There are four teams in the NBA who at this time have not won a game this season, and three of them aren't surprising: the Orlando Magic (0-3), Philadelphia 76ers (0-3) and Los Angeles Lakers (0-4). The fourth team, much to our dismay, is the Detroit Pistons at 0-3. It would be expected to be one of the bottom four teams on every internet NBA Power Ranking. Here's how they look.
Last Week: 21This Week: 28 |
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Someone get Greg Monroe a nice cool glass of lemonade. He dropped 18 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 58 percent in his first game, but the Pistons' offense is averaging a horrific 91.7 points per 100 possessions. Perhaps it's time to have a talk with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who's putting up 14 field goal attempts per game while shooting 26.2 percent from the field. Caldwell-Pope's shot quantity is second only to Josh Smith, who's averaging 17.7 attempts on 37.7 percent shooting.
Lemonade? More like a Sazerac. Greg Monroe was just straight up nice in the game. However, I wish SBNation would put some context to the shooting numbers. Yes, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has shot a lot, but that is what he was brought in to do. And he's shooting them from where he's supposed to. Josh Smith, on the other hand, is not brought in to be a shooter and as is shown in this lovely (lovely?) graphic (h/t ghost of Dumars), he's shooting way too much from too far away.
Last Week: 20This Week: 27 |
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Haven't seen the renovations at The Palace first-hand, but instinct tells me arena-goers will notice the upgrades in the building faster than they will spot the progress in Detroit's on-court makeover. Stan Van Gundy himself admits he doesn't "have a handle on what this team can do offensively."
That quote is kind of scary. However, I don't blame him. He hasn't had his team at full strength (and I know other teams haven't either) all through camp and preseason. Jodie Meeks, Cartier Martin, Bynum when he was here, Spencer Dinwiddie, Monroe suspended, etc. It's been a turnstile kind of roster. This is one reason why we all need to be patient (whoosah!). Things may not turn around until Meeks is back, who knows.
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The talented Pistons continue to disappoint with new coach Stan Van Gundy.
Redundant statements are redundant. Who would not be disappointed (other than Philadelphia) with an 0-3 start to the season? Come on Yahoo!, you can do better.
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They can't shoot. Open shots. Guarded shots. Inside shots. Outside shots. They can't shoot. At all. I don't really understand why that is or how to fix it, but it's a pretty big problem since that's the entire objective of the game.
Pretty much. The team is 29th in the league in field goal percentage (.402) and three point percentage (.219). Shoot, they're even 23rd in two point percentage (.465). They can't even hit shots standing still as they're 28th in the league in free throw percentage (.657). Hit shots, win games.
Last Week: 20This Week: 26 |
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The Stan Van Gundy era is off to a rough start, and the Pistons haven't exactly been playing elite competition. Van Gundy went shopping for shooting this summer, but his team shot 22 percent from 3-point range in its first three games. They continue to have a relatively soft schedule this week, but hit the road next Monday to play four playoff teams.
As stated above, it is very true that we can't hit any kind of shots right now. That could be because of the personnel taking the shots, or their seeming to be no offensive scheme being used. But it's still early, and we do have some "easy" competition coming up in the New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz all at home this week.
Overall
By this time next week, the Pistons could be 3-3, but don't count on it. The Pistons are last in the league in points per game (86.7), though that could change with Monroe back from suspension. The Knicks (90.3 PPG) kicked off their season with a loss to the Chicago Bulls but then beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and Charlotte Hornets. The Bucks (98.7 PPG) gave up rather large leads against the Hornets in their season opener to lose in overtime and their only win comes against the 76ers. As for the Jazz (104.3 PPG), a team we always seem to have issues with, while they lost to both the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks to open their season, they just beat the Phoenix Suns by 27. Let us hope that some sort of offensive system gets found soon.