| 2009-10 Season Preview: Detroit Pistons Authored by Andrew Perna - October 11, 2009 - 2:03 pm
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Last Season’s FIC Rank: +0.3, 16th
Key Additions: Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Chris Wilcox and Ben Wallace
Key Subtractions: Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Amir Johnson and Arron Afflalo
Key Rookies: Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko
Probable Starters: Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Charlie Villanueva and Kwame Brown
Point Guard: Following a strong rookie season, the Pistons handed Rodney Stuckey the keys to their offense after dealing Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson. On the surface, Stuckey’s numbers (13.4 points and 4.9 assists) were decent for a second-year combo guard, but when taking a deeper look things weren’t as they seemed.
Stuckey has good offensive instincts, but they don’t appear to translate over to his court vision and passing. He screams off-guard to me, but the Pistons are going to give him another shot to prove that he can develop into a better point guard. His own offensive game is above-average, aside from his limited range -- you don’t want him attempting too many three-pointers or anything much deeper than a mid-range jumper.
As the quarterback of an offense, point guards are usually among their team’s leaders in assist percentage, win shares and net points per 100 possessions. Stuckey’s numbers were sub par and at times downright awful in those categories last season. He assisted on just 26.1% of the field goals his teammates made while he was on the court, notched just 3.6 win shares and his net points per 100 possessions was an abysmal -4.1. While it’s true that Detroit had a losing record last season, their point differential (per 100 possessions) was just one point per game.
Will Bynum, another guard entering his third NBA season, earned himself a role on the roster with a strong second half last spring. He averaged double figures in scoring in both March and April, while posting 11.8 points per game in Detroit’s four-game sweep at the hands of Cleveland. He’s not a true point guard, but he’s not big enough to match up with two-guards either. Bynum is back with the Pistons not only because of his strong spring, but also because his on/off court numbers were among the team’s leaders.
Swingmen: Detroit’s strength is without a doubt their depth at the wing positions. Richard Hamilton and Ben Gordon, both products of Jim Calhoun at UConn, will share time at shooting guard. Gordon might also get some run at point guard when coach John Kuester wants to pair Hamilton, Gordon and Tayshaun Prince on the perimeter.
Gordon, who signed a five-year, $55 million deal this summer, will both start and come off the bench. He’ll be asked to bring his nearly unparalleled scoring punch to a team that struggled offensively last season. Detroit scored just 107.4 points per 100 possessions, putting them in the bottom third of the league. The addition of Gordon, who can score in so many different ways, should immediately make this lineup a more potent one.
Hamilton is a better defender than Gordon, but isn’t as streaky or potent offensively. He has an above-average offense game as well, but it’s very different. He is still without question among the NBA’s best players coming off screens and his movement without the basketball is stellar. He’ll likely play against taller two-guards due to the four inches he has on Gordon. As far as playmaking goes, Hamilton, who is better than Gordon in that regard, was nearly at Stuckey’s level in 2008-09. He assisted on 23.9% of the field goals other players scored while on the floor, a mark just slightly below the starting point guard’s.
Tayshaun Prince will handle a bulk of the minutes at small forward, but he’ll fill in at both shooting guard and power forward as well. His length and eye-popping wingspan make him Detroit’s most versatile player. While his rail-thin frame keeps him from hanging with some of the league’s larger big men, his athleticism allows him to hold his own. He’s more heralded for his defense than anything else, but he’s a reliable shooter as well.
He led the team in win shares last season (5.9), edging out Antonio McDyess (5.3) and Rasheed Wallace (4.8), who both signed elsewhere this summer.
Aside from their top three, Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, Jonas Jerebko and Deron Washington will form the team’s bench mob. Daye has an incredible shot for a 21-year-old forward that could grow the inch needed to become a seven-footer. He’s built much like Prince, which may keep him away from the paint until he shows either headiness or packs on some pounds.
Frontcourt: The Pistons look both familiar and vastly different in the paint. Ben Wallace is back, but he’s a shell of his former self and will play behind Kwame Brown, which in and of itself says something about how Detroit fans need to brace themselves for an enormously different Big Ben. Charlie Villanueva and Chris Wilcox were added to the mix this summer, and both will begin the season ahead of Jason Maxiell, who has yet to fulfill his potential.
Villanueva, who signed a five-year, $35 million deal, brings a strong offensive game to Detroit (figuring out Joe Dumars’ priorities wasn’t difficult this summer). He isn’t a good rebounder for his size (6’11”), nor is he an above-average defender. He can step out to the three-point line occasionally and has never averaged fewer than 11.7 points per game in his four-year career. While he’s not the rebounder or defender you’d like a guy of his size to be, he’s a very good passer.
Admittedly, I’m a supporter of Wilcox, even though there really isn’t an explanation for my man-love. In my eyes, he’s an above-average rotation player that can give you tremendous production out of nowhere on occasion. In actuality, he has never fulfilled the potential many felt he had when the Clippers used the eighth pick on him back in 2002.
Brown is expected to start at center, and I’ll refrain from inserting any one of the overwhelming number of jokes that can be made about his abilities and status as perhaps the biggest bust in NBA history. He’s still a very inconsistent player, although he’s no longer quite as foul prone as he was towards the front end of his career. Still, it’ll be extremely hard for him to shed the negative connection with his name. As bad as his numbers looked last season, he did average 8.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per 36 minutes.
Forecast: The Pistons snuck into the postseason last spring during a transitional year. A huge chunk of the roster is new, which may lead to some shaky play in November, but they’ll ultimately be better than they were last season. With that said, expect a completely new style of Detroit basketball. The Pistons won’t be a sieve defensively, but their big-ticket acquisitions (Gordon and Villanueva) are offensive players first and foremost. Count the Pistons among the handful of teams that will fall in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, among the Hawks, Heat, Raptors, Bulls and Wizards. That means they could finish anywhere from fourth to tenth.
Andrew Perna is Deputy Editor of RealGM.com and co-host of RealGM's Radio Show. Please feel free to contact him with comments or questions via e-mail: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com. You can also follow Andrew on Twitter: APerna7. |
