The Detroit Pistons had their worst performance of the season on Monday as they were blown out by the Cleveland Cavaliers at home on the second night of a back-to-back. The Cavs, who were also on a back-to-back and were severely short-handed, looked like the more dynamic team all night, coasting to victory after building a 22-point lead at halftime.
Once again, the biggest problem for the Pistons was the lack of shooting. The Pistons went 11-of-34 from downtown, bringing their season average to 32.8%. They rank in the bottom 10 of the league in three-point makes, attempts, and accuracy. As a result, the Pistons have taken a large step back offensively, currently ranking 27th in offensive rating, after finishing 16th last season, per Basketball-Reference.com.
This offensive regression is making Pistons fans miss their departed sharpshooters, especially Tim Hardaway Jr.
Pistons Are Missing Tim Hardaway Jr. After 1st Week of Season
Malik Beasley is an obviously different situation that was outside of Detroit's control, but the Pistons' inability to retain Hardaway when he just signed a one-year, veteran minimum deal with the Denver Nuggets is coming back to bite them.
Hardaway has immediately become a big part of the Nuggets' offense. Coming off the bench, the 33-year-old is playing extended minutes, giving them offensive juice. On Monday, he lit up the Timberwolves with 20 points and three assists on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from downtown. For the season, THJ is shooting 43.8% from three on over five attempts per game.
In contrast, Duncan Robinson, whom the Pistons signed to replace him, is only making 32.0%% of his threes.
Paying Duncan Robinson 4 Times More Than Hardaway Jr. Never Made Sense
Robinson will almost certainly shoot better, as four outings are a pretty small sample size. Even if he shoots over 40% from downtown the rest of the way, the decision to let Hardaway walk and trade for Robinson will make little sense.
On top of that, Robinson makes $16.8 million for this season, while Hardaway is on a $3.6 million deal.
Even though Hardaway is not a good defender by any means, he is significantly better than Robinson, who gets exploited any time he is matched up against any offensive player with some juice. There is no meaningful difference in other aspects of their games to justify paying one over four times the salary of the other.
THJ started 77 games for the Pistons just last season. Yet, they refused to retain him for a contract slightly above the veteran's minimum. Those two things don't necessarily line up. The coaching staff thought that he was good enough to start on a playoff team, but the front office thought he was not worth, say, $5 million per year, a salary that is more commensurate with a deep bench player in today's NBA.
The Pistons need to find more shooting to boost their offense; if they can't, they will continue to regret not having Hardaway on the team.