With Richard Hamilton and Antonio McDyess back in the starting lineup, and Allen Iverson resting his aching back, the Pistons do not have a true scorer off the bench.
The bench delivered in a road victory against Boston nine days ago, scoring 30 points, and also racked up 48 against depleted Golden State in a blowout last Friday. But in the other three games since Hamilton replaced Iverson in the lineup, the reserves scored a combined 31 points.
That would seem to be the Pistons’ biggest issue until Iverson recovers and becomes a bench player for first time in his career. But head coach Michael Curry doesn’t share that notion.
“How many times are there five guys off the bench at the same time?” he said. “It’s doesn’t happen too often in this league. Most of the time, we always have two starters in the game.”
When those starters are playing with the reserves, the offense revolves around them.
“We just try to run some of the same stuff and try to feature different guys at different times,” Curry said. “Once Allen is back, he’ll just be one of the guys we try to feature as well.”
Jason Maxiell is the reserve corps’ top scorer for the time being, and he’s averaging just 5.6 points. None of the remaining reserves average more than 4.3 points.