The Detroit Pistons' lineup change is off to a great start
The Detroit Pistons may have stumbled upon their ideal lineup configuration after swapping Tobias Harris to the bench in favor of Jon Leuer.
The Detroit Pistons had to make a change. They had gotten beaten down at home by the Indiana Pacers by a 105-90 score, leading Stan Van Gundy to muse about lineup changes and the players to hold a meeting to discuss touches and effort. They followed that up with perhaps the worst effort of the Van Gundy effort, a horrific 113-2 drubbing at the hands of the Chicago Bulls.
The Pistons trailed 69-34 at halftime and Van Gundy removed the starters in favor of a feisty bench unit that kept pace with the Bulls the rest of the way. After the game, Van Gundy unleashed his now famous “Team meeting, my ass” tirade, and promised that they would not be “trotting that lineup out there again on Wednesday” against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The lineup change seems to have had the intended effect over this admittedly small two-game sample. Leuer is still playing the best basketball of his career over this stretch, and his numbers as a starter are similar to those off the bench. He’s averaging 10.5 points and six rebounds, both marks down just slightly from his season averages. He’s also averaging almost four more minutes per game. This indicates that the Pistons are utilizing his ability to be excellent without needing the ball, and a lineup full of high-usage guys can get their touches while Leuer does what he does so well off the ball.
Again, it’s a small sample size, but the Pistons have found success with this new configuration against the two best teams in the NBA, albeit against a shorthanded Cavaliers squad which might actually have been worse than the Pistons on paper. Be that as it may, keep an eye on how these two players perform in their new roles going forward.
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