Detroit Pistons head coach Dwane Casey wants to cut down Blake Griffin's usage rate in terms of handling the ball so the team can be more “diversified” on offense.
Often times last season, if Griffin wasn't playing well on offense, the Pistons would get stuck and wouldn't be able to score. Detroit averaged just 107.0 points per game in 2018-19 — which was 25th in the NBA.
The Pistons should be more explosive on offense in 2019-20 after signing former MVP Derrick Rose this offseason. Dwane Casey expects Detroit to be more unpredictable in the final minutes of the game instead of just force feeding Griffin.
“That’s our goal. We’ve got to be. We were very predictable – out of necessity, so to speak – and I thought the second half of the year, once Reggie came around and was making shots and Luke shot the ball very well, I thought we were a little bit more diversified,” Casey told Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
“Then Blake went down and for the playoffs we lost our mojo a little bit. But that’s our goal, to be more diversified, cut Blake’s usage rate down somewhat as far as not handling the ball. But a lot of stuff we run is through him, whether it’s him scoring or him (dribble handoffing). To give a different look and be a little bit more flexible, I do know that Derrick brings that to the table. I think Bruce Brown has added an element of being able to make plays off of the dribble and then Andre, I think we found something in him in transition, bringing the ball down the floor, DHOing, getting the offense initiated off of the rebound. He’s going to rebound a lot, so that bust-out and that triggering the break is huge for us. I thought he was responsible and very disciplined in that situation, bringing it down, as long as he kept it on the sideline. He did a good job of triggering our break for us.”
Rose averaged 18.0 points per game for the Minnesota Timberwolves last season. He will take some of the pressure off from Blake Griffin, especially in the fourth quarter.
Griffin put up 24.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in 2018-19. The Pistons will go as far as the high-flyer can take them, but they will also need their role players to step up and help Griffin in crunch time.
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