According to Zach Harper of CBS Sports, Brandon Jennings said that the Pistons don’t practice shooting.
The Detroit Pistons are 3-10 so far this season and they are second to last in team field goal percentage with 41 percent. A lot of people thought that Stan Van Gundy was going to be able to come in and help this team solve their offensive woes, but that hasn’t exactly been the case. To go along with the awful shooting percentages, they only average 92.2 points per game which ranks them 27th in the league.
This team had a lot of issues last season, but they ended up in the middle of the pack on offense and near the bottom of the bunch on defense. Van Gundy was named the head coach in hopes that he could make Detroit into the type of team that he had in Orlando. Brandon Jennings had something to say about the practices that Van Gundy has been running. Via MLive.com:
“If you ask the question about why we’re not making shots, we don’t shoot,” Jennings said after Friday’s 99-89 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. “We don’t shoot in practice. We haven’t really had a chance to work on our games or anything. When we do have shootarounds, we’re not able to get up shots like we should.”
“I just think if you’re going to have shootaround in the morning, I think it’s good that you get loose and you should work on shots that you’re going to take in the game,” he said. “Even before, after practice, we’ve got to start getting in the gym, just working on our game more.”
Is it the responsibility of players or coaches to make sure those shooting repetitions happen?
“Both,” Jennings said.
Ironically, Jennings isn’t the one who’s having the worst shooting woes so far this season. Jennings actually has career highs in field goal percentage and 3-point shooting. However, the Pistons do have three starters who are shooting under 40 percent from the field. One of those players is Andre Drummond, due to the fact that they are trying to convert him into a post scorer. Drummond shot 62.3 percent from the floor last year and he has dropped to 39.7 percent this year.
Hopefully, for Detroit’s sake, Van Gundy and staff will hear what Jennings is saying and let the team get more shots up. It’s not a surprise that they’re struggling with shooting if they aren’t even putting enough time into practicing it.
