Betrayer

Took him 12 games to figure out what we knew before the season started. Now watch this fool take out Ausar instead of Killian.

Not nearly enough. A chokehold is a dangerous move on it's own, let alone dragging someone by their neck for 9 seconds. Add in his history of altercations, escalations, and lack of remorse for anything he's done and you have someone that should've been sent a message. 10 games should've been the minimum and it still would've been disappointing to me. This is a joke.

It's getting rough out there. No matter where you look the fanbase has turned on this team and all the off-season hopes have gone down the drain. The reality is there isn't one answer here. No matter how you look at it though, some changes must be made. Both things are true: Cade has to play better AND Cade is getting absolutely blitzed every time he comes off a screen with no spacing around him. Get Burks, Sasser, or Ivey in the starting lineup for Killian or even Knox for Stew - or both - to create more spacing. Also, he shouldn't be leading the league in minutes and top 5 in usage in his first month back for what is effectively his sophomore season after missing an entire season due to injury. He looks as tired and frustrated as we are. Monty's legendary stubbornness can't continue. The fact that Ivey is averaging 19 minutes a game while Killian is averaging 30 is criminal. Weaver loves to collect big-men, but he's collected the wrong ones for this bench. We said it before the season started, and Duren's injury has made it even worse - we needed a veteran defensive big man on this team. Someone cheap (like McGee or even Biyombo) that you could have used instead of rolling out Wiseman (or Stew) at the backup 5. Monty's .5 offense is making a difference in both the negative and positive columns. The turnovers are up by 2.5 from last year, however the assists are also up by 5 from last year (from 23 to 28 per game). We're at game 12 in a new system that involves way more ball movement and we're rolling out a rotation where every player that's logged significant minutes is between and 19 and 24 years old. I have to imagine the turnovers trend down as the vets come back and the youngsters get more games under their belt in this system. On a positive note, the ceiling for Ausar is high. Dude continues to be a bright spot for the Pistons on most nights. He's top 5 in the NBA in rebounds (the other guys are all centers), is already making a case for an All NBA Defensive Team appearance, and simply stuffs the stat sheet. We're just 12 games into his rookie season and I continue to be impressed.

The talk around this today is crazy. So many people defending Draymond, and Kerr's comments after the game were absolutely laughable. With his history and the fact that he literally dragged someone in a choke hold, Draymond should be gone for half a season or more. A choke hold is far more dangerous than a punch. They need to put an end to it. But we all know the NBA won't do it for the same reason they won't take a stand against domestic violence - the dollars matter more and, in this case, the California viewer market.

Just saw a post that said the Pistons have only won 4 games since they traded Saddiq for Wiseman. My brain went, “No, that can’t be right…” “…oh hell, it’s true.”

Sounds like the Bulls have finally realized what everyone else knew ages ago: That team isn't going anywhere.

Can't do it. I watch too much G-League ball already with the Pistons.

It's even crazier than that. 9 people played last night. Sasser (age 23) was older than all of them except Bagley (24) and the two G-Leaguers (also 24).

I hear fans blaming Cade and that's just wild to me. The dude had 33, 8, and 8. It's his third 30 point game of this season already. He carried the team in the 2nd and 3rd quarter until Sasser came in and lit it up in the late 3rd and early 4th. Also, the idea posted here that Cade should've stayed on the bench in favor of Killian is just bonkers. If you want to know what actually happened to lose this game: 1. On defense the Buck went to an aggressive zone that we couldn't score against. Why? Because it meant multiple defenders on Cade or Sasser as soon as they dribbled past the three point line. With no respected shooters the spacing was terrible and even when Cade got it to an open man they missed it (3 times in the corner for Stew and once for Ausar). 2. On offense the Bucks went to a high screen and roll with Dame and Lopez. We all know Lopez moves on every screen (not called) and if you touch Dame he throws his body into you and gets the call. But the bigger problem was the lack of adjustments from Monty - and this is the type of thing that Suns fans complained about. We continued to play drop coverage with Duren against the exact same offensive set over and over. Guess what? We got burned over and over because you can't play drop against Dame when he's cooking. He's either going to shoot an open three if the big drops too far or come at your big with a head of steam and get a foul call. You have to switch or trap the ball out of his hands and rotate defensively. That probably also means changing personnel to a faster lineup, which is how most big men get played off the court in the playoffs. Sure, Cade needs to clean up the turnovers, but let's look at the big picture here: Cade is currently 4th in usage across the entire NBA and averaging 5.4 turnovers (he had 5 last night). The other ball handler who's top 4 is Luka averaging 4.9 turnovers per game. The other two in the top 4 are big men and even they both average 3.7 (Giannis and Embiid). The 5th guy on the list? Durant averaging 4.3 per game. So let's not act like Cade is that far off from those other high usage guys. Yes, you'd like him to cut it down by 1 or 1.5 per game, but he's also working with no spacing, getting multiple defenders every time he touches the ball, and has just played the 85th game of his entire career. This loss was painful but Cade was actually one of the few bright spots, along with Sasser. In regards to Giannis getting booted, I hear people calling it weak and I don't understand that. He dunked the ball and then took steps towards Stew while staring directly into his face standing 6" from him. That's a Technical Foul all day long and has been for years. If they didn't call a tech that would've been some serious star treatment. Maybe people are forgetting that Giannis already had one tech earlier in the game so this was his second of the night?

Ausar is 3rd in the latest Kia rookie ladder. The fact that he's outrebounding both Wemby and Chet is pretty amazing, as well as his 5x5 potential. Amen isn't on the list. Sasser is 8th. https://www.nba.com/news/kia-rookie-ladder-nov-8-2023-edition

Wow. That's just painful.

A few early draft podcasts that I've listened to have continued to say that. But, the college season just started and there's usually a few risers over the course of the year. Also, there were similar narratives around the 2020 and 2022 drafts, but there are still plenty of players in those drafts that we'd love to have (Edwards, Haliburton, Maxey, Bane, Banchero, Holmgren, Murray, Sharpe, JWill, etc).

The coping narrative around Killian was that if we got Haliburton we might not have been bad enough to get Cade. I wonder if that narrative goes away this season.

G-Leaguers getting some run early in the season. Why wait until March to tank? The injury situation on this team has been ridiculous for multiple years now.

Adding to that, he's also #6 in usage across the entire NBA, just played the 84th game of his career yesterday, and is the only offensive player in most of the lineups. He definitely looks fatigued and has every right to be. Both mentally and physically.

After those first three game, the Pistons have given up 124, 110, 125, and 120. You’re not winning a lot of games giving up 120+. Tonight it was the offensive glass where they gave up over 26 second chance points to a poor rebounding team. 5 game losing streak about to go to 7 with Bucks and Sixers coming up next.

And there it is. Steph came in and all of a sudden GS is up by 6.

Killian definitely having his best game of the season on both ends. Wiseman glued to the bench in the second half. Even Monty is done with him. Cade getting free throws! Still doesn’t feel like a win is coming because I’m not sure we can keep up this scoring rate and we still aren’t really stopping GS. Also, Curry coming back in soon.

Will we ever know what this team looks like for even 20 games with their 8 top players available? The rebounding is really suffering tonight without Duren. I understand him resting because he’s looked off since the ankle roll a few games ago, but we need a competent vet for our 3rd Center.

Wow Wiseman is bad. Real bad.

Pistons are in full end-season tank form with all these injuries. Duren and Ivey both out tonight.

Duren having a really bad defensive half. Dudes are just walking past him into an open lane.

Ugh. Same starting lineup. I’m seeing the stubbornness that Suns fans complained about with Monty.

Looks like Booker and Beal are out. Didn’t help us in New Orleans when Zion and Ingram were out, but maybe this time?

Minutes aren’t gifted unless you’re a third year underperforming player shooting 27%. Also, no. He hasn’t limited Cade’s minutes. He’s looked completely gassed in the 4th quarter of the last couple games due to too many minutes down the stretch trying to make everything happen on his own. Only game with limited minutes was the one where he fouled out.