Getting to Know the Opponent with Six Championship Drive

The Milwaukee Bucks will continue preseason play tonight in Detroit as they play a division foe — The Detroit Pistons. To better get to know the Bucks second opponent of the preseason, we look to Six Championship Drive Editor Kevin Alberda to answer on all you need to know about Stan Van Gundy’s new team.

You can also find Alberda’s preview of the Milwaukee Bucks over at Six Championship Drive.

BTBP: The biggest conversation this off-season has been about Greg Monroe and where Josh Smith will fit into the offense now that Stan Van Gundy has made it clear that he won’t play small forward. Greg Monroe played well against Chicago. What are your thoughts on the rotation and what should we see to start the season?

Greg Monroe can be dangerous offensively in the low post. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Alberda: At this point, there’s no question that Greg Monroe is a much better option on offense than Josh Smith. Even if Smith restricts his game to within 10 feet of the hoop, I give Monroe the edge. Considering that Smith has only played within himself one season in his entire ten year career (’09-’10), it’s fair to say that the difference is fairly significant. Even when you consider that Smith, as a PF, is a much more capable defender, Monroe probably offers more overall. I think after Monroe is back from his two game DUI suspension to open the year, he’ll be the starter. However, who finishes games at the two post spots between Drummond, Monroe and Smith will likely depend on situation. In close games, Drummond may be relegated to the bench due to his horrific FT shooting.

In terms of overall minutes, I don’t think that Monroe and Smith will see much of a difference in total minutes. Also, while the main acknowledgement this off-season was that Smith was done at SF, SVG did say something the other day about testing him out there during the pre-season.

BTBP: Speaking of small forward, former Buck Caron Butler should see a lot of time for Detroit. What are your thoughts on the small forward position. Is Kyle Singler a type of player that can contribute a high amount of minutes?

Alberda: I really didn’t like Kyle Singler prior to last season. He didn’t shoot well enough to cover his other shortcomings as a rookie, and I thought at best he should be an end of the bench type of guy. Then he went and somewhat re-styled his game, and now he’s basically the kind of wing every team needs as a role player, assuming his solid shooting last year wasn’t a fluke. He upped his Free Throw Rate from .193 as a rookie to .306 in year two and established himself as the league’s best shooter from the right corner (53% from that spot, according to Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland.com). I’ll probably never be satisfied with Kyle Singler as the starting SF on this team, but he’s good enough for what they use him as.

On Caron Butler, I see him maybe starting at SF, but playing less minutes than Singler. He doesn’t really do much more than shoot at this point in his career. Between Milwaukee and OKC last year, he shot 39.5% on 2P attempts and he only had a .139 FTr.

BTBP: Another Bucks alum will lead the Pistons at point guard. What are Pistons fans expecting from Brandon Jennings and how important is his play in the turnaround SVG expects?

Alberda: I’m sure Bucks fans know that you never know what to expect from Jennings; that’s just the kind of guy and player that he is. I think the only thing you really can expect is that he’s going to be pretty inefficient as a scorer. This will be his 6th season in the NBA and he’s only managed to keep his TS% above 50% in two seasons. However, I was pleased with his development as a distributor last year, and I think that if he can just mimic, or even improve upon, his passing numbers from last season then the Pistons will be okay.

As far as how important he is, Van Gundy’s systems have never really asked the PG to be a savior. He just needs to be good enough that he isn’t a major disruption to the offense. Asking him to improve his defense is probably asking for too much.

BTBP: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shined in Summer League and continued to impress in training camp. Will he make a major leap towards being a viable option for the Pistons?

Alberda: At the risk of sounding like a basketball hipster, I’m a big Summer League fan, so it was really refreshing to see a Pistons player put on such dominant performances. Even if it was against a reduced level of comeptition, KCP looked like an entirely different player. He struggled to stay consistently aggressive as a rookie, but in Orlando he was tuned in to scoring like he did at Georgia. Between the Pistons one pre-season game so far and the games in Orlando, he’s shooting 36% from three in a very high usage role. Without the burden of being asked to create at the end of the shot clock, he may shoot in the 36-38% range this season. I don’t know that the leap he’ll make this season will qualify as “major”, and he may be a year or two away yet from being a viable option. That’s a pretty rosy outlook compared to the way I viewed him last year when he was in the midst of either looking lost on the court or not getting off the bench.

BTBP: Lack of shooting ability killed Detroit last year. Now the Pistons have added Jodie Meeks and D.J. Augustin to answer those issues. Detroit will be a better shooting team this year right?

Alberda: It would be really hard for them to be worse, so I’ll say yes. Last year, they were the 2nd-worst three point shooting team in the league (Philly was worse) and only five teams over the last three seasons have shot a lower percentage from outside. With the additions of Meeks, Augustin and Butler they absolutely should be a much improved outside shooting team. Also helpful is the fact that Josh Smith should play all or the majority of his minutes at PF. Stan Van Gundy knows how important spacing is in the NBA when you have talented post players like the Pistons do.

If Caldwell-Pope can shoot above 35% and Singler doesn’t regress, I’d be willing to predict that they shoot around the league average, which was 36% last season.