Fundamental problems or growing pains?

[Laimbeer]

Our young core, while talented, has some red flags. Are these growing pains or fundamental problems?

Dre - Shockingly bad free throw shooter, seems to lack concentration and effort at times.

KCP - Better than I thought, but his shot still hasn't developed enough. Selection isn't always great.

Reggie - Too ball dominant at times, inconsistent, turnovers, shot selection. Seems to try to do too much.

Stanimal - He's a kid. Too early. But I do wonder about his offensive tools at the three.

[Kilo]

Fundamental Problems in that Andre Drummond is not a cornerstone franchise player and is treated as one and about to be paid as one. He'll never be a even passable free throw shooter because it's all mental with him, and he's soft serve ice cream. If you can hit 70% in practice and then shoot 25% in games - he can't take the pressure and all eyes being on him. That means you can't play him late in close games - so we have a $22M player on the bench in crunch time.

Stan, KCP and Reggie are growing pains. I think Reggie might be feeling some pressure or awkwardness from Jennings actually, and that might be something that needs to be addressed one way or another.

[Redeemed]

Dre - is an immature guy who is just learning the game. This is pretty remarkable when you consider the rate of his improvement over last season. The guy is growing and learning and he creates so many problems that teams have to got to the Hack a Dre to compete. I'm optimistic that he'll get to the 50 to 60 percent range at some point. Growing

KCP - has elite defender written all over him. He is by far the best example of what it means to give consistent effort. As for his offense, he has been consistent on offense for several games now. Growing

Reggie - is learning to be more assertive and definitive with his dribble. We've seen Jennings (a career starter) suffer through the growing pains of learning SVG's system. Even Jameer struggled with it which is why at varying points Turkoglu rain the point forward many times.. Reggie has shown signs of brilliance that have exceeded what Jennings has done here. He's growing

Stanimal - has been more impressive to me in the area of confidence and maturity. He screws up but still have the will to take and make key plays in crunch time. His comments about just ignoring the refs and playing says a lot about him. Dude is special. Growing

[BadMofoPimp]

Fundamental Problems in that Andre Drummond is not a cornerstone franchise player and is treated as one and about to be paid as one. He'll never be a even passable free throw shooter because it's all mental with him, and he's soft serve ice cream. If you can hit 70% in practice and then shoot 25% in games - he can't take the pressure and all eyes being on him. That means you can't play him late in close games - so we have a $22M player on the bench in crunch time.

FYI. Dwight, Shaq and Deandre have been relegated to the bench in crunch time.

[Kilo]

Fundamental Problems in that Andre Drummond is not a cornerstone franchise player and is treated as one and about to be paid as one. He'll never be a even passable free throw shooter because it's all mental with him, and he's soft serve ice cream. If you can hit 70% in practice and then shoot 25% in games - he can't take the pressure and all eyes being on him. That means you can't play him late in close games - so we have a $22M player on the bench in crunch time.

FYI. Dwight, Shaq and Deandre have been relegated to the bench in crunch time.

We don't have Harden, Kobe, Wade, Paul, Griffin either. DeAndre is not their offensive centerpiece either. Dwight and Shaq are also much better free throw shooters than Dre - Shaq being career 52% and D12 a career 57%. Drummond is a career 38% currently shooting 29% in 11 January games.

So until we add a first ballot hall-of famer scoring guard in our back court, it's a fundamental problem.

[pistontr]

there is no such thing as growing pain

[BadMofoPimp]

Fundamental Problems in that Andre Drummond is not a cornerstone franchise player and is treated as one and about to be paid as one. He'll never be a even passable free throw shooter because it's all mental with him, and he's soft serve ice cream. If you can hit 70% in practice and then shoot 25% in games - he can't take the pressure and all eyes being on him. That means you can't play him late in close games - so we have a $22M player on the bench in crunch time.

FYI. Dwight, Shaq and Deandre have been relegated to the bench in crunch time.

We don't have Harden, Kobe, Wade, Paul, Griffin either. DeAndre is not their offensive centerpiece either. Dwight and Shaq are also much better free throw shooters than Dre - Shaq being career 52% and D12 a career 57%. Drummond is a career 38% currently shooting 29% in 11 January games.

So until we add a first ballot hall-of famer scoring guard in our back court, it's a fundamental problem.

Who did Dwight have?

How about Shaq when he was in Orlando. Penny was not a goto scorer either.

[Bakuto]

there is no such thing as growing pain

A team where the 4 key players of the future are 19, 22, 22 and 25. That's an average age of 22, playing in a league where the best teams' core pieces are an average age of what, 28? Yeah I'd say growing pains exist, especially with the mistakes a lot of our young guys have made.

[The Penguin]

Fundamental Problems in that Andre Drummond is not a cornerstone franchise player and is treated as one and about to be paid as one. He'll never be a even passable free throw shooter because it's all mental with him, and he's soft serve ice cream. If you can hit 70% in practice and then shoot 25% in games - he can't take the pressure and all eyes being on him. That means you can't play him late in close games - so we have a $22M player on the bench in crunch time.

FYI. Dwight, Shaq and Deandre have been relegated to the bench in crunch time.

We don't have Harden, Kobe, Wade, Paul, Griffin either. DeAndre is not their offensive centerpiece either. Dwight and Shaq are also much better free throw shooters than Dre - Shaq being career 52% and D12 a career 57%. Drummond is a career 38% currently shooting 29% in 11 January games.

So until we add a first ballot hall-of famer scoring guard in our back court, it's a fundamental problem.

I don't know that not having a go to offensive shot dominator is quite the kiss of death that it was 5+ years ago. Specifically, I don't know that just letting a "Harden" try to trade baskets with Lebron & Kyrie is the way to win the East, nor is it the way to beat the Spurs (Kwahi is just too good one of one defensively) or the Warriors (too good as a team defensively). The Spurs and Warriors very clearly have all NBA level players, which certainly helps their case, but they play very well as a unit, keep the ball ahead of the defense and exploit weak points in other teams defensively. Maybe that will be a fad and we'll regress back to the Lebrons of the world pounding the air out of the ball, but I think the offensive evolution that's been shown is too smart to regress back to the stone age.

Instead of a go to perimeter scorer, the thing I think we really need is a 4 like Draymond / Blake who can create and exploit mismatches and allow us to run smaller with a long 3&D wing replacing Drummond for stretches and to account for the end of game weaknesses shown by Dre. Morris might be able to fill that role, but I see him more as our "Harrison Barnes", the guy who can play some SF when we go big then slide over to PF when our missing 4 takes some minutes at the 5. I really think the Draymond / Blake versatile 4's are the new version of the old school McGrady / Vince Carter / AI's of this smarter basketball age. Just as important and just as hard to find as those perimeter guys used to be. The real irony is the Cavs have the perfect guy for that position in Lebron, but he's not willing to do the banging that Draymond happily takes on.

[Kilo]

^Lebron has a lot more miles on his body though. He's only 31, but probably 35-36 in "basketball age" given his starting at 18, all the very deep play-off runs, and the international games played.

[vic]

growing pains... simply because of age.

They need to grow up mentally. Stanley Johnson is going to be the leader of the team, but that will take time.

If I was SVG I would institute a "no talk to refs if under 30" and "no talking to refs during live play" policy. Their minds are just too scattered. Then need to grow up quick and stop expecting the refs to give them things.

SVG needs to start Stanley ASAP to get some mental strength and defensive effort into the starting lineup. Reggie and Drummond are athletic but mentally lazy defenders.

If this core stays together and they keep Jennings... they are going to gel and be a consistent force within a year...

[bballnmike]

Definitely growing pains. First, obviously these guys are all young so it's somewhat to be expected. Then second, almost every problem you listed can be attributed to experience, consistency, or bball IQ/shot selection (and even Drummond's FTs seem to be a mental thing). All of those things SHOULD improve as they get more experience and play together more.

[El Chivo]

Fundamental Problems in that Andre Drummond is not a cornerstone franchise player and is treated as one and about to be paid as one. He'll never be a even passable free throw shooter because it's all mental with him, and he's soft serve ice cream. If you can hit 70% in practice and then shoot 25% in games - he can't take the pressure and all eyes being on him. That means you can't play him late in close games - so we have a $22M player on the bench in crunch time.

Stan, KCP and Reggie are growing pains. I think Reggie might be feeling some pressure or awkwardness from Jennings actually, and that might be something that needs to be addressed one way or another.

agree 100%

[chrbal]

Crazy young core, most key players would still get carded. I think we make the playoffs as a 6th seed and then make a major leap next year assuming we can keep Andre.

[Blomberg]

We are over 50%. Most of the fans thought we`d be around 45-55% for the season if you asked last summer. Many fans have raised their expectations because we`ve had some impressive wins, but we are exactly where we are supposed to be.

We`ll be fine.

[Timmaytime]

Combination of both. For one, this core is not fundamentally sound enough to win a championship. We need one more difference maker at least, maybe 2. To add to that, our entire core is 25 or under, and the rest of our rotation (outside of Tolliver) are under-30 and have never had meaningful leadership experience.

We'll get there eventually, for now let's hope someone really wants to play in Detroit

[Billl]

It's a fundamental problem. Currently, our best players aren't our hardest workers. That's not generally a formula for success nor a habit that is easy to change.

[vic]

""I wanted to put some pressure on the ball, and hopefully did so tonight, and kind of relieved my teammates by buying us some time. Everybody else does it to us so I kind of wanted to reciprocate," Jackson said."

Amaaaazing. 70 games as a starting pg and you finally decide to put some pressure on the ball. That's the growth we're looking for.

Now you need to figure out how to get your franchise center Andre Drummond 10 points a game on lobs and layup instead of using the pick & roll for yourself 80% of the time...

[edmunder_prc]

Team is way better than I thought it would be, beating the best teams in the league. Mentally a very soft team.

Stanley Johnson - He is going to be very good. No reason to worry there. He is looking way better than KCP did coming into the league. No concerns there. Can already shoot the 3 ball pretty well, better ball handling, his defense errors seem to be mostly mental, he can stay in front and body up most guys.

KCP - He's playing way better. Let's see him finish this way for the rest of the season and call me a believer!

Reggie - He's won the team many games. He has off nights, but not many. He would be better if the rest of the team was better or were better spot up shooters.

Drummond - The free throw shooting is so bad. If we make the playoffs you can expect EVERY team to follow the same script. Foul Drummond. Pull some scrubs off the bench, foul Drummond. If he is a bad shooter in January games what do you think is going to happen in a game 7 in the playoffs. He might feint. We could see 4-5 air balls in a row. So far we've won games that have tried that strategy but I argue its because those teams weren't very good. The last team Houston did and it really helped them, but they were a bad team. If a better team is playing us and we start shooting well of playing well. Foul Drummond. Its like a free time out with the ball back. Do a few times in a row, get our team out of sync.

I don't know what to say. Fingers crossed he plays better. Its nothing but frustration when I see someone who is a professional and I could do something better than him. I mean even in the MLB pitchers would be better hitters than us. Goalies would be better scorers than us. Etc. Yet I could go into an NBA Stadium and shoot better than 30% on several hundred free throws attempts. Its an open shot for a guy who played basketball for years under professional coaching.

[Kilo]

The Pistons are accustomed to Andre Drummond missing free throws, and he was 1 of 10 Monday. The rest of the team was 15 of 23. Reggie Jackson, Stanley Johnson, Brandon Jennings and Aron Baynes, all competent free-throw shooters, missed two each and were 7 of 15 collectively. "Andre's, we're just going to have to live with that. But the others, yeah, that's a problem," Van Gundy said.

We're going to have to live with Andre shooting 1-for-10 from the foul line. Think about that and tell me how a team can contend with a 22M/yr player who can't play in close games late, or even in blow out leads for that matter.

That is a fundamental problem.