The common thinking in the Pistons’ fall from contender to bottom feeder in the last few years has been that Joe Dumars has ‘lost his touch’ or that he’s had no vision. In fact, the opposite is true. The current version of the Pistons exists precisely because Dumars had a vision.

After the Pistons lost to Boston in the 2008 Conference Finals, Dumars gave in to increasing pressure to shake up the old core and traded Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson shortly after the 2008-09 season started. But today’s post isn’t going to once again delve into whether or not that was a smart move. I’m going to look at the new era of rhetoric that was ushered in starting with that trade. The Pistons won a title and became one of the steadiest teams in the league for nearly a decade based on, first and foremost, physical defense. Starting with the Billups trade, Dumars began to target players that didn’t fit a specific traditional position and who didn’t necessarily have strong defensive reputations, and that was no accident.

Iverson was the world’s smallest shooting guard (or was until Nate Robinson showed up). Charlie Villanueva wants desperately to be the world’s tallest shooting guard. Rodney Stuckey, at best a combo guard and more likely a shooting guard in college and as a rookie, became a full-time point guard. Ben Gordon was primarily a bench player in Chicago because he was too small to be a starting shooting guard and didn’t have the skillset to be a passable point guard. DaJuan Summers was a hybrid forward at Georgetown with the build of a prototypical SF and the skillset of a low-skilled PF. Austin Daye was a lifetime post player with no chance in hell at playing in the post full-time in the NBA (just don’t tell John Kuester that). Jonas Jerebko, although a good player, isn’t perfectly suited to either of the forward positions. Kyle Singler is yet to play a game for the Pistons, but he’s probably not strong enough to play his natural power forward position in the NBA, and he might not be skilled enough to be a full-time small forward. Brandon Knight is technically a point guard, but he plays more like a shooting guard right now. Will Bynum is the size of a point guard, but he’s a scorer in every sense of the word.

I could ask readers what the best position for most of those players is and it would start heated debates in the comments. And in fact, that was by design. Dumars began talking a lot about his belief that traditional positions were becoming obsolete. He wanted to put a team of five versatile guys who could score on the floor at all times. Below are some examples.

Dumars in a 2010 interview:

Dumars later says he doesn’t look at backcourts in terms of having a point guard and a shooting guard. He looks for two players who can play well together. So, if he used that line to dodge the question, ask, “For a player who you think would be ideal next to Stuckey, would other teams consider him a point guard or a shooting guard?”

Dumars in a 2010 interview:

Asked if the Pistons need a “pure point guard,” he said, “When people say that now, I think we still hold on to what a true point guard was 20, 25 years ago. A lot of the young point guards you see now that are having success are also combo guards. I saw some during the playoffs, kids who barely played point guard in college, played two-guard all of college, and now they’re running teams.”

Dumars in 2009:

If you don’t have the strong, low-post, traditional four man that can score, if you don’t have one of those top guys, you certainly better have one of those guys we call a stretch four – that can stretch the defense, that’s versatile, that’s inside-out. You have to get one or the other. If you’re not going to get a traditional four guy, then today’s game requires you to have more versatile four men.

Dumars also clearly believed that the NBA had changed into a less physical league where having an abundance of offensive-minded players was more vital than it had been in the past. From an interview with Keith Langlois in 2009:

We also recognize that we have to be able to score the ball more. I think our acquisitions reflect that. Kuester will decide at what pace we pay, but what I wanted to do was give him weapons to put us in a position to be able to score the ball more. How he chooses to do that will be up to him, but I did not want to put him in position where we didn’t have enough weapons to step on the floor and score like you need to be able to score now to have success in this league.

It’s not that Dumars ever publicly said defense wasn’t important. His comments just started to treat defense as kind of an afterthought, something that could be picked up later. Here’s an example:

I don’t think you can ever lose the mentality that for us to win, you have to stop people. You have to play good defense. You can’t be a poor defensive team and expect to win. So the fact that we’ve acquired more guys who can score the basketball doesn’t change the mind-set that you have to stop people. All we’re doing is saying we recognize that we have to score more. To recognize that doesn’t mean that you’re abandoning the mind-set that we have to stop people. You don’t have to choose, either-or. Lest people forget, Chauncey and Rip didn’t come here as these great defenders. They came here as offensive players. Chauncey was talented offensively, Rip was a scorer. They won a championship because they made a commitment to try to defend people. Just because you address the need to score more, doesn’t change your mind-set to have to stop people.

Dumars, in fact, had a pretty clearly articulated plan. It just wasn’t a good one. Now, I obviously cherry-picked some comments from the past to highlight that point, but these are some common themes that I think it’s fair to take away from Dumars’ change in philosophy: 1. He didn’t believe his veteran core of physical, halfcourt veteran players could continue competing at a high level in a league seeing more wide open offenses and stricter officiating; 2. He feared that his core would age overnight, similar to what he experienced as a player when the key players on the Bad Boys pretty rapidly declined; 3. He believed that he needed both more offensive firepower and players who could create for themselves and score in iso situations; 4. He believed defense was important, but that talented players who were poor defenders elsewhere could be taught to be good defenders.

As for that last point about defense, I’ll let Ben Wallace handle the refutation. From Terry Foster of The Detroit News:

Wallace said it’s possible that the Pistons can become a good defensive team and that some of these players can become good defenders. But it’s doubtful they will turn into all-NBA defenders.

“You are born with it; you can’t teach that,” Wallace said. “It’s tough to get to the league and not be a great defender and turn into one. You can be a great team defender. But as far as taking control of the game, it’s one of those things where you are born with that intensity or with what we call that ‘dog’ in you.”

Thanks Ben. As for the rest of the points, I don’t think Dumars’ philosophy has been entirely wrong — traditional positions have become somewhat obsolete, pure point guards are a rarity nowadays and, since he clearly believed a player with Stuckey’s skillset could be an offensive centerpiece, he was right to think surrounding Stuckey with perimeter threats like Gordon, Villanueva and, to a lesser extent, Daye, should’ve helped Stuckey excel. I think he certainly miscalculated on the players he chose to fill those roles and I think he clearly paid way too much for them while casting aside cheaper, more talented options. But again, that’s not the debate here today. My question is simply, why the drastic change in philosophy? Why reinvent the wheel?

Although it’s true the game has changed some over the last four or five seasons, it hasn’t been some sort of seismic shift. The Spurs, Celtics, Lakers and Mavs all won titles over the last five years by being really good defensive teams. The Bulls became an elite team last year built around a smothering defense, and for all of the hand-wringing about the Heat, they’re actually one of the better defensive teams in recent NBA history. Defense hasn’t changed that much, even if officiating does disallow some of the more physical stuff the 2004 Pistons did. That team wasn’t some relic of a lost era. The Pistons of the last decade were talented enough that they would’ve adjusted to today’s tighter officiating (although it probably would’ve taken about 1,000 Rasheed Wallace technicals to make that adjustment).

There is certainly more positional ambiguity today than there was 20 or so years ago, but Chris Paul would like to tell you that pure point guards still exist. Heck, Walker Russell is proof that even traditional point guards with limited talent can make valuable contributions in today’s NBA. Things have evolved, as they always do in sports, but Dumars seemed to be preparing for an offensive revolution that he perceived to be much greater than what was actually happening.

He clearly changed philosophies. This is the first year that the organization has uttered the phrase ‘rebuilding.’ There’s a reason they’ve been hesitant to do that — ‘rebuilding’ suggests that what you’ve been doing has been a failure. But they’re now at the point where it’s impossible to classify the last three seasons as anything but failure. Via Justin Rogers at MLive, here are some comments from Dumars after this year’s draft:

“When we’ve been at our best, it’s because we knew we were putting guys on the floor who would give there (sic) all and do things the right way. We all know we had some slippage in that department over the last year or two. This is a direct effort to reaffirm who we’ve been and why we have these banners in this building.”

‘Reaffirming who we’ve been’ suggests that decisions that preceded this year’s draft were not ‘who the Pistons have been.’ It’s an indirect admission that mistakes were made, that the drastic philosophical shift towards offensive players wasn’t necessary and that the old way was better.

Why did Dumars change? Unless one of the handful of interviews he gives out each year is to the guy who once built a game recap around around what Austin Daye ate for dinner, I will probably never get an answer for that question. As a fan though, it still haunts me. It’s just so strange.

Dumars became a prodigy among GMs. The ‘genius’ tag was tossed around pretty frequently at one time. Other than Jerry West, at one time, you could’ve made a case that Dumars was the most successful star-player-turned-executive ever. Most people who have that kind of success become so married to their philosophy that they never change, occasionally to their detriment. Dumars was the opposite. He stubbornly and rapidly changed course, as if he’d become convinced that the philosophies that delivered his great successes – fiscal responsibility, identifying under-valued talent, toughness, work ethic and defense as core organizational values, etc. – were untenable, and he couldn’t be convinced otherwise. There have certainly been several forces at work that have made the Pistons what they are today, but chief among them was a mysterious, largely unexplained change in how Dumars believed he needed to go about building a successful basketball team. There isn’t a rational explanation for why that happened.

#JoeDumarsWeek

Monday:

• Intro post
• Joe Dumars’ draft track record is strong
• 3-on-3: Joe Dumars drafting
• Poll: Grade Joe Dumars’ total draft history

Modeled after ESPN’s 5-on-5, Patrick and I will answer three questions about a Pistons-related topic.

For each 3-on-3, we’ll be joined by a guest contributor. Today, that’s Matt Moore of CBSSports.com. Hardwood Paroxysm and NBC Sports’ ProBasketballTalk.com.

1. Who was Joe Dumars’ best draft pick?

Dan Feldman: Tayshaun Prince. Picking Prince 23rd in any draft would have been a steal, but 23rd in the 2002 draft is special. None of the 12 players picked before him ever amounted to much in the NBA. To find a near All-Star in that barren wasteland is special.

Patrick Hayes: Mehmet Okur. Since 1990, Okur is one of just 17 players who weren’t first round picks to make an All-Star team. Dumars’ strength in drafts has been finding talent late, and although Okur had his best years after leaving Detroit as a free agent, finding an All-Star big man in the second round is probably the best value pick Dumars has made.

Matt Moore: Tayshaun Prince. Greg Monroe is my first answer, because I hate obvious answers. But come on. Prince will have his jersey in the rafters. Total production, championship ring, highlight reel play (The Block).

2. Who was Joe Dumars’ worst draft pick?

Dan Feldman: Darko. I’m convinced nearly every other would have drafted Darko with the No. 2 pick in 2003, but that doesn’t completely absolve Dumars. The next three picks – Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade – became stars, and even the No. 6 pick, Chris Kaman, made an All-Star game. Dumars could have picked a name out of a hat and done better.

Patrick Hayes: The entire 2009 draft. Taking Austin Daye at No. 15 over Ty Lawson, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Jeff Teague and Eric Maynor will always be the high-profile miss from this draft, but taking DaJuan Summers in the second round at No. 35 when DeJuan Blair was still on the board was worse. Add giving away a pretty solid player in Chase Budinger to Houston, and not even finding Jonas Jerebko at No. 39 can salvage this mess of a draft.

Matt Moore: /desperately searches for a way around the Darko pick. /still searching. /seriously, gotta find one. /it’s here somewhere, I know it. / Nope. Darko.

3. How do you rate Joe Dumars’ total draft record?

Dan Feldman: Excellent. Darko, Rodney White and Mateen Cleaves were high-profile busts, but even with them included, Dumars has done a quality job. He’s been hurt in the draft by the Pistons’ extended run of success – even good picks in the 20s probably aren’t game changers – but with more high picks coming, I’m convinced the draft will be a reliable source of talent for the rebuilding Pistons.

Patrick Hayes: More good than bad. He’s missed on a couple of high profile picks, but he’s consistently found legitimate rotation players all over the draft – Okur, Brian Cardinal, Tayshaun Prince, Amir Johnson, Arron Afflalo, Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, Jerebko, Carlos Delfino and Greg Monroe give him enough quality over the years to make a case that he knows how to identify talent in the draft. Whether he knows how to develop it is another discussion.

Matt Moore: Really well, actually. Darko busted but still starts in this league all these years later. Jerebko, steal. Afflalo, steal. Knight, quality. Monroe, future All-Star. Delfino, capable player. Dumars can draft. He just never puts himself in a position to draft multiple picks to reform the team.

What do you think? Share your answers in the comments.

He chose Darko, so he’s terrible! He found Tayshaun Prince in a weak draft, so he’s great!

That sort of analysis is unhelpful. Dumars has made some great draft picks. He’s also made some terrible picks. That’s true of anyone whose been a general manager as long as he has.

To truly gauge Dumars’ drafting ability, we should look at the entire body of work. Thankfully, Justin Kubatko of Basketball-Reference.com developed a system to do just that.

Kubatko created a chart of win shares a player should earn during his first four seasons, based on draft position. Using just the first four years – the length of rookie scale contracts – most fairly links a draftees’ play with the executive who picked him, rather than skewing the numbers with the player’s production long after he’s drafted.

The drawback to this method is just the draft classes that have spent four years in the NBA can be assessed. That means Austin Daye (likely a bad pick), DaJuan Summers (likely a bad pick), Jonas Jerebko (already earned more win shares than expected), Greg Monroe (certainly a good pick), Terrico White (almost certainly a bad pick), Brandon Knight (tossup), Kyle Singler (tossup) and Vernon Macklin (tossup) can’t be evaluated yet.

I think that’s fair. If we truly want to grade Dumars’ drafting, there’s no point declaring someone like Knight a success or failure at this very moment.

I also think it’s fair to include his 2008 draft picks, even though they’re not four seasons removed from being drafted. Two – Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington – never played in the NBA and likely never will, and the one who did – Walter Sharpe – might be even less likely to join an NBA team in the future.

Here’s Dumars’ draft history, from 2000-08, with each player’s expected and actual win shares through the first four seasons of his career:

A +16.5 in win shares is significant. That’s enough leeway to for all of Dumars’ picks through Monroe to retire today and still have Dumars come out ahead. Put another way, you could add a No. 5 pick who never played a minute in the NBA to the ledger, and Dumars would still have a positive draft record.

Granted, maybe Dumars shouldn’t get too much credit for a couple of his late picks drastically over-performing when he missed (12) more picks than he hit (8).* But most of Dumars’ misses came between picks 51 and 60, a range where the difference between a hit and a player never making a roster is minimal.

*Remember, this is based on historical production by pick, not the common over-hyped perception of draft picks. So the league average of hits is 50 percent (give or take).

In many ways, the draft presents a perfect setup for outside evaluation of a general manager.

We don’t know which trades Dumars has turned down and proposed. We don’t know which free agents would and wouldn’t consider Detroit, and of those who would, how much money they’d want to sign here.

But we know which players Dumars can draft, because the players have little to no choice in the matter.

Sure, win shares aren’t a perfect measure, though I don’t see a player on the above list that they misrepresent. And some drafts are stronger than others, but given how long Dumars has run the Pistons, I think that evens out.

My conclusion isn’t an approval of Dumars’ reign as GM. The Pistons have obviously struggled to develop too many of their draft picks, and that’s certainly an indictment of Dumars. But that point is moot unless he drafts good players.

He’s shown, over the long run, he does that better than most.

Hopefully, the injury doesn’t cause him to miss a lot of time — he’ll probably join a long line of famous masked Pistons like Bill Laimbeer, Antonio McDyess, Rip Hamilton and Charlie Villanueva. In the meantime, though, Knight’s absence allowed another rookie to show what he can do as a team’s primary lead guard.

Walker Russell‘s circumstances are quite different from Knight’s. Knight is a prized, highly hyped lottery pick who will be given ample opportunities to turn himself into a good NBA player. Russell has no such guarantees. He’s playing without a guaranteed contract. If not for a long list of injuries, the Pistons would’ve never signed him even to that non-guaranteed deal. He’ll be 30-years-old later this year. And when the Pistons regulars do return, there’s no guarantee, despite his solid play, that he’ll even hang around on the roster.

Saturday’s audition was big for Russell, and he made the most of it. He showed for an extended stretch what he has shown in the brief flashes of playing time the Pistons have given him: he can run a NBA offense, he always looks to make plays for others, he competes hard on defense and he takes care of the basketball. He scored nine points with four assists, two turnovers and two steals. If the Pistons can’t keep him, he might not be a difference maker, but he will give competent minutes off of most benches in a league that overall doesn’t have an abundance of unselfish, smart point guards.

But Russell’s performance didn’t just do him some favors if he finds himself in need of a new team soon. Subbing the minutes of a shoot-first player in Knight (he’s been getting incrementally better as a passer, but his first inclination his entire life has been to score the ball) for a pass-first (and maybe pass-second) player in Russell allowed the Pistons other shot-loving rotation players the chance to play more freely. Ignoring last night’s performance by Knight for a minute, when he’s been in the lineup, the Pistons offense hasn’t looked good. That’s not all Knight’s fault, but because he’s a shoot-first guy and because Rodney Stuckey and Tayshaun Prince are shoot-first guys, they all kind of struggle for power at times. All three guys possess some ability to create for others and all three possess some ability to create shots for themselves. What is usually missing is an understanding of who is supposed to do what. Sometimes all three are too assertive, sometimes none of them are. What has resulted has been a mess of an offense with no true facilitator and three guys who all seem to want that job, but none of the three showing he can do it full-time. Oh, and complicating things, the one guy who is a natural facilitator, who should have the offense running through him, Greg Monroe, plays center, so he relies on others to get him the ball. As we’ve seen all season, there are many games Monroe doesn’t touch it enough as a result.

Subbing Russell for Knight makes that problem less complex. When Russell’s in the game, he brings the ball up, he starts the offense and Prince and Stuckey didn’t have to worry about figuring out when they were supposed to take turns as playmakers and when they were supposed to simply take the shots that came to them.

Monroe also was heavily involved. He finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds, and he also got 17 shots, the most he’s had in the last four games.

I was looking forward to seeing how Knight followed up that first really good performance of his career. It’s disappointing he didn’t get a chance at it tonight, but the game wasn’t a total waste, either. Hopefully, he’s learning how to have command of an offense and run it efficiently when he gets to watch Russell out there.

Big plays by veterans

Stuckey and Prince didn’t have good games overall, but both helped put the game away late with key plays and big shots.

Prince made a nice pass to Jason Maxiell for a dunk to the the Pistons up five with 2:31 left. Stuckey hit a contested 18-footer off the dribble to put the Pistons up seven with less than two minutes left. Maxiell snuck in for an offensive rebound/dunk to put the Pistons up five with less than a minute to go.

Stuckey had a poor shooting night (5-for-13), but he got more aggressive in the second half and started getting to the free throw line by driving inside more. He was passive in the first half, didn’t get a couple of calls, and settled for jumpers after that. It was good to see him come out more aggressive, particularly late in the third quarter and in the fourth.

Prince also shot poorly, and he and a few others got torched by Trevor Ariza for 17 first half points. Prince did a little better job on him in the second half.

Maxiell had another fantastic game. Last night, I mentioned Maxiell’s previous struggles as a starter. He had a good game as a starter against Milwaukee, but due to injuries, the Bucks were starting their typical backup frontcourt guys. Tonight, Maxiell finished with 10 points, 5 rebounds and a block against a big frontline of Emeka Okafor and Jason Smith. Those guys certainly aren’t All-Stars, but Maxiell has often had problems getting shots off inside against taller players. He was active and delivered another encouraging performance in what has been a nice bounce-back season for him so far.

Jerebko impresses again

After a rough stretch of games where Jonas Jerebko wasn’t his energetic self, his activity has come back nicely over the last three games. He scored 11 points and had five rebounds against the Hornets.

More importantly, though, he’s stayed out of foul trouble the last three games. When Jerebko picks up quick fouls, he becomes much less aggressive. A non-aggressive Jerebko is a non-effective Jerebko. He’s a huge asset with his constant motion and activity when he can stay on the court.

Knight’s scoring early was impossible to ignore. He hit 3-pointers, attacked the basket, drew fouls and scored 18 first half points (and a career high 26 in the game), helping the Pistons get off to a good start for a change, something they’ve rarely been able to do this season. The scoring was certainly nice, but for the first time this season, Knight made the correct pass and delivered those passes with precision consistently throughout the game.

He finished with seven assists. He was owed a few more — Jason Maxiell, Jonas Jerebko and Tayshaun Prince all missed very make-able shots off of great passes in the first half that should have resulted in assists. But the outcome wasn’t as important as the setup. Knight’s passes were on target. He made amazing passes through traffic for layups. He made basic passes that simply kept the offense flowing. He has done neither of those things particularly well this season. For the first time, Knight’s production matched the rhetoric that he could be the starting point guard of the future.

Another name that came up in discussions of Knight today is Rodney Stuckey, both because Ben Gulker noted that Stuckey’s rookie assist/turnover numbers were far superior to Knight’s and because of my arguments with a couple Stuckey-loving slappies. I’m reminded of something Dan Feldman wrote about Stuckey earlier this season:

Stuckey is – obviously to nearly everybody – not close to Westbrook’s level. Playing through injury during a blowout loss won’t get him there. Playing well consistently will.

Once Stuckey gets healthy, that’s what I hope to see from him – not just sporadic bursts of energy, focus and production when it suits him.

Stuckey deserves credit for playing well enough lately to raise expectations, and I’m hoping this is finally the time he’ll break through. But he must earn it in games that don’t hold extra meaning to him.

Stuckey has undeniable talent and things he does well. But, as Dan noted, he’s spent four plus seasons now trying to turn into a player who can do more than offer tantalizing glimpses at a player capable of being more than simply a serviceable rotation player.

Knight’s performance against Milwaukee was a nice surprise considering his recent struggles and the fact that he arguably his worst pro game against these same Bucks less than a week ago. Knight isn’t the same player as Stuckey, but his challenge is the same: performances like this have to become routine, not pleasant surprises, if he’s going to become the player the Pistons think he is. As Stuckey has show during his career, finding that consistency isn’t so easy.

Greg Monroe does what Greg Monroe does

Nothing to see here, just a young center bullying like he does every night. Monroe had 18 points and 11 rebounds. He still didn’t shoot enough — he finished 7-for-12 with Knight and Prince both taking more shots than him. Nearly every time Monroe catches the ball around the basket, he gets a quality look for himself, even if they don’t all go in (but seriously … a large percentage go in, throw him the ball a lot more!).

He is still having a bit of a turnover issue. He had four more tonight, so that’s 14 in his last three games. But, as commenter David noted the other night, at least Monroe is making up a bit for those turnovers by getting steals at the other end. He had two vs. Milwaukee and now has nine over the last three games.

Jonas Jerebko helps everyone

Jerebko’s stats aren’t going to jump off at anyone — 6 points, 3 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block in 22 minutes — but when he’s his active self, as he was tonight, he really helps the Pistons’ offense have some flow to it.

The Pistons don’t have many players who move without the ball. Stuckey, Knight and Prince all like to have the ball in their hands. Monroe doesn’t get it as often as he should, but he’s also a player who can be effective by touching the ball a lot on offense.

But for any of those players to look better when they are dominating the ball, they need movement. When they don’t get it, the offense is arguably the ugliest in the league. I’ve noted a few times that Monroe, in particular, benefits from an active Jerebko in the lineup because, unlike the others mentioned, Monroe is really good at hitting cutters and Jerebko is really good at making cuts.

Well, if Knight’s performance tonight is an indication, he might have the ability to pass on the move to guys who are also moving. Three times in the game, Knight got penetration and found Jerebko for an easy layup, then hit him trailing a play for a dunk and set up a short jumper that Jerebko will normally make, he just didn’t in this case. Jerebko’s minutes are somewhat limited because he’s had foul problems this season and, because of his frenetic style, he gets tired. A tired Jerebko is less effective. But when Lawrence Frank can keep him fresh and when Jerebko can keep himself from picking up cheap fouls, he can potentially help make Knight an even better player by providing a constant target for him.

Passive Austin Daye returns

Daye had a frustrating performance against Milwaukee. When he had a few good games to break out of his bad shooting slump a couple weeks ago, Daye was using his jumper to set up his dribble. The key, obviously, is he had to take his jumper and make it to make the defense understand it’s a threat. Those makes from the perimeter gave him more opportunities to put it on the floor.

Against the Bucks, Daye was hesitant to shoot his jumper again. He passed up good looks. He dribbled into worse shots than the ones he passed up. He missed a jumper in the third quarter and was slow to get back on defense, leading to an uncontested Milwaukee dunk and also leading to Daye taking a seat on the bench for the rest of the evening.

Daye is another lighting rod of debate around here, with a few commenters frequently objecting to Frank’s short leash with him. Tonight, it appeared that Daye’s teammates helped Frank make the decision. Knight and Maxiell were both visibly upset when Daye passed up good looks at shots on offense. Stuckey seemed upset with him on the transition dunk. It’s a recurring theme with Daye. If he doesn’t immediately make shots when he enters the game, his confidence is shot and his passivity afterwards hurts the team. Tonight was one of those nights for him. It became clear that the team couldn’t leave him on the floor. I have no idea how the Pistons solve whatever confidence issues he has.

Maxiell hits the boards

During John Kuester’s first season, he rewarded Jason Maxiell‘s hustle and solid play off the bench by giving him the first prolonged starting stretch of his career. The results weren’t good. Maxiell was over-matched against most starters and it took away one of his clear advantages: he often feasts against slow backup centers off the bench. So when Maxiell entered the starting lineup against New Jersey, I was worried that it might undo some of the production he’d been giving the team in his bench role. He didn’t play well against the Nets, but he had a nice game in his second start tonight against the Bucks, finishing with 8 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks (one on a Brandon Jennings floater ended up in the third row and the other was a traditional Maxiell smash from behind off the backboard). Surprisingly, it was his jumper that made him useful offensively. He looks much more comfortable taking shots in that 10-15 feet range than he ever has before.

Maxiell is not going to be effective every night, but he’s rebounding, blocking shots and playing energetic defense again this season. Plus, he looks like he’s in much better shape than he was last season. He, like many on the roster, still needs a prolonged streak of consistent play to rebuild his value, but at the very least, he’s getting there.

Defending Jennings

Brandon Jennings always has big games against the Pistons, and his improvement this season is a big reason the Bucks are still solid despite being hit with a ton of injuries. Plus, he always plays great against the Pistons. He got off to a good start and the Pistons couldn’t prevent him from pushing the ball up court and couldn’t keep him out of the lane early. But they adjusted, and Knight, Stuckey and Walker Russell all took turns at him, playing effective defense from about the second quarter on. Jennings only finished with one assist (partially a product of horrid shooting by his team) and he only scored four points in the second half.

2. Greg Monroe, Pistons
How good has Monroe been this year? Not good enough to get Detroit out of the bottom five of the league, unfortunately, but I’ll tell you this: If Detroit was a better team, then Blake Griffin would have some competition for "best of class."

Monroe is top 12 in the NBA in PER and offensive rebound rate and top 20 in overall rebound rate. And while Detroit is an awful defensive team, only Ben Wallace is playing better defense than Monroe, who has to carry an offensive burden far more than Wallace does.

There are still questions about how Monroe would perform on a better team, or if he’s good enough to be a top-three player on a good team. But all things considered, no one in this class besides Griffin can touch Monroe right now.

Thorpe also ranked Jonas Jerebko fairly high:

14. Jonas Jerebko, Pistons (missed last year due to injury)
Jerebko is proof that tall guys who compete really hard can find their way on an NBA roster and even get playing time on bad teams. JJ hustles everywhere, even when he shouldn’t sometimes, like when he catches in space and tries to dribble attack. As a decent midrange shooter and an adequate defender, his energy is what ultimately gets him on the court.

After the inbound pass Prince holds the ball, guarded by the much smaller Keith Bogans, on the right wing. Greg Monroe is in the low-post. Brandon Knight and Jonas Jerebko stand at the left elbow.

Knight comes over to set a pick for Tayshaun Prince. Prince does a very poor job of using the screen, because as you can see, Knight must make a huge step to the right in order to give Prince any opportunity to get away from his defender. Luckily, the referees did not call a moving-screen violation. Unfortunately, the play wouldn’t get better, anyhow.

The Nets switch Deron Williams onto Tayshaun and Bogans stays with Knight. Williams is fast and strong enough to deny penetration by Prince. Meanwhile, Jerebko sets an off-ball screen for Walker Russell while Tayshaun drives left. I believe this was meant to be a hand-off, but Russell somehow simply runs into Jerebko.

Now, there are six players within a couple of feet of each other. Jerebko makes the correct read and fades out to the 3-point line, where he will receive the pass.

Note that the Pistons haven’t used (and will not use) their most effective scorer and one of their better screeners – Monroe – during this possession.

Jerebko has a pretty clear path toward the basket and tries to drive the ball into middle, while Prince hinders Shawne Williams to recover. Knight and Monroe (best shooter, best scorer on the court) are completely out of the picture.

Deron Williams makes another great read and quickly switches onto Jerebko, denying the penetration. Jerebko, who has little experience, gives the ball back to the veteran and let him isolate rather than giving the ball to Monroe, who is covered by Kris Humpries, one of the premier post defenders in NBA history (hint: irony).

Prince posts up Shawne Williams. Williams has several advantages, if not all. He is quicker, and more athletic.

Also, look at the bad spacing of the Pistons. Russell and Jerebko are in no position to score whatsoever. Monroe could take one more step inside to get within his range. Knight sort of hides far away from the basket, but at least he spaces the floor a little bit.

All the Nets are in position to help if Prince gets past his man. Knight should run over to the left wing to take one defender out of the picture, and if his defender decides to double team Prince, Knight could receive a pass and nail a 3-pointer. Jerebko should have stepped into Knight’s spot to create even more space. Another 3-point shooter other than Knight would have certainly helped, but I can’t blame Lawrence Frank for having Russell on the court.

Prince takes the contested fade-away jumper that was to be expected. Do you see Knight? No? Well, he is wide open at the top of the key. All five Nets are in the paint area, and Prince must recognize that. You cannot leave one of your best shooters wide open just so you can take a jumper with a hand in your face –unless you are Kobe Bryant, which Prince is not.

Another possible option would have been passing to Monroe, who has perfect position on Humphries. Granted, this would have been a risky pass, but still possible.

Patrick has written a lot written about Prince’s propensity to shoot, and this is a perfect example. We should let the youngsters try to win games like this. I just don’t see Prince making major contributions much longer, and the Pistons would be better off giving their green players these end-of-game shots.

There were no shortage of moments that would disgust the most even-tempered of coaches in Tuesday’s loss to the Knicks. Landry Fields made his first six shots. Carmelo Anthony, famous for never passing to anyone ever, had five assists by halftime. Amar’e Stoudemire plays no defense, yet the Pistons rarely attacked him, either with penetrating guards challenging him or by looking for post players to establish position. But above all, the unforced turnovers are the most unwatchable problem the Pistons have right now.

Turnovers have plagued Brandon Knight this season, but that’s to be expected as a young rookie point guard forced into huge minutes because of all of the Pistons’ backcourt injuries. The trend, though, is spreading. Greg Monroe had six turnovers by the start of the fourth quarter. The team as a whole turned it over 20 times and did so in a variety of ways.

Some of them were the brainless type. Monroe made a weak outlet pass without bothering to notice that a Knick was standing right in between him and his target. Austin Daye, with no defensive pressure, simply dribbled the ball off his foot as he tried to advance it up court.

Some of them were bad calls. Monroe is getting no respect from officials. Tyson Chandler played him physically, reached in frequently and on more than one occasion stripped the ball away from him while having a chunk of arm or jersey as well.

Some were the Rodney Stuckey variety — aimlessly driving into traffic, drawing easy charge calls or throwing the ball away after getting caught in the air with nowhere to go.

As a result, the game was obviously another difficult one to watch. There are few positives to point out with the Pistons, which is why I admire Fox Sports Detroit not really trying anymore. Ryan Field was sharing LeBron James’ reaction tweets about Blake Griffin’s dunk on Kendrick Perkins and FSD was running stories about the Madison Square Garden renovations. Really, what else are they supposed to talk about? The Pistons have now lost 10 of 11 games, including six straight. Four of those six have been by 20 points or more. Knight’s play has fallen off drastically. After a semi-positive three-game stretch that looked like Tayshaun Prince was coming out of his shooting slump, he’s regressed back to his mean this season.

The Pistons aren’t going to stumble onto many positives that result in wins this season. Instead, they should be focused on smaller goals. Reducing the turnovers will keep games more competitive. Getting Monroe more touches will make the offense run more smoothly. Those should be the team’s two immediate priorities.

Greg Monroe needs to shoot way more

At the risk of being a broken record … you know what? … scratch that. I will continue to scream about this point as long as it is an obvious and obnoxious trend. Tayshaun Prince shoots way too much. Greg Monroe shoots nowhere near enough.

Monroe is one of the most efficient scorers in the league this season. Prince is a terribly inefficient scorer. It’s ridiculous that after tonight’s game, both guys are attempting 12.3 shots per game. Prince is shooting 41 percent this season. He never draws fouls and he doesn’t create shots for teammates. He is way too involved in the offense.

Although Monroe doesn’t draw a lot of fouls yet, he does get contact on many plays. He’s still a young, unproven player, and he’ll eventually get those calls. On top of that, he shoots a high percentage, he puts pressure on a defense and he sets up good shots for teammates.

Prince was signed to be a veteran leader. I’m worried that Prince’s interpretation of that might make him think that means he’s a go-to player. If Monroe is going to keep developing, Prince needs to take a backseat in the offense and be the complimentary player his skillset suggests he should be.

Walker Russell is the team’s best passing guard

There’s strong evidence that Walker Russell is only a temporary Piston who will probably play elsewhere when the team’s other guards get healthy. The great thing for Russell is he’s created a market for himself by showing in Detroit that he’s a smart, capable bench player who probably should’ve been in the NBA sooner. The unfortunate part for the Pistons is that if he does indeed go elsewhere, they’ll be back to a collection of guards who aren’t particularly good at setting up others.

Prince doesn’t deserve the entirety of the blame for the offense running poorly — he’s just taking too many shots and stopping the ball. Knight and Stuckey are also bogging down the offense. Knight’s turnovers are a problem and Stuckey is still too often over-dribbling and not creating good passing angles to get the ball into the post. Neither player creates easy shots for teammates. When Russell is in the game, he’s able to change the tempo, he has good court vision and awareness and he routinely gets players open jumpers or layups. Russell isn’t a long-term piece given his age and non-guaranteed contract, but the Pistons’ offense will get worse if he’s not on the roster.

Jerebko gets it going

Hopefully, after playing only 15 minutes tonight, Jonas Jerebko is primed for a big contribution tomorrow. Jerebko, who has struggled with his shot of late, hit all four attempts tonight and grabbed four rebounds. He also got a little feisty with Renaldo Balkman late in the game.

It might be time to start Jerebko again. The Pistons are getting jumped on at the beginning of games. Maybe Jerebko’s energy to start the game could prevent them from starting in such big holes.

Unfortunately, less efficient scorers Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye took more shots than him and, not surprisingly, didn’t hit many of them. They combined to shoot just 13-for-42. It’s even more frustrating when you consider three of Monroe’s 12 attempts were missed tip-ins that came on a single possession.

The other night, I went into detail about how the Pistons just simply played dumb basketball. They did it again, so there’s no point in expounding in great detail once again. Bad teams often don’t play smart, and the Pistons don’t. What has been confounding is that Prince, in particular, and Stuckey to some extent, have been around long enough to recognize when a post guy has a definite advantage and get him the ball a lot. The Pistons have technical issues too — the perimeter guys as a whole do a really terrible job of creating good enough spacing to make entry passes, so as a result, they often throw the ball around a lot, can’t get it to Monroe in a good spot, then settle for a long jumper when the shot clock is running down.

The Pistons don’t have many easily correctable problems, but this seemingly should’ve been one. In the first quarter at one point, Monroe had just three shots while Stuckey/Prince had combined to take 12. There’s no possible way that the Pistons could’ve gone into this game without talking about getting Monroe the ball a lot. It’s disappointing that they didn’t do it much early and it’s disappointing that they didn’t really make the necessary adjustments to get him more shots. It’s on the coaching staff and it’s on the guys on the floor for not recognizing an obvious mismatch the entire game.

Plenty more bad games are ahead for the Pistons this season, but watching the failure of veteran players in particular to recognize mismatches has been probably the most frustrating part of the season for me.

Knight and Daye struggle in reversed ways

Against Philadelphia, Brandon Knight played poorly, but he stayed aggressive. He still looked for his shot (even if he missed 13-of-17) and he came up with a steal and a couple of deflections on defense. Lawrence Frank lived with the struggles and Knight still played 37 minutes.

Against Milwaukee, he played poorly and wasn’t aggressive. He only shot the ball four times (making zero), he turned it over four times and he failed to be an impediment at all to Brandon Jennings, who was in the lane most of the night. Consequently, Knight was benched.

Most of the season, Austin Daye struggled with his shot, became passive on the court and passed up good looks that were in his range. As a result, Frank benched him and removed him from the rotation for several games.

Against Milwaukee, Daye’s shot wasn’t falling, but he kept aggressively looking for it. He played 37 minutes.

Although I think Frank has been to patient with mistake-prone veterans, I think he’s clearly been consistent with how he handles young players, and this is a perfect illustration of it. Much of the season, Knight has been allowed to play through ups and downs because he plays hard, with energy and aggressively. Daye has not because he’s often been passive and lacked energy. Tonight the roles reversed, and Daye was allowed to play through his shooting struggles because of his activity while Knight wasn’t because of his passivity.

Agree or disagree with how Frank is handling their minutes, at least he’s being consistent in his reasoning.

What to make of Jerebko?

I agreed with Frank’s thinking when he decided to bring Jonas Jerebko off the bench to save him from early fouls. The problem is Jerebko’s offense is clearly hurt by not playing as much with Monroe. Jerebko is great at moving without the ball and Monroe is great at finding cutters. Jerebko isn’t a great perimeter shooter, but the attention Monroe draws gets Jerebko cleaner looks from outside. As a reserve, Jerebko’s shooting has fallen from 47 to 43 percent. His 3-point shooting has fallen from 36 to 26 percent.

I don’t think it’s terribly vital to start Jerebko, his future in the league might be as a high energy combo forward off the bench anyway. But the chemistry he and Monroe were developing might be more important than Jerebko picking up the occasional cheap foul.

• Teams: Detroit Pistons at Philadelphia 76ers
• Date: Jan. 28, 2012
• Time: 7 p.m.
• Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

• Pistons: 4-16
• Sixers: 13-6

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Brandon Knight
• Rodney Stuckey
• Tayshaun Prince or Damien Wilkins
• Ben Wallace
• Greg Monroe

Sixers:

• Jrue Holiday
• Jodie Meeks
• Andre Iguodala
• Elton Brand
• Tony Battie

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +14.5

Over/under: 178.5

Score: Sixers win, 96.5-82

Three things to watch

1. Can they score at the rim?

In a double-digit loss at Philadelphia earlier this month, the Pistons got plenty of shots near the basket, they just struggled to finish them. In tonight’s game, one of the Philadelphia players who bothered a lot of those shots, Spencer Hawes, is out of the lineup, so that should remove one obstacle. Still, Philly has a lot of length on its front line and the Pistons will need to take advantage of opportunities inside to have any chance.

2. Can they score from the perimeter?

The other issue in the previous meeting between these teams was Detroit’s horrible 3-point shooting. The Pistons shot 0-for-10 from distance, and many of those shots were good, open looks. With Austin Daye‘s shot seemingly straightened out, hopefully  the Pistons are a bit more successful from outside tonight.

3. Matching the potent Philly bench

Philadelphia has several players having good seasons, but surprisingly, their leading scorer is sixth man Lou Williams. Williams averages nearly 16 a game off the Philadelphia bench. Thad Young is averaging 12.3 points per game as a reserve and Evan Turner is right on the verge of giving Philly three double figures scorers of its bench at 9.9 points per game.

Bench play has been a weakness for the Pistons most of the season, but with Daye’s improved shooting over the last two games as well as Jason Maxiell‘s re-emergence as a living, breathing NBA player and the energy that Jonas Jerebko and Walker Russell provide, the Philly bench vs. Detroit bench shouldn’t be nearly the mismatch it would’ve been a couple weeks ago.