Detroit Pistons: Griffin, Drummond must fire on all cylinders to reach playoffs

The Detroit Pistons need Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond to fire on all cylinders this season if they wish to make their first playoff appearance since 2016

The Detroit Pistons have been in NBA purgatory for quite some time, but after acquiring Blake Griffin from the Los Angeles Clippers back in January, there’s a bit of a buzz surrounding their team.

But if they’re going to make the playoffs, the Pistons need Griffin and center Andre Drummond to fire on all cylinders, defying the notion that two elite big men can’t coexist alongside each other in today’s NBA.

When the Pistons acquired Griffin, it was obvious that it was going to take some time for him to get into the swing of things, mostly with his new frontline mate (Drummond). Griffin and Drummond aren’t anything alike in terms of their skill sets. Griffin is capable of handling the rock and scoring in a number of ways.

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Ranging from his ability to get to the rim with ease, finish in the paint, finish off fastbreaks, and shoot from the outside when he has to, Griffin is a complete player offensively. At the same time, he’s an underwhelming rebounder for his size and is a below-average defender.

On the other hand, Drummond struggles to pose much more than an offensive rebounding and ally-oop threat in the paint. But what he does bring to the table is a tenacious all-around rebounder. For his career, the center has averaged 13.4 rebounds per game and reeled in a career-high 16.0 rebounds last season. And when Drummond gets the ball inside, he finishes with authority.

At the same time, he’s a career 42.1 percent shooter from the charity stripe, despite shooting a career-best 60.5 percent last season.

But when you put Griffin and Drummond’s skill sets together, they should be able to thrive. Griffin is a scorer who can stretch the floor, and Drummond clogs up the paint and hits the boards with ease. Their games don’t interfere with each other, besides them crossing paths in the paint from time to time. And while the Pistons went 11-14 with Griffin, the big man was thrown into the mix midseason and had to adjust on the fly — which was part of why he averaged just 19.8 points per game in his 25 games with the Pistons.

Plus, when you look at the roster new head coach Dwane Casey has at his disposal, the Pistons should be able to crack the playoffs with Training Camp soon-to-be under their belts in year two of the Griffin era.

Outside of their premier big man duo, point guard Reggie Jackson is vital to the Pistons’ success. He gets to the rim easily, can handle the rock, is explosive, and a willing defender. But over the last two years, he’s averaged just 14.6 points per game and missed 67 games due to injury. If the Pistons offense is going to pose a high-octane bunch, they need scoring from their backcourt which starts with Jackson. And he has shown the ability to do as such over the years, but Jackson has to return to being the explosive Jackson of old.

With Reggie Bullock (who averaged a career-high 11.3 points per game last season), Stanley Johnson, Luke Kennard, Glen Robinson, and Ish Smith in place, the Pistons have some proven commodities in their rotation; it shouldn’t have to be the Griffin-Drummond-Jackson show while everyone else stands around and watches. Plus, Casey is an upgrade over Stan Van Gundy at head coach.

In his time with the Pistons, Van Gundy coached one playoff team (which was in the 2015-16 season), despite having the talent to play deep into the Spring on a yearly basis. Blame was passed around to everyone but him, and while Casey’s Toronto Raptors hit a wall in the postseason every year, they at least played into May and could get out of the first round; the Pistons haven’t been to the second round since 2008.

There are only a handful of surefire playoff teams in the Eastern Conference. The Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards, and Milwaukee Bucks are the most appropriate teams to shoo-in for the playoffs. But the Cleveland Cavaliers lost LeBron James, the Miami Heat are hard to forecast, the Charlotte Hornets are trying to establish an identity, and teams such as the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, and Atlanta Hawks don’t appear ready to make a run at the playoffs in the 2018-19 season.

But, truth be told, the bottom of the conference is wide open.

Out of the teams who didn’t make the playoffs in the East last season, the Pistons are easily the most talented group, though them benefiting from an underwhelming Eastern Conference is reliant on their core members playing up to their normal standards.

Of course, there’s the theory that two big men can’t lead a team and find success in today’s NBA. With the game now reliant on the 3-pointer and athleticism, big men aren’t as much of a necessity as they were 10 years ago. There isn’t a great deal of posting up, or lineups with two players 6-foot-10, or over.

Now, there have been teams who have experimented with building through two elite big men. A year and a half ago, the New Orleans Pelicans pulled off a blockbuster trade to acquire DeMarcus Cousins to play alongside Anthony Davis. And despite the two big men being one of, if not the best player at their respective positions, the Pelicans went just 34-31 with Davis and Cousins at the forefront. And when Cousins suffered a season-ending Achilles injury back in January, the Pelicans went on a run and made it to the second round of the playoffs.

Six years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Dwight Howard which put the center on a frontline that already featured Pau Gasol. And at the time, the 13.7 points per game Gasol accumulated that season were the worst of his career, and the so-called superteam Lakers — who also featured Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash — were demolished by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round after a drama-infested regular season.

Earlier this decade, the Pistons had a talented big man duo themselves with Drummond and Greg Monroe. But they each operated on the same part of the court, weren’t athletic, and the most games they helped accumulate in a single season was 32.

On the other hand, there have been successful attempts at having two elite big men on the same roster, and Griffin was a part of one of them. He and DeAndre Jordan were perfect alongside each other with the Clippers because their games never interfered with the other; Griffin did his thing on the offensive end, while Jordan hit the boards and defended the paint. The same concept worked for Gasol and Joakim Noah when they were on the Bulls in 2014; Gasol thrived in the post and stuck the outside jumper, while Noah found the open man and played at an elite level defensively.

Griffin and Drummond are two of the best big men in the game, and they should be able to play well alongside each other going forward. But talent alone doesn’t buy you a playoff berth in the NBA. They have to flourish and grow into a two-headed monster to get the Detroit Pistons over the hump.