Lindsay Hunter better pick up his play soon or he will be sitting at the end of the bench for the Pistons. Hunter has played in 6 games this month for the Pistons and he’s averaging 7.5 minutes, 2.3 points, 0.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game. Hunter appears to be getting phased out by the younger players on the Pistons and that’s probably a good thing.

With the playoffs coming up, Flip Murray picked an awful time to begin playing poorly.  In his 6 games in April, Murray has averaged 4.7 points, 1.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.  He has shot so poorly, hitting only 29% from the floor that he could lose his spot in the rotation for the playoffs if he doesn’t play better in the last couple of games.

The Pistons need Chauncey Billups to shake off his shooting slump if they are to maintain the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference as the Cleveland Cavaliers are making a move.  Billups has only shot 29.4% from the floor in his last six games.  Even with his poor shooting, Billups has averaged 14.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.0 steal per game over his last six.

The Pistons really could use Lindsey Hunter to step up off the bench for them.  With Flip Murray struggling also the Pistons offense really slows when Billups and Hamilton are on the bench.  Hunter has averaged only 13.6 minutes per game this season, but he hasn’t earned any more playing time than that.  Hunter is only shooting 35.5% from the floor this season and he’s averaging 3.9 points and 1.5 assists per game.  He still is playing good defense when he’s on the floor, but the Pistons need him to add to the offense too or they can’t play him.

Both Rasheed Wallace and Flip Murray have been struggling with their shot lately and it’s hurt the Pistons offense.  Rasheed Wallace has not played well in his last 8 games (6 starts) as he’s only averaging 10.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocked shots.  He’s only shot 37.5% from the floor and has only hit 8 of his last 28 three-point shots and he needs to improve that for the Pistons to start to roll in the Eastern Conference.

Flip Murray has not played well in his last 8 games (5 starts).  In those games, Murray has averaged 9.3 points, 1.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.0 steals.  The problem with Murray has been his shooting as he’s only hit 36.1% from the floor and the Pistons need him to be much better than that if he’s going to continue being the first guard off the bench.