Betrayer

The free throw disparity in this game is getting out of hand.

Love that JB finally decided he could use Ausar as the screener. Duh.

This starting lineup is really struggling.

Offensive boards are a problem.

Cade has been struggling today.

He’s got that middie going today and has definitely looked more aggressive than usual.

Amen = Ausar + 15% more polish.

Crazy shot by Ivey. Finally a good one.

Daniss and Holland turning this game around.

So many turnovers.

Bad quarter. Ivey is out there trying not to get traded by lowering his value even more. Cade still struggling to shoot probably because of that wrist. Once again we forgot how to handle a zone and teams doubling Cade.

Ivey is a liability. Also, can we just change it up so Stew is in the game when Senguin is in there for better defense and Duren can box out Capella when he comes in.

Every time we have a team doubling Cade off the screen we act like it’s the first time we’ve ever seen it.

How many first round picks do I need to add to Tobias, Ivey, LaVert, and Sasser to get Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, and Jose Alvarado back from Weaver? Tobias can take a short vacation in New Orleans and then come back on a vet deal to be a bench player next year, so he can retire in Detroit.

A second All-Star would be nice but I struggle to find one at the right price, age, contract, and availability level. Maybe you can pull off a deal for an "Almost All-Star" like MPJ, Trey Murphy, or JJJ (that contract is rough though), but it's unlikely you'll find a deal that makes sense for both sides. At this point, I'd be happy just adding more two way players. Give me a couple guys who can BOTH play defense AND hit a three and you probably have a real contender. Ideally they would replace the minutes you're giving to guys like Ivey and LaVert (and/or push Tobias/Duncan to smaller roles). There's a lot of Herb Jones talk right now and he would be a great start even though his 3-ball has struggled a bit this year. Having a PG like Cade would probably fix that.

Yea, it's a weird rule. Basically you need 20 minutes in each of the 65 games but they allow two "near misses" where you can have slightly less. I'm all for requiring 65 games, but the minutes restriction needs to be changed.

Players must play in 65 games and play a minimum of 20 minutes in 63 of those games. That's not on average, it's for each individual game. Looks like he's already down 11 games of eligibility halfway through the season due to not being active (4 games), fouling out, or JBs weird lineups. Sadly, chances are he won't even qualify.

He can't beat anyone off the dribble anymore and without that speed he's just a poor defender who's solid at shooting catch and shoot threes (but not off the dribble). At this point I'd rather see Daniss, Sasser, or Chaz out there. On a related note, I was happy that I didn't have to watch LaVert play in this game.

I realize this is a few days old now and we won so nobody will care, but JB is mindboggling sometimes. You need 1 stop at the end of the game and you don't insert a lineup of your best defenders (Cade, Ausar, Green, Holland, and Stew)? It's only been a couple weeks since JB himself came out and said that Stew is the best defensive center in the NBA, yet he's consistently sitting on the bench in these situations. Not only that, you have two potential first team All Defensive players in Ausar and Stew and neither of them are assigned to guard Brown on that last play? Maybe rolling the dice on losing one game isn't terribly important in the regular season, but this is the type of thing that cost us the Knicks series last year and will probably rear its ugly head in the playoffs again this year.

Nice to see the Pistons take care of business. Some messy offense but you can get away with that against a G-League team. I really don't like the Ivey + LaVert minutes. Play Daniss, he's the backup PG.

I'd love to add Portis, but I'm not sure how much more crazy we need on the team.

Awww, did the pampered stars not get pampered enough? They had to take a little drive before the game. I'm just imagining players from the 80s reading this and rolling their eyes.

This was probably the most fun game of the season for me until right after that Holland windmill dunk when it changed. The defense was out of this world. It reminded me of '04. At the start of the 4th they said that this was the most steals and blocks in a Pistons game since the 80s or something crazy like that. Then the turnovers killed them. 12 turnovers in the 4th isn't going to work when your only path to victory was taking away the opponent's possessions with defense. That's a 24 possession swing (12 shots you didn't get and 12 more they did). I will also say that JBs lineups didn't help. In a game where they're zoning us (again) and our only 3 pt shooter couldn't get open for a shot in the second half you need to get Lanier on the court. JB just praised him after he played great the other day and he gets zero burn in a game where you're shorthanded, playing dudes at the end of the bench, and need 3 point shooting? I don't get. What was Carelesss LaVert doing to earn his minutes? Ivey? Beyond that, after making a long overdue adjustment to flash Cade into the mid-range hole in the zone when faced with this type of defense, we were right back to square one in this game. How can we not have a plan for attacking the zone yet? It's not like we aren't seeing it time and again. I know Cade isn't there, but are you telling me not a single other player is capable of making the 16 foot jump shot or making the pass to a cutter when the defender lifts to stop the jump shot? It's ludicrous. Threes aren't the only way to beat a zone. But even if you think it's 3s or nothing, then get Lanier in there!

I'm not seeing that burst that made him a tantalizing prospect. Combine that with poor finishing, poor defense, and poor PG play. I get that he's coming off of an injury, but other than the lack of burst the rest is consistent with how he's always been. The three point shooting might be real, but I'm not sure it's enough. The most painful thing for me to watch is his screen navigation. He just dies and sticks to even the weakest screens like the screener is made of magnets and Ivey's bones are made of metal. Watch Ausar or Ron navigate a screen and then watch Ivey - your eyes will start bleeding.

STEW!!!! What a game! Offense was a struggle in this game overall, but the defense was looking good once the second unit came in with Holland, Jenkins, and Green. Glad JB rode those guys in the second half. Can we be done with the Ivey at PG experiment? Daniss is the backup PG on the current roster and when Cade sits, that's who you play. His shot can be streaky, but he knows how to run the offense and he play defense. Also, can we see more of Lanier please? When Duncan is out or you need more shooting, that's who you play in that spot. He's a decent defender, he has size, and he can shoot off of movement. I'd rather see him get minutes than Careless LaVert who I'm done with.