We can finally put contract drama behind us and focus on some honest-to-goodness, doesn’t quite count, but it’s still great because it’s basketball basketball. In other words, the preseason starts tonight as the Detroit Pistons face the Phoenix Suns.
This game will be at Little Caesars Arena and will feature zero blown coverages by the Detroit Lions’ secondary, so we can all take a little comfort in that. The game will also feature the Detroit Pistons, including superstar Cade Cunningham and the newly
signed duo of Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, who received a collective $355 million from the Pistons this offseason.
This is also the first year of our post-FanDuel lives, so remember that the Pistons have transitioned to games being on local, free channels in many Michigan markets. That includes TV20 in Detroit. For those looking at a streaming option, the team also signed a deal with DAZN to carry games (and replays) digitally.
Game Vitals
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Watch: TV20 Detroit (TV), DAZN (Streaming)
Odds: Pistons-3.5
Analysis
Tonight’s game will also be a chance to see just how different this offense and defense will look. Detroit has added some serious shooting. While Duncan Robinson was one of the best, most prolific, and most reliable shooters in the NBA last season, he was just one man. What if two?
Robinson will be joined by Isaiah Joe, and while they won’t start alongside each other, I wouldn’t be surprised if they share plenty of minutes on the floor. Joe joined Robinson as one of the NBA’s premier movement shooters last season, and the hope is that the threat of those two shooting from deep opens up the floor for Cunningham, Duren, and Thompson.
Those weren’t the only shooters Detroit added to its roster, however. New starting power forward John Collins is a perimeter-shooting upgrade over Tobias Harris, and Taurean Prince offers some corner shooting off the bench. Heck, it’s preseason, the time when we can still dream that Kevin Huerter is going to rediscover the deadly shooting stroke that has somehow abandoned him for the past few years.
Defensively, the team has many more questions than answers. Not that they still shouldn’t be a very good defense, but they were one of the best last year. But the team lost its interior defensive anchor in Isaiah Stewart, and while Thompson is perhaps the league’s best perimeter defender, there are concerns about how vulnerable the paint could be. That means that Duren needs to take his game to yet another level. He went from awful and a bit lost on defense in his first few years to passable last season. This year, passable just won’t be good enough. He needs to read and react quicker and put much more mental energy into that side of the floor for the Pistons to have the kind of success they’re hoping for.
Elsewhere, we’ll get our first looks at things like Ausar’s offensive responsibilities, rookie Ebuka Okorie, and what Daniss Jenkins can do after coming out of nowhere as a two-way player last season.
Projected Lineup
Detroit Pistons (0-0)
Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, John Collins, Jalen Duren
Phoenix Suns (0-0)
Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges, Oso Ighodaro
