle off six or seven in a row to save the season. But a little bit of panic should be setting in. At 14-16, with both Golden State and Cleveland coming to town in the next week, and a hellacious western swing lurking in early January, that record could start to go the wrong way quickly.
This is still essentially the same team that won 44 games last year and impressed the basketball world with their fight against the Cavs in the playoffs. This year’s club, with the additions of Leuer and Ish Smith to fortify the bench, should theoretically be better. But things haven’t played out according to plan, and Monday’s meltdown in the Windy City represents the low point of the year.
Stan Van Gundy
Lineup Shifts Are Ahead
Van Gundy has promised lineup changes, which likely means Leuer into the starting five and perhaps a Stanley Johnson sighting as well.
Sometimes a shakeup like that can infuse energy to a sagging team, but then there are those occasions when the switch is more cosmetic, trying to mask a larger issue with a couple of moving pieces.
It’s been an unusual year for the Pistons.
The team awkwardly announced several weeks into the season that it would be the organization’s last at the Palace of Auburn Hills, an arena that has housed all three of the team’s titles. Then came the odd news item that Drummond had chosen not to address any of the mechanical issues with his free throw stroke over the summer, instead focusing on the mental side with use of a virtual reality program. Finally, Reggie Jackson got hurt, came back, and had fans genuinely wondering, “Are we better off with Ish Smith running the team?”
The franchise is in sort of an in-between state. While the roster is young, it isn’t exactly jammed with rookies and second-year players, either. Guys like Jackson, Drummond, KCP, and Tobias Harris have been in the league long enough to where “youth” isn’t really a valid excuse for such extended spells of inconsistency. The Pistons were never expected to be championship contenders this year, or even next, but there was the belief that the trajectory of the franchise would continue upwards as said players matured.
If Andre and Reggie can flip the script and start living up to those mega-deals, the team could right the ship before the ball drops in Times Square. But if they continue meandering along, the rest of the group will naturally follow suit, and the result will be a depressing thud of a send-off for one of the great arenas in Detroit sports lore.
