The Pistons have acquired three starters in the past five months. Total cost of acquisition: three second-round draft picks, Kyle Singler and D.J. Augustin.
Headlines are generated when superstars change teams, but the real work of roster building is more typically done the way Stan Van Gundy has gone about it. Improve one position by 10 percent, another by 20 percent, go from there and see what opportunities arise the next time the phone rings.
History will be the judge, but in the moment the February trade acquisition of Reggie Jackson appears a franchise-turning moment for the Pistons in that it has crystalized the direction they turn from here – an offense that revolves around the Jackson-Andre Drummond pick and roll.
“For him to play at his highest level, for Andre to play at his highest level, those guys need to get some room on the floor and the only way to get room is with shooting,” Van Gundy said in discussing a series of recent moves that included the additions of presumed starting forwards Ersan Ilyasvoa and Marcus Morris. “A big part for us in looking at players is not just that they’re talented, but their fit with those two guys and do they help those two guys play at a higher level. We thought all of them did.”
Getting Jackson almost certainly doesn’t happen if the late-January injury that ended Brandon Jennings’ season doesn’t happen, either.
“Brandon’s injury really made us adjust our thinking right from the time of the injury, really,” Van Gundy said. “Brandon was playing so well. I’m not sure we would have been in the market for a point guard last year – or even this summer. But when he went down, clearly we had to protect ourselves at a really vital position.”
To be sure, we’re in the golden age of NBA point guards now. It’s really hard to compete without a difference maker at that position unless your roster is teeming with All-Stars elsewhere.
Over his final 16 games – and that’s 20 percent of an NBA season, a reasonable sample size – Jackson averaged 20 points, 11 assists and five rebounds and did it efficiently, making almost half his shots and nearly 40 percent of his threes. The Pistons put a lot on Jackson’s shoulders after his arrival, mostly of necessity. With Augustin gone, Brandon Jennings hurt and significant 3-point shooting sacrificed at the trade deadline in Singler and Jonas Jerebko, Jackson had to create a high percentage of Pistons offense.
With their depth replenished via the draft, off-season trades to land Ilyasova, Morris and Reggie Bullock, the signing of Aron Baynes and ideally Jennings’ healthy return, Jackson is getting a lot of help on the offensive end. But he’ll have to play at something approaching the level he played over the final 16 games for the Pistons to get where they envision this all leading. And even in a conference with Kyrie Irving, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Kyle Lowry and Jeff Teague, those were All-Star numbers he put up.
After the All-Star break last season – about one-third of a season, coinciding with Jackson’s arrival from Oklahoma City – Andre Drummond averaged 16.1 points, 14.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots while shooting 54 percent. Those, too, are All-Star numbers.
Around them, Van Gundy is building not as if he were managing a fantasy team but slotting in players whose skill sets mesh. Ilyasova and Morris fit the profile of what Van Gundy values – toughness, smarts and shooting.
Greg Monroe isn’t around anymore and the Pistons lost something of a security blanket when he left. If the offense misfired for a possession or two, one way to reel things back in was to throw it to Monroe in the post. With his scoring and passing ability, the Pistons were more likely than not to at least get a good shot off that way.
But the cost to retain Monroe would have come at the expense of depth and quality elsewhere. And Van Gundy admitted his frustration last season at not figuring a way to make the Pistons an efficient offense with Monroe and Drummond both in the lineup. Maybe he’d have found one eventually, but he’s already seen the evidence of shooting coupled with the Jackson-Drummond pick and roll.
Ilyasova and Morris both provide shooting at better than league-average clips at the forward spots and the Pistons will pay them less combined than what it would have taken to retain Monroe. In terms of cost in assets to get them: Ilyasova for non-guaranteed contracts and Morris for a second-rounder five years down the road.
The Pistons have Ilyasova under team control for two seasons, Morris for four. Van Gundy hopes the Pistons are entering a phase where they can reap the benefits of roster continuity, but a front office that’s made seven deals in the last nine months will be ready to pounce when another opportunity arises.
And doing the smart deals that have netted them three starters for precious little cost positions them to be dealing from strength in future transactions.