{"id":557762,"date":"2026-01-24T13:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/557762\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T13:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:15:19","slug":"detroit-pistons-need-outside-shooting-and-thats-never-been-clearer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/557762\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Pistons need outside shooting, and that’s never been clearer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons<\/a> are an outlier among the NBA elite.<\/p>\n

In a league that embraces the 3-point shot with every passing season, the Pistons are winning despite being seemingly anemic to it.<\/p>\n

They are 27th in 3-point attempts per game (32) and 21st in 3-point percentage (35%) despite leading the Eastern Conference in record (32-11) by a whopping five games, mostly because they make up for it with strong defense and one of the league\u2019s best transition offenses.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

But there are nights where their inability to hit outside shots bites them. Their 111-104 loss to the Houston Rockets at home<\/a> on Friday, Jan. 23, was one of those nights.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff talks to Detroit Pistons guard Ausar Thompson (9) and center Jalen Duren (0) on a timeout against the Houston Rockets during the first half at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

DEADLINE TIME: Detroit Pistons assets: What Trajan Langdon has at NBA trade deadline<\/a><\/p>\n

The defeat featured one of their worst performances of the season beyond the arc: Seven makes in 32 attempts (21.9%).<\/p>\n

Coupled with an uncharacteristically poor second half on defense, they trailed by as many as 14 as the Rockets ended their four-game winning streak. Two weeks ahead of the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, outside shooting remains one of their biggest needs.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cThings to work on,\u201d coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of the team\u2019s shooting after the loss. \u201cUnderstanding how this team played us, where our spacing needs to be and then how we take advantage of it. And continuing to share the ball and generate the looks that we\u2019re looking for, no matter if they\u2019re going in or not, you\u2019ve gotta play the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys have played the right way, but again, opportunities for us to get better. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been talking about, we\u2019re not a finished product yet and we\u2019re going to use all these games to find ways to improve on the way that teams might play us. Tonight was a good opportunity for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons guard Javonte Green (31) defends against Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) during the first half at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

The Pistons are 7-5 this season when they shoot below 30% on 3s, and 9-6 when they make fewer than 10 3s. Poor outside shooting has been a factor in more than half of their losses. Alternately, they\u2019re 23-5 when they make at least 10 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Duncan Robinson, 2-for-8 beyond the arc Friday, has carried their shooting. He\u2019s knocking down 40.3% of his 3-pointers, for 120 makes \u2013 a pace that would give him 229 makes, second in franchise history (behind only Malik Beasley’s 319 last season) Cade Cunningham is second in makes with 70, on a 32.1% clip. Javonte Green is a distant third, with 48 makes and a percentage of 36.6%.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been good enough defensively to find ways to win in spite of their inconsistency from the arc. Their 108.5 defensive rating \u2013 No. 2 in the league \u2013 is largely thanks to their ability to force turnovers, which they\u2019re second in the league, at 17.4 per game.<\/p>\n

It sparks the Pistons\u2019 offense, as they\u2019re among the leaders in points in the paint and fastbreak points. When they fail to get stops, their transition offense dries up. They allowed Houston to shoot 62.9% in the second half, forcing repeated inboundings and an inability to push the pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t playing to our identity,\u201d Jalen Duren said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s nothing that they did, it was just us. We shot ourselves in the foot. Lack of energy-wise, that wasn\u2019t Pistons basketball. We\u2019ll be back at practice tomorrow, watch the film and see where we can get better at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

If the Pistons wish to upgrade their shooting, they have options. They have all of their first-round picks for the next seven seasons and a trove of second-rounders to include in any deals, in addition to players on tradeable contracts<\/a>. They also have a trade exception worth $14.3 million, which they can use to absorb a player salary up to that amount.<\/p>\n

Will the front office will go big or small to improve the offense, or even make a major move at all? A potential lack of urgency is understandable \u2014 this Pistons team is on pace to be only the third in franchise history to win at least 60 games, well ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

But if there is a move to make, 3-point shooting tops the needs to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we generated some good looks,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cI feel like there was maybe more to be had out there. But they\u2019re a good defensive team, give them credit. They\u2019re big, they\u2019re athletic, they\u2019re physical, they fight through screens, they switch a lot of screens which is typically where you can create your advantages. Those are things we\u2019ll go back and we\u2019ll work on and use tonight to get better from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

MUST WATCH:\u00a0Make\u00a0“The Pistons Pulse”<\/a>\u00a0your go-to Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>) ]\u00a0<\/p>\n

Want more Pistons updates?\u00a0Download our free app<\/a>\u00a0for the latest news, alerts, eNewspaper and more.<\/p>\n

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons need more outside shooting to go as far as possible<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons are an outlier among the NBA elite. In a league that embraces the 3-point shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,909,296,188,3860,4958,194,912,13154,910,6,2828,297],"class_list":["post-557762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-duncan-robinson","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jalen-duren","tag-javonte-green","tag-malik-beasley","tag-nba","tag-nba-trade-deadline","tag-pistons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115950264932548408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}