Pistons Were Never in it Against the Suns

Post passing: The abilities of Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum to make plays in the passing game have been tirelessly debated around these parts. All three have the ability to get others involved, all three sometimes struggle to do so. This we know.

But, one area where all three are pretty consistent is entry passes into the post. And by consistent, I mean they are all consistently bad at it. Last night's game was the best illustration of this: Ben Wallace had to catch passes at his feet on at least three occassions. Chris Wilcox had an entry pass go sailing over his head -- he barely got a finger on it when he jumped to try and corral it. Charlie Villanueva was given the ball late after calling for it in good position twice in the first half. By the time he got it, the defense had recovered.

This is a major aspect of the game where the Pistons miss Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton. Both are very fundamentally sound passers, while Gordon/Stuckey/Bynum get moving so fast, sometimes their passes sail on them or are underthrown in halfcourt sets.

Missing Prince/Rip part deux: Obviously the biggest reason the team needs Hamilton and Prince back is to help with the scoring load. Two Pistons starters were playing with major energy and effectiveness early last night. Unfortunately, they were Ben Wallace and Jonas Jerebko, the two starters who opponents have rarely guarded this season.

As Wallace's previous Pistons teams have shown, it is possible to have an effective offense with one starter on the floor who is rarely paid attention to by opposing defenses. Having two in the same lineup? That won't work very often. Even a poor defensive team like Phoenix was able to have a pretty good defensive game by focusing nearly all of their attention on Gordon/Stuckey/Villanueva.

Summers breaks out a bit: DaJuan Summers went from being kind of a disappointment in the preseason after a great Summer League to finding himself on this west coast trip. He had his best game scoring-wise against Phoenix, finishing with 13 points in 23 minutes. He was also the first wing player off the bench again, passing Austin Daye on the depth chart the last two games.