When the Detroit Pistons suffered an earlier-than-expected exit at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs, the need to improve offensively was obvious. The Pistons were simply not good enough in the half-court offense to truly consider themselves a title contender. Despite many fans expecting a blockbuster offseason move to address this need, the Pistons largely stood pat and made changes on the margins.
But through the first two games of the season, the Pistons have looked like a much-improved team in the exact areas of need. In their minor offseason moves, the Pistons still prioritized shooting. And this has paid off so far.
Pistons' shooting looks much improved from last season
Detroit has put up over 120 points in each of its first two games. This is especially impressive since it came against two teams that are expected to be elite defensive units this season. The Pistons currently rank third in the league in offensive rating through two games.
A big reason why is the red-hot shooting. Detroit went 18/38 from downtown against the Heat on Friday. For the season, they are averaging 39 three-point attempts per game and are converting over 42% of them.
The 18 made threes against Miami matched Detroit's season-high from last season. The Pistons attempted 30.9 threes per game a season ago and made 35.6% of them. Getting the accuracy higher while also generating more threes is exactly what the Pistons needed to do to become a more viable playoff offense.
Some of this is obviously unsustainable. John Collins and Duncan Robinson are both over 50% from three so far. Javonte Green is 6/11 from three. Even Paul Reed went 2/2 last night.
But Isaiah Joe and Kevin Huerter haven't gotten going yet. They are taking a lot of threes, but the veteran shooting guards are a combined 5/22 from downtown. This will improve and make up for some of the regression to the mean from other players.
More importantly, there is a clear emphasis on being more aggressive from three. The Pistons are taking more threes early in the clock rather than pounding the ball to look for a better shot. They take more transition threes without waiting for the defense to set up.
This has the added benefit of opening things up for the rest of the offense. It prevents the defense from packing the paint, thus creating driving lanes for Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson. It gives Jalen Duren more space when catching the ball inside and trying to finish.
Whether all of this will be enough to make the Pistons an elite offense remains to be seen. But the signs are there for the Pistons to be a much better offense, which is all Pistons fans can ask for at this point in the season.
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