If you missed it last week on Grantland, Zach Lowe, in his typical thorough fashion, took a look at the early season form of the Detroit Pistons, specifically as to how it relates to the development of Andre Drummond. The summary of the story is simply this -- the Pistons are in a weird place right now. Thrusting new coach Stan Van Gundy together with a disjointed roster lends itself to all kinds of chaos before even factoring the delicate balance between trying to win and letting a young player with the potential to franchise cornerstone expand his game on the fly.

It’s that balance that (at least in my demented, basketball-obsessed brain) is what makes this year’s Detroit team so interesting. Sure, their actual on-court play, especially when Josh Smith is doing Josh Smith things, is ugly to watch, but their situation is far from boring. Somewhere in this eclectic mix of players, Van Gundy seems to have enough talent to mould a playoff basketball team, especially in the lowly Eastern Conference. It’s just a matter of pushing the right buttons.

One button that Van Gundy might want to press more often, is the one that unleashes reserve forward Jonas Jerebko off the bench. The early returns on Jerebko’s play in Van Gundy’s high-low system have been fantastic. According to NBA.com’s stats, the Swedish big man leads Detroit in overall net rating at plus 9.1 and features in six of the Pistons ten best two-man lineup combinations that have played at least 25 minutes together.

It’s also promising for the Pistons to see the impact Jerebko has on his teammates. DJ Augustin is probably the best example of the “Jerebko boost.” In 110 minutes with him on the bench, Augustin 28.2 percent on 29 attempts (again, small early season sample that could change). In the 105 minutes Jerebko is on the floor, Augustin is shooting 43.2 percent on 44 attempts. Not surprisingly, the Pistons as a whole are -41 when Augustin plays sans Jerebko and +13 when those two are together.

Now the all of these minute samplings are tiny as far as NBA data sets go. The 25-minute barrier in particular is obviously ludicrously infinitesimal as far as small sample size alerts go. A couple made 3’s for or against players on the court can drastically impact the net rating in that minuscule amount of time. Also helping matters is that because Jerebko only plays 15.8 minutes per game, primarily against other bench players. It’s unlikely this numbers are this impressive if thrust into a larger role.

As you’re probably expecting, here comes the “but.”

All of these numbers, despite being too limited to stamp as a trend, seem to reflect the type of player Jerebko has transformed into. He’s always been a high energy type, but Jerebko’s maturation into a player that can knock down 3’s (41.9 percent last year, 43.8 percent this year) and put the ball on the floor from the perimeter has changed his impact -- especially now that he is playing for a coach that knows what he’s doing. And because of surrounding personnel, Jerebko’s biggest flaw for a frontcourt player, a lack of a presence on the glass, is mitigated somewhat by the fact that two bigs he often plays with -- Monroe and Drummond -- range from good (Monroe) to great (Drummond) when it comes to rebounding.

In general, Jerebko is pretty much the anti-Smith in every way (both good and bad). This single play against the Nuggets is good example of their core differences.

This play is the Pistons' base motion offense. Van Gundy typically asks his bigs to stagger opposite each other, with one coming (or staying) higher on the floor whenever the other dives down to the block out of pick-and-roll. The reads for when Jerebko catches at the top are simple: look high-low (to Drummond in this case), shot/drive or go opposite. The difference between Jerebko and Smith in this spot is that Smith chooses to do the thing he gets killed for on a nightly basis -- launch a high-arcing jumper that misses far more often than not.

Jerebko, on the other hand, can not only hit those jumpers at a much better clip, but he opts to go opposite and engage the weakside guard, forcing the defense to shift and defend the second side of the floor. The result in this case is a deep paint score for Jerebko, but in general that’s the “Spursian” way to play. Move the ball, change sides of the floor and make the defense defend multiple actions. This is a primary reason why you can probably expect Jerebko to continue to post really good plus/minus numbers throughout the season.

Unfortunately for the Pistons, I’m not sure how much it’s going to matter with the presence of Smith, Drummond and Monroe. As Lowe pointed out, the early season trends show that Van Gundy is trying to build Drummond’s game on the fly. So expecting heavy minutes for Jerebko and Monroe, isn’t going to fit into that approach. Smith’s reputation, clout and contract are all reasons why he’s not going to be shifted into a secondary role at the expense of Jerebko. Especially when you consider that outside of shooting, Smith can do all the things Jerebko does -- pass, handle, drive, etc -- better, during the times he’s not frustrating us with his shot selection.

This weird mix of agendas and personnel are all the reasons why this Pistons team is actually somewhat fascinating, despite, ya know, their on-court play being so damn boring. At some point, due to a trade, injury or Van Gundy losing his mind, this team’s frontcourt (and rotation in general) might see a major shift. And if it moves in the direction of more playing time for Jerebko, we might see a Pistons team that’s actually worth watching.