Opponent Scouting: San Antonio Spurs (12-26)
Tonight at 8:00pm EST the Pistons finish off the long road trip with a game in San Antonio. Both teams are on one night of rest following the Pistons defeating the Warriors while the Spurs lost to the Knicks.
The Them:
The Spurs suck, they may or may not actually be worse than the Pistons but its splitting hairs either way. The Spurs sport the league’s 28th offense and the 30th defense. They are ostensibly led by 4th year man Keldon Johnson who is scoring 21 points per game on decent efficiency. Jakob Poeltl is a big man who does some of everything and is not likely to remain with the Spurs all season. The rest of the roster is largely full of youngish guys who were either late picks by the Spurs or cast-offs from other teams. Guys like Romeo Langford, Zach Collins, and even Pistons legend Stanley Johnson. Josh Richardson and Doug McDermott bring some veteran ability to the rotation, they are still coached by Greg Popovich but there’s only so much a good coach can do when the roster is in this condition.
You listed off those names. You’re supposed to explain who they are.
Oh right. Genuinely forgot.
Stanley Johnson hasn’t been playing much and is still not that good but he’s big, strong, and can do a little bit of good on the wing. Zach Collins is tall, can shoot, and can even defend pretty well when he’s healthy. Romeo Langford was a guy I liked out of Indiana but he’s a shooting guard who has never been able to shoot threes and struggled to find consistent defensive effort.
Jeremy Sochan is a rookie who’s been pretty promising as a power forward who has good size and fairly skilled even if he’s still super young. Tre Jones is a point guard who doesn’t shoot but takes good care of the ball and can get some points inside the arc.
Matchups to watch:
Pistons vs. WIN THE GAME: The Pistons got a fun win last time out and now face one of the handful of teams that may well be worse than they are. Get the good vibes rolling.
Duren vs. Poeltl: Not exactly the most stunning marquee matchup but Poeltl is sneakily very good in ways that can give a young player like Duren trouble. Duren had a huge night against the Warriors and he has to be prepared for it to not be that easy tonight.
Saddiq Bey vs. Building: Wasn’t actually that great of a game but the huge finish will hopefully be the boost he needs in order to get his game back on track. Another positive performance and we are back on the right track for him which would be big for the team.
Isaiah Stewart vs. Finding his shot back: Quietly shooting like 26% over the last 10 games. Right now its just a slump, another couple of weeks and its officially a problem.
Stanley Johnson revenge game??? I mean. Yeah. Given how the Pistons don’t exactly have the most effective wing defenders I could see a universe where he scores like 20 points or something.
So in conclusion…
Run for the hills if:
Stanley Johnson revenge game
Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart are bricking.
The Pistons look slow at the end of the road trip.
Wink knowingly at your friends if:
Stanley Johnson tries to do things. Tries. Fails.
WINNING STREAK??
Duren is winning inside.