If anyone needed a miracle worker, it was the Detroit Pistons. They snagged perhaps the league's best shooting coach in Fred Vinson from the Pelicans.
He oversaw multiple serious shooting developments in New Orleans:
Brandon Ingram: 32.9% from 3 in LA | 37.2% since
Lonzo Ball: 31.5% from 3 in LA | 37.2% since
Herb Jones: 28.8% from 3 in college | 37.3% with NOLA
Jose Alvarado: 29.1% from 3 in college | 37.7% this season
Naji Marshall: 28.9% in college | 38.7% this season
They all increased or at least maintained their volume as well.
As a team, the Pistons were 27th in 3P frequency and 26th in 3p%. More importantly, most of their core's jumpers needs work:
Jaden Ivey shot 33.6% on 4.8 3PA per game
Ausar Thompson shot 18.6% 🤮🤢on 1.8 attempts
Ron Holland (5th overall pick) shot 24% on 3.6 attempts with the G-League Ignite
There have been hopes of a Jalen Duren jumper but it hasn't actualized yet
Even Cade got off to a rough start, but upped his 3 to 35.5% this season. I'm not worried about his shot, but bringing it from good to elite could raise him to a new level
Detroit did bring in shooters in Malik Beasley, Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr., and briging back Simone Fontecchio, but transforming the shots of that young core together is most important.
If Detroit wants to keep that group together, there needs to be a major development, especially for Ausar, Holland, and Ivey. For their sake I hope they do, because it's a really talented, athletic bunch that would be very fun if they can figure it out.
Better spacing is also crucial to give them the environment to succeed and see how good they can really be. It's hard to fully evaluate their prospects true potential when they had little room to work with.
Time for Vinson to work some magic.Â