Opponent Scouting: Oklahoma City Thunder
Yep we back.
Tonight THURSDAY at 7:00pm EST the Detroit Pistons will be hosting the Thunder of Oklahoma City at the LCA.
The Them:
This is going to be brief because its preseason so guys may or may not play and there’s not really stats to parse out. The Thunder are young and good, we should get to see Chet Holmgren and the whole crew, SGA made the leap to elite last season as well. Should be a fun team to have come in and also hopefully not be as good as the Suns were so we can get a better gauge of where the Pistons are at because they won’t simply be buried under a barrage of unstoppable midrangers.
Its called opponent scouting and you’re going to blow through the “opponent part that quickly?”
We all know this really just means preview at this point so yeah. I’ll put actual effort into writing about the other teams when the games matter.
Matchups to watch:
Cade Cunningham vs. Getting into the game: Cade wasn’t, bad, per se in the first outing. But it wasn’t awesome and in particular felt almost like he left it on cruise control for most of the night. He was content to toss passes and walk into mid-range jumpers for the most part. I don't need him to go balls to the wall in a preseason game but it’d be nice to see him get after it a bit more.
Isaiah Stewart vs. Making people guard him: This is obviously going to remain a topic of conversation as long as Stewart is starting at the 4. It isn’t as simple as “Stew needs to shoot *insert % here*” as much as he needs to be dangerous enough that opponents guard him. No one is making specific gameplans for preseason games and the Suns still utterly ignored him on offense. That can’t be if its going to work for him at the 4.
Center rotation? Jalen Duren reportedly has a mild ankle sprain and it sounds like even though it isn’t serious I would guess he will sit out tonight given that it is the preseason. As such it will be somewhat interesting what the response is. Will they slide Stew to the 5? Will they reward a big game from Bagley? Lets find out.
Ausar vs. DAMN THE TORPEDOES: My main desire for Ausar this season is to always play at full speed. Even if he makes mistakes I can live with them as long as he is not being hesitant and he met that billing in the first outing. Lets see more. His activity is not just effective and needed on this Pistons team but also fun to watch.
Killian vs. Building blocks: Killian has a tall task ahead of him. Of the Pistons youngsters, he is the one who the team clearly has the least belief in and has the least clear spot in the future of the team. All he can do is keep building value one game at a time.
Pistons starters vs. Not getting slaughtered: Pretty self-explanatory. It may just be preseason and the Suns may be awesome but it would be nice to see the starters at least be competitive.