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Hi is in control of the rebounding ball and is in control of destiny.
After a 2-1 record in the first three games of the season, the Pistons have played a series of miserable consecutive losses, and the record ranking has also reached the bottom of the league. While we also ranked the Pistons in the league's worst bracket in the pre-season rankings, they shouldn't be at the bottom of the league.
The main thing is that the Pistons' results last season were bad enough, after changing the team's general manager in 2020, they disposed of the team's young core Wood, and replaced it with a first-round 16th pick, plus their own first-round 7th pick, according to the team's progress, after 2020 should be the stage where they slowly play some results.
But over the next three years, the Pistons finished second to last in the league, third from the bottom in the league and first from the bottom in the league. Entering their fourth year of rebuilding, they are still at the bottom of the league, which is a completely unconscionable result.
Breaking down the four years of rebuilding, the 2020-21 season was the first year of the rebuild, and it is understandable that the team did not accumulate enough talent and was at the bottom of the league. Getting the top prize in the second year, Cade Cunningham, is the starting point of the team's talent, but there is still a gap in the overall strength, and it is reasonable to put it in a bad position for another year.
At the beginning of the third year, the record was still poor, but there were still some improvements, but unfortunately the champion Cunningham only played 12 games before withdrawing due to injury, and the record fell to the bottom again. As of now, the rebuild of the piston is still within the normal range.
Then there is this season, despite the injury at the beginning of the game, the talent accumulated by the team in the past four years has basically been assembled, and the result is even worse than the previous three seasons, which is very problematic.
Current general manager Troy Weaver worked with Presti with the Thunder before joining the Pistons, and has also gone through the Thunder three stages from start to finish. Referring to the objective situation when he took over the Pistons, it is obvious that replicating the Thunder's draft building model in this team is their only solution at this stage.
Combined with the players that Weaver has picked in the draft over the past four years, we will refer to the players with the first round pick, which are Cillian Hayes with the seventh pick in the first round in 2020, Isaiah Stewart with the 16th pick, Jack Cunningham with the first pick in 2021, Jaden Harvey with the fifth pick in the first round in 2022, Jalen Duren with the 13th pick, Osar Thompson with the fifth pick in 2023, and Marcus Suser with the 25th pick.
In this list, if you really want to mention the part of the draft loss, it should be that the 7th pick in the first round in 2020 did not get Tyrese Haliburton, but the team that missed him is not only the Pistons, which is not too much to write about.
Overall, the 2022 and 23 Pistons' draft luck was not good, but they still got the top pick in 2021. If it is based on whether there is a problem with the player selected in the hand as a criterion, this is a relatively difficult thing to judge, but at least in combination with the situation at the time, the Pistons' choice is not too wrong, if you really want to pick a thorn, that is, the guard line rotation is slightly too much.
But in fact, there is only 2023 Susser, and judging from the range of this order, Suser is already a good choice. Although he is an older and smaller scorer, his overall shooting performance and growth completion are in line with the team's rebuilding process, and his personal style of play is exactly what the Pistons lack.
If there weren't any problems with the Pistons before Cunningham's injury in the 2022-23 season, we can still see some problems with the Pistons from all the teams in the second half of the season. Every player with the pick seems to be a matter of course, but the only one who can really be considered as the core of the future ball-handling is Cade Cunningham, and at most a half-finished Jaden Harvey.
Hayes is a ball-handling defender, but his current growth rate can already predict the height of the future, and his more old-school style is difficult to develop as a core player.
The omission in the selection of ball-handlers can't really be blamed on team management, as the Pistons have picked the best players in their pick. But alas, these people are almost all frontcourt players, and their outstanding talent has to let the Pistons choose them. As for the lack of ball-handling ability in this pile of talents, the team's management has not been able to solve it.
In addition to the shortcomings of the outside ball-holding core, the second problem for the Pistons is the team's outside three-pointers.
Of their self-selected frontcourt players, only one Stewart has developed a slight amount of outside ability, but his three-point performance has not been good, and it was not until the third season of his career that he began to really produce and the fourth season to hit a barely reliable perimeter shooting percentage.
The problem is that in the process of improving the outside line, he has led to a regression in other aspects of ability, this season's finishing performance under the basket is quite poor, the two-point shooting rate and interior finishing percentage have reached a new low level of his career, and even the rebounding performance is declining to varying degrees, and the only improvement is the turnover rate. Referring to this trend, it's clear that Stewart is a player who doesn't fit well into the periphery.
With the exception of Stewart, the Pistons not only lack outside three-point shooting from the frontcourt, but even the three-point shooting performance of the guard line is quite sluggish, and none of the team's top three picks at the guard can shoot more than 35% from three-point range.
Naturally, the team's management is well aware of this situation, and they have been trying to fix this hole, and they have been putting Bogdanovic in the team for this reason, and they have acquired players with outside firepower such as Burks, Harris and Kevin Knox through trades.
The management has been doing as much as they can, but none of them have been able to address the team's shortcomings.
Combined with the numbers, the Pistons have had problems on both offensive and defensive ends this season. It ranks fourth from the bottom in the league in offensive efficiency and sixth from the bottom in the league in defensive efficiency.
But if you break it down, the current situation of the Pistons is more like a team that has been dragged down by a poor offense. Their excessive turnovers allowed the opponent to play too many offensive and defensive transitions, and the young players Xi giving up defense to fight for offense after falling behind, which can be seen in combination with their offensive and defensive statistics in a single quarter.
The Pistons ranked 16th in the league in defensive efficiency in the first quarter, 10th in the league in the second quarter, and bottom in the league in both the third and fourth quarters.
Fortunately, the Pistons' assist performance this season is not bad, ranking ninth in the league in assists per game, second to last in the league in turnovers, and third from the bottom in the team's assist-to-turnover ratio.
This statistic is partly due to Cunningham's relative youth and lack of helpers, as we mentioned above, the Pistons themselves lack the same type of ball-handler as Cunningham, which is a flaw in their roster.
Although there were a number of outside players added to the subsequent trade, some of whom had a certain individual singles component, their new head coach this season, Monty Williams, is not an outside coach himself, and he has focused on the defensive part, and under his coaching, the team's roster problems are even more obvious.
Cunningham, Stewart, Jalen Duren, Osar Thompson, Hayes, this is the starting lineup of the league's highest-paid coach for the Pistons, with three physical frontcourt players next to Cunningham at the ball point, plus another guard who does not have an outside line, this lineup has basically failed, and the opponent only needs to limit Cunningham to do most of the defense.
Reminiscent of the team's defense, which is declining in every quarter we mentioned, the Pistons' offensive efficiency in a single quarter is in the bottom five of the league in every quarter.
According to the detailed analysis, the defensive efficiency of the Pistons' starting lineup is 112, which is actually good, but the bigger problem is on the offensive end, and the offensive efficiency is as low as 1018. Even if we take these five players apart, none of them can only rank in the top six of the team in terms of offensive efficiency. To put it simply, Monty, the league's highest-paid head coach, has a rare offensive starting combination.
Is there no one available in the Pistons? That wasn't the case, as Marvin Bagley has played a career-high this season, shooting nearly 40 percent from three-point range and playing a number of games in which he has been substituted. Jaden Harvey has also improved compared to last season, and although Burks is not efficient, he can at least be regarded as a stable firepower on the outside, and even Wiseman, who has been criticized before, can still find advantages in his limited playing time.
Funnily enough, Kevin Knox also performed quite well when he started as a substitute, but Monty put him at the back of the rotation after a few games, and then switched back to the starting lineup he liked, and even chose Isaiah Livers with a more obvious shortcomings in Knox's replacement position.
We don't ask Monty to have too many tricks, as long as he can open the data sheet and take a look, it's not hard to see the problem, but he just sticks to his choice.
And among the Pistons' seemingly completely unreasonable starting lineup, the biggest problems are Stewart and Hayes. From a personal point of view, I really can't find a reason why the two of them were in the starting lineup, just as he was in the same way that he was a controversial selection of Shamet during his time with the Suns.
As for Stewart, we've already mentioned his problem, the coaching staff has made him too much outward development to make up for the shortcomings of the squad, which is already a decision that has made him struggle enough, and it will do more harm than good for the team. But considering that he has signed a contract extension with the team, it makes sense that Monty wants to try some other possibilities on him. Another reason why he struggles in this position is that the other frontcourt players have no room to stretch at all, and if you really want to compare the advantages and disadvantages, Hayes, who is on an expiring contract, is more problematic.
Let's be clear here that the player issues we are talking about are the overall fit, not that Stewart or Hayes don't have the potential for future development, but that they don't play much of a positive role in the team's starting lineup at the moment.
There is a direct link between Hayes' fit and Cunningham, who he thinks he can help Cunningham close the holes in the defense and provide firepower, but this is not the case in reality.
First of all, Hayes is not a player with key defensive qualities, and by that standard, Osar Thompson would be the better fit. Of course, we're not belittling Hayes' defensive performance, but it's not good enough to be replaced by someone else.
The second is his offensive output, which offers a rather limited amount of value in the current starting lineup, and opponents are not going to ease their defensive play against Cunningham because of his presence. In this lineup, Cunningham's off-ball receiving offense is almost negligible, which is enough to see how much defensive pressure relief the people around him bring to him.
Let's take a long-term view, whether it is the Pistons or other teams, it is impossible for them to renew all the high-pick players selected by the team in recent years. Therefore, the team management needs to plan ahead of time, at least for the time being, Jalen Duren and Osar Thompson are more important choices for the future, and for the rest, the management can only make up for it with other positions.
What Jalen Duren and Osar Thompson lack most at the moment is the ability to shoot from the outside and the ability to attack on their own, and when they are both put on the court at the same time, there is little room to open up any extra defensive space.
Combined with the stats, Cunningham has taken 20% of his shots with just seven seconds left on offense this season, and 54 of his shots against defenders7%, both of which are higher than in their rookie years. And his potential assists this season are 5 more than his average assists per game9 times, this number directly represents the rounds that teammates had opportunities but did not throw.
Having a young Champion play in a leaky lineup after returning from a major injury is the most immediate problem for the Pistons at the moment, and that's why we'd say Hayes has the equivalent of not having in this lineup.
These are just the superficial aspects of the team, and if you look at it at a deeper level, the constant failures will only make these young players lose their competitive confidence, and even have a negative impact on their future development.
With that in mind, the team's management needs to recover as soon as possible.
Just referring to the current situation, the Pistons want to compete for the playoffs, and even the hope of the play-offs is almost zero, although there are some teams that have started low and gone high in previous seasons, but the Pistons obviously do not fit the same situation. Especially considering that there is a head coach sitting on the sidelines with frequent tricks, the possibility of this season's ** is almost gone, and it is likely to be a bad one-year draw draft.
But after all, only a quarter of the season has passed, and although a big hole has been dug at the beginning, it is obviously a little unreasonable if you choose to do nothing in the future.
First of all, the head coach we have been criticizing, with a super annual salary of 80 million, it is almost impossible for the management to take the initiative to replace him, and the Pistons will most likely wait until the three-year contract is completed to get rid of Monty.
But on the plus side, Monty is a bit of a puzzle when it comes to rotation, but he's not completely useless, at least having won a lot of playoff games when he led the Pelicans and Suns. It's just that when his strange employment logic is combined with the Pistons' young lineup, it becomes a four-like.
As for the team's head coach, instead of expecting him to open his mind temporarily, the Pistons should help him become a player. Trying to adjust the lineup is the fastest way to do it right now, sending away players who are at the wrong time and making Monty unusable, and then he will have to choose another player.
The players at the wrong time, one is Hayes, and the other is Livers. Hayes's situation is very simple, the Pistons are unlikely to renew his contract, and he can't get back any chips, so it's better to let him leave early; Livers is in a similar situation.
The other problem is Bagley and Wiseman, which was a management mistake last season. First of all, it's hard for the Pistons' roster to accommodate both of them, which is understandable if you use salary space and swing to test who is a better fit for the team. However, now that it's the new season, Bagley's situation is fully capable of getting back two second-round picks; Wiseman, on the other hand, has half a season left on his contract, so it shouldn't be a problem to find a takeover, and he may even bring back some game-changing chips.
And since the Pistons can't rely on the draft to build a new roster like the Thunder, they can at least learn from the RocketsThe Pistons have a lot of salary space in their hands in the subsequent offseason, and they can also sign some players like VanVleet and Brooks, and on the basis of improving the team's strength and leading new talents, they will not be too restricted by the free market, basically as long as they spend money.
Now that the management has found a head coach who is not good at bringing new players, the team should adjust its policy in time, not too obsessed with the draft, if there is a good trade package in the later stage, even Stewart can be put on the trade shelf, but his long term is relatively limited. But it's not hard to guarantee that there will be a playoff team that likes such tough guys, and in terms of his ability to get things done on the court, Stewart is still valuable.
Overall, the most important thing for the Pistons at the moment is not the record, they need to build a new lineup that is in line with Coach Monty's coaching ideas and has enough combat power as soon as possible. Establish a plan now, target next season, and then start to move forward, if this continues, no matter how talented the players are, sooner or later there will be a day when everyone will not be seen. Even if it is a champion, it is estimated that it will be difficult to do anything if it takes another three years to look at it.