Game Recap/Notes: Final Preseason Game. Pistons 104 - Mavs 114.
The Pistons preseason is over and it ended largely the way all the games went. The lineups that somewhat featured actual rotation players for both teams struggled but the very end of bench guys did well. I will admit that I am especially sad about this one because I'm such a strong advocate for Ivey starting and they started him only for basically everyone to play poorly so that was cool. Sample size and whatnot.
If you missed it I had a season hype video made btw you should totally check it out
Cade Cunningham:
Got some extra aggressiveness like I had been asking for but unfortunately the shots wouldn’t fall. In 23 minutes he had 7 points on 3-10 shooting from the field with 4 assists against 3 turnovers. Once again, he seemed more interested in actually creating for himself which was genuinely nice to see, but unfortunately, we got through the preseason without Cade having a particularly impressive outing. The main concern is that he hardly got to the rim at all and whether that is the result of the horrid spacing or that he isn’t actually as healthy as we were led to believe its a huge concern. Hopefully, he was indeed just in cruise control for the preseason and when the games matter he will turn it on.
Jaden Ivey:
Got put in the starting lineup like I’ve been crying for and promptly played poorly so that was fun for me. Still obviously had some good moments and 7 points on 3-8 shooting with 4 assists against 1 turnover in just 19 minutes isn’t a disastrous stat line. The starters getting handled had more to do with Josh Green hitting everything and the other guys just not being on their games. Still I’m trying to build a narrative here so it would’ve been nice if Ivey could’ve helped me out a bit with that.
On the plus side, Ivey genuinely had some excellent passes in this game including a monster alley-oop to Marvin Bagley. My strong suspicion remains that he will be off the bench when the games count but literally all the other guards were out.
Ausar Thompson:
You know how we’ve all talked about how Ausar is going to have some nights where the offense looks a bit ugly? This was a preview. In 25 minutes he had 9 points on 4-13 shooting from the field (0-2 from deep and 1-3 from the line) along with 4 turnovers without a single assist. 11 rebounds is nice although multiple offensive rebounds were in one sequence where he kept getting taps. He still was everywhere making positive plays on both ends of the floor, playing at full speed, and remaining aggressive so I am perfectly happy to live with these outcomes this season, but he was not good tonight and this will happen this season. And once again, important to note that even on a night where he wasn’t good he still played solid defense and continued hacking at it with off-ball movement and aggression towards the hoop.
Isaiah Stewart:
9 points on 2-7 shooting (1-4 from deep) but got to the line for 4-6 shooting to help him out. Just 4 rebounds but 3 genuinely nice assists. I’m not sure how Isaiah Stewart convinced refs to send him to the line every time he barrels into traffic in the lane but I’ll take it. The three-point shot was a disaster this preseason and the damage he does to the spacing is tremendous but the Pistons are committed to starting him so having some sort of tentpole for offensive production, even if it is getting a seemingly inexplicable number of calls, is a good place to start for it working out. Overall though the preseason was not encouraging for “Stew starting at the 4” as he not only shot just 19% from deep in the 4 games, he was just 4-21 with the 21 attempts leading the team while also having the second worst +/- on the team of -33. (FWIW Cade is worst at -38 which is NOT IDEAL) Which paints an accurate picture of absolutely no one guarding him beyond the arc so he put up a ton of shots and shot horribly.
Jalen Duren:
Only played 16 minutes but did well enough. 6 points on 3-4 shooting with 3 rebounds and a pair of steals. I guess he managed to go -20 in just 16 minutes. He doesn’t exactly look like a changed player coming out of preseason but at the very least he certainly looks ready to pick right up where he left off with at least a couple new tricks in the bag. I do have to say that he attempted a genuine 3-pointer and can we please just not do this? Duren is a monster at the hoop just keep him there where he belongs.
Marvin Bagley:
6 points on 3-7 shooting in 13 minutes with 7 boards. Another night where he wasn’t awesome but I do genuinely see a universe where him as the big man off the bench works out as a worthwhile endeavor.
Marcus Sasser:
Only played 9 minutes but they were with the actual rotation and not garbage time and he scored 7 points on 3-6 shooting. He pretty much looks as advertised coming out of preseason as a fearless gunner from deep who will be something of a pest but may lack the size/handling/athleticism to really make much of a difference but I'm feeling positive about him.
James Wiseman:
He (hopefully) was soundly beaten by Bagley for the backup job but then he goes out and hits one of those silky mid-range shots and man I can’t help but think “I can fix him”. Overall though this was a very bad preseason for Wiseman and he finished with a whimpering 4 points on 2-5 shooting.
End of bench garbage time guys:
Rhoden had some decent moments but Stanley Umude is the only guy from this crew that I really felt like showed actual “possibly serviceable in an NBA rotation” upside. He shot 7-16 from deep and 10-10 at the line for some shooting skill that the Pistons are in desperate need of and while he will probably look much worse on defense when games count he at least certainly tries hard and has a little bit of quicks to him. For any Michigan fans Zavier Simpson did not look particularly good.
General:
Kind of a stinker but whoever allowed a back-to-back in preseason should probably be fired or sued depending on whether the Pistons had a say in it. Ultimately this preseason reinforced the main thing we all knew was true. This team will go as far as Cade takes them and shooting 37.1% from the floor with a team-low +/- (and by a wide margin at that) is simply not going to cut it. Theoretically, there are some easy lineup changes to make his life easier but I think the Pistons are pretty committed to what they are doing so we pretty much need to hope multiple Pistons players have basketball epiphanies. I do wonder though if maybe he just isn’t as healthy yet as we were led to believe.