AUBURN HILLS – Largely overlooked as the Pistons came down the stretch – amid the scrutiny of Reggie Jackson’s return, Blake Griffin’s injury status and their dwindling playoff chances – was the transformation of the only one of them to play all 82 games.
Ish Smith took all of 20 3-point shots over the 35 games of the 2017 portion of the season. He took more than that, 22, in the six games of April. More than just a willingness to shoot them, Smith made them at a healthy clip: 45 percent.
Smith, at the urging of assistant coach Tim Hardaway, went from shooting a little more than one 3-point shot every other game for the first half of the season to more than two a game after the All-Star break. The trend kept rising, too. Over the last 14 games of the season, Smith attempted 47 3-point shots – nearly half of his season’s total of 101.
The more he shot it, the better he shot it. Over the season’s first 68 games, Smith only twice took as many as three 3-point attempts in a game. He had eight such games in the last 14 and shot 42.5 percent. Of Smith’s 35 made 3-pointers for the season, 57 percent – 20 of them – came in the final 14 games.
And that makes him an entirely different player.
“I like it that he’s shooting it,��� Stan Van Gundy said with about a week left in the season. “I hope it’s something that he’ll actually spend a lot of time on in the summer and continue to shoot it like he has been over the last couple of weeks. I think it adds a totally different dimension to both him and the team. I think that should be an off-season priority with him. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot left – he’ll turn 30 this summer – where he could take a step and so that would be an area where he could.”
The Pistons hovered in and around the top 10 in offensive rating when they had Reggie Jackson available to tag team with Smith for all of the 48 minutes available at point guard.
Before Jackson went down on Dec. 26, Smith drove a largely effective second unit mostly with his flair and efficiency in transition. Pressed into an expanded role during the 37 games Jackson missed with an ankle injury, Smith’s lack of a 3-point threat allowed defenses to play off of him and limit the room to operate for Blake Griffin in the post and Andre Drummond at the rim in pursuit of offensive rebounds or as a target for lobs.
Over those final 14 games, Smith took his scoring average to 12.3 from 10.6 over the first 68 games even though his playing time decreased once Jackson returned with 12 games left in the season and gradually built up his endurance to assume a larger share of the split duties at point guard. Only twice in the season’s final 10 games did Smith play more than 23 minutes. In the 37 games Jackson missed, Smith played at least 30 minutes 18 times.
If Smith comes back next season showing the same confidence in his 3-point shot and gets the same results he achieved over the last month, opponents will fairly quickly adjust the way they’ll defend him. But limiting Smith’s 3-point attempts will come at a cost, exposing defenses to his quick-strike penetration ability.
“I give a lot of credit, obviously, to Ish but a lot of credit to Tim Hardaway,” Van Gundy said. “He’s encouraged him to shoot that when he’s open so people can’t lay off. When you shoot the ball in rhythm and not worried about it, then you’ve got a better chance of making it.”