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The Pistons have a secret weapon lineup

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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 The Detroit Pistons may have stumbled upon a successful lineup combination that they can put on the floor at key moments in games.

There are lineups across the NBA worthy of their own names. The Golden State Warriors had the Death Lineup, a dangerous small-ball lineup capable of going on otherworldly streaks and ending close games in barely more than a few seconds. The Detroit Pistons may have stumbled across a lineup more akin to last season’s Oklahoma City Thunder Megadeth (the moniker coined by Danny Leroux of Real GM) lineup featuring two centers and wing scorers.

While certainly a Megadeth-lite version compared to OKC’s prototype featuring Steven Adams, Enis Kanter, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Andre Roberson, the Pistons’ “secret weapon” lineup has elements of it. This lineup of the Pistons consists of Ish Smith, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tobias Harris, Jon Leuer and Andre Drummond.

We’re about to partake in some small sample size theater, but it’s notable that this lineup has put forth the best overall performance of any unit to see the floor for the Pistons with any regularity. This lineup has outscored their opponents by an impressive 32.3 points per 100 possessions per NBAWowy.

This is based on 51 minutes on the floor together, spanning 96 possessions. This lineup pulls down an impressive 54.1 percent of all rebounds, and a staggering 34.7 percent of all offensive rebounds. This unit doesn’t shoot especially well as a collective with a true shooting percentage of just 52.9, but when you’re getting second-chance opportunities more than one-third of the time, shooting can become more secondary than normal.

Part of this unimpressive true shooting percentage stems from the point guard, Ish Smith. Shooting just 36.9 percent from the field this season (although he’s shooting 45.5 percent when this unit is on the floor), he benefits from Drummond’s imposing presence under the basket. Drummond alone has an offensive rebounding percentage of 16.3 percent and Leuer adds another 10.2 percent on the offensive glass.

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In comparison to what we will for now just call the Big Lineup, the Pistons’ starting lineup of Ish Smith, KCP, Marcus Morris, Tobias Harris and Andre Drummond has underperformed. Over the course of 161 minutes together, this unit has been outscored 112.2 to 107.6 per 100 possessions, yielding a net rating of -4.6.

While this unit shoots marginally better with a true shooting percentage of 55.3 percent (t

he NBA’s eighth-best true shooting team, the Brooklyn Nets, has a TS% of 55.9, so this rate is respectable), they are getting killed on the boards. The starting lineup is o

nly grabbing 45.3 percent of available rebounds. To put that in context, the NBA’s worst rebounding

team is the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Blazers are collecting 45.9 percent of all available rebounds.

To dig a little deeper into the mysteriously disappointing starting lineup, this unit is horrendous on the road. In the Pistons’ six road games in which they’ve played 98 minutes together, the starters are getting outscored by an incredible 126.4 to 105.2 margin per 100 possessions. That’s a -21.2 net rating.

If we’re looking for an easy culprit, we need look no further than the rebounding department. The Pistons’ starting five is pulling in just 40.5 percent of all available rebounds. That’s almost unfathomable considering the fact that Andre Drummond is a virtual lock for about a 25 percent rebounding rate over any decent sample.

While we’re dealing with very small sample sizes here, it might be time to consider playing the Big Lineup more at the expense of the starting lineup. That would mean featuring Leuer at the four more, shifting Harris to the three and bringing Marcus Morris off the bench.

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