If we can take a five-minute break from the ongoing Jalen Duren saga to talk about, you know, basketball, the Detroit Pistons have a lineup option that looks great on paper but also goes against everything head coach JB Bickerstaff believes in.
For the first time in Cade Cunningham’s career, the Pistons have the roster to put four shooters around him and allow him to go to work, an all-shooting lineup that coach Bickerstaff would be foolish not to employ from time to time when he wants to throw the other team off or is desperate for a bucket.
Cade Cunningham and the All Shooting lineup for the Pistons
It’s not a lineup I expect to see JB Bickerstaff deploy often, but the Pistons can run a group of Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Joe, Duncan Robinson, Taurean Prince and John Collins.
If you are counting, that is Cade and four players who all averaged over 40 percent from long range last season.
Both Robinson and Joe are lights out movement shooters who defenses have to chase around, and both Collinas and Prince are guys who are excellent from hitting the corner 3-ball. That is a lot of space opening up around Cade, who knows how to use it.
This is a group that would drive defenses nuts, as there isn’t a single guy you can leave alone, which would theoretically open up the court for Cade Cunningham and make it impossible to double team him with impunity.
If you help off of any of these guys, they can burn you, so teams would have to play Cade straight up, in which case he almost always has an advantage.
It’s an exciting lineup to think of in terms of offense, but there is a flip side that will make it impossible to play this group for long stretches.
The All-Shooting lineup can’t defend or rebound
Putting out a lineup like this goes against JB Bickerstaff’s ethos as a coach, as he preaches defense first and almost always has at least one great defender on the floor.
I don’t know how excited he would be to have Cunningham as his best defender, and as good as this group could be offensively, teams would attack weak spots on the other end.
But both Isaiah Joe and Duncan Robinson are at least smart team defenders. Joe can actually hold his own, so Robinson is the real weak link here. Collins and Prince can both guard up, so this group may not be a complete disaster defensively.
There would also obviously be rebounding concerns, and Detroit would have to take an all hands on deck approach on the defensive glass to keep the other team from getting a ton of extra shots.
Obviously, this isn’t a lineup that JB Bickerstaff can use against any team, but he has options that he didn’t have last season, including putting the engine of his offense on the floor with four guys who can shoot.
