Under the Hood - it’s time to see what’s really going on inside this Pistons team.
We’ll be starting a new article series this year to dive a little deeper into Pistons games to highlight the successes and struggles of your favorite team. By having a season-long series, we hope to build on our impressions of the players and coaching staff to give you a better viewing experience of the action on the court.
Firing on All Cylinders
The preseason is the perfect time to try new things on the court, and we saw that against the Grizzlies with Ausar Thompson being used in the backup PG role. That role will most certainly be filled by committee with the likes of Jaden Ivey and Caris LeVert, but using Ausar as an on-ball creator will certainly help him reach his potential.
In this first clip, Duncan Robinson finds Ausar after the rebound, and Thompson throws a lead pass to Cade for a transition bucket. Usually it’s the other way around for these two, so it’s awesome to see Cade being the off-ball player here.
In this next clip, Ausar is initiating half-court offense. Robinson’s defender tries to go over the screen when Ausar starts the DHO, so Ausar’s defender has to switch onto Duncan, but he’s too late to get in front to defend the shot.
Lastly, I think this is what will excite Pistons fans this most this season. Ausar takes the rebound coast-to-coast for a right-handed jam. To add onto this clip, I particularly like that Duncan Robinson sprints to the left corner to space the floor in case his defender steps up as I fully believe Ausar is capable of making that read if he needs to find an open shooter. I would prefer Caris LeVert follows that same idea and would settle in the right corner on this transition possession.
Transmission Trouble
Sure, it’s just preseason, but Grizzlies started this game shooting 9-for-10 from deep - not great considering Detroit let teams shoot an above-average 36.7% from three last season.
It felt as if Detroit struggled against stretch bigs last year, and they did again in their first preseason game in Memphis. Even if Jock Landale isn’t known as a premier floor stretcher across the league, you have to have a stronger closeout on him that the one Stew offers here.
Later in the same quarter, it happens again. Stew drops after the screen to stop the ballhandler, but Chaz Lanier tries to recover back to his man and Jock Landale is left wide open. The Grizzlies’ spacing isn’t great in that short left corner, but Detroit has one too many defenders in that area.
Mechanic’s Note
Hopefully it’s just a case of the preseason precautions, but Jalen Duren was ruled out just before the game started with a hamstring injury. JB Bickerstaff called Duren “day-to-day” with hamstring tightness, though he was seen on the practice court the next day.
Duren played a career-high 78 games last year after missing a combined 36 games in his first two seasons. JD is currently listed as a “game-time decision” for tonight’s game against the Buckets, according to ESPN. Let’s hope this isn’t another season riddled with the injury bug for Detroit.