Biggest Adjustments Detroit Pistons Must Make This Coming Season
After their fifth consecutive season with 30 or fewer wins, the Detroit Pistons are certainly looking to make big adjustments for what they hope will be a turnaround season.
Major changes in the front office, coaching staff and roster already guarantee this team looks much different than it did a year ago. Stan Van Gundy takes over as team president and head coach, and he has already begun reshaping the team to fit his preferred style of play with the acquisitions of six new players.
But there are still a good number of holdovers in the team's core, and they'll need to combine with the newcomers and make big on-court changes in order to have a chance at making the playoffs in the spring.
There's new talent in Detroit, as well as a top-tier head coach. But will this team come together and embrace what it needs to do to be successful?
Scoring on the Wing
The biggest change Van Gundy has already made to the Pistons is to add perimeter shooting to the roster—an area where they desperately needed help.
In 2013-14 they shot 32.1 percent from the arc, ranking No. 29 in the NBA. Signees D.J. Augustin, Caron Butler, Cartier Martin and Jodie Meeks all shot at least 39 percent from the arc last season, and they'll immediately help the team in this area.
But there must also be improvement from returning players. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made 39.4 percent of his threes as a sophomore at Georgia, yet hit just 31.9 percent as a rookie. Luigi Datome also made 39.4 percent before joining the Pistons (for him that was overseas), yet he finished the season at a clip of 17.9 percent.
Those two will have the opportunity to improve in their second NBA seasons, and the Pistons could certainly use some increased offensive production from them. But another change could be the most important to getting more scoring on the wing.
Simply moving Josh Smith off the perimeter and away from the three-point arc will do wonders for the Pistons.
Smith took a career-high 3.4 threes per game in 2013-14, and he converted just 26.4 percent of those. According to Basketball-Reference, that is tied for the second-lowest percentage for a player who attempted at least 200 threes in a season, trailing only Antoine Walker's 1999-2000 season.
Van Gundy has said he doesn't plan to use all three of his big men together often, and that should help keep Smith where he is at his best.
"It's about us putting [Smith] in spots that play to his strengths and don't maybe give him the opportunity to play to his weaknesses a little bit," Van Gundy said in an interview with 97.1 The Ticket (H/T to DetroitBadBoys.com). "And it's about him making better decisions and being more efficient than he was last year."
Add four new outside-shooting threats, get some improvement from their second-year players and move Smith inside, and Van Gundy sure looks like he has a recipe for increased wing scoring this season. And if all goes as planned, that should open up space down low for their big men and make driving lanes bigger for their point guards.
Pass-First Point Guard Play
With that improved wing play, Van Gundy will need his point guards to act more like distributors than they have previously.
Starter Brandon Jennings has always been looked at as a gunner, though his assists average has increased each of the past three seasons: up to 7.6 in 2013-14. But if the Pistons are going to be the best version of themselves, Jennings will need to see that total increase once again.
Jennings has averaged at least 14 shots per game in each of his five NBA seasons. He has shot over 40 percent in just one of those seasons, and his career field-goal percentage is 39.
That just isn't going to cut it.
Even if Jennings has gained 25 pounds, he will still be too small to finish well in traffic—he made just 47.6 percent of his shots inside of five feet last season, per NBA.com. And his three-point shot is erratic at best, making him little more than a heat-check player some nights.
But he still has a lightning-quick first step, and the extra spacing on the floor this season should make it easier for him to get into the paint. And with all those shooters and an improved Andre Drummond down low, there should be significantly less pressure on Jennings to score this season.
The same goes for Jennings' new backup, Augustin. Though he's very capable of creating his own offense, this Pistons team shouldn't need him to do as much as the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls needed him to do.
Like Jennings, Augustin is a quick guard who limits his turnovers. The Pistons are deep enough that a second unit with Augustin will still have players capable of scoring in bunches. If he can come off the bench and find them open shots, their offense will run much smoother than it did a season ago.
Playing Consistent Defense
No matter what changes the Pistons make on offense, it will continue to be difficult to win games if they cannot find a way to have solid defensive efforts on a nightly basis.
According to NBA.com, the Pistons ranked No. 25 in points allowed per 100 possessions in 2013-14. And that wasn't a symptom of just a single problem area; it is indicative of a defense that was wholly flawed.
They ranked no better than No. 20 in opponent field-goal percentage from 25 to 29 feet (No. 21), 20 to 24 feet (No. 22), 15 to 19 feet (No. 30) and from within five feet (No. 20). And despite playing three big men much of the time, they ranked No. 21 in defensive rebounding.
This was a team that lacked both effort and know-how last season.
Smith lacked the foot speed to cover small forwards consistently. Greg Monroe doesn't have the length or quickness to be a great defender, but he was too often late on rotations near the rim. Jennings was prone to losing focus and took too many gambles for steals. And for all that Drummond did well, top big men still took it to him.
Again, Van Gundy should be able to get more out of this team than what they showed last season. But it will take real effort from the players to learn rotations, maintain focus and generally give better effort on the defensive end.
If the Pistons can make these three changes, they'll be a dangerous team. With three starter-quality big men and finally some shooters to go around them, they'll be a matchup nightmare most nights—as long as they can find their stride from the get-go.
Jakub Rudnik covers the Detroit Pistons as a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow him on Twitter.
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