[jaycee24Participant]

First off my bad for putting this in the wrong forum

 The State of the Detroit Pistons

Having watched the past couple of seasons and this years Orlando Summer League, I gotta say at this time I’m pretty damn happy to be a Pistons fan. That’s shocking to think just a few years ago it looked like Joe Dumars put them out of contention for the next 10 years after signing BG and Charlie V and now its looking like they have one of the more promising core group of young talent in the NBA.

First off we got Greg Monroe in 10, who looks to me like a perennial All-Star for the next few years. This is a guy with an awesome motor, runs the floor well, has a nice 15 foot jumper, nice touch around the rim, rebounds and has the strength to bang. Monroe is also not a bad passer so much in fact that the Pistons ran their offense through him alot of times last year. He’s also a team first guy with great work ethic and it looks like he’s bought in to what Detroit is trying to do right now.

Next you have a guy like Brandon Knight we scooped up last year. Its hard to think this dude was 19 last year in a lock out shortened season would have the type of poise that he came with last year. Watching B Knight last season its easy to see that he has the work ethic and mental capacitiy to pick up on the neccesities of becoming a better floor general next year or in the future.He also flashed his ability to score off the dribble (awesome ball handler), in transition (tons of speed and quickness), and from deep. This summer it looked like he bulked up quite a bit and he seemed much more poised running the Pistons offense this year in SL. Never really took a real bad shot and made pretty good decsions the vast majority of the time. Not to say he’ll ever have this much strength, but I can see him turning into a Chauncey Billups type player with more speed in the future. The bottom line is this guy has a ton of talent a ton of character and you know he’s gonna be in that gym working hard to become a better player day in and day out.

Now you add in Andre Drummond. Now I can see why people call him the biggest risk in the draft having watch him in SL. This guy has everything you could ask for physically in a center. Damn near 7 foot with an even bigger wingspan and a 35 inch vert, weighs 270 lbs, runs like a deer and oh by the way he’s 18. After watching him this summer I can see where the questions about his motor come from. He just doesn’t seem to remember to body up down low for positioning whether its on defense or on the boards. Alot of times he sort of lingers around in the post and just tries to out jump everybody. While he might be able to get away with that against his SL comp, that type of effort won’t cut it in the league. However when he DOES use his size and strength to bang down low he seems to always come out on top. In Orlando he shut down the likes of Enes Kanter Jared Sullinger and Fab Melo when asked to defend each respectively. The potential is evident and the encouraging part of his future is his high character. Everyone in the Pistons organization from Joe Dumars, Lawrence Frank, Ben Wallace…they all speak highly of his character ad willingness to learn. I fully believe that Frank is the right guy to get Andre to maximize his god given attributes while also expanding his game. All this too will also come with maturity over time as this year really could of been his freshman year of college.

Another guy who really impressed me was Kim English. He had a maturity to his game out the gate in Summer League which is something you would hope for in a 23 year old college vet. What I loved about his game was that he never tried to do too much. He could spot up for threes and knock them down at a high rate but also have enough sense to kick it back out if the shot wasn’t there. He has scorers mentality but a team mentality first and foremost. The prototypical complimentary "Bruce Bowen" glue guy. He hustles on both ends which leads to alot of the fast break buckets he scores where he is pretty good at finishing. The most impressive part of his game to me and to many others was his defensive abilities. He can be a shutdown one on one defender at times but he also has the awareness on that end to pick off passes for easy transition oppurtunities.

Austin Daye was a dude who I was dissapointed Joe Dumars decided to take and I can’t say that I still don’t feel that way. While Austin showed glimmers of what he could do in Summer League, he also proved once again what his downfalls are. When his jumper is on its pretty hard to defend the guy with the size he has combined with the array of shots he has. However getting to the rack against athletic NBA 3’s is and will probably always be a problem for him as he has little to no quickness with the ball in his hands. His height benifits him at times jumping up for boards down low but his strength for a 4 year vet is downright pathetic.Even in SUMMER LEAGUE he’s constantly getting pushed around, backed down, boxed out by guys 2, 3, 4 inches shorter than him which almost seems to erase his height advantage. While he has a nice offensive game and a hell of a jumper, without at least adding some muscle I don’t see his game expanding to much more than it is now. What I think really sets Daye back is his attitude on the court. When things don’t go his way he seems to whine and shut down, not something you’d hope to see out of a guy going into his 4th season.

The wildcard of the Pistons Summer League to me was Kyle Singler. Pistons took him in last years draft and I honestly almost forgot about since he was playing overseas this past year. However seeing him in this years Summer League I was more than impressed. He looked alot stronger since his Duke days and a hell of alot more explosive and agile. He looked good defending and made a few plays picking off passes. he showed he could score on his own off the dribble or in the post and also knocked down spot up jumpers at a nice rate. So far I like what I’ve seen out of him and I think he’s gonna see some solid minutes in Detroit this year.

As for the veterans in Detroit, they have the veteran leadership with Big Ben and Tayshaun sticking around added on with a guy like Cory Maggete. I like the effort and versatility that Jonas Jerebko gives as well. A question mark I think for the Pistons has to be Rodney Stuckey. I just don’t see him fitting in with what they have going for them right now. Whether they part ways with Rodney or not could be big for Detroit in the next 3 to 4 years.

All in all you gotta be happy in the direction Detroit is headed. We have some NICE young talent with huge upside. 5 years from now we could be looking at a sqaud much like that of the early to mid 2000’s in Detroit. What you have to like most is the total culture change Joe Dumars, coach Lawrence Frank and even new owner Tom Gores has employed in Detroit. Everyone from the front office, the coaching staff, down to the players all show high character and accountability and look to be working as hard as possible to get back to that higher class in the NBA. The Pistons look like they’re bought in on winning the right way and look to be on the right path to doing so.

[DolanCareParticipant]

I liked your writeup for Drummond and Kim English. I definitely seeing English becoming a ‘less aggravating Bruce Bowen’ in the league. You’re right about Drummond never thinking about his post position, I wonder if he’ll still be with the Pistons by the time he figures it out…. probably not.

 

[kobyzParticipant]

Kim English is really surprise in summer league, he surprise with his scoring ability and he always was stellar defensively, i think Detroit might found alternative version for Arron Afflalo who they stupidly let go a few years ago.

[220Participant]

The Pistons certainly have some reasons to smile right now. It’ll be interesting to see how they perform as a group this season.

[jaycee24Participant]

 Yeah English is going to be in the league for awhile that seemed to be clear. As for Drummond I really think he can. He’s very young and impressionable so to be in a situation like Detroits with guys like Tayshaun and Ben and Coach Frank not to mention the young guys with supreme character like Brandon Knight or Greg Monroe…he’s quite lucky. The beautiful part is he won’t be depended on heavily while he is going through this learning process so I really think he’s going to naturally ease his way into his potential within the next 3-5 years. 

[jaycee24Participant]

 Yesss….watching him that’s all I could think of was Aaron Affallo. Honestly I thought his offensive game was even more polished than Aarons was coming out of UCLA

[jaycee24Participant]

 This next year is really up in the air right now. I’d love to see them compete as a core this year but I’m not sure if it would be the best thing for the future. They still seem to be short of a first option on the wing so it’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out. 

[kobyzParticipant]

but man! Detroit Pistons future look very very bright, all that core of young talent and very large cap space next summer(after amnesty Charlie V)…

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