CHICAGO – It ended sooner than the Pistons hoped – and fully expected before injuries swarmed them – but it ended well.
And, where their future is concerned, with great promise.
Pretty much everyone who contributed to the 119-87 blasting of Chicago to complete the 2017-18 season figures prominently in 2018-19 plans – despite the fact that three certain starters for next season were on the bench in street clothes nursing minor injuries.
With Andre Drummond out, Eric Moreland put on a Drummondesque performance with 16 points, 17 rebounds – both career highs – plus four assists, four steals and four blocked shots.
“I’ll take it. I’ll take it,” Moreland said when his stats were read back to him. “It feels good. It’s better with a win. Got a chance to get some minutes with Andre not playing and took advantage of it. We all came together and played hard and came out with a win.”
Anthony Tolliver lit the fuse in the first quarter when for a few brief minutes it appeared the Pistons would succumb to game-82 blahs. Chicago took a 12-7 lead in the opening minutes, but Tolliver scored 13 of his team’s first 15 points and the Pistons soon built a double-digit lead.
Tolliver finished with 18 points and he’s one of the two players who finished the season in the rotation – James Ennis the other – who’ll be a free agent this summer. The Pistons surely will explore ways to bring him back, but with negligible cap space and depth at his position, there’s a chance Wednesday was his last game in their uniform.
With Blake Griffin under contract for four more seasons, he’ll dominate that position for the foreseeable future. Henry Ellenson gave another reminder that he plans to force his way into the rotation, scoring 14 points and grabbing a season-high 10 rebounds while hitting 2 of 3 from the 3-point arc in 28 minutes off the bench, including seven at center when Moreland sat.
The team’s two other 21-year-olds, Luke Kennard and Stanley Johnson, also went out strong.
Johnson only played 21 minutes, but hit 3 of 4 from the 3-point line. That’s the area he needs to take a leap – to unlock his potential as an impact two-way player and to complete the picture for a Pistons team otherwise set at four positions with Reggie Jackson at point guard, Drummond and Griffin up front and Reggie Bullock, who established himself as an elite 3-point shooter while transitioning to full-time starter, at shooting guard.
Bullock joined Drummond and Griffin on the bench, so Kennard got his fourth consecutive start and turned in his third straight solid performance, scoring a career-best 23 points.
“They all played really well,” Van Gundy said of the three 21-year-olds, the yield for the last three first-round picks.
Kennard finished the season above 40 percent from the 3-point arc – as did Bullock and Tolliver – and grew more at ease with finding his shot as the season unfolded.
“The speed of the game. It slowed down as the season went along a little bit,” he said. “That was one of the big adjustments. It’s a big jump from levels of basketball – high school to college, college to the NBA – so the speed of the game slowed down a little bit. I got more comfortable and then I was able to get a little more aggressive. I learned a lot through that.”
Jackson’s vision and passing skills helped enable 30 3-point shot attempts for his teammates on a night the Pistons went 15 of 35 from the arc while the Bulls aggressively doubled him on pick and rolls. He picked up 10 assists with just one turnover in less than 29 minutes and, more than anything, finished the season healthy after missing 37 games with a sprained ankle that undermined what appeared a near-certain playoff drive for the Pistons.
“Wish we could’ve played longer. Wish we could’ve stayed healthier during the season,” he said before the game. “We’ve got some good pieces. Now it’s going to be about us taking care of ourselves and getting healthy for next year.”
The Pistons finished 39-43 but 27-18 in the 45 games Jackson played – and he only got to play four of them with Griffin. The Pistons know a core of Griffin, Drummond and Jackson is playoff worthy. The season-ending production from players like Moreland, Johnson, Ellenson and Kennard bolsters their faith that the depth they’ll need to put around them is already in hand.