Will Pistons 3.0 Have the Right Recipe to Make the 2015 NBA Playoffs?
After making a splash before the trade deadline, the Detroit Pistons hope to have enough firepower to earn one of the last two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
With Brandon Jennings out for the season after tearing his Achilles against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 24, coach and team president Stan Van Gundy chose to roll the dice at the trade deadline and acquire disgruntled point guard Reggie Jackson from the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Pistons had to give up Kyle Singler and D.J. Augustin in the deal.
To fill the void Singler left at small forward, they also made a final-hour deal with the Boston Celtics. That sent out backups Jonas Jerebko and Luigi Datome and brought Tayshaun Prince back to Detroit.
This is the third iteration of the 2014-15 Pistons. The first was with Josh Smith when they began the season 5-23. The post-Smith team added Anthony Tolliver and won 16 of its next 26 games.
Now the Jackson era is underway, and they hope to come out of the six-team logjam, which is separated by merely two-and-a-half games with roughly one-third of the season left to go.
How Jackson Fits
Though the Pistons had to give up their starting small forward and one of the NBA's best backup point guards (when Jennings was healthy), Jackson upgrades their talent level for the remainder of the season. He is at least in the middle third of starting lead guards, and there is a chance he is even better.
Jackson was excellent in November for the Thunder when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were out. He averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds in 38.2 minutes per night. He wasn't an elite guard, but numbers like those would put him in the top-12 conversation. In the current point guard-heavy NBA, that really means something.
Jackson will be an absolute steal if that is the case.
"Stan (Van Gundy) believes he can do very special things in this league. I believe there's something Stan saw in Reggie and thinks he can be a real superstar in the league," owner Tom Gores said.
"His size—6-feet-3—and athletic range gives this team the sort of alpha presence at the point of attack that it hasn't had since Chauncey Billups was in his prime here," wrote Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press.
While that month as a starter showed that Jackson has the potential to fill up a stat sheet, he is not without holes in his game. The most glaring one being that he can't shoot.
He made only 27.8 percent of his threes this season in Oklahoma City, and his career mark is just one percent better.
If there is any reason for optimism, it comes from his 33.9 mark in 2013-14, though that is still mediocre. Perhaps Jackson has actually improved from the outside, and deteriorated relationships with players on the Thunder led him to take worse shots. But most of the evidence points the other way.
That alone would not be a huge issue, but the deadline moves left the Pistons short in the three-point-shooting department. Singler was their biggest threat from beyond the arc, and Jerebko knocked down nearly 37 percent of his attempts. Ideally, Prince can continue his torrid shooting, as he has made over half his attempts since December 1.
But when Jackson shares the court with starting big men Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, they will have, at most, two capable shooters on the court. That falls to one if Caron Butler (32.2 percent from three) is in at the 3. Defenses will learn very quickly that they can crowd the paint, seriously bogging down the offense.
If Van Gundy can get his few remaining marksmen on the court, then Jackson and Drummond should make one of the more exciting pick-and-roll duos in the Eastern Conference now and in the future. An offense that centers around that could potentially be very explosive and continue their winning ways. But they need it to come together very quickly.
The Rest of the East
The top six teams in the East are virtual locks to make the postseason, but the final two spots are very open for the Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets.
Miami looked like it would easily grab a spot after trading for Goran Dragic. Then Chris Bosh was ruled out for the season with blood clots in his lungs. Now the Heat are without their best player and have a depleted bench.
The Nets traded Kevin Garnett for Thaddeus Young, providing a minor upgrade at power forward. But they reportedly tried to trade multiple starters before the deadline, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski (h/t SI.com) and ESPN New York's Ohm Youngmisuk (h/t SB Nation's Mike Prada and Sporting News' Alec Brzezinski), and they are 7-15 in their last 22 games.
Boston traded for Isaiah Thomas, and he has already been an offensive spark, scoring 42 points in two games. But its roster is the least experienced of the six teams, going just 11-18 since December 8.
The Hornets have hit a wall recently, losing their past five games, and ESPN's Hollinger Playoff Odds give them the lowest chances of the six of making the postseason at 16.3 percent. But this is a team that most projected to make the playoffs before the season, and bringing in Mo Williams (46 points in two games) from the Timberwolves will help the offense until Kemba Walker returns from surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
The Pacers may be the closest thing to a lock among the six. They made the Eastern Conference Finals last season, they're well-coached and they have found their stride, winning six of eight games. Oh, and former All-NBAer Paul George could play his first game of the season within the next three weeks.
Each of the teams is flawed and has had an uneven season, and injuries or ailments cast extra uncertainty on two-thirds of them. Detroit has been excellent since Christmas, but the recent moves leave no certainty for the final third of its season.
Eight of the final 25 games for the Pistons come against these other five teams. Only 12 of their final games come against teams currently in the playoffs. Their schedule is far from the most strenuous around, and it gives them a serious opportunity to move up the standings.
Though it seemed impossible in the holiday season, a playoff spot is there for the taking for Jackson and the Pistons.
All records and statistics accurate through February 25, 2014, and 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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