Bombs Away

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – To address the deficiencies the Pistons exhibited offensively a season ago, when they finished 28th in scoring at 94.2 points a game, Joe Dumars couldn’t have done much better – short of somehow reeling in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or Kobe Bryant – than landing Ben Gordon.

The Pistons were an especially poor 3-point shooting team, an increasingly important weapon as the NBA evolves, finishing 26th in percentage and 28th in attempts. Gordon addresses that in a major way. He finished eighth in the league in 3-point attempts with 422, and of the top 10 in 3-point makes only Cleveland’s Mo Williams and San Antonio’s Roger Mason finished with a better percentage than Gordon’s .410.

Over his five NBA seasons since being selected No. 3 out of UConn in the 2004 draft, Gordon has made better than 40 percent of his triple attempts every year and has a career mark of .415 that exceeds that of Reggie Miller (.395), widely considered the greatest 3-point shooter in NBA history.

But Gordon also showed last season, and especially in Chicago’s scintillating seven-game playoff series with Boston, that he’s among the league’s most dangerous players off the dribble, as well – another area where the Pistons have long been seeking improvement.

Gordon, despite starting only about half the time in Chicago, is an 18.5 point career scorer in 31.4 minutes a game.

So there’s no question the Pistons have added a major weapon that serves the added benefit of augmenting their weaknesses. The wrench thrown into the equation is he’s a natural shooting guard, which also happens to be the position of the player who’s led the Pistons in scoring for all seven of his years with the franchise, Rip Hamilton.

Adding to the trepidation of Pistons fans is the dysfunction they saw their team exhibit in a 39-win 2008-09 season when the attempt to play Hamilton and Allen Iverson together fizzled.

So how do they make it work this time?

Joe Dumars sees two key distinguishing factors: “There’s a fundamental difference between Ben Gordon and Iverson being here. Ben Gordon chooses to come here knowing what the situation is. Ben Gordon made his name in this league coming off the bench.”

That’s the plan. Hamilton, with career averages of 17.9 points and 33.3 minutes a game, stays the starter at shooting guard, with the likelihood that he’ll get 10 minutes or so a game backing up Tayshaun Prince at small forward to clear minutes for Gordon, who could also steal minutes at point guard.

There will be stretches in every game when Hamilton and Gordon share the court. The Pistons expect that to benefit each player.

“Any time you can put a number of guys out there that can score, that opens things up for each guy on the floor, Rip included,” Pistons vice president Scott Perry said. “There were times people could kind of tilt to Rip and really hedge hard on him coming off screens and make it tough for him to get shots. If you can get a lot of guys out there who can make shots with him, that’s not going to do anything but help his game.”

Iverson’s predilection for dominating the ball and his constant attempts to attack the paint were at odds with Hamilton’s strength of cutting and curling and reliance on timing his breaks as the ball moved from side to side. Not only do the Pistons see Gordon’s 3-point threat presenting a much better complement, they’re banking on the common background and mutual respect Hamilton and Gordon share to allow both to prosper.

“Both of those guys have been able to score the basketball without needing a ton of shots,” Perry said. “I wouldn’t call them volume scorers. They’re good percentage shooters and they’re very efficient at what they do. Because of that, their meshing will be a lot easier. They’re two guys from similar backgrounds in terms of going to (Connecticut) and accomplishing similar things there. There’s a mutual respect. We foresee those guys being able to match up pretty well when they’re in there together.”

Assistant coach Pat Sullivan, who was on Larry Brown’s 2004 staff and returned a year ago under Michael Curry, said he’s seen Hamilton’s game evolve, improving as a playmaker, 3-point shooter and defender.

“When I was first here, he didn’t have the range he has now,” Sullivan said. “He’s more of a spot-up or corner 3-point shooter. He’s a very underrated low-post scorer, but his mid-range game is his bread and butter – his ability to come off screens. He’s gotten better at his ability to put the ball on the floor and he’s a finisher. There were games last year where he had (double-digit) assists. He’s learned, as the great players do in our league, to get other players involved first. He understands it’s going to free him up at the end of games.

“He’s a great guy, a competitor, and a very underrated defender, as well. He’s done the best job of anybody we’ve had on guys like Wade and James. He’s got quickness, toughness.”

Hamilton became noticeably frustrated as last season played out and the Pistons lost their rhythm, losing games in the fourth quarter that they consistently won over the course of their seven straight 50-win seasons. The Pistons fully expect a rejuvenated Hamilton after an off-season that saw eight new faces added to the roster and suddenly leaves him, at 31, as the elder statesmen of the roster aside from the returning Ben Wallace.

“Rip learned from last year, too,” Perry said. “He’s got another opportunity to come back and be the player, be the guy, that everybody knows he is. I think he’s looking forward to that. I really do. It was a tough year for all of us last year. Rip has the character and is used to winning and is going to do whatever it takes to help us win, whatever sacrifice is necessary.”

Even in the salad days of the Goin’ to Work bunch, when the Pistons had four viable scoring options and sometimes five when Antonio McDyess was on the floor and not Ben Wallace, Hamilton was almost always the first scoring option. It could be more of a 1 and 1A this year with Hamilton and Gordon on the floor to close out games.

“Scott Skiles and Vinny (Del Negro) would go to Ben all the time late in games,” Sullivan said. “He can create shots for himself. He has a different ability than Rip in that he can create a little more for himself off the dribble. All of us realize what he can do on the offensive end.”

Hamilton and Gordon don’t leave a lot of room for anyone else at their position, but if injury strikes either one, the Pistons could move Rodney Stuckey off the ball – as Dumars, before signing Gordon, said would be a way to exploit Stuckey’s ability to attack the rim – or use 2008 second-rounder Deron Washington, who played last season in Israel.

Washington, ultra athletic at 6-foot-7 with a long wingspan, is raw offensively but showed improvement both off the dribble and from the perimeter over a year ago during NBA Summer League play in July.

“One thing Joe has done with our roster,” Sullivan said, “is we’ve become very, very athletic. He has the ability to guard. He has great athleticism and quickness. He’s definitely an improved shooter from when we had him last year at this time, but he’s got to be a great free-lance cutter, a runner on the break, attack the offensive boards, weak-side closing out on guys, taking charges – things of that nature.”