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As trade deadline looms, SVG says Pistons are without significant need

AUBURN HILLS – The question was whether the Pistons would target shooting at Thursday’s trade deadline. Stan Van Gundy’s answer sounded more like the ruminations of a team president who analyzed his roster over the All-Star break and told his head coach he had everything he needed already on board.

That Van Gundy represents both sides of that equation pushes the likelihood of the Pistons making a significant trade into the category of “statistically irrelevant.” Oh, sure. Somebody could bowl them over with an offer straight out of “The Godfather” playbook – too good to refuse. Other than that …

“Even though we’re three games under .500, I still like our roster. I don’t think there’s really a significant hole,” Van Gundy said. “We’ve just got to play better.”

The Pistons are 27-30 but in reasonably good shape for a playoff run. They resume play on Thursday following the All-Star break situated in the No. 8 playoff spot with a favorable remaining schedule.

Yet they haven’t met expectations, their own or outsiders’, and it can’t all be explained away by the 21-game absence of Reggie Jackson to start the season or the dislocation caused by his return from injury. They sagged defensively for a month-long stretch that began in mid-December but have recovered to again become among the league’s upper third defensively.

Van Gundy is betting on improved 3-point shooting – specifically from forwards Marcus Morris, Tobias Harris and Jon Leuer, all of whom are shooting below the league average – helping pick up the offense.

The Pistons went into the break on the wings of encouraging signs, having won six of their previous nine games and seeing signs of Jackson turning a corner. Van Gundy said Jackson has looked very good in practice over the past two days, too.

If any reinforcement for staying the course was needed, perhaps those recent trends provided it. Or perhaps it was the perspective offered by a week of reflection. But Van Gundy didn’t sound like a man ready to change direction with the trade deadline bearing down on all 30 NBA front offices.

“It hasn’t been what we would like it to be to this point, but we still have a lot of young guys with room for improvement, guys coming into their prime,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not the straight line you would like. And it can be frustrating, but at the same time I don’t think you want to panic and blow up your roster because we’re not quite where you want to be.”

For a fan base that’s heard the biggest names on the roster – Jackson, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – bandied in trade rumors for the past week, that sounds a lot like, “nothing to see here, folks; move along.”

“I still like what we have,” Van Gundy said. “I think we’ve got a lot of assets. I think we’ve got a lot of good players. And we’ve got to play better. The frustrating thing for me is the coaching end of it because I think we’re better than what I’ve been able to get out of them so far.”