But not everything is perfect in SVG’s new world. For one, Drummond’s free throw shooting percentage is horrendous and shows little signs of improving. In fact, his FT% has actually decreased every year since joining the association, plummeting to his current low of .355.

Matthew Dellavedova intentionally fouling Drummond (via Tom Brenner)

The NBA has modified its rules regarding intentional fouls, but the changes will not save Drummond from quarters where the Pistons find themselves in early bonus. If you’re going to invest heavily on the success of your star player, ideally you’d want a star that is playable throughout a whole game. Unless Drummond shows drastic improvement, his FT% will continue to be a liability for both himself and the team.

For all of the applause SVG deserves for the past offseason and trade deadline this past February, his moves in the cap-bonanza of 2016 might raise a few eyebrows. Headlined by the signings of Jon Leuer for 4yrs/$42mil, Boban Marjanovic for 3yrs/$21m, and Ish Smith for 3yrs/$18mil, the Pistons’ offseason seems underwhelming. It’s difficult to see how any of these moves help the Pistons in the short- or long-term. The contracts become more reasonable as the cap inflates and you factor in that Detroit has to overpay free agents because they are a smaller market, but the players themselves leave something to be desired.

Jon Leuer is a quality player, but overlaps with Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris. He provides some much-needed spacing, but he’s better suited at playing the 5. The Pistons can roll out those lineups for spot minutes, but the bulk of the center timeshare rightfully belongs to Drummond. Adding Boban along with Leuer on a roster with already sporting Drummond and Aron Baynes is just redundant. It’s an 82-game season and there will be nights where a deep center rotation might churn out a few extra W’s, but it comes at the cost of roster spaces and cap space that might be better served elsewhere.

Henry Ellenson and Adam Silver (via Detroit Bad Boys)

The Pistons’ draft only exacerbates their logjam at the 4/5 spot by adding Henry Ellenson into the fold. It’s easy to see where Ellenson fits on paper — as a rangy 4 who can help spread the floor with Drummond and keep the ball moving — but its difficult to see how Ellenson will develop into that player competing with Harris, Leuer and Morris for minutes. Additionally, Ellenson doesn’t have the markings of an NBA-ready defender. Ellenson is a project, one that may end up helping in the long-run and required rather little initial investment. In a shallow draft where most players outside of the top selections are complete question marks, its hard to blame SVG for taking a bunt and selecting Ellenson. However, it would have been nice to see the Pistons add some real shooting to the team with the 18th pick.

Reliable 3-point shooting is something that this team is in woefully short supply off. For all the fanfare and fantasy of SVG recreating his Magic in Detroit, he forgot the key to his 2009 success — surrounding Dwight with a cadre of sharpshooters. Outside of Harris and Morris, nobody on the roster is an above average 3-point shooter. Even then, Harris and Morris just barely make the cut. Reggie Bullock statistically is an above average sharpshooter, but has a hard enough time cracking the rotation that it doesn’t amount to much. KCP, Jackson, Johnson and Ellenson all on paper can shoot, but it remains to be seen if they can get the proficiency level a successful playoff team demands.

(via NBA)

But all of the Pistons’ ‘okay-to-good’ 3-point shooters can turn to ‘good-to-great’ 3-point shooters if Drummond can make the leap — that is, if Drummond can command the low-post gravity that freed shooters for open looks like Dwight did for his teammates in Orlando. The success of the Warriors last season was largely at the hands of Steph Curry, a player so talented that the whole defense had to bend itself to prevent Curry from scoring. This gravity, in turn, allowed his teammates more open looks. A lot is made of Steph’s three-point gravity, but low-post gravity still exists in theory. The league just hasn’t seen a player that can command the respect of a defense down-low, but Drummond is well poised to be that commanding force. He has all the physical tools and a coach that knows how to get the best out of his centers; it now remains to be seen if he can put it all together.

If Drummond can even emulate 70–80% of what Dwight was in Orlando, then SVG’s Pistons start to look scary. Jackson, KCP, Johnson, Morris, Harris, Leuer and Drummond form a legitimate playoff rotation. Ish Smith is a serviceable backup point guard and it wouldn’t be surprising to see SVG get something out of his end-of-bench rotation guys. Going into the 2016–17 season the Pistons are still somewhat of a work-in-progress, but SVG’s figured out the right formula for success before. Now its time to see if he can do it again.