2014-15 Pistons player reviews: Luigi Datome

Following the 2012-13 season, it was evident that the Pistons may need more spacing on the floor. Andre Drummond beasted off the bench for most of the year, but during the times he did play with Monroe, the lane was clogged. Joe Dumars used his scouting department to nab the Italian sharpshooter Luigi Datome who was a career 40-percent shooter from distance in the Italian league. Unfortunately, that never translated to Datome's time with the Pistons.

Datome's averages for 2013-14 did not look encouraging. For a player who was supposed to be a jump shooter, averages of 35 percent from the field and 18 percent from three were not going to cut it. Mind you, he only played in 34 games and shot less than 100 times, so he did not really get a chance to get into rhythm. When Stan Van Gundy came in, it was thought that things might change. With Datome being 6-foot-8, it was thought Datome could be Van Gundy's Hedo Turkoglu in Detroit.

That never happened.

Datome only saw three games under Van Gundy. All three were blowouts either in the Pistons' favor or their opponent's. On the year, he shot better than the previous, shooting 42 percent overall and 25 percent from deep, but that was on only 12 attempts total. He was then shipped off to Boston following the All-Star break.

Unfortunately, we've been given a glimpse of what could have been. In Boston, Datome saw the floor 18 times in Boston's final 31 games, but he made that time count. On 77 attempts, he was 49.4 percent from the floor. Of those, 36 were three pointers, connecting on 47.2 percent of those.

So if Josh Smith did not start for the Pistons at all this year and both Jonas Jerebko and Luigi Datome backed him up...

Now your thoughts.