Detroit Pistons NBA Team Season Preview 2013-14

DETROIT PISTONS

Season Review 2012/13:

Advanced Stats
	Numbers	Rank
Pace	90.8	22
Offense	103.8	21
Defense	108.1	24
Rebound	50.4	12

4 Factors
Offense	Numbers	Rank	Defense	Numbers	Rank
eFG%	48.7	19	eFG%	50.5	21
TO%	14.3	28	TO%	13.1	24
Reb%	28.3	9	Reb%	27.0	24
FT%	19.7	20	FT%	20.9	20

Monthly Performance
	Record	OffRtg	DefRtg
November	5-12	103.5	107.3
December	6-10	106.6	108.9
January	6-7	104.9	108.1
February	6-8	104.1	110.5
March	1-13	101.8	118.5
April	5-3	113.4	107.5

After starting the previous season with a 4-20 record and being a definitive losing team since early on, the Pistons managed to maintain the same line last season by being the second last team in the league to win a game by losing the first eight games of the season.

In normal conditions it would be really hard for the Pistons to be a competitive team due to their unbalanced roster, but the doubts were destroyed since early on. Once again, the team’s backcourt was ridiculous during the whole season, something that has happened since Joe Dumars took the decision to trade Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson. It’s now clear that Rodney Stuckey isn't the team’s Point Guard for the future, while Brandon Knight has also disappointed as a PG, as he is mostly a Shooting Guard due to his lack of court vision and playmaking abilities, as seen with his 4.0 assists/game and 2.7 TO/game ratio.

However, not everything was terrible for the organization, as some of their young players developed quite smoothly and that might be the key for the team’s present/future: Greg Monroe confirmed to be a good offensive player and with rare playmaking abilities for a big man: with 3.5 assists/game, he was the #2 center in the league on this area, just behind Marc Gasol.

On the other hand, both Kyle Singler and especially Andre Drummond were rare wins for Dumars, who has been accumulating terrible decisions after terrible decisions since he became the team’s GM. In fact, if it wasn't for him to correctly select Drummond in the draft and probably he wouldn't be the team’s GM right now.

In order to get some cap room, Dumars didn't hesitate in trading the only remaining player from the 2004 championship team, Tayshaun Prince, during mid-season for the expiring contract of Jose Calderon.

Offseason Report:

Joe Dumars had finally some flexibility on his cap to make some movements in order to improve the team’s roster. The team will still have to pay one more year of contract to Charlie Villanueva, but all the other bad contracts are now gone.

With cap room available, the Pistons signed Josh Smith on free agency. With Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond locked up in the frontcourt, Detroit didn’t need to improve the frontcourt, but the same wasn’t true regarding the backcourt.

Brandon Knight didn't convince anybody in Detroit as PG and Dumars traded him for Milwaukee in order to get Brandon Jennings. Knight is very young and he didn't have a nice team to develop conveniently, so perhaps he deserved another opportunity in Detroit, but that didn't happen.

Detroit benefited from another high draft pick and Dumars selected Kenavious Caldwell-Pope to be another option for the team’s backcourt. Peyton Siva was also selected in the draft for the same reason. On a unit that is really young and so they were in need of an experienced player to guide them, Dumars found the ideal player for that: Chauncey Billups!

We can’t say that Dumars didn't try everything to improve the team’s roster. The signing of Maurice Cheeks as the new head coach was a surprise to me, if we consider the other candidates for the position that were rumored by the media.

Season Preview:

It’s hard for me to make any kind of prediction regarding the Pistons, as I wouldn't be surprised by anything that might happen to them this season.

I have to say that I don’t “like” Maurice Cheeks as a Head Coach. With him as a Head Coach, Philadelphia was an aggressive team, directed to score in transition and great on rebounding, but then they had no flow on half court sets and if we look at Detroit’s roster, they will have to play a lot on half court because they will have Monroe and Drummond to work down low.

Over the last few seasons, when we talk about players that have the tendency to do too much on offense by taking bad shots after bad shots, we can’t forget to include Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings into that list. If incorporating one player with this bad tendency is tough, let alone two players like Cheeks will have to do this season.

Besides this negative aspect from Smith who attempted 2.6 treys per game last season, with a 30% 3pts mark and a career worst 51.7% FT in the charity stripe line, we are talking about a player with an impressive versatility. Smith is a good rebounder, a great shot blocker and his court vision is pretty decent as well. People tend to forget about these qualities and there is a general consensus that he is overrated, but in my opinion he is actually quite underrated in the league.

Smith will give a precious help to Monroe, who keeps struggling on defense. Remember that mega dunk last season from DeAndre Jordan over Brandon Knight? Just watch Monroe’s positioning in that play and then tell me something about that! The good news is that with the lack of playmaking skills on the projected starting lineup, Monroe will be able to work as some kind of a point forward while helping the team to create good scoring looks.

Greg Monroe will play at the Power Forward position, as Andre Drummond should definitely become the team’s starting Center. It was weird to see Drummond having little playing time early on the season, with Lawrence Frank justifying that due to poor practices from him, but when Drummond was on the court, it was impressive in how easily Drummond would get double doubles in so little playing time. On his sophomore season, I’ll wait and see on how he will play in the starting lineup.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will have to be the team’s shooter that the Pistons need in order to open the court more. If that doesn’t happen, then Detroit will have alarming spacing issues with their opponents packing the paint in every single play. Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum and Chauncey Billups offer depth to a backcourt unit that clearly looks stronger than in the last few seasons.

Regarding the frontcourt, Monroe and Drummond will have to keep healthy throughout the season, as the Pistons don’t have great depth on this area with Jonas Jerebko being a capable backup, but then Charlie Villanueva and Josh Harrellson won’t offer a lot coming off the bench.

Maurice Cheeks will have a tremendous challenge in front of him this season. The Pistons will be a very tough team to figure out. Their three best players (Monroe, Smith and Jennings) are all left handed players, something that demonstrates the team’s uniqueness. On a best case scenario, Detroit will fight for the final playoff spots in the East, but more than that will be a huge surprise for me, regarding the potential chemistry problems that they’ll surely demonstrate early on the season.