We all knew that Josh Smith had become a detrimental player on the court – at least for the Detroit Pistons – with his inability to space the floor and the horrible shot selections that crippled the offense.
What we didn’t know was just how capable the Pistons would be with him out of the lineup.
On Dec. 22, new team president and coach Stan Van Gundy made the boldest move of the season by flat-out waiving Smith – a player who still had two years and over $26 million remaining on his contract.
Since then, Detroit has gone undefeated.
Think about that for a second. This team had five wins through its first 28 games! They were essentially competing with the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks to be the very worst team in the league. After a shockingly impressive victory on the road over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, though, their winning streak reached six – again, more than they had through 28 games – and the Pistons are now just four games behind the Miami Heat for the eighth seed.
For what it’s worth, the Spurs have been struggling over the past few weeks, losing eight of their last 12 games. Still, it would have been unfathomable to think that they would lose at home to the Pistons even just a week ago.
San Antonio actually did have a three-point lead down the stretch with 11 seconds left on the clock but elected to foul rather than give up a 3-point shot, giving Jodie Meeks two free throws. Then, uncharacteristically, the ball was turned over on the other end, leading to Brandon Jennings’ magical finish to essentially end the game:
The amazing finish (at least for Detroit) had the team celebrating in joy afterward. Andre Drummond, who had a monster game with 20 points and 17 rebounds, decided to get bold about the now-flourishing Jennings:
@BrandonJennings is playing like a animal!! His name should be in the running for the @NBAAllStar game! Brandon Jennings #NBABallot
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummondd) January 7, 2015
Not to rain on his parade, but the big man should try to relax and think things through a bit here. Six games does not make an All-Star out of anybody, and as great as his game-winner was, Jennings did shoot just 5-of-18 from the field against the Spurs. To be fair, the point guard has had some terrific games over the course of the winning streak and is averaging 14.1 points on 40.8 percent shooting from the field (which is about to take a dive after this game) and 6.3 assists.
What the Pistons are doing right now is pretty exciting stuff and quite reminiscent of the Toronto Raptors’ turnaround after trading away Rudy Gay last season. At this point, there is no reason to think they can’t continue the monumental turnaround. Heck, Van Gundy might even deserve some kind of an award for his amazing executive decision-making. But yeah, let’s scale it back on the whole “Jennings for All-Star” thing.
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James Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.