Another season come, another season gone, and it’s been too long since I wrote anything and I need to warm up before draft season. So we’re going to use blog excuse number 1 and do some end of season awards for the Pistons team. Here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to give out the player awards (Youngster of the Year, DPOY, and MVP), then some team stuff (the “What if” of the year, my Game of the Year etc.) Youngster of the Year ROY is a pretty boring award for single teams, so this award is for the most impactful player still on their rookie deal. Finalists were: Luke Kennard, Bruce Brown, Stanley Johnson, Thon Maker. And the Award goes to… LUKE KENNARD! Bruce’s ability to play in the starting lineup while having less to offer on offense than Stanley remains incredible, but Luke’s playoff performances cemented this award for him. Despite missing 19 games due to two injuries, and despite needing some bounce-back time after each one, Luke still put up 15.4p/4.6r/2.9a per36 on 44/39/84 shooting splits (Good for a healthy 56% TS%). He backed those regular season numbers up with 15/4/1.8 straight up on 49/60/83 splits (60 TS%) in the playoffs. Those numbers show that Luke continues to trend towards being a starting-caliber SG. The WAY he got those numbers - often as the primary option for an otherwise shockingly terrible bench mob - highlighted the impressive versatility to his game: Pick and Roll scoring and playmaking, playing off handoffs, curls, and cuts, all complimenting his quality outside shooting, including shooting 35% from deep off the bounce, a skill that will be vital moving forwards. Luke still has things to work on: expanding his vision to include more reads in the PnR, growing as a defender, gauging the floater-or-layup decisions against rim protection. He still needs to grow into his own as an assertive scorer and figure out when it’s time to pull the trigger, especially if he wants to grow into a starting role. But this season proved he has what it takes to be a valuable contributor, and showed why the FO (and I) are so reluctant to include him in trade talks. Congrats and thank you to Luke for a fun season. Defensive Player of the Year DPOY is a simple award, and there were only 3 viable candidates, because only 3 players on the team play good defense. Those candidates were Bruce Brown, Andre Drummond, and Stanley Johnson. (No. Not Thon. Thon is awful on defense. Don’t ask again.) This shouldn’t be a surprise. Your winner is Andre Drummond. Forget that he’s the best rebounder in basketball. Forget that he was top 10 in blocks and steals this year. Forget that he can switch onto smaller players. Forget that after a rocky first month figuring out the system, he became a high level PnR defender. Forget that his rim DFG% is finally in line with expectations. Forget that Dwane Casey’s system was, “let's hope Andre defends literally everyone every play even if he has to close out 22ft!” Forget all of those things that made him one of the great defenders in basketball this year. He could’ve won this award doing half as much work. Please, for the love of Ben Wallace, will someone else play some fucking defense!? MVP Most Valuable Player. If this award were *BEST* player, it’d go to Blake Griffin. As it is, I’m splitting this right down the middle. Blake was the best player on the team, an offensive engine, it’s veteran leader. Andre was the only valuable defender on a team that somehow managed to be 11th in DTRG, the lynchpin of most of the offensive actions, and the most irreplaceable player on the floor, with a +9.5 on/off rating - not only did the Pistons out pace opponents by 2.8 pts/100 with him on the floor, no bench player came close to even treading water (Pistons being 6.7 points/100 worth without him). Andre’s defensive acumen and roll gravity were vital to supporting Blake, who was only a +.4 oncourt and +2.2 on/off himself. I don’t think much needs to be said for Blake’s case - 24.5/7.5/5.4 on 58% TS% needs very little support. The only issue with Blake’s game this year was that his defense was pretty terrible. Whether you prefer watching one or the other wasn’t important. Whether you think one earned the award more than the other doesn’t matter. The Pistons lost 2 of the 3 games Andre missed, and 5 of the 7 Blake missed. The duo was +5.3 on the court together, the team was -1.2 without either. The Pistons were -14.4 when just Blake was on the court, -7.7 when it was just Andre (per NBAWowy). The duo proved that together they could hold their own despite their critics, and that only together could they propel this team to victory. It’s only right they hoist my imaginary trophy together as well. The "What If?" of the Year This award is basically just speculation as an excuse for looking back on some of the big events of the year. A) “What if Stanley hadn’t been traded?” - Honestly, Thon filled a role we needed but did so terribly. He bricked shots just like Stanley did. He was way, way worse on defense. I personally wonder if Stanley's aggressive defense might’ve been a catalyst in that final stretch to get us a key run or two. And he would’ve been massive in the Bucks series, when Thon came up impossibly small. B) “What if Bullock hadn’t been traded” - Svi never saw the floor. Wayne Ellington came in to fill Bullock’s role. The pistons sacrificed Reggie B’s decisive passing and modest defense for Wayne. I think they get a little more out of him, total, than Wayne, but probably not a massive amount. We’ll see how losing his bird rights impacts the future though. The wing could be dangerously thin without a good FA signing. C) “What happens if Blake never gets hurt?” - This one is a monster. Over those last few games that Blake either missed or was playing at ½ speed, the Pistons lost their shot at the 6 and 7 seed, and then had 2 rough rough outings in Milwaukee without Griffin. Could that Bucks sweep have become a decent 4-2 loss to the Sixers or Raptors, neither of which are quite as horrific a matchup as the Bucks? Perhaps. It’s unlikely the Pistons get a round without getting to the 5 seed (which wasn’t happening) but the first playoff win in a decade would’ve been a nice treat. D) “What about Andre’s concussion?” - We never really found out what it was about Andre’s concussion that launched him into the stratosphere for the next 2 months. He returned from his 3 game absence to average 18.6/16.5, find another gear on defense, restore his efficiency to functional levels, etc. Was this because Jackson found his legs at the same time? Was the injured finger that he supposedly had that big a deal? Did the time off let him watch film? Whatever the actual cause and effect, without that break the Pistons may never even sniff the playoffs. E) “What if Ish never got hurt?” - Ish missed 26 games. The Pistons were 8-18 in that time. That’s bad. Ish finished with a +4.9 on/off number, a solid sign that he was able to elevate those bench units. Jose finished a -16.7 on/off - a damning sign that he was actively dragging down everything he touched. The Pistons were 33-23 the rest of the year. At that pace, they should’ve won closer to 15 of those 26 games, not 8. Those additional 7 games would’ve had the Pistons pushing for the 5 seed. F) “What if Dwane Casey had figured out the offense earlier?” - Reggie Jackson’s legs grew into the season over time, but it has to be said that Casey struggled to diversify the offense until the holidays, in some pretty basic ways (trusting more PnR, letting Andre roll harder to the rim, etc.). From January on, the Pistons had an ORTG of 110.1. Prior to that it was 105.8. There were 8 games from October through December where the Pistons lost by a 5 point margin or less. A couple of those could’ve changed the season. G) “What if GRIII had been… anything?” - Glenn came in as a wing who could theoretically defend 2-4 and shoot from the corners. Glenn did not defend, and shot 29% from 3. It’s hard to look at any significant stat and say what the result would have been, but I can say this - if GRIII had shot the same this year as he had the last 2 years (about 40%) he would’ve made about 7 more 3s of the 62 attempts he took. That alone is 21 points - dispersed into the right moments, that could’ve been a win or two even without him playing any minutes more than he did. To me, the Winner is D. Whatever happened to Andre during that week, it fucking worked. And as Blake was worn down by the season, Andre seemed to grow into it. Maybe we should hit him on the head more often? Ish’s injury had the most obvious impact on the team, but if Andre can carry his growth over into the next season the Pistons will benefit even more. Others submitted to me on twitter that are too hard for me to think about: “What if the Andre/Gasol trade had happened? The Jackson + Luke for Conly trade? What if they’d gotten Budenholzer instead of Casey?” Game of the Year I’m sure everyone has a personal favorite but here are some of the greats I remember: Blake’s 50 banger vs Philly: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201810230DET.html Blake’s return to LAC: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201901120LAC.html Dwane Casey’s return to TOR: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201811140TOR.html Luke Cooks the Knicks to send us to the playoffs: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201904100NYK.html Pistons pound Nuggets, huge games from Andre, Stanley, Luke: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201902040DET.html Andre son’s KAT: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201903060DET.html Andre is +27 and dominates every facet of a game vs. TOR despite foul trouble: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201903030DET.html Reggie Jackson leads DET to win vs ATL after Griffin’s ejection: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201902220ATL.html A brutal game against Indiana in which Luke has a 95% TS% and Andre pours in 26/16: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201902250DET.html A loss to the Blazers? Yeah. I fucking love Portland games. Jackson and Griffin almost eek out the win in the last full game Nurkic played: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201903230POR.html Game 3. Look, I was in the crowd heckling the refs live. It was a shite game. But LCA was absolutely ROCKING for the first home playoff game in 3 years and first in the Arena. Special shouts to #PistonsTwitter: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/index.cgi?month=4&day=20&year=2019 The End That was it, mate. Why are you still here?
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February 2018
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