The Detroit Pistons began one of their more anticipated seasons in recent years, and there were high expectations as to how this team in their third draft would perform. Let’s take a look at what we should expect from this team after a full week of basketball has been played.
The Pistons won the first game of the year against the Orlando Magic on opening night, which only fueled the buzz about what this team is capable of. The Magic however were the worst team in the NBA last season and could be a deceiving win considering they had the number one overall pick in Paolo Banchero, who had a whopping 26 points in his NBA debut.
The Pistons followed this up by losing their next four games against the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks. The first three losses were killers considering those games were considered to be against beatable teams on the schedule for the next few weeks.
In those performances, one of the clear bright spots for this team is the excitement that the rookies are going to bring to the city of Detroit. Jaden Ivey’s playmaking needs work but is more advanced than we thought. His ability to drive to the rim and create contact, while also staying consistent with his jumper has him bound to be a rookie of the year candidate. Jalen Duren is a rebounding machine that could use work on the defensive end, but holds his own considering he’s the youngest player in the NBA. He’s a bully down low and is a better passer than he gets credit for. Over time we could see both rookies starting as Duren makes up for the lack of size on this roster.
Our best player this year so far is Bojan Bogdanovich, who is averaging 22 points through the first five games. He’s been lights out from three and gets buckets that are crucial in situations that keep the team in games late. One person on this team that’s been performing well but could definitely do better is Cade Cunningham. Due for a breakout, Cade is playing like he’s the second or third option on the team. However his jump shot has changed since last year and he’s struggled to make the guaranteed buckets that he should not be missing. It’s not too much of a concern, but he needs to be more aggressive, especially since he put on fifteen pounds of muscle this offseason, which could be the reason he’s missing some of those shots.
One glaring negative about this team thus far has been the play of third year point guard Killian Hayes. I’ve never given up on Hayes until Tuesday’s game against the Wizards after he put up one of the worst stat lines you will ever see, shooting 0-6 with five turnovers and only two assists. As optimistic as it seems, no real NBA player can consistently struggle like this and still end up being good later down the line. He’s in his third year as the seventh overall pick, and by this point he shouldn’t struggle to score this badly. Depending on draft positioning next year , we may need to look into replacing him very soon.
This team is not a playoff team whatsoever. The tank can officially begin as more than half of their opponents are contenders for the next month. The reality check has officially kicked in and this is not the year for us to look at potential playoff runs in Detroit just yet. However, next year’s draft class is absolutely stacked, and the Pistons might want to look into not only trading players for picks, but also using their top pick to trade back if they fail to land in the top two.
-Robert Martin
Twitter: @Defense_Rob
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.