Betrayer

This team is crazy and I love it. What a win!

As I said when we heard the news, "re-evaluated in 4 weeks" didn't mean "return in 4 weeks". We won't see Ivey at full strength until January. If he's just now getting on the court for solo work, he won't be cleared for full 5-on-5 for another couple of weeks at least, then there's the "re-conditioning" period they like to do for a couple weeks, and then they'll start giving him very limited game minutes near the end of December.

Don't forget all the picks they still have, including 2 that are lottery picks as of right now.

This was such a fun game to watch. I had zero expectations that they would win this, but as others have said this was a culture, identity, and coaching win. That and Trajan filling out the roster - even down to the third string - with guys who are NBA players. Love seeing this. As far as Jenkins goes, I've been saying this since last year: He should be the 3rd string PG, not Sasser. Better distributor, bigger/better defender, more versatile. Sasser is a better shooter, but he can seemingly only do it off of 15 dribbles and a step back. That said, I'm not sure we should be comparing Jenkins to Schroeder. I'll first point out that Schroeder was actually pretty bad for us last year outside of a few playoffs games, yet people have this weird first year Fontecchio/Bagley thing going on where they're overrating what he was. Terribly inefficient and a bad/too-small defender against most NBA players. Even so, they didn't sign Jenkins to a 2-way contract thinking he was Schroeder's replacement. That was always meant to be a combination of Ivey and Levert. Jenkins is just a bonus find that Trajan identified off the scrap-heap. Who knows what Ivey will do in January or whenever he returns, but over the last few games Levert has shown why he could be better for this team than Schroeder as he's been more efficient on offense and better on defense due to his length and versatility.

I don't mind the jerseys even though I despise the teal, but I really don't like the center court transparency and I especially hate the logo they used for the broadcast because it just looks like the Orlando Magic logo. And why is the logo on the court transparent but the version of it on the broadcast is blue? And why is only the horse's eye red? It doesn't match the logo on the broadcast or on the shorts. Why are we using so many discordant colors: black, red, teal, and yellow is an awful combination of colors that you would only find together in a child's playroom. Ok, old man rant over.

You shouldn't be allowed to rest 2 starters for the same game.

Defense is a real problem without Ausar and Stew as we saw against the Wiz. Sadly, that means offense is a problem as well because our offense comes from our defense. Too many banged up guys right now. This is probably an L, but who knows with this team.

Jenkins. Too bad Sasser is hurt, because we can't even trade him even though we already have his replacement on the roster. That's all I have to say about this mess of a game.

This right here. I love this team, but there are some major issues with their offense. You can see when they go through stretches where they don't score for 4 minutes it's because they didn't manage to get any stops and get out in transition. If the other team gets hot, the Pistons offense tanks and that's a problem. They're simultaneously fun and frustrating to watch. They need to find an answer in the half court and it can't be letting Cade get tripled every time down the court. That said, this is a super young team building a really fun "defend and run" identity in only their second year with JB. I don't want them to make a Blake Griffin move and screw it up. They should have a good feel for what they need by the deadline or this offseason. Question is whether or not the appropriate player to complete the roster will even be available or if we'll have the assets to go get him if he is.

That's a fun concept. Personally, I'd just like the corner three eliminated. Keep the line at the 23' 9" until it runs off the edge of the court.

I actually trust Stew's three more than most of the other players on the team. Not only that, I think it's critical that we have a big who can space. So, I'm cool with him getting them up there. In comparison to the rest of the teams in the league we take a very low percentage of our shots from three. Like it or not (and I don't), the math bears out that taking more threes - even though you'll miss a higher percentage of them than twos - is advantageous.

I love the winning. I love the defense. AND I'm concerned about this team. They're near the bottom of the league FT percentage, 3pt percentage, and 3pt attempts. That's bad math for 2025 where you're fighting for a small lead taking twos and the other team can erase it in seconds with a couple of threes. And for a team that takes mostly two point shots, they're also shockingly near the bottom of the league in 2pt percentage. They miss a ton of shots right at the rim. They also foul more than almost any other team. Outside of transition buckets and Cade's 4th quarter heroics, their offense ranges between pretty shaky and absolutely terrible. There's 2 ways to look at it. Either these numbers continue and they're going to regress to a team fighting to stay around .500 or this is a good sign that when these things inevitably (hopefully?) improve they're going to be dominant. So, is the glass half full or half empty? As someone who's naturally skeptical and cynical, I'm concerned but enjoying the ride.

Exactly. Give me the Cade, Ausar, Ron, Tobias, Stew lineup. I don't care if you start them or not, but we should see this lineup for 15-20 minutes a game. Three good to great defenders and a couple solid ones. Everyone's 6-6 to 6-9. You can switch anything you want, generate stops, and run. This was the lineup that torched the Bulls and we haven't really seen it since. The traditional thinking that you need Robinson in there to create a decent half court offense is nonsense because all that does is move you from the 25th offense in the league to the 23rd, while tanking your defense completely. It's not worth it. You're going to suck in the half-court with this roster no matter what. Instead, lean in to your strength: Better defense, more transition opportunities, more chaos. Also, when you have Jenkins on the court with Cade, stop having Cade bring the ball up. Let Jenkins fight the full court press, not Cade. In fact, stop having Cade bring the ball up against pressure at all. Give it to him once you get to the frontcourt. He's already seeing double and triple teams every time he comes off a screen, why make him work just to bring the ball up as well?

We can worry about Ivey when he’s ready to go in January.

Well, weird stuff happens in the first game of the season. But you really couldn’t throw away one of the 3 games you’re expected to win in your first 10.

That was the play? Really? No screen, just one on one with a good defender for a contested three?

Still flat on that shot.

Ugh. JB sat Stew.

This is my starting lineup. Cade, Ausar, Ron, Tobias, and Stew. Lean it to what you’re good at.

Vuc magically becomes Jokic against us all the way back to the Drummond days.

JB just sat all our defenders at once.

He looks flat on everything all game.

Turns out Stew is the new #2 scorer.

How is Cade missing all these free throws?

Duncan. At least Caris has played a bit of defense here and there.