boogiebunz

The teal jerseys were terrible but I don't blame it all on the teal. The accent colors made it so ugly. The light red, the dark yellow, then they blasted the whole look with a black outline. It was so busy with colors that didn't compliment each other. Just horrible. I'm being serious when I say I think there could have been an opportunity for a really cool teal jersey. Navy blue for the secondary color to contrast dark and light. Then like a super light icy blue, almost white, as the the other accent color. And something like that would have been sick.

Cade was bad in the 2nd half. Not just "not good," legitimately bad. Ton of missed shots, turnovers, careless attacks to the basket. Got blocked at least three times. As good as he was in the 1st half, he was that bad in the 2nd. Again, Bogdanovic is the best offensive player on the team. And it's not that close. Someone said Saddiq is better than Livers. I'm actually not entirely convinced. Saddiq is a better isolation scorer than Livers, but that's not Livers' game nor does he try to do that. And that said, Saddiq isn't really that good at it either. Other than that and being physically stronger, I'm not sure how Saddiq is better than Livers. He's had big scoring games for the Pistons before. But that has come with minutes, shots, and opportunity. I don't think Saddiq is a better passer, ball handler, defender, or rebounder. If he is better at any of those things, it's marginally better at best.

Cade 1-7 from the field in 3d quarter after his great first half.

Livers might be a better fit with the starters as well. Simply because offensively, he doesn't try to do too much. When he's open, he shoots. He moves without the ball. Doesn't stall with the ball in his hands. If his shot's not there, he swings the ball quick. He doesn't force drives or backdowns like Saddiq. When Saddiq gets the ball, way too often he loves to pumpfake, sit on the ball, then force a drive. Even when he's open. He's also gotten lost in the shuffle with the starters too because Ivey and Bogey are much more assertive and aggressive.

Several questionable calls, mostly against the Pistons. The Trae foul was more of a flop that should have been a no call.

Killian and Diallo both can kick rocks. Welcome to the 2022-23 NBA season, Cade Cunningham.

Not trying to make a bold statement or anything. But it's pretty clear to me so far early in the season that Bogdanovic is the best scorer on the team, and I don't think it's particularly close. The jumper obviously. But he uses the threat of his shot to drive the ball when defenders play up, he makes good, smart passes, and he handles the ball better than I thought, and pushed the ball in transition. Might not be just the team's best scorer, might be the team's best offensive player as well.

I really appreciate players who are successful with skill and basketball IQ. But at the NBA level, sometimes being more skilled and smarter doesn’t cut it. The Pistons are below average athletically at 4 of the 5 starting positions. And Ivey doesn’t necessarily use his plus athleticism that well in all aspects of the game. Pistons need to start Duren over Stewart to help offset the below average athleticism from the rest of the starters. It’s needed for some rim protection and for rebounding at both ends. Another game tonite where Stewart is wildly outmatched from a physical standpoint against Porzingis. Now Stewart is stronger and is smart defensively. But smarts won’t prevent the bigger, taller guy from getting rebounds over him even when he boxes out properly. Duren gives the starters a better chance to compete off the glass, at both ends.

Cade needs to have a Kobe like mentality when it comes to his craft, be a gym rat, putting up thousands of jumpers up a day. Get that muscle memory engraved in his shooting arm. He has obvious high end natural talent. The work ethic and man hours need to be put in to maximize those talents. Great shooters aren’t born. They’re molded in the gym with hours and hours and days and days of just shooting. Wake up, shoot. Lift, shoot. Eat lunch, shoot. Work out again, shoot. Take a shower, shoot. He’s a good shooter with proper mechanics. He should log the hours so that when game time comes, shooting is like breathing.

I mentioned it during the game, but I would be in favor of starting a big frontcourt of Bagley and Duren when Bagley returns in a few weeks. And I get that it’s not a popular opinion and that on paper it’s not enough shooting in the starting unit. But I look at it helping in a number of ways. 1. Regardless of who’s in the starting unit, the three ball with this team is often hit or miss anyway. Maybe providing a reliable interior scorer like Bagley at least tempts the defense to collapse and the three point attempts they do take are better, more open looks. 2. It creates a different offense set-up than Cade or Jaden with the ball and the other four guys standing and watching. Blame it on the shooting or the coaching, too often the offense resorts to one-on-one by Cade or Ivey and the other guys standing waiting for a kick out three. It’s bad offense. Putting someone in the midpost who can score forces the defense to react differently and hopefully creates better spacing and some off ball action. 3. This team will struggle on the glass. It’s small upfront and unathletic. A Bagley/Duren frontcourt gives them a better chance to compete on the glass against the other team’s starters at both ends of the court. 4. Pushing Saddiq to the second unit gives them a primary scorer to run the offense through. Add Burks and Livers as competent shooters, and maybe Hayes or Joseph can actually put up some assists. Most people don’t want to hear an argument for two non three point shooting bigs in the starting line-up in this era of NBA basketball. But I can see some advantages that it could provide.

Hamadou Diallo does not belong on an NBA floor. Seriously.

The second unit... ewwww. I actually do think Bagley can help the second unit shooting. He is a reliable scorer inside, which hopefully forces defenses to collapse some and create open looks from the perimeter. Or, and I know I'm a minority in this, but if they start a big frontcourt of Bagley and Duren, then it could push Saddiq to the bench where he can be a primary scorer in the second unit. Otherwise, Casey has to stagger the rotations so that some of the starters mix in with the second unit earlier in the second quarter. Also, Livers instead of Diallo could help bench scoring.

Cade at the rim is odd. Sometimes he looks smooth as hell, especially on a straight line drive after a hesitation, like the one he put on Carter. One on one, when the help defense is slow to help, Cade is fine. Seems when he tries to bully ball in a more deliberate way, and then he goes in at the rim when the defense collapses, he doesn’t have the explosiveness to finish over the top, so he stalls, pivots, and then tries a series of pump fakes or turnarounds. Similar to Saddiq attacking the rim last season. He’d always get stuck at the rim. Although one of those drives at the end of the game was a quick move and he still missed it, I think a lefty bank attempt. If Cade’s going to attack the rim, I’d like for it t be with a level of quickness and assertiveness as opposed to slow and deliberate. He’s not quite the shot maker (like a Luka) at and near the rim to go slow and deliberate.

Orlando was missing Cole Anthony, Jonathan Isaac, Gary Harris. I actually really like the collection of talent the Magic has. They actually do have good depth when healthy and their size and length is impressive. Like us, they’re just very young. I know Isaac hasn’t played the last two seasons and have no idea when he returns how close he’ll be to what he was. But he’d be exactly the type of guy I’d like to slot in at PF for the Pistons next to Duren. Tall, long, athletic (was athletic anyway), good jumpshooter. With Banchero the #1 overall pick taking most of those PF minutes, I’d be curious to see if the Magic will make Isaac available at some point this season.

Horrible shot selection last 3 minutes, being up in a close game. Cade twice, Bogey on that force transition drive.

Because free throws up late in a close game?

Too often, Cade does not value the ball when he playmakes. Too nonchalant and ultimately careless. Is that like 3 Cade turnovers in like 2-3 minutes?

Duren should start. Their best offense has been transition and one-on-one threes by Cory Joseph and Bogdanovic.

Yuck

Fair enough. I wasn't talking specifically about your idea of "soft" switching or specifically Casey's schemes. Just switching in general. And I certainly don't advocate for switching everything being the only defensive strategy. Defense changes with not just personnel but based on opponent strengths and weaknesses, how each game is going. Against a shooter like Steph, you'll hedge and maybe blitz or trap him off the PNR. With Giannis you'll play drop coverage every time and collapse the defense in the paint. Everything defensively is fluid game to game. But in general, on most nights against most teams, I switch everything. You still have to play up after the switch. But I switch and guard the three point line unless or until the other team dictates that I don't.

Steph is actually a fantastic passer. He just hasn't needed to be a volume passer because he's the best shooter in the history of the game so he's been used more as a scorer than a primary facilitator. I don't suggest Cade never have the ball in his hands. He'll still handle the ball plenty. Just less so than how he was used last season. Give him more opportunities to play off ball, split that responsibility with Ivey and Hayes. And allow that to let him focus more on his scoring.

That is true. But I'm not convinced Cade should be that type of high usage player. As much as I love a guy like Luka, his team is so dependent and as a product often restricted by his style of play. I think in order for both Cade and the team as a whole to develop in a way that Cade becomes a real star in the league and the team legitimately contends for titles, I'd like Cade to be more like Steph or Tatum rather than Luka or LeBron. Luka and LeBron control and dictate the offense like 90% of the time. The ball always in their hands. Steph and Tatum could do that, have the talent to do that. But they play much more off the ball, and defenses can't focus on them all of the time, and for the entirety of each shot clock. I think Steph would have a significantly different career if he had played point all of the time. Not only would that allow the entire team to get better offensively, but that wouldn't put such a huge burden of responsibility all on Cade. And consequently, it should in theory also cut down his turnovers as well.

That was his m.o. from Okie State. He would let the flow of the game dictate his aggression in the first half, allow his teammates to get going, and then try to take over in the second half. I even recall a few of those college games where he either didn’t score at all or only had like 2 points at half. Its actually a pretty remarkable trait for a young player, that big picture patience. It’s a trait Chauncey Billups was praised for exhibiting during his time here. But yeah, there probably does need to be a better balance between aggressiveness and keeping everyone involved. And I think that’s at least somewhat on Casey and the offensive sets he uses. Can’t just be one quick post-up or one PNR and then taking the first available shot, and then all one-on-one after that. It would be nice to see some deliberate off the ball movement that keeps the offense fluid and dynamic. That way a guy like Cade can be aggressive even when he’s not shooting, with his off ball movement and playmaking.

Would like to see Cade take a big step in improvement this season, starting with tonight. Starts with more shooting consistency and not turning the ball over so dam much. The rest of his game I'm good with. But shooting consistency and turnovers are really an issue with him. He's gotta become that franchise guy he was drafted #1 to become. Also interested in the rotations the first few weeks. I'm not convinced Stewart belongs in the starting unit. How fast can Duren earn that spot?

Zach Lowe. Sports journalist. He used to work for Bill Simmons on grantland. He’s been a part time contributor at espn for a few years now, since grantland closed down. Known for a more analytical approach to NBA analysis. Knows his stuff, seems pretty laid back, and isn’t obnoxious or hate worthy as some NBA analysts. Pretty sure he’s a Celtics fan too. But then nobody’s perfect.