The Good, Bad and Ugly from the Detroit Pistons' Early Season
This hasn't exactly been the start to the 2014-15 season the Detroit Pistons were hoping for.
It took four games to get their first victory: a three-point home win over a New York Knicks team playing its second game in as many nights. There is already a bit of a point guard controversy, and the Pistons are ranked dead last in points per game, at a dreadful 89.5.
The silver lining so far may be that their record through four games (1-3) matches that of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
There is so much NBA season left to be played, and the team we are watching in November will be vastly different from the one that will be taking the court in April. And with six new players and Stan Van Gundy at the helm for such a limited time, finding a rhythm will likely take the Pistons longer than it takes other teams.
But there is no question the bad far outweighs the good thus far.
The Good: Greg Monroe Playing for a Contract
Big man Greg Monroe was suspended for the first two games while serving a suspension for a DUI, but he made his presence felt immediately when he returned to the court.
In his season debut, Monroe finished with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, grabbing 11 rebounds and adding three assists in just 30 minutes off the bench. He got the start against the Knicks, leading all players with 23 points and 18 rebounds, adding another three dimes.
Monroe has undoubtedly been their best player in the early going, even outplaying Andre Drummond down low. His 34.41 PER has him ranked No. 2 in the NBA, behind only Russell Westbrook. His performance is unsustainable, but it's reminding people how tantalizing the thought of Monroe—with all his size and skill—reaching his potential truly is.
There is plenty to praise in Monroe's early play, but it's his passing that may be most promising for the Pistons. It was one of the areas where he improved most after joining the league—his assist averages improved from 1.3 to 2.3 to 3.5 in his first three seasons. But last year it dropped back to 2.1, largely in part because he was put in unnatural spots on the court playing next to both Drummond and Josh Smith.
When Monroe is unleashed as a creator, he has the ability to be one of the best big-man passers in the league. The Pistons were a below-average offensive team last season, and they've been the worst in the NBA so far. Any open looks Monroe can create for them will be very welcome, and they have to hope he keeps this up.
The Bad: Josh Smith as the Offensive Centerpiece
Through four games, forward Josh Smith is averaging three more shots than anybody else on the roster.
Anybody who watched Smith play last season just winced.
He has attempted at least 15 field goals in every single game so far, and his best single-game field-goal percentage came in the opener when he made 9-of-22 (.409) shots. For the season he's made just 31.4 percent of his attempts—horrendous for a big man.
The promising news: Smith has made just 40.7 percent of his attempts from within five feet, per NBA.com. He's always been excellent from that range (he made 63.2 percent of such shots last season), so that percentage should get better soon enough.
What is troubling, however, is the number of long jump shots he continues to take in Detroit. Last year, he took a career-high 3.4 triples per game, leading to perhaps the second-worst outside-shooting season in NBA history. And while those attempts are down to 1.8 per game, his shot selection is still very troubling.
According to NBA.com, 37.1 percent of Smith's field-goal attempts have come from 15 feet and out this season. That's better than last season, but it's still an issue for a player as talented on the interior as Smith. Right now he's taking nearly seven shots per game from this range, and he's just not a good shooter.
After the Pistons' loss to the Nuggets, Kenneth Faried said it was Smith's shot selection that was the difference in the game.
"Josh Smith, we let him keep shooting," Faried said to the Nuggets' website (h/t Pro Basketball Talk). "And he ended up with 25, but he still kept shooting. He shot them out of the game."
Van Gundy started the Knicks game with the infamous three-big lineup, and if that keeps up then so will Smith's outside shooting.
The Ugly: Wing Play
The only thing worse than Smith's perimeter shooting may be that of the other players Van Gundy has used on the wing.
Second-year guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is taking the third-most shots on the team—14 per game—and has made just 33.9 percent of them. That includes a 3-of-19 stinker in the season-opening loss to Denver. Caldwell-Pope's PER to begin the season: a brutal 7.2 (15 is the league average).
Kyle Singler started the first three games at small forward before Van Gundy went with the ultra-big look. He has made exactly one-third of his field goals thus far, giving them a white-hot 4.5 points in 25 minutes per game.
His PER: an impossibly bad 1.59.
The 34-year-old Caron Butler may be Detroit's best wing player right now. He is at least making 43.3 percent of his shots and has nearly doubled Singler's output with 8.5 points in 25 minutes a night. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if he gets a look in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.
But if Butler is your best answer on the wing, the season outlook is far from great.
There is plenty of time to turn things around—Caldwell-Pope just hit 8-of-14 shots from the field against the Knicks. And this could just be a situation where both starters just happened to struggle at the same time.
But the Pistons offense really, really needs Jodie Meeks to be healthy sooner rather than later. They will certainly be able to score above 90 points per game without him. But any chance for the offense to be any better than league-average requires him to be in the lineup and performing like he did last season for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Pistons eagerly await his debut.
All statistics accurate through Nov. 7, 2014, and are from NBA.com unless otherwise noted.
Jakub Rudnik covers the Detroit Pistons as a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow him on Twitter.
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