6) Jacque Vaughn is not good with his player rotations.
A coach must use the personnel he has effectively.
When the Pistons relentlessly attacked the basket in the first half, Jacque Vaughn stood strong with Channing Frye and Nikola Vucevic. The Pistons (and Stan Van Gundy) smelled blood and took it to the rim. Detroit shot 45 free throws and assisted 35 of its 49 field goals.
The paint should be sacred to a defense, and the Magic allowed Detroit to violate it. The thing is, the situation could have been prevented by putting Kyle O’Quinn in for Frye, but Vaughn did not. Kyle proceeded to score on three of his first four shots, while also rejecting a shot.
Then he sat after those four brief minutes. O’Quinn played just 14 minutes in the game but blocked three of the Magic’s five blocks. How does that not warrant more playing time against a team that is devouring Vucevic and Frye?
The blame for Jennings’ parades to the basket falls not entirely on Payton, because with O’Quinn to protect the goal, Payton could have taken more chances defensively.
Once Jennings got by him, the Pistons had few problems getting dunks, lobs, layups, all of it. Jennings’ 20th assist of the game came on a lob pass to Drummond, and it was fitting because that was emblematic of how poorly the Magic did with preventing Pistons’ interior scoring.
Detroit scored 70 of its 128 points in the paint, and the starting frontcourt had 64 points compared to just 42 from Orlando’s.
Essentially, Vaughn really should have rewarded Willie Green by leaving him the lineup after the Magic got within two points. Instead, he turned to Elfrid Payton which sent the offense into a tailspin. Obviously, we’ve seen Payton work some magic with the ball, but against teams with two big men to change shots, it does not quite jive.
Next: A better second unit?