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http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-bas ... is-defense

its not all about the pistons but theres a bit on them and ive taken out the most important bit for you here, but theres another few paragraphs if you want.

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But here's the thing... they look like they're finding out what they want to be. Watch the Pistons and you're finding a team that shares the ball, that cuts and finds gas to force the extra defender, then delivers the pass for the easy dunk. Josh Smith has been fantastic and finding his bigs. Twenty-seven of Smith's 63 assists have gone to Andre Drummond or Greg Monroe. When they commit to that, that's when they're at their best.

And still, they're one of the lowest teams in assisted field goals. That would tell you that they're working on creating shots for themselves, but that's not really the case. Synergy Sportsjavascript:mctmp(0); lists that the Pistons spend just eight percent of their time in Isolation, 16th in the league. But they're also 8th best in points per possession in isolation, compared to 27th in spot-up situations... which account for the highest percentage of their shots. What do these numbers mean? They work really hard to consistently create good looks for their offense... and then they don't make the shots. Their best offense is when they create shots using isolation or off offensive rebounds.

All this is to say that the Pistons don't have an identity yet, but they're working on it. There have been some positive signs from them. But if they want to go forward, someone's going to have to figure out how to make a friggin shot. That's the one identity they have right now: they can't shoot.

So basically, we have low assist numbers, which would mean we are playing iso ball all game right? wrong. our spot up shooting tendency is the highest of any shot creation method, isolation is actually the lowest of all (below other things like post ups, off rebounds etc.) despite being effective in the limited times it is used. so the thing is, we are doing a good job of creating good shots, but no one can put them down.

Is this something that eventually has to move back towards the mean as guys finally make shots or is this something that is just a roster/personnel problem? When this years roster was created, this was one of the worries that a lot of us discussed, so im leaning towards this just being a problem of we have no shooters. however you look at some of the players on the roster to be the 'shooters', and they are all shooting crazy low 3PT percentages. singler at 31.5%, pope at 28.8%, gigi at 20%, josh smith who is shooting 4.7 per game at 27%. Jennings is the highest at just 34.2%. These guys can shoot, and eventually these numbers have to increase.

What's your take on this? are you happy with the offense and think the shots will fall, or does something have to change?

Nice way to prove that we basically can't shoot.

I think that the team's weakness is pretty obvious. It's on the perimeter(offense and defense).

i think pope's massive shooting slump to start the year makes our numbers a little worse than they should be at the end of the year. in his first eleven games he shot 32% from the field, he's shooting 46% in the last six.

singler also struggled hitting shots as well.


if we start to hit shots though we lose our advantage of offensive rebounding!

whitehops wrote:i think pope's massive shooting slump to start the year makes our numbers a little worse than they should be at the end of the year. in his first eleven games he shot 32% from the field, he's shooting 46% in the last six.

singler also struggled hitting shots as well.


if we start to hit shots though we lose our advantage of offensive rebounding!

Hitting shots is better than offensive rebounding.

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All of this is just saying what everyone already(or should have)known;

New teams take time to gel, and figure themselves out.

Should come as no surprise to anyone. A lot of this is on Jennings, as he is the man with the plan, and the ball. His decision making is going to effect everything, each time down the floor, and so far, his assist numbers, are only improving, and hes already at 8.5 a game. Outstanding.

Pistons are just fine, but I expect them to hit another rough patch here, real soon. Losing 5-6 games.

Young team, stupid problems.

Our shooting has been a LOT better these past few games though. Singler can be called the Bucketman again and Pope is starting to shoot it efficiently now as well.

Smith and Jennings should probably decrease their attempts by at least 5 FGs though. My goodness.

I don't know why he says we have no identity. We are #1 in PIP, #1 in steals, #1 in offensive rebounding, #2 in forcing turnovers, #4 in total rebound %, and #5 in fastbreak points.

Anytime a team is top 5 in any category, THAT is their identity. For us to be #1 in most of these, its pretty clear what our identity is. We are a team that pounds you inside and dominates you on the boards first. Then we also beat you in the up/down game by forcing turnovers and running.

That's what makes us a scary matchup for Miami, or any team for that matter. The reason Miami has trouble with Indiana is simply because of their bigs inside in the halfcourt. However, all Miami has to do to beat them is flip the script and turn it into an uptempo up/down game, where Indiana just doens't have the athleticism to keep up.

The Pistons though, can pose the same interior dominance to Miami, but if they try to force us into an uptempo game, it actually plays to our favor, as we saw the other night. Spoelstra said after the game that they couldn't keep up with our speed up/down and we were wearing their guys out.

What we don't yet have on Miami is the talent level and experience, which is what will ultimately beat us, and give Indiana a better chance at beating them right now. But our team is set up to be a big problem for them maybe as early as next year, because of our ability to dominate both facets of the game - halfcourt pound it in the paint, and uptempo. Not many teams in the league are elite playing both ways. We are, and that is our identity

DetroitSho wrote:

whitehops wrote:i think pope's massive shooting slump to start the year makes our numbers a little worse than they should be at the end of the year. in his first eleven games he shot 32% from the field, he's shooting 46% in the last six.

singler also struggled hitting shots as well.


if we start to hit shots though we lose our advantage of offensive rebounding!

Hitting shots is better than offensive rebounding.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

Yeah, I guess we'd just have to take the bitter with the sweet!

What it tells me is that the offense is still finding open shooters. Once they start falling teams will have to adjust and then Monroe and Drummond will have the opertunity to dominate. It also suggests we may have a long winning streak in us if we get hot from outside.

honestly Milwakee's zone was very frustrating last night, and i do think its a concern. However i could really give a sh* about our shooting as long as we are defending.

Blkbrd671 wrote:honestly Milwakee's zone was very frustrating last night, and i do think its a concern. However i could really give a sh* about our shooting as long as we are defending.

The difference between the second quarter, and the third was astounding.

I think Cheeks looked at the tape, and saw what everyone else in tv land saw. They immediately stopped collapsing, and stayed with their man for the most part.

This team should never, ever play a collapsing defense. We are WAY to strong inside to play that game. That's the type of defense, a weak shot blocking team plays, not one like ours, with dominant paint bigs. Its embarrassing to watch this team play like that, when they can just play man to man, and win.

The zone that they played can also be shredded with good plays, designed to destroy the zone, wich are mostly lob plays. The Pistons started running those plays in the third, and the Bucks looked confused as hell.

This team could be very deadly if they keep gelling at this pace, and we cut down on the turnovers. The biggest problem they have to overcome right now, is defensive consistency. They cannot keep collapsing in the first half like that.

zeebneeb wrote:The difference between the second quarter, and the third was astounding.

I think Cheeks looked at the tape, and saw what everyone else in tv land saw. They immediately stopped collapsing, and stayed with their man for the most part.

This team should never, ever play a collapsing defense. We are WAY to strong inside to play that game. That's the type of defense, a weak shot blocking team plays, not one like ours, with dominant paint bigs. Its embarrassing to watch this team play like that, when they can just play man to man, and win.

The zone that they played can also be shredded with good plays, designed to destroy the zone, wich are mostly lob plays. The Pistons started running those plays in the third, and the Bucks looked confused as hell.

This team could be very deadly if they keep gelling at this pace, and we cut down on the turnovers. The biggest problem they have to overcome right now, is defensive consistency. They cannot keep collapsing in the first half like that.

it actually had more to do with Cheeks and his in game adjustment which is encouraging. They had moose or whomever flash to the high post and distribute from there, it was more so the fact that we could be the zone effectively and left the bucks somewhat confused, and then our transition offense took over from there

Great thread - and excellent article.

We have two issues as a team

1) Defending - but that's a lot better with KCP in the lineup.

2) shooting - which is getting better, and could get a lot better as the season goes along as KCP adapts, Singler gets out of his slump, and perhaps even Gigi and Harrellson find their way into the regular rotation, and of course, Billups can give us some minutes (backup PG would be optimal, IMO) and he starts knocking down his shots. Shooting will also get a lot better as the team learns itself and gels. As the team gels, many more shots will be taken in rhythm and with players knowing the ball is coming to them and on time because they're just more comfortable out on the court with their teammates. Stuckey is also a key because he's been outstanding at knocking down mid-range shots - and that needs to continue, and it just might because he's in comfortable well-defined role for himself. Hopefully, that doesn't get F'd up when Bynum returns.

Maybe we do and maybe we don't have the shooters we need on this team already. That's the key thing to discover as the season goes along.