Detroit Pistons 2014-15 Season Preview: Roster Breakdown, Record Prediction
The Detroit Pistons were one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA in 2013-14, but after some major offseason moves they will be hoping for a bounce-back year.
The 2013-14 season came with plenty of promise for the Pistons, who had acquired Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith during the offseason. And the year started well enough, with Detroit sitting at 14-16 by Christmas— and very much in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
But things unravelled shortly thereafter, as the Pistons went 11-28 (.282 winning percentage) over their next 39 games to guarantee a sixth consecutive losing season. In the midst of all the losing, head coach Mo Cheeks was fired in just his first season with the team.
Since the season ended, Stan Van Gundy was hired as the new head coach and team president and has already made his mark on the roster, signing a handful of wing players to improve their outside shooting. With the new additions and a year of improvement from their young core, this is the most promising Pistons team in years.
Biggest Question Mark
One of the many reasons the Pistons struggled so badly last season was a lack of locker room cohesion, which could continue in 2014-15.
Cheeks was fired in large part because of the team's record, but sports columnist Peter Vecsey tweeted after the dismissal that some of the team leaders were to blame:
The chemistry concerns went beyond the coaching staff. In the final games of the season, several players hinted at Smith being the cause of many of the problems, and Jennings hinted at a rift between Smith and others on the team. David Mayo of Mlive.com wrote at the time:
"Jennings, who assessed the state of the Pistons bluntly on several occasions, said the team was lost without a veteran leader and that "Chauncey (Billups) could only do so much."
"I think when certain players are in here trying to give advice, and they're not also doing what they're supposed to do, it's tough," Jennings added.
He didn't specify who he meant but Smith, a 10th-year veteran who came to the Pistons on a four-year, $54 million contract, seemed the strongest candidate.
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Just a reminder: Both Jennings and Smith are on the roster again this season.
On top of that, there appears to be plenty of opportunity for issues relating to playing time. Smith started for much of the year alongside Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, but such lineups will likely be used less this season, and there may not be enough minutes to go around in the post. Throw in the fact that Monroe reportedly wanted out of Detroit this summer, and there could be issues with the big men.
The added depth on the perimeter could also cause problems. D.J. Augustin arrived in Detroit after a career-reviving year in Chicago, and a slow start by Jennings could have fans clamoring for Augustin. At shooting guard, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jodie Meeks will be in competition for the starting spot—though Meeks is out for up to eight weeks with a lower-back injury. And Kyle Singler and Caron Butler will be fighting for the minutes Smith doesn't get at small forward.
It's much easier to get along when you're playing well, and winning can alleviate concerns over playing time. But heading into a season with two starters who have had issues in the past is far from ideal.
Best Five
The Pistons had just one five-man lineup that played at least 100 minutes together and had a positive plus-minus: Jennings, Rodney Stuckey, Singler, Smith and Drummond.
Stuckey left via free agency for the Indiana Pacers, but the other four remain with the team. With 80 percent of a lineup that outscored opponents by 7.4 points per 100 possessions still intact, their best lineup this season should look very similar.
Drummond and Smith together form a very athletic duo capable of defending the rim exceptionally well. In Singler they have a solid three-point shooter, while Jennings was more than capable of creating for himself or setting up teammates for open baskets.
Stuckey was an above-average player on both ends of the court for the Pistons last season, and what he did best was attack the basket offensively. While there is nobody on the current roster with the same skill set, Meeks should be able to fill Stuckey's offensive void in a different way.
Meeks shot 40.1 percent from beyond the arc with the Los Angeles Lakers last season and should make this lineup even more dangerous offensively. His range will force defenders to stay tighter on him than they ever had to with Stuckey (27.3 percent from three in 2013-14). That will open up bigger driving lanes for Jennings as well as create more room for Drummond and Smith to operate down low.
Though the Pistons have the depth and talent to choose lineups to match up with their opponents, expect Jennings, Meeks, Singler, Smith and Drummond to close out many games this season.
Youth Movement
The one player not included in that lineup who is the biggest wild card is 21-year-old Caldwell-Pope. Not only could he supplant Meeks as the team's top shooting guard, but there's even a chance he could play well enough next to Meeks to sit Singler down the stretch of games.
Caldwell-Pope was the best defender of the three last season but struggled mightily on offense. However, he has averaged 16.7 points in three preseason games, shooting 7-of-15 (46.7 percent) from beyond the arc. The sample size is small and it's only preseason, but he looks like a significantly improved offensive player.
Van Gundy won't have much of a choice but to give Caldwell-Pope a shot immediately in the regular season, with Meeks' injury. The second-year shooting guard would have been in the rotation even if Meeks hadn't been injured, but now Caldwell-Pope is guaranteed significant time.
Other than Drummond, Caldwell-Pope is the most promising young player on the roster. At 6'5" and 205 pounds, with long arms and excellent athleticism, he has the physical tools to be a top wing defender in the NBA. If his three-point shot lives up to what it was supposed to be coming out of college, he'll be a very good two-way player for the Pistons for a long time.
Team Award Predictions
Best Offensive Weapon: Brandon Jennings
Four returning Pistons averaged between 13.5 and 16.4 points last season, and none had a particularly impressive offensive year, so this award could go to a number of players. But Jennings has the chance of the four to pull away from the pack.
As the starting point guard, Jennings is in charge of making the offense run and finding shots for others. Last season he averaged a career-high 7.6 assists per game, all while the team was without a cohesive offense and had the league's second-worst group of three-point shooters.
This time around, Jennings will be playing for Van Gundy, who has had much more success than Cheeks. The new coach has already talked about holding Jennings more accountable for taking the bad shots he's been guilty of taking in the past.
"He's gotta be more consistent, and we'll show him some film where we think he's giving away shots and not really balancing up," Van Gundy told reporters. "Overall, we're really happy. He's playing really hard."
Jennings will also be playing alongside players like Augustin, Butler and Meeks who will knock down shots like none of his teammates were able to last season. This should take pressure off Jennings to look for his own shot as well as bump up his assist total even further.
Best Defensive Stopper: Andre Drummond
The Pistons roster isn't exactly filled with dominant defenders, but they have one of the best young interior big men in the NBA in Drummond.
In just his second season, Drummond put up crazy defensive numbers: 13.2 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.2 steals. That's a season stat line that has been duplicated just 14 times in NBA history according to Basketball-Reference.com.
He's been just as dominant this preseason. Through six games, he's averaged 11 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 1.2 steals. It shouldn't come as a big surprise after his Team USA experience that Drummond would have an even bigger influence in defending the rim this season.
“He’s gotten better and better,” said Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau after a Team USA practice to Keith Langlois of NBA.com. “He’s done a great job here. There’s a lot of things he does you really can’t teach—great instincts around the basket, his ability to react to the ball and protect the rim. You can see that he’s growing offensively, getting more comfortable.”
If he continues to improve at this rate, Drummond will be getting All-NBA Defensive Team consideration in no time.
Best Potential Meme: Spencer Dinwiddie's Mustache
The Pistons potentially found the steal of the draft when they took Colorado point guard Spencer Dinwiddie in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft, but there is a very real chance his facial hair gets more attention than his play this season.
Within days of being drafted, Dinwiddie's mustache was getting serious Internet attention, as fans edited it onto pictures of Drummond. Not only were the pictures fantastically bad, but both players had fun with it on Twitter.
Then later in the summer, Dinwiddie made what seemed to be a middle school-esque joke during a Reddit AMA for NBA rookies.
That combination of 'stache and sense of humor cannot possibly exist together for an entire season without someone creating a meme. The ball is in your court, Internet.
When the Dust Settles...
Last season, the Pistons added enough talent to trick many people into believing they would be a playoff team in a barren Eastern Conference. This season the East is arguably deeper, at least in terms of teams who have a shot of competing for the final playoff spots.
The Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers are locks to be atop the conference standings. The Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards should be just one tier below them. Then the Charlotte Bobcats and Miami Heat look like virtual locks to grab spots.
That leaves, at most, two spots for the Pistons to squeeze into to make the postseason. However, they'll have some serious competition.
The Indiana Pacers lost their best player when Paul George broke his leg, and Lance Stephenson also left in free agency, but starters George Hill, David West and Roy Hibbert remain from a team that won 56 games last season.
The Brooklyn Nets were the No. 6 seed last season, and though they lost Paul Pierce to the Wizards, they also got All-Star center Brook Lopez back from injury.
And the Atlanta Hawks won just 38 games to grab the No. 8 seed in 2013-14, but they also got an All-Star center back from injury in Al Horford.
The Pistons are more talented than they were a year ago, and Van Gundy makes believing in them completely reasonable. But it will take this team coming together very quickly on the court and in the locker room to be a playoff team.
At the end of the day, there are just too many question marks for them to grab one of the final two spots, and they'll fall just outside the playoffs. This is a roster on the rise, and they will play meaningful games the entire season, but the Pistons are a year away from seriously competing.
Verdict: 39-43, No. 9 in the East
All statistics are from NBA.com and are accurate through 10/22/2014 unless otherwise noted.
Jakub Rudnik covers the Detroit Pistons as a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow him on Twitter.
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