Stan Van Gundy, president of basketball operations, has proven himself pretty good at figuring out what he needs and getting it without blowing a hole in his budget. Witness what he’s done in less than the past calendar year, acquiring three starters – Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris and Ersan Ilyasova – for the grand total of two role players and three future second-round picks.
Stan Van Gundy, coach, is really good at figuring out how to make it work with what he already has. He came to the Pistons with that reputation and burnished it in his first season when he turned a 5-23 start into a 27-27 finish despite the dislocation caused by a season-ending injury to Brandon Jennings and the subsequent upheaval necessitated by the trade to address that injury, the Jackson acquisition.
So … here we are, more than a quarter of a way into Van Gundy’s second season with the Pistons smack in the middle of an Eastern Conference demolition derby. Teams are bumping into each other up and down the standings, two games separating No. 1 Cleveland (13-7) from No. 10 Detroit (12-10).
All 10 of those teams, no doubt, have reason to feel pretty good, all things considered. And it’s fair to say the next three teams in the pecking order – Washington, New York and Milwaukee – are still pushing their chips to the middle of the table, though it’s worth noting there’s a bigger gap between the Pistons and Cavs than there is between the Pistons and the Bucks in in the 13th spot.
But you can make a pretty strong case that the Pistons are better positioned than most to produce a better record over the final three quarters of the season than they’ve managed to date. That case would go something like this: The Pistons have endured a more trying schedule than almost all of the Eastern Conference contenders so far. Only Toronto among the nine teams ahead of the Pistons has played more road games, 13 to Detroit’s 12. Only the Raptors and Indiana among those teams has a greater disparity in the number of home games vs. road games, the Raptors at minus-four and the Pacers minus-three to the Pistons’ minus-two. Miami has played nine more home than road games and sits just 11/2 games ahead of the Pistons in the standings. The Charlotte team that beat the Pistons on Monday night has played four more home than road games. The Pistons have also stacked their games up in a way that won’t affect them as much over the final three-fourths of the season. They’ve already played six of their 20 back-to-back sets. More critically, they’ve already played five of the eight games this season where they’re on a back to back against a team that was off the previous night – the case in Monday’s loss to Charlotte. Only three more of those lopsided equations over their final 60 games after five among the first 22. After they get through this week – which sees them go from one three-in-four stretch to another, starting with Wednesday’s home game against Memphis – the month begins to turn a little kinder. The Pistons play five games this week, then get three straight weeks with only three games apiece. Or try this: After the Pistons play at Philadelphia on Friday and come home to host Indiana on Saturday, they will have played seven sets of back to backs in the season’s first 46 days. They’ll have only two back to backs in the next 44 days. Nobody has more help arriving – not among teams not guaranteed a playoff berth, at least. Cleveland gets Kyrie Irving back soon, of course, and that’s the most significant single addition any team will make. But there was never any doubt about Cleveland’s playoff viability. The Cavs went into the season the overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference. Even if they don’t wind up a runaway No. 1 seed, they’re safely in the field as long as No. 23 stays upright. Toronto is doing better than treading water while Jonas Valanciunas rehabs a broken hand and Chicago is doing well while it waits on Mike Dunleavy. Boston has plenty of backcourt depth to survive the next few weeks without Marcus Smart and Indiana is equipped to play without rookie Myles Turner for another month or so. The Pistons are waiting on both Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks and if they come back as the players they left as, then they address a few issues simultaneously – depth and scoring. No starting five has been better, by the numbers, than the five Van Gundy has sent out to start all 22 games so far: Jackson, Morris, Ilyasova, Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. A deeper, more consistent bench with ample firepower will allow Van Gundy to play those starters as a group even more than he already is. And, finally, there’s the Van Gundy factor. His teams get better as seasons unfold. That’s the general rule. His first Miami team started the season 5-15. They went 20-21 over the next 41 games – half a season – then finished on a 17-4 kick, not unlike the 12-3 stretch the Pistons fashioned after their 5-23 start. He took a 40-win Orlando team he inherited and took them to 52 wins, then to 59 and 59 again. Van Gundy, the executive, is showing a deft touch at figuring out how to augment his central parts and do it with cost effectiveness. Van Gundy, the coach, is at that point of the season where he maximizes the potential of what he already has on hand.
Only Toronto among the nine teams ahead of the Pistons has played more road games, 13 to Detroit’s 12. Only the Raptors and Indiana among those teams has a greater disparity in the number of home games vs. road games, the Raptors at minus-four and the Pacers minus-three to the Pistons’ minus-two.
Miami has played nine more home than road games and sits just 11/2 games ahead of the Pistons in the standings. The Charlotte team that beat the Pistons on Monday night has played four more home than road games.
The Pistons have also stacked their games up in a way that won’t affect them as much over the final three-fourths of the season. They’ve already played six of their 20 back-to-back sets. More critically, they’ve already played five of the eight games this season where they’re on a back to back against a team that was off the previous night – the case in Monday’s loss to Charlotte. Only three more of those lopsided equations over their final 60 games after five among the first 22.
After they get through this week – which sees them go from one three-in-four stretch to another, starting with Wednesday’s home game against Memphis – the month begins to turn a little kinder. The Pistons play five games this week, then get three straight weeks with only three games apiece.
Or try this: After the Pistons play at Philadelphia on Friday and come home to host Indiana on Saturday, they will have played seven sets of back to backs in the season’s first 46 days. They’ll have only two back to backs in the next 44 days.
Nobody has more help arriving – not among teams not guaranteed a playoff berth, at least. Cleveland gets Kyrie Irving back soon, of course, and that’s the most significant single addition any team will make. But there was never any doubt about Cleveland’s playoff viability. The Cavs went into the season the overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference. Even if they don’t wind up a runaway No. 1 seed, they’re safely in the field as long as No. 23 stays upright. Toronto is doing better than treading water while Jonas Valanciunas rehabs a broken hand and Chicago is doing well while it waits on Mike Dunleavy. Boston has plenty of backcourt depth to survive the next few weeks without Marcus Smart and Indiana is equipped to play without rookie Myles Turner for another month or so. The Pistons are waiting on both Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks and if they come back as the players they left as, then they address a few issues simultaneously – depth and scoring. No starting five has been better, by the numbers, than the five Van Gundy has sent out to start all 22 games so far: Jackson, Morris, Ilyasova, Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. A deeper, more consistent bench with ample firepower will allow Van Gundy to play those starters as a group even more than he already is. And, finally, there’s the Van Gundy factor. His teams get better as seasons unfold. That’s the general rule. His first Miami team started the season 5-15. They went 20-21 over the next 41 games – half a season – then finished on a 17-4 kick, not unlike the 12-3 stretch the Pistons fashioned after their 5-23 start. He took a 40-win Orlando team he inherited and took them to 52 wins, then to 59 and 59 again. Van Gundy, the executive, is showing a deft touch at figuring out how to augment his central parts and do it with cost effectiveness. Van Gundy, the coach, is at that point of the season where he maximizes the potential of what he already has on hand.
Cleveland gets Kyrie Irving back soon, of course, and that’s the most significant single addition any team will make. But there was never any doubt about Cleveland’s playoff viability. The Cavs went into the season the overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference. Even if they don’t wind up a runaway No. 1 seed, they’re safely in the field as long as No. 23 stays upright.
Toronto is doing better than treading water while Jonas Valanciunas rehabs a broken hand and Chicago is doing well while it waits on Mike Dunleavy. Boston has plenty of backcourt depth to survive the next few weeks without Marcus Smart and Indiana is equipped to play without rookie Myles Turner for another month or so.
The Pistons are waiting on both Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks and if they come back as the players they left as, then they address a few issues simultaneously – depth and scoring.
No starting five has been better, by the numbers, than the five Van Gundy has sent out to start all 22 games so far: Jackson, Morris, Ilyasova, Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. A deeper, more consistent bench with ample firepower will allow Van Gundy to play those starters as a group even more than he already is.
And, finally, there’s the Van Gundy factor. His teams get better as seasons unfold. That’s the general rule. His first Miami team started the season 5-15. They went 20-21 over the next 41 games – half a season – then finished on a 17-4 kick, not unlike the 12-3 stretch the Pistons fashioned after their 5-23 start. He took a 40-win Orlando team he inherited and took them to 52 wins, then to 59 and 59 again. Van Gundy, the executive, is showing a deft touch at figuring out how to augment his central parts and do it with cost effectiveness. Van Gundy, the coach, is at that point of the season where he maximizes the potential of what he already has on hand.
His teams get better as seasons unfold. That’s the general rule. His first Miami team started the season 5-15. They went 20-21 over the next 41 games – half a season – then finished on a 17-4 kick, not unlike the 12-3 stretch the Pistons fashioned after their 5-23 start.
He took a 40-win Orlando team he inherited and took them to 52 wins, then to 59 and 59 again.
Van Gundy, the executive, is showing a deft touch at figuring out how to augment his central parts and do it with cost effectiveness. Van Gundy, the coach, is at that point of the season where he maximizes the potential of what he already has on hand.
