Betrayer

Tatum Usage - 32.8% Brown Usage - 31.5% I just looked at those quickly, but I'm sure there are others. I don't think we want a Luka situation, and even we did, Cade ain't Luka.

I honestly think the best outcome is if they can grow to be a back and forth thing like Tatum and Brown, where either can initiate the offense (in very different ways), either can play off-ball, and you can stagger them so one of them is on the court at all times. The bigger problem is that I'm not sure either of them projects to be more than average defensively. And if you didn't watch last night's game, it cemented the fact that this is the worst defense in the NBA and certainly the worst in Piston's history. Some of it is youth, some of it is Casey's schemes, but a lot of it is also that these are simply poor defensive players - a team full of them. That has to be addressed before they can take a step forward and it will mean moving some players, especially these wings.

Vecenie struggles to evaluate Piston's rookies amidst "flawed process."

He played a nice game orchestrating the offense, even though his shot looked a little rusty. 13 assists to 0 zero turnovers is a great stat line. The team as a whole actually moved the ball pretty well this game with 29 assists. Maybe they saw my earlier post here and decided to make a change 😄 Notable game from Duren as well with 18 points and 11 boards on 7/7 shooting.

Let's talk about this offense for a minute (credit: Jack Kelly's Twitter) #4 - seconds per touch #2 - dribbles per touch (just behind Dallas!) #26 - total touches per game #28 - total passes per game No ball movement. No people movement. All iso-ball. Sure, blame it on young players, but can we continue to ignore that this is what every Casey team has been since Toronto? Does teaching your young players to play the wrong way help their development? This needs to be Casey's last season as a head coach. Second oldest coach in the league isn't changing who he is. It's time to move him into a front office role.

I'd love to see it. Bringing back some defense doesn't stop offensive teams from winning games, but it does create another strategy you could build your team around. Right now it's pretty one-dimensional.

It’s ok, Kennard has 3 points so far tonight. I’m not still bitter about that one. Nope. Not at all.

What has this world come to when I’m looking forward to Killian coming back to help this team.

When you’re starting a threesome of Ivey, Bey, and Bojan on the perimeter, you know you’re in for some pain on the defensive side of the ball. I’m honestly surprised the Bulls didn’t get 150 in regulation. The horrendous defense from this team would be funny if it wasn’t so sad and disappointing, especially for a team wearing a Pistons logo.

Burks absolutely on fire.

Killian might actually get a couple games for that hit in the back of the head. Worst part is we have to watch more CoJo now.

Nice first half. Finally held a team under 60. Hami played really well off the bench on both sides of the court. Bey had it going with 16 in the second. Duren with 10 rebounds already. And then a little scuffle after a Mo Wagner cheap shot checking Killian into the Piston bench. Orlando cleared their bench, so expect some suspensions coming for them from the league. Hami and Killian went back at Wagner. Killian dropped a forearm on the back of Wagners neck. All three got ejected.

I think his lateral speed is fine - or at least good enough for this not to be the primary limiting factor in him at least being an average defender. Right now he's one of the worst defenders in the league. His defensive IQ (recognition/anticipation is a good way to put it) and lack of concern on the defensive end is the main problem. He checks out, misses rotations, sags too far off of his man, and doesn't position himself to play sound defense. He's playing for the next offensive possession 90% of the time. You can tell how competitive he is and how bad he wants to succeed, but I do wonder how much of that is wanting himself to succeed versus wanting the team to succeed. I don't think he gets how those two are related, which is probably true of most kids coming into the NBA who have been able to dominate thus far in their lives. But on this team who's going to show him the right way to play? There's no Popovich and Duncan to set the culture and tone. We have a team full of guys who hit the court concerned about getting their own offensive stats (Ivey, Bey, Bojan, Burks, Bagley, Hami, Knox, and even CoJo). This team does not play for each other, they don't move the ball well, they don't help each other defensively, they just don't play winning basketball. A lot of that is on the players, but there's plenty of blame for the coach/system and the GM/roster-construction as well.

Yeah, they've been changing it up with some switching, some drop, some, ice, some doubling, some hard hedging, etc. But I'm not sure there's any rhyme or reason as to why they do which scheme or when, because our coaches couldn't find the word "strategy" if you handed them a dictionary. And even if they could, I see so much defensive confusion and so many missed assignments/rotations from the players that it really doesn't matter what scheme they're running. It's just flat out bad from coaches to players. I think Duren and Stew have solid defensive potential, but I don't know if any of these perimeter players will ever be good defenders (Killian is passable, but way too handsy and gets beat a lot off the dribble). I hope they all prove me wrong.

*raises hand* To be fair, I haven't missed a Piston's game since 2001. No joke. This game was pretty embarrassing. Not sure if I've ever seen a game where the opposing team waves the white flag, puts in their scrubs, and they go on to win after being down 14 points with about 3 minutes left. What a collapse. I mean, we all expected it to happen in the 3rd quarter like usual, this time it just took a bit longer. Same recipe as usual: -Opposition scores 30+ pts per quarter. -Pistons hang with them for 2 quarters or so. -Opposition decides to ratchet up the defense so Pistons only score 15 that quarter. -Pistons can't/don't increase their defensive intensity so opponent still scores 30+ that quarter. -Game over. You can't win when you're: -29th in points allowed at 119 -30th in point differential at 9.1 per game -30th in fouls committed -26th in forced turnovers -28th in opponent FG% It doesn't help that the offensive scheme becomes "Take turns going iso" in the 4th quarter of every game. Also doesn't help that they have zero game plan - did you see how they let Trey Young sit in the corner guarding nobody all night in the last game when every other team in their right mind goes at him on every single play on offense? This team has issues from the coach to the roster composition and it goes beyond just saying, "they're young."

You do whatever you have to do when it comes to bringing in a 23 year old MVP candidate. If they want Cade instead of Ivey, I'm fine with that. Luka is what you hope Cade could become someday if we're all very, very lucky and the stars align. Or, you could just get Luka at 23? Yeah, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd be fine going forward with Luka, Ivey, Duren, Stew, and whatever else is left, plus a bunch of cap space to bring in another star. Edited to add: It's kind of like asking if I'd trade the #1 pick and Ivey for Ja Morant. The answer is yes. In a heartbeat.

Yea, he seems to have everything in order.

The league needs a contraction to create more competitive teams, not an expansion. Expansion isn't going to stop 3 All Stars from joining up on one team, and so you'll just have even more bottom feeder teams, blow out losses, and less parity in the league.

Yep, these are my favorite as well.

Rodney McGruder had the same surgery and was one of the few to come back in the same season, but in reality Cade wouldn't be eligible to come back unless we made it to the Finals. Either way, everything I've heard says that he'll be back long before training camp next season.

Didn't know he had that in him. Nice!

I'm not a fan of the teal jerseys - wish those would've remained buried. Huge fan of the red alternates though going all the way back to the '04 reds. I was wearing last year's red edition Cade jersey.

My wife and I were at this game about 3 rows behind Casey. I was wearing a red Cade jersey and some friends who still live in MI (I moved about 4 years ago) told me we made it on the broadcast. So, I guess I'm famous? I'm just happy I managed to resist the urge to scream at Casey about his rotations. The game was a blast to be at. Back and forth the entire time with a whole lot of offense on display from both teams. Killian out there hitting cold blooded shots to ice the game is becoming a trend lately. Great to see him progressing so I hope that continues. Same with Stew playing the PF and hitting threes. Been loving Duren at the starting Center and he was just 1 shy of his first 20 rebound game at just 19 years old. He looks even bigger when you're just 20 feet from him. The dude is an absolute beast.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35240547/sources-pistons-cade-cunningham-season-ending-surgery

What angered me was the way he intentionally backed in and undercut guys who were jumping for the rim on more than one occasion last night. Such a dirty player.