Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has so far done enough in the Summer League to make Detroit Pistons fans forget that GM Joe Dumars selected him in front of Trey Burke in the NBA draft.
The Pistons are expecting to use Caldwell-Pope extensively from off the bench. His shooting started off slowly in the Summer League and came together eventually. Caldwell-Pope will take an aggressive approach to the guard position for the Pistons. He’s not afraid to put up the shot, and his college days indicates that he can be a reliable shooter for the most part.
Caldwell-Pope raised his stock as a college sophomore, averaging 18.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He brings the Pistons potential firepower to back up those other players on the team like Brandon Jennings and Chauncey Billups, who are expected to lead the way offensively for the Pistons.
The rest of the NBA is unsure about Caldwell-Pope, and he also may help the Pistons by catching the opposition off guard with his talents early in the season.
Caldwell-Pope was expected to have a major impact for the Pistons in their hopes to make the NBA playoffs. While they have added additional firepower with Jennings, Billups and Josh Smith, Caldwell-Pope, if he is patient enough to mature slowly into a quality NBA player, is likely to give Detroit even more depth and danger in its outside shooting game.
It’s not likely that Caldwell-Pope will be the NBA Rookie of the Year, but he’ll be the Pistons’ best rookie and perhaps one of their top eight players.
John Raffel is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JohnCarlRaffel, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
