This off season the Detroit Pistons have been very busy adding a lot of new players to their roster. The Pistons drafted Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with the number eight pick in the draft. They signed forward Josh Smith to a max contract and recently traded away Brandon Knight in exchange for Brandon Jennings from the Milwaukee Bucks.They also signed veteran Chauncey Billups to lead this very young team. Will all the new faces bring back past glory to this franchise?
With all these additions many people forgot a lot of the young talent this team already had like Rodney Stuckey, Greg Monroe, and emerging center Andre Drummond. Unless you closely follow the NBA you may have never heard of these players, that has nothing to do with their talent it mainly has to do with this team not being competitive since the Big 5 of Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and Ben Wallace left. Stuckey has been with the Pistons since being drafted in 2007. I'm a big Pacer fan so I have been able to watch Stuckey play the Pacers throughout his career. Last year was not one of his best seasons but at 6-5 he has been forced to play point guard when he is truly a two guard. He has a knack for overpowering smaller guards and getting to the rim. With the addition of Brandon Jennings it will relieve the pressure of being the teams primary ball handler and focus on attacking the rim.
Greg Monroe is an incredibly versatile big man who has proven he is a 15 and 10 guy every night. He is able to take bigger defenders off the dribble and reminds me of a young Amare Stoudemire. He also was forced to play out of position, he played a lot of center where is truly more of an over-sized forward than a center. One of his major glaring weaknesses is his defense, but with the emergence of Andre Drummond who is a very athletic center who is going to be a great weak side blocker that will make Monroe look a lot better. Drummond who was incredibly hyped coming out of high school did not really live up to the hype in his one year at the University of Connecticut. During his first year in the NBA he had a decent year but showed glimpses during Summer League. He will be able to use his athleticism to rebound well and has shown he can finish with big time dunks around the rim. The front court for the Piston is looking set for the years to come if the Monroe/Drummond experiment is able to work.
As said before the Pistons signed Josh Smith to a max contract meaning that management believes he is going to be the face of the franchise. He was a good player but not a franchise player in Atlanta. He is a very good defensive player, good rebounder, and great finisher at the rim. His one glaring weakness is his perimeter shooting which looks like is going to be a weakness for this entire team. I think he is going to get a chance he didn't have in Atlanta and that is to be the face of the franchise and fans in Detroit will welcome a star they haven't had in a while.
The newest and probably most surprising addition to this team is Brandon Jennings from the Milwaukee Bucks. He was a very good scorer for the Bucks he was not necessarily able to lead the team like some people thought. He will be able to get mentoring from Chauncey Billups something he wasn't able to get at his old destination. If Jennings takes advantage of this opportunity he will be able to take the next step to becoming an elite scoring point guard in the NBA.
We have taken a look at the big talent on this team that we expect to make big contributions now it comes down to my prediction of what they are going to do next year. The East outside the top four teams is an absolute toss up who will be the other four to make the playoffs. I think that at best this team could be the fifth team in the East if they are able mesh with the talent and athleticism in the front court and the ability to penetrate with the talent in the back court. The worst case scenario is Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith are not able to get a long as the stars on the team. And the Monroe/Drummond front court could just be too many big bodies in the post for either to be effective. I think they will finish sixth or seventh in the East and will be a team that nobody wants to play in the first round of the playoffs.
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