Game Recap/Notes: Game #5. Pistons 113 - Hawks 118. (1-4)
Disappointing to lose at the end but much better effort from the Pistons tonight.
Cade Cunningham:
Came ready to play from the tip, and ended up with a more voluminous but similar story. 26 points and 6 assists are good but he did require 27 shot equivalents to get to 26 points and struggled to get easy buckets at the rim. His 6 assists also came at the expense of 7 turnovers. Cade’s night was jump-shot heavy which is how you end up having an impressive stat line that still isn’t efficient enough.
That said, this was unquestionably a step in the right direction. The team needs Cade to be aggressive, even if his efficiency isn’t good he’s still the best offensive option. When you consider that he spent much of the game being guarded by DeJounte Murray, a really good defender, it makes the final line more understandable and he had a couple of shots where defenders made great plays to block him which made a difference.
Until Stewart either starts hitting shots or is demoted to the bench this is going to remain problematic for Cunningham. He has the quicks to get by defenders but because he isn’t all that explosive opposing bigs have plenty of time to leave Stewart and contest him at the rim.
Once again, just to hammer this point home, even though this game wasn’t exactly the triumphant “Oh yeah we are all good here” that the base stats make it seem like, it was a big step in the right direction. Cade has to be aggressive, while his efficiency has to improve in the long run, for now, the Pistons just desperately need someone who can create any offense reliably and as good as Bojan (more on him later of course) and Ivey have been, no one else comes close as an offensive hub.
Corey Joseph:
Starting in place of Jaden Ivey who was sick, played 32 minutes and did not make any meaningful impact on the game. The best we can say for Joseph is that he didn’t stand out too much for being bad.
Saddiq Bey:
Quietly got to 17 points on 14 shot equivalents. Another game that I put in the plus column for Bey as he was able to mostly keep in his lane and be effective despite the fact that the offense wasn’t really working through him much. He did put the ball on the floor more in this game than in the previous outing. The arrival of Bojan does make a stark comparison between what many people thought Saddiq Bey was vs what he actually is, but it isn’t his fault that people were overvaluing him. This is a good role and I’m impressed with how he’s stepped into it after spending his first two years largely getting to do what he wants. As much as this probably disappoints some people, including himself even, his learning to fit in this way is very good for his long-term development.
Bojan Bogdanovic:
33 points on just 23 equivalents. 6-12 from deep, got to the line a couple of times, and generally terrorized the Hawks. He and Cade clearly have a nice understanding as Cade regularly finds Bojan moving off the ball in a great way. The thing that is especially nice about all this from Bojan is that there is minimal concern about him coming hardback to earth, he won’t shoot 50% from deep every night obviously but what he’s been so far is what he’s been for years now. One of the league’s best shooters with a dash of off-the-dribble abilities as well. I understand that he’s older and on an expiring but I’m still baffled that the Jazz gave him up for so little and it’s one of the better bits of business that Troy Weaver has done to steal him away. I don’t even want to think about where the Pistons would be if that deal hadn’t fallen into their laps.
Isaiah Stewart:
Same deal as previous games. I will personally give him through November before I fully hop on the train to bench him in favor of Jalen Duren but this is another night lost for Stewart. The hawks largely ignored him, he got 7 points on 8 shot equivalents and went 0-4 from deep. He did have one awesome block on a Trae Young layup but other than that he even struggled defensively at times. It seems that opposing teams have a better grasp now of how size and athleticism can beat him.
All that said, he deserves this chance, and giving Duren more time to settle in isn’t a bad idea regardless. But the clock is ticking, this can’t keep up.
Isaiah Livers:
Played 24 minutes and got a decent amount of run alongside the other starters in a Cade/Bey/Livers/Bojan/Stewart lineup which is probably the first rotation decision from Casey this season that I really liked. Livers delivered on those minutes and finished with 12 points on 4-6 shooting from deep. Livers is basically Anthony Tolliver, and I say that as a huge compliment. He probably doesn’t have much chance of being good enough to be a regular starter, certainly not better than the 5th guy in the starting lineup, but he’s a good shooter who does everything else right and makes winning plays. An excellent pickup in the 2nd round and has a clear future in the league.
Kevin Knox:
Briefly got on the floor in the first half for 5 minutes. Did nothing.
Jalen Duren:
7 points on 4 shots alongside 9 boards and a block in just 21 minutes. Already at 18 he is a physical force on both ends and his overall feel and understanding of the game is at a very healthy place for a player so young. Really nice outing.
Killian Hayes:
5 points on 6 shots along with 4 assists and a couple of really nice defensive plays. He was at least more aggressive in his limited minutes tonight which is good. The better news is that he looked more like himself on the defensive end.
Hamidou Diallo:
4 points on 8 shots, and made some atrocious defensive efforts. Diallo is trending in a bad way out of the gate.
General:
We would all feel much better if the Pistons hadn’t wilted at the end of the game, but this is the type of loss that is far more digestible. Trae Young killed them by getting to the line a bunch, Cade ran out of gas later in the game when Murray turned up the defensive heat, and they struggled to contain the Hawks interior athleticism. Those are all things that the combination of youth/general roster issues is going to happen here so we can live with it. Despite giving up 118 points the defense wasn’t as cosmically out of sync as in previous games, with a couple of exceptions they got back on defense, and generally looked more interested in the game.
We doing moral victories?
I mean. Gotta take what we can get.