Why Pistons GT is using Ramo Radoncic at point going into last-chance tournament
August 13, 2020
By Vince Ellis
Special for Pistons.com
You can count Pistons Gaming Team members among those asking for a do-over with 2020.
The team finished the NBA 2K season with a 3-13 record, which tied Lakers Gaming for last place.
Pistons GT general manager Adam Rubin says the team never recovered after being forced to remote game play to follow Michigan’s stay-at-home orders because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the regular season lost, Pistons GT has started looking to the future.
But in planning for the future, Pistons GT’s experimentation offers one last hope to salvage this season.
Big man Ramo Radoncic has been moved to point guard in recent weeks and Rubin says that’s the figuration Pistons GT will deploy when it competes in The Ticket tournament, which starts Thursday night.
The league’s 10th and final playoff spot is at stake. Raptors Uprising Gaming Club completed a 16-0 season to earn the top seed for the league’s third postseason. The next eight teams earned spots, but the other 14 teams will vie for the last spot. The 10th-place T-Wolves Gaming automatically gets a spot in the finals.
Radoncic is averaging nearly 32 points per game since Rubin and Pistons GT coach Duane Burton made the move after The Turn tournament.
It hasn’t led to much success; the Pistons haven’t won a best-of-three series since the move.
But in scouting to see who else will be brought back next season, Rubin thinks Radoncic at the point gives Pistons GT its best shot.
“At point guard, he’s scoring a ton and it’s giving us the opportunity to evaluate the other positions,” Rubin said. “The move was to simply evaluate our talent and see where they could play because where we had them slotted this year didn’t net the results we wanted.”
Rubin and Burton aren’t under any illusions, though. With a 5-27 record over the last two seasons, change is in the air.
Pistons GT knows Radoncic, who is playmaker wherever he plays, will be at center next season. The team is allowed to bring back up to four players.
By playing Radoncic at point guard, it allows team brass to evaluate other players, who are manning other spots.
“After two less than stellar seasons, we have to take a hard look at who’s coming back next year so we don’t continue to have bad seasons,” Rubin said.