Betrayer

That twirling shot by Cade was absolutely sick. Followed it up with a three to get the lead back.

Maybe try Reed instead of Stew for a bit.

Here comes Indy.

Rick Carlisle never afraid to have his teams play full court defense.

Turner catching fire from 3.

Good defensive half to hold Indy under 50.

Of course he gets a killer block right after I say that.

I just don’t know where Stew fits. Maybe a situational third big?

Nemhard’s defense really bothering Cade and now Ivey picks up his third foul.

Ivey had two quick fouls. JB was keeping him out until the second quarter.

That’s a solid first quarter.

Holland jawing with McConnell.

Why am I seeing an all bench unit? Hopefully just because Ivey has 2 fouls.

That was an impressive defensive sequence.

I still love George. But I’d be happy with smooth Johnny once George is done.

Looks THJ is starting. Don’t love that. Maybe the org really wanted Ausar in there so they’re just keeping the spot warm.

The line is +5.5. If they can cover that spread and make this a competitive game then I’ll be happy after the kicking Indy gave us in all four games last year.

We often hear this theory, but I'm not sure it's true. People were saying the same thing for the Wemby draft and yet there were only 4 teams under 30 wins that year compared to last year (a terrible draft) where there were 7 teams with less than 30 wins. The bottom few teams might sit some players in Mach and April to fight for the bottom, but that's going to happen every year when teams realize they aren't making the play-in.

Most sportsbooks had them at 24.5 a few weeks ago (I took the over at that time). Now I'm seeing more lines at 25.5, 26.5, and even 27.5. I think it's likely they hit around 28, but I'm not wiling to put money on that just yet.

Not sure what people expected or wanted. Lavine? Brandon Ingram for 50M/yr? Nobody is expecting a playoff team, but the doom and gloom here is pretty bad. This isn't the same team as last year and these aren't nearly the same vets. 45% of the total minutes played were from guys who are no longer on the team. We're talking about garbage players like Wiseman (1000 minutes), Livers (500), Bagley (500 minutes), and more. 30% of the total minutes played last year were from guys who aren't even in the league anymore. Led by Killian who started 31 games and played 1000 minutes. Knox with 500 minutes. Fournier with 500 minutes. Metu had 400 minutes. Umude had 300 minutes. The two vets who got the most minutes last year (~900 each), didn't get much run on an NBA playoff team after being traded. They're also 35 and 33 years old with a ton of injury history. Conversely, the two top vets this year are 32 (Tobias) and 27 (Beasley), having started 70 and 77 games respectively for playoff teams last year. Oh, and they willingly signed here. Even the depth vets (Reed, Fontecchio, THJ) are guys who can fill out a roster and play in the NBA unlike Gibson, Harris, and Fournier. But most importantly, the coaching terrorist is gone and from what we've seen so far this team is running actual NBA sets on offense, with actual NBA rotations and staggering. Imagine that. Putting solid, floor-raising vets around your young core without burdening yourself with long contracts was the right move. You don't have the assets to trade for a superstar, so you need to see if your core pans out. If the core looks legitimate alongside real vets and an actual coach, then you have the cap flexibility to continue to build. If not, it's a great draft to start the rebuild over and then you can move some players this offseason. A Brandon Ingram band-aid wasn't getting you anywhere except back to Blake Griffin land.

Weird. If the only requirement is standard roster spot, then shouldn't Pistons be in the "6 new players" list? Harris, Hardaway, Beasley, Reed, Holland, Klintman They also have one open roster spot which will go to someone that will be #7 and you could make a case that Fontecchio should be an honorable mention in that group as well since he only played 16 games and was acquired at the deadline.

I'll be happy to see real games, but that was a good note to end preseason on. Pistons starters played just 8 minutes and looked great against Cavs starters who played about 25 minutes, well into the 3rd quarter.

Just wait until 20 games in when we're 2-18 and THJ is starting or something. Then the rage will flow! 😄

The Pistons got three 2nd round picks for this trade. Also, it was reported by multiple local guys that Grimes didn't want to be here. Plus, he was injured and that seems to be a recurring problem with him. Hardaway isn't a good player, but he's a vet who's always available and seems to be a solid locker room guy that won't block playing time for the youngsters. In the end, they moved an often injured bench guy who didn't want to be here for a bench vet on an expiring contract and 3 second round picks. It's fine.

When we finish last, we get the 5th pick, so does it matter? I'm just hoping to see an identity begin to form and let the ping pong balls do as they will.