Game Recap/Notes: Preseason Game #1. Pistons 96 - Knicks 107
A day late but what can ya do. I’m not swapping around plans to watch a preseason game. I was able to watch on replay though.
This game was exceptionally ugly and not great for Detroit, but it was preseason so we’ve got that. Also, assume that everything said here comes with a great bit asterisk of it being preseason.
Cade Cunningham:
Not exactly a triumphant outing. 7 points on 12 shots with 4 bad turnovers. Nothing that’s like, actually concerning, but still would’ve been nice to see him come out a bit stronger. Main thing to note from here was that he was really not aggressive or ball dominant for the 22 minutes he spent on the floor. Time will tell if this was just a quirk of a preseason game or if the Pistons are going to make a concerted effort to not be as reliant on him offensively.
Jaden Ivey:
One of the few genuine bright spots for Detroit in this game and about as encouraging a start as you could hope for. He hit his only three, a pullup jumper, made several slick slashes to the hoop, got to the line twice for 16 points on 10 shot equivalents, and made a couple of impactful defensive plays.
The best news is that, by my unofficial count, Ivey did not make any bad passes and even slipped a few pretty nice ones through the defense. Bad turnovers were the thing that stuck out as an issue last season at Purdue and even if its just 22 minutes in a preseason game it is highly encouraging that Ivey came out and was able to play aggressively without ever getting in over his head on a drive. It will happen later, there will inevitably be a couple of games this season where he almost single-handedly loses a game with repeated bad turnovers, but this was excellent to see.
Saddiq Bey:
Not much going. 0-5 from deep, 1-8 from the field, minimal impact defensively. While we here are smarter than to read into shooting percentages from preseason, it is worth remembering that Bey only shot 34% from deep last year so “well he will start to hit them” isn’t actually a valid response. If we get a month into the season and his shot is off it is correct to have concern.
Bojan Bogdanovic:
3-5 from deep. That's what we wanted to see and its what we got. He didn’t exactly look in sync with the offense but given he showed up like a week ago we can forgive him for that. Who knows how he will fit into the wider offense when the games count but nice to see the shooting on display right out of the gate.
Isaiah Stewart:
He hit a three. yay.
Marvin Bagley:
Picked up right where he left off. Finishing shots inside, bricking threes, snagging rebounds, and being lost defensively. Played mostly as a 4 next to Duren tonight which will be the main source of intrigue early on this year is where Casey utilizes him. Perhaps we will discover he has made big strides in the offseason but nothing new here.
Isaiah Livers:
Also picked right up from last year. All 7 of his shots were from deep and he hit 3 of them, generally seemed to make winning plays and get into the right spaces on both ends of the court. Remains entirely unclear if he can become the type of player who can do anything other than shoot and defend a bit but if he can nail down those its good enough for Detroit.
Jalen Duren:
Had 14 (!!) rebounds in just 24 minutes which is probably a big “ITS PRESEASON” moment but it is worth noting that a guy so young looks like an absolute monster on an NBA court. Didn’t show a ton beyond the rebounds, he hit 1 of just 3 shots and committed 3 fouls. The vibes were good though.
Killian Hayes:
Got aggressive in the second half which was nice, still not much that looked different here. 11 points on 13 equivalents with 5 assists. I still have some hope for Hayes, but at this point it really comes down to him hitting more shots, it really is that simple.
Corey Joseph:
Lets just not.
General:
If Ivey puts up games like that for the first month or so this hype train will reach an absurd level. The offense looked hella disjointed but that’s to be expected. 4 of the Pistons starters are on rookie contracts and the one who isn’t showed up in Detroit 2 weeks ago. The bad news is that this will probably still be true when the games count, and it only gets worse if you expand out to the whole rotation. Of the 10 guys tonight, 7 of them are on rookie contracts, an 8th (Bagley) is just off it.
Maybe when the team is healthy Noel, Burks, and Diallo slot into the rotation over some of the youngsters, but having 8 guys who are exceptionally young (given Bagley’s injuries he’s played far less than most guys entering his 5th season) is a recipe for a very bad team. Turnovers will likely be endemic for most of the season and we will just have to live with that.
The only other thing of much note here is that the Pistons did quite a bit of switching defensively. I don’t have especially strong feelings on it, either way, given the makeup of the starting lineup (where the smallest guy is Ivey who’s 6’5 with a 7-foot wingspan) it could work well. Just something worth keeping an eye on.
Welcome back lads.