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By: Jon Kloss
The Detroit Pistons have played ten games so far this year, the most of any NBA team (thanks Adam Sliver). As of November 11th, 2019, the Pistons are 4-6 and have played all their games without Blake Griffin and most without Reggie Jackson. With Blake coming back tonight to help the Pistons take on the Minnesota Timberwolves, let’s pick three things we should be encouraged by through the Pistons first ten games.
1.This is Andre Drummond’s Team
In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, not watched a single minute of the Pistons this year, or just have no knowledge of the game of basketball: Andre Drummond is one of the NBA’s best Center’s.
Ten games in, and Drummond is averaging 21.2 points, 18 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.5 steals, 2.1 blocks, and is shooting a career high 68% from the free throw line- per NBA.COM.
If you don’t think Andre Drummond is a top 15-20 player in basketball, your wrong. If you don’t think Andre Drummond is worth a max contract, your wrong. If you don’t think Andre Drummond is the future of this team, guess what, your wrong.
Andre Drummond has finally become the player we hoped he would be when the Pistons drafted him in 2012, and the scary part is; he could just be getting started…
2.Dwayne Casey Can Develop Young Players
This isn’t exactly a hot take. We’ve seen the way Casey was able to help players like Demar DeRozan, Pascal Siakam, Fred Van Fleet, and Kyle Lowry in Toronto. Now with a full season and offseason under his belt as the Pistons head coach, we are starting to see some of the effects Dwayne Casey has had on this team.
First off we can’t say enough about what he has done with Andre Drummond (who we’ve already talked about) the last two years. But the two players I want to focus on are Bruce Brown and Luke Kennard.
First Bruce Brown, who is 23 years old and is in his 2nd year in the league. In last year’s NBA draft, Brown was drafted 42nd overall out of the University of Miami. He played most of his rookie year as a shooting guard, averaging 4 points, 1 assist, 2 rebounds, while shooting 40% from the field and 26% from three – per basketball-reference.com.
Pistons fans didn’t really have high expectations for a 2nd round draft pick who averaged four points a game as a rookie, but after seeing him play point guard in the Summer League, Pistons fans started to think he could really be something for this team.
So far with Reggie Jackson, Derrick Rose, and Tim Frazier out with injury, Brown has averaged 13.7 points, 6 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and is only averaging 1.8 turnovers a game.
In the 4 games he’s started at point guard, the Pistons are 2-2. So yeah, if Bruce keeps playing like this, you could say he is the point guard of the future. I think that has a lot to do with Dwayne Casey.
Then there’s the fan favorite Luke Kennard. In his rookie year he averaged 7.6 points a game and then as a sophomore he averaged 9.7 points a game. From year one to year two, his averages where relatively the same, other than Kennard taking two more shots a game as a sophomore.
But the Pistons knew Kennard had the potential to be a potent scorer for this team after he played very well against the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2019 NBA Playoffs.
Through the first ten games, Kennard has taken the leap Pistons fans all expected from him. Just look at these stats compared to last year:
2018-2019: 9.7 points, 1.8 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 8.3 field goal attempts per game
2019-2020: 18 points, 4.3 assists, 3.7 rebounds, and 12.8 field goal attempts per game.
⁃ per basketball-reference.com
He is shooting efficiency has remained relatively the same and he is doing that while taking almost five more field goal attempts a game.
While Kennard might never be a good NBA defender, he has a new found confidence and is almost doubling his scoring average from last year.
Player development. You gotta love it.
3. Ed Stefanski and The Pistons Had A Great Offseason
When NBA fans talk about the biggest winners of the offseason, you usually hear teams like the Lakers, Clippers, Jazz, etc. But the one team nobody talked about, was the Detroit Pistons.
While they might of not made the big move to bring in a star, they really did a lot to improve their team. Let’s just compare the moves Stefanski made to improve this team from last year:
Backup Point Guard-
Last Season: Ish Smith: 8.9 points, 3.6 assists,42% from the field and 33% from three
This Season: Derrick Rose: 20.8 points, 6.3 assists, 56% from the field and 25% from three
Small Forward-
Last Season: Glenn Robinson lll: 4.2 points, 13.0 minutes per game, 42% from the field and 29% from three
This Season: Tony Snell: 9.8 points, 28.9 minutes per game, 46% from the field and 44% from three.
⁃ per basketball-reference.com
Throw in Markieff Morris, who was signed to be a viable backup forward behind Blake Griffin. He has filled in nicely for the injury riddled Pistons, averaging 12 points on 47% from the field and 37.5% from three.
The numbers don’t lie, the Pistons got a lot better this offseason and it’s one of the reasons they’ve been able to survive without Blake and Reggie so far.
It may have not the perfect first ten games, but they are definitely some signs that point in the right direction for the Detroit Pistons. All we can do now is get healthy and see what happens. 🙏
Piston Territory 