If you’re a Detroit Pistons fan, you’ve got to be pretty encouraged by what you’ve seen from nearly all of the team’s key players through two preseason games. Especially when that core group of eight is sharing
the floor with each other. It’s when the rotation stretches deep and the lineup combos get wonky that things start to make a lot less sense.
It also hasn’t helped that Jalen Duren has missed both games and Jaden Ivey one as the latter looks to come back from a long-term injury and the team is surely being cautious.
As noted by the Free Press, the first two preseason games saw Detroit trot out 14 players, often for significant minutes. With only two preseason games remaining before the regular season kicks off, expect those rotations to be tightened and for the team to provide a little more clarity on what to expect going forward.
Game Vitals
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Rocket Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Watch: Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit
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Analysis
Apart from a more standard rotation, I’m looking forward, greedily, to Cade Cunningham building on his strong showing through two preseason games. Cade looks like a first-team All-NBA player. He looks stronger, he is playing for long stretches of minutes, he’s making quality decisions, he’s imposing his will, he’s getting others involved.
Yeah, I still want more threes to go down, and of course I want more free throws. But I’ll always want that. Cade looks like a superstar, and I want more.
Other than that, I’d love to see a bit more clarity on how coach JB Bickerstaff plans to stagger out his young, defensive-minded, offensively unreliable young wings in Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland, for his reliable stable of vets in Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert. Duncan has looked pretty great (even when he’s not scoring the ball), and LeVert has looked awful in limited action. They will be two key players, and ingredients added to the floor to allow other players to thrive. We gotta see it in action.
Projected Lineups
Detroit Pistons (1-1)
Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren
Cleveland Cavaliers (0-3)
Donovan Mitchell, Jaylon Tyson, DeAndre Hunter, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
