Category: Detroit Pistons Blog

Anthony Tolliver will keep firing 3-pointers

Here’s Michigan Live with insight on Anthony Tolliver, a Piston who, when in doubt, is going to shoot a three-pointer:

More than half of his career field-goal attempts have been 3-pointers, and the uptick over his last two seasons — with Charlotte two years ago, and Phoenix and Detroit last year — has been stark.

In those two analytics-friendly seasons, 89 percent of Tolliver’s attempts were either 3-pointers or within 3 feet of the rim.

A heavy majority of those, 537 of 700, or 76.7 percent of all his field-goal attempts, were 3-pointers. He made 38.7 percent.

He is a 35.6-percent shooter on 3-pointers in his seven NBA seasons, including 36.0 last year in 52 games with Detroit.

That is why, even when the Pistons are faced with some of the bigger power forwards in the league, Tolliver believes he can help to wear them down by forcing defenders to account for broad patches of floor, then sprinting to the other end to buzz around bigger players and combat size with activity and havoc.

Stanley Johnson does not look like a rookie, says coach

There’s been a lot of buzz on Detroit Pistons rookie Stanley Johnson. He’s got our attention. Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy is singing early praises about him as well. Here’s the Detroit Free Press reporting:

“He looks like he’s been out here before,” coach Stan Van Gundy said Wednesday after the first practice of Day 2. “He doesn’t look like a lost rookie at all. He looks like he knows what he’s doing, and he’s ready to play.”

Van Gundy was asked to expound on his comments after Tuesday’s first practice, when he called Johnson “one of the better players” during light scrimmaging.

“He’s physically strong enough obviously to play, which helps him be able to play right away,” Van Gundy said. “He is a smart guy, and he’s also got a great mental toughness. Not a lot of stuff fazes him.”

Van Gundy also elaborated on areas where Johnson has excelled.

“He did a real good job, as he did today, taking the ball to the basket,” Van Gundy said. “I thought he did a real good job of that, getting up and down the floor. Competes hard physically. Still got to do a better job on the defensive end.”

The Detroit Pistons will host an open practice at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday, October 3 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., giving fans their first look at the 2015-16 Detroit Pistons team. Admission is free and guests can enter the arena through the Dodge Atrium located at the west entrance beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The first 500 fans in attendance will receive a free fountain Sprite and first 1,000 fans will take home a Detroit Basketball t-shirt, courtesy of Sprite.

The annual open practice will be the first opportunity for Detroit fans to watch newcomers Ersan Ilyasova, Marcus Morris, first-round selection Stanley Johnson, Aron Baynes and Steve Blake in action on the court while welcoming back Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson and the rest of the Pistons team. Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy will lead the practice and scrimmage beginning at 11:00 a.m.

“We are excited to host the annual open practice and give our fans the opportunity to see the new faces on this year’s roster,” said Stan Van Gundy, Pistons President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach. “Our players and coaching staff look forward to interacting with our fans, giving some insight into how we’ll play this season and providing a fun event.

In the 2014-15 NBA season, guard Reggie Jackson played 50 games for the OKC Thunder and did pretty well, but in the 27 games he played after becoming a Detroit Piston he averaged 17.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game. Big numbers. And now with a big contract, expectations are very high. Here’s Michigan Live reporting:

Expectations, as you might imagine, are high right now for Reggie Jackson.

The point guard landed in Detroit midway through last season, excelled in a starting role and was rewarded soon after with a guaranteed five-year, $80 million contract.

That means all eyes will be on Jackson as training camp kicks off today for the Pistons, a franchise that has missed the postseason the last six seasons.

Pressure?

“Always,” the 25-year-old said Monday during Pistons media day at The Palace. “I’ve got to live up to trying to win a championship. Money is money. I worked just as hard when people said I didn’t have as much, and I’m going to work just as hard after.”

Jackson said he approaches the start of every NBA this season the same way, with one goal in mind: winning a championship. At one point during his time with reporters, he made reference to a photo of Isiah Thomas hanging on the wall in the media room and cited the former Pistons point guard’s two NBA titles.

Pistons, Andre Drummond must work out an extension

Here’s Michigan Live reporting on Pistons center Andre Drummond, whose big potential is a key part of the team’s future, assuming the two sides don’t get a massive amount of money get in the way of that:

It’s the lingering business element and will be resolved, one way or another, by an Oct. 31 deadline. Andre Drummond is entering the final year of his rookie contract and the Pistons have just more than a month to sign him to an extension in the five-year, $120 million range. If they don’t, he can become a restricted free agent next summer. The Pistons plan to pay Drummond the same amount in the same time frame either way, but would like their cornerstone center to delay signing until next year. The reason is because until Drummond actually signs his contract, only his cap-hold figure of about $8.2 million would be factored into the Pistons’ 2016-17 payroll for salary-cap purposes, not the $21 million-plus he actually figures to make that season. If Drummond is willing to wait, the Pistons could take care of all other business before him in summer 2016, then blow through the salary cap to re-sign their own free agent. The two key questions are whether Drummond trusts that to happen and is willing to risk a major injury ruining his windfall. He probably can trust it, probably won’t endure any catastrophe this year, and waiting would help put a better team around him. But it’s his future and his decision.

Some Detroit Pistons players recently learned MMA techniques that they probably won’t be applying in actual basketball games. But some extra toughness and additional training information can’t hurt. Here’s Detroit Live reporting:

The Pistons just wrapped a week of team bonding that saw most of Van Gundy’s youthful roster travel to the UFC training compound in Las Vegas, where they learned MMA techniques from Griffin, heavyweight Stefan Struve and strawweight women’s champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

“I love to do it, I’m excited to do it. I do get a little nervous,” Griffin told MMAJunkie.com. “That’s a very expensive knee going on there. The No. 1 job – my job – is to make sure these guys don’t get hurt.

“Do not get people hurt. Do not get million-dollar athletes hurt.”

From all accounts, the Pistons, who kick off training camp later this month, came away unscathed.