Pistons Have NBA's 9th Best Starting Lineup, Says CBS Sports
By Dan Jenkins
@DanTJenkins
Stan Van Gundy is building the Detroit Pistons into a team that he thinks can contend in the Eastern Conference for years to come -- and the league is taking notice.
The average age of the Pistons starters is 24.2 years old, one of the youngest in the league, but that doesn't mean they lack talent. After the team acquired Tobias Harris at the 2016 trade deadline, the team finished with a 16-9 record in games that he started.
With a full training camp under their belt, the members of the Pistons' young core will now look for that success to last an entire season. The writers at CBS Sports think it will, ranking the Pistons' starting group of Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Harris and Andre Drummond as the ninth best in the NBA.
"This was the Pistons' second-most used lineup last season and it was only together for 25 games. But it showed a vast improvement in shot making from the Pistons' starting lineup prior to the Tobias Harris trade. Both were about the same effectiveness overall but this lineup didn't have a ton of time to gel.
Now they'll have an entire training camp and preseason together. The defense should improve and their effective field goal percentage should be above last year's 52.8 percent. Stan Van Gundy trusts every single player in this lineup to do what he asks of them and that will go a long way. They just have to hit shots. Simple as that."
This group made up mostly from other teams' throwaways -- Jackson, Morris and Harris were all acquired for relatively low prices -- looks like it could grow into a force in the East and maybe even compete for championships in the future.