All throughout the offseason, the Detroit Pistons made sure to bolster their perimeter shooting options after finishing No. 17 in terms of three-point shooting during the 2025-26 regular season. Last year, Duncan Robinson was the only Piston to eclipse the 40% threshold from downtown, so Detroit did not have many outlets beyond the arc until Cade Cunningham boosted his perimeter involvement during the playoffs.
To help rectify that imbalance, Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon brought in a series of accomplished shooters during the summer , but few players in the like can rival Robinson's shooting credentials.
In fact, one of Robinson's former teammates, Max Strus, spoke about Robinson's consistency and the high level of shooting that he made commonplace during the three seasons when they were teammates on the Miami Heat.
"Duncan's got it," Strus said. "One of the best I've ever seen. I think he's up there with Steph Curry to be honest with you— phenomenal. You go watch him workout in a shooting drill or just in a shooting workout, he doesn't miss. The makes are just so pure."
Strus and Robinson were teammates down in South Beach from the 2020-21 campaign until the end of the 2022-23 season, so he had an up close and personal look at what made Duncan such an efficient scorer from long-range. Strus took advantage of his opportunity to work alongside one of the NBA's best shooters while on the Heat, and he says that he's better off for it.
"He helped me," Strus said. "He motivated me to be a better shooter. Credit to Duncan, he took me under his wing the minute I got there and was like, let me shoot with them, let me do workouts with them, taught me a few things about footwork and things like that. We kind of had a similar path. We kind of came from the same place, and we kind of connected on that. He was great for my career and one of the best I've ever seen shoot a basketball."
After playing together on the Heat, Strus was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers for the last three seasons, so he and Robinson squared off against one another during the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season. In that meeting, the Pistons were fairly stifled from distance with Robinson and Cunningham serving as the only Detroit players with significant perimeter gravity, and the Cavs advanced after a seven-game battle.
In response to that early dismissal, the Pistons made moves to bring in Isaiah Joe, John Collins, Taurean Prince and Gary Harris during the summertime, and each of those players finished last season with a conversion rate above 40% from downtown, so Robinson should have some reinforcements on the perimeter for the upcoming year. Joe is expected the compete with Robinson for playing time once the season gets underway, but give the former Heat sharp-shooter the upper hand in the position battle considering he started all 77 games that he was healthy enough for a year ago.
