Under the Hood – it’s time to see what’s really going on inside this Pistons team.
Firing on All Cylinders
I was really impressed with Ausar Thompson last night. Houston started off the game by guarding him with center Alperen Şengün and giving him space if he had the ball away from the rim.
He misses the layup here, but he flashed to the middle when Cade was doubled and created a nice look at the rim with the spin move.
If he couldn’t get to the rim, he used his patented midrange fadeaway over Şengün.
And over Kevin Durant.
And over Jabari Smith Jr.
He had this great pass to Jalen Duren, too.
Transmission Trouble
JB Bickerstaff played 10 guys in his rotation last night with Cade Cunningham back, but Caris LeVert still out. Cade played the most at 38 minutes while the four other starters, along with Stew and Holland, all played 24-26 minutes.
The three guys at the end of the rotation were Daniss Jenkins at 19 minutes, Javonte Green at 17 minutes, and Jaden Ivey at 14 minutes.
As we get closer to the trade deadline, I think it’s smart for the Detroit organization to brainstorm about their playoff rotation. JB Bickerstaff has 11 capable rotation players if you include LeVert, and that’s still leaving out guys like Paul Reed and Marcus Sasser.
JBB will most likely cut this rotation down to 8 or 9 guys once the playoffs start. Which of the 2-3 players at the end of the bench aren’t going to see the court in the postseason? Are those the players that could be used in a trade to find an upgrade elsewhere? How would those players feel about not getting minutes? Does any of this impact their deadline decision-making?
JB Bickerstaff and Trajan Langdon will have to figure that out together as we try to read between-the-lines of JBB’s minutes distribution.
Mechanic’s Note
Speaking of playoff basketball, I would expect to see Cade Cunningham get doubled plenty in the postseason. When he is, we’re going to need to see these kinds of possessions out of Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren.
With Şengün guarding Thompson, Ausar sets a screen for Cade and receives the pass on the roll. He ends up with plenty of space to attack KD at the rim. My one complaint is that Tobias Harris is not already in the left corner before Ausar attacks because having two players in the corners gives Ausar options if the paint is too crowded.
Here’s another possession where Houston doubles Cade, but this time he finds Duren in the short roll. Again, the floor would be spaced better if Duncan Robinson is in the left corner as both corners would be filled to give Duren passing options. Yet, Duren is still able to use his strength and athletic ability for a strong finish at the rim.
These two possessions are fantastic examples as to why this team could use an additional shooter at the forward position. Two off-ball shooters at SG and PF would take the Cade and Ausar/Duren pick-and-rolls to the next level.
We’ll see in the next few weeks whether Trajan Langdon agrees.
