History made it abundantly evident there would be nights like these for the Pistons. Bracing for them doesn’t make their reality any easier to digest.
“I’m embarrassed. We should be embarrassed for the Detroit Pistons brand,” Dwane Casey said after his young lineup fell 117-89 to the reigning NBA champions who bore little resemblance to the team Milwaukee fielded to win that title a few months ago – except for two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. “The effort we had … we can’t control whether shots go in, but you can control the effort and I just thought our effort was lacking tonight.”
And the shots most assuredly did not go in during this painful chapter in the restoration of the Pistons on the watch of Casey and general manager Troy Weaver.
The Pistons came into the game last in the NBA in scoring and 3-point shooting and they’ll tighten their grip when Tuesday’s results are folded into the totals. They shot 32 percent overall and 17 percent from the 3-point line. Peel away Jerami Grant’s 4 of 8 accuracy from the arc and his teammates combined to make 4 of 39 from three – 10.2 percent.
Grant’s resume lends some perspective to the Pistons plight. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014 amid the height – or the depths, if you prefer – of their “Process,” the most extreme example of an NBA franchise undertaking a down-to-the-studs rebuilding project. Here he is, seven years later, an Olympic gold medalist and the anchor for a team filled with prospects who are a few more seasons of repetitions and a few more off-seasons of intense development away from a similar blossoming.
Grant finished with 21 points despite playing just half the game, Casey clearing his bench in the fourth quarter with the game long since decided. He hit 8 of 13 shots, meaning the 13 other Pistons who played were 22 of 80 for the game.
The four other starters shot 9 of 40 against a Bucks team that got MVP-level production from Antetokounmpo – 28 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and four blocked shots in 27 minutes – on a night they were without two of Grant’s Olympic champion teammates, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, in addition to Brook Lopez and Donte DiVinczeno. Grant doesn’t have to dig too deeply into his memory bank to relate to the travails his young teammates are experiencing.
“They’ve been doing a good job of working hard, but getting a taste of the NBA, getting a little experience, will definitely help them going forward. It doesn’t make it any easier, going through what we’re going through, but it is normal growing pains for young guys just getting into the NBA.”
Saddiq Bey missed his first nine shots and finished 2 of 13 and 0 of 4 from three. No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham, playing his second game, shot 2 of 14 and missed all nine of his 3-point attempts.
“Young man is, what, second game in the NBA after being off a month?” Casey asked. “That’s part of his rust. That’s why we tried to get him some minutes toward the end, just to get some rust off the pipes.”
Cunningham flashed some of the playmaking and shotmaking flair around the errant triples and history is rife with stories of future stars who floundered to launch their careers. It also can’t help the rookie that so many around him are simultaneously finding their way and struggling to get shots to drop. And with every miss, Casey saw the numbing effect set in.
“I just think the energy level, when you didn’t see shots going in, shoulders dropped, heads dropped, lost their confidence,” he said. “They work with coach (John) Beilein every day. I’ve seen them make shots in practice. But now we’ve got to transfer that to the game and you can’t let that deflate you.”
Casey understood it was going to take time to cobble together a coherent offense given the lack of experience on his roster – and especially in a starting lineup that consists of three 20-year-olds and four players in their first or second seasons. And that was before Cunningham missed essentially all of training camp and the preseason plus the first four regular-season games with an ankle injury.
So while the anemic offense and alarming shooting numbers surely will earn his scrutiny, his more immediate concern is getting a bunch of young players who’ve never known true adversity in their sport from having their collective spirit crushed.
“We had a great shootaround this morning,” Casey said, “but we let our missed shots take our effort and our energy down the drain. That’s what good teams do to you when you don’t bring it and they capitalize on your mistakes.”
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