ORLANDO, Fla. — The Detroit Pistons have a bench problem.
Through 59 games per NBA.com, Detroit’s bench has a net rating of minus-5.4, which is tied for worst in the NBA. To add insult to injury, the bench logged 1,080 minutes through those first 59 games, which ranks 10th in the entire NBA. So, not only is the Pistons’ bench significantly underperforming, but also it is playing a lot of minutes while doing so.
Advertisement
Head coach Monty Williams has shown an interest all season in trotting out an all-bench unit. Even if an opposing team leaves in another starter or two, Williams has routinely combatted with his backups. It wasn’t until Friday’s loss against Cleveland that Williams shook things up significantly. After the all-bench lineup was putrid once again in the first half, allowing the Cavaliers to build a big lead early and, in turn, win the ball game, Williams staggered his best two on-ball creators — Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey — for a significant stretch in the second half for what felt like the first time all season. He also played Isaiah Stewart at center. That worked well.
However, even with making tweaks that benefited Detroit, Williams didn’t appear 100 percent sold on the idea of staggering Ivey and Cade after the game.
“We’ve talked about it and I’m sure everyone else is talking about it,” Williams said after the 110-100 defeat on Friday, a game in which everyone on Detroit’s bench was a minus-10 to minus-14 in the first half. “The tough part is, if I take (Ivey) out and bring him back with the second unit, no matter how you slice it, you’re going to have two small guards out there with Malachi (Flynn) and (Marcus) Sasser and Ivey. It’s a tough one.”
The solution feels simple. Williams could cut his rotation down to eight men on most nights, adjusting accordingly, depending on foul trouble, injuries and situations. Detroit doesn’t have the firepower to go 10 or 11 deep like Williams, more often than not, has this season — not if the Pistons want to win more games down the stretch.
Williams said he prefers to float between nine and 10 players on most nights, but given the back half of this roster and how the starters tend to hold their own semi-regularly, eight feels like a sweet spot for a team trying to once again avoid being the worst team in the NBA and build momentum going into the offseason.
Below, I put together a rotation chart to show how an eight-man rotation would work for the Pistons and why I believe it would check a lot of boxes down the final stretch of the season.
Playing the best 5 players big minutes
For starters, Detroit has five players it considers as part of its future, and not coincidently, those five also are the team’s most impactful players. Cunningham, Ivey (who, at 6 foot 4, I wouldn’t classify as “small”), Ausar Thompson, Stewart and Jalen Duren should be playing 30-plus minutes per night.
Advertisement
Getting those five to all regularly play 30-plus minutes per night shouldn’t be too hard. They’re all young and haven’t had much court time to build chemistry with one another. All it would take is cutting James Wiseman out of the rotation. Wiseman can still get minutes here and there if Duren gets into foul trouble early in games, which does happen from time to time.
Stewart as a backup center
Williams has said that the five names mentioned above will be the starters for the foreseeable future. And while some may quibble over taking out Thompson or Stewart and adding more spacing in the form of Simone Fontecchio, I’m not going to be too critical of a bad defensive team starting games with its best defensive unit.
But whether Stewart starts moving forward, he should eat up most of the backup center minutes. Taking him out early in the first and third quarters not only allows Fontecchio to come in and be a spacer alongside Cunningham, but also Stewart can then come back late in the first and third quarters to play backup center before returning at the end of each half to play power forward alongside Duren in closing lineups. Take a look at the chart above to see what that rotation would look like.
The Stewart-at-center minutes worked very well for Detroit against the Cavaliers in the second half. Williams used a lineup of Cunningham-Evan Fournier-Fontecchio-Thompson-Stewart and that group outscored Cleveland by 11.
Staggering Cunningham and Ivey
It took 59 games, but it happened. Detroit should always have one of these two on the floor more often than not because Cunningham and Ivey are the team’s two best self-creators on a team that probably only has three.
Part of the issue with Detroit’s all-bench unit on Friday was that Grimes and Fontecchio were playing alongside Flynn. There is barely any playmaking in that group. Grimes and Fontecchio are best used as complementary pieces, not shot creators — at least not as often as it would happen if that trio were used regularly.
Advertisement
Staggering Cunningham and Ivey doesn’t just keep one of the team’s two best scorers on the floor at all times, but also puts one of them and, for stretches, Sasser next to Grimes and Fontecchio, which allows them to get more spot-up opportunities and be utilized in off-ball actions.
Additionally, I like the idea of attaching the minutes of Cunningham and Thompson. Aside from the fun moments we get from those two in transition, Thompson’s defensive presence allows Cunningham to guard the second-best player on the opposing team.
Play those who are part of future in bigger roles
Lastly, this eight-man rotation also accomplishes the developmental aspect of things. Sasser will be guaranteed 20-plus minutes every night in this type of situation. He’s one of the more efficient scorers in the NBA, although he only averages 16.3 minutes per game. It would benefit everyone to see what the rookie’s numbers might look like in a bigger and more consistent role. It’s likely that Flynn and Fournier won’t be in Detroit after this season.
As for Grimes, he gets the short end of the stick in this hypothetical rotation, but he is still battling a minor knee strain. Limiting him to 18-20 minutes down the stretch could help manage that so he goes into the summer as healthy as possible. Detroit, though, could use his wing defense and spot-up shooting for long stretches.
Two, nine-minute stints per night feels like a lot for most players in the moment, even if it just comes out to 18 minutes in total. That would allow Grimes to play alongside all of Ivey, Cunningham and Sasser at some point during his minutes.
For Fontecchio, 24 minutes is on the low end but that can be adjusted if the minutes with him at the four are going better on some nights in comparison to others, whether that is alongside Stewart or Duren in the frontcourt. In this scenario, Fontecchio plays power forward for a significant stretch alongside both Duren and Stewart separately, while always playing with at least one playmaking guard.
As I said before, it feels like Detroit is doing both him and Grimes a bit of a disservice on offense, asking them to be primary creators. In my opinion, both need at least one of Cunningham, Ivey or Sasser with them.
(Photo of Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
