FanPost

Nerdy Numbers Post - 2019 All Star Break

Going on several days now of no games, and I was itching to make some charts. So I decided to compare all our Pistons to the top players listed at their position according to basketball-reference and see where they stacked up.

In this exercise, I took any Pistons on the roster and compared them to the other top 18 minutes-getters at their positions. So, we are mostly talking good players that they are being compared against in this exercise. All numbers are from basketball-reference Advanced page, except adjusted TS% which I heard about in a tweet and included myself (basically adjusts your TS% up if you are a high usage player, down if you are a low usage player).

After doing this, I didn't really come up with any new insights, so feel free to not comment because there isn't much to say. I just like seeing how the Pistons numbers line up compared with their peers. In short, to no one's surprise you'll see that:

1. Blake is good.

2. Andre and Reggie are not bad, but not good enough to be a part of some sort of Big Three.

3. The shooting guard/small forward situation is a total nightmare.

Let's take a look at the actual numbers.

Centers

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  • Sorted by Box Plus-Minus, Pachulia is 15th out of these 20 players, Drummond is 18th.
  • Drummond's scoring percentages are bad for a center. They have been much higher than this since the injury, but obviously even lower than this before that. What is to come over the next couple months probably determines how I feel in my Fan Brain going into the offseason.
  • The Box-Plus Minus numbers seem to like Zaza well enough even though he doesn't have any good actual numbers. ESPN's Real Plus-Minus thinks the same, ranking him 14th of all centers. Mr. Intangibles, I guess.
  • Speaking of RPM, Drummond is up to 17th on the center list now after spending most of the season around 40. His hot streak has been a HOT STREAK more than it's been just a few nice games.
Power Forward

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  • Out of 21 players here, Griffin ranked 2nd, Maker 17th, and Leuer 19th using BPM.
  • Box Plus-Minus thinks Griffin's having an All-NBA type season. Win Shares/48 isn't as impressed. I, personally, without any expertise in the matter beyond skimming countless blog posts, don't trust WS/48 all that much.
  • Leuer's actual individual numbers seem fine, but the results with him on the court have been very bad and none of the all-in-one numbers are impressed.
  • Fingers crossed for Thon.
Small Forward

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  • Robinson ranked 19th and Svi 20th out of 20 players here. The Pistons essentially are without a traditional small forward at this point.
  • Yikes.
  • The front office needs to find the affordable diamond in the rough on this list come offseason https://www.spotrac.com/nba/free-agents/small-forward/
Shooting Guard

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  • Out of 23 players I looked at, the Pistons ranked 15, 19, 21, 22, and 23.
  • On the one hand, too many shooting guards. On the other hand, no actual good shooting guards.
  • This Kennard season is a bummer after a good finish last year. I hope he comes out strong after the break. I do think he should get the most minutes of this bunch but I don't think he should start. The bench needs some play-making and none of these other guys bring much there.
  • Brown's athletic numbers are good (blocks, rebounds, attempts at the rim, defensive all-in-one numbers), but he obviously needs to figure out how to put the ball in the basket for any of that to matter.
  • Ellington needs to hit shots.
Point Guards

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  • Our Pistons are ranked 13th, 19th, and 20th out of 21 players looked at. Collin Sexton is having a rough rookie season.
  • The Sea of Red Continues.
  • Jackson had a good start to the season, quite a lull for a while, then has been hot the last 10 games or so.
  • Ish is better than his actual numbers, but if his actual numbers are this bad he's not good enough.
  • I still can't believe the Calderon thing.


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