“DEEEETROIT BASKETBALL!” I’ll never forget the first time I heard Detroit Pistons’ public-address announcer John Mason do his famous Pistons introduction.
Being born in 1996, I was fortunate to grow up watching some really really good Pistons teams. The early 2000s was a great time to be a Pistons fan. The team was so solid and the Pistons were able to win a championship in 2004. As a young kid, these were magical times. I was playing basketball myself and I remember trying to replicate the shots Chauncey Billups made, play hard defense like Ben Wallace, or make a chase down block like Tayshaun Prince.
While my childhood coincided with some good Pistons teams, as I got older, the Pistons have unfortunately fallen off a bit. In the 2010s the Pistons have struggled. Sure, they’ve had some nice runs and solid players, but they haven’t been anything close to their championship year.
As the 2022-2023 National Basketball Association (NBA) season is underway, I’m extremely excited for the Pistons. Do I think the Pistons will win the championship this year? Absolutely not. Do I think they’ll make the playoffs? Unlikely, but possible. So what are my expectations for the Pistons?
Well, under the direction of General Manager (GM) Troy Weaver, I think the Pistons are undergoing a very successful rebuild. Before Weaver took over as GM in 2020, watching the Pistons was pretty rough. The organization knew that they had to start rebuilding for the future so they went and got Weaver and he’s been doing a good job so far.
Since taking over in 2020, the Weaver is responsible for drafting Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart, Saddiq Bey, and Saben Lee (2020), Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Livers, Luka Garza, and Balsa Koprivica (2021), and Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, and Gabriele Procida (2022).
Looking at Weaver’s draft picks, Stewart, Bey, Cunningham, Ivey, and Duren all look to be solid pieces for the future. Hayes and Livers are looking to be solid role players for the team. Lee and Garza are no longer with the team. While Koprivica and Procida are interesting “draft and stash” players. A draft and stash player is a player that is selected but doesn’t join the team right away, but instead goes overseas to continue to develop. So time will tell if either Koprivica or Procida end up contributing to the future of the Pistons.
Overall, I’d say these picks give me solid faith in Weaver and the direction he’s taking the team. Cunningham and Bey have already established themselves as starters – with Cade proving to be the all-star caliber player that people anticipated him to be coming out of college. Stewart has proven to be a starter as well, I’m just not sure if he will continue to start or if he’ll take a role off the bench as the team continues to rebuild. I think both Livers and Hayes can be great pieces off the bench. Livers has the potential to be an excellent “three and D” player, meaning he’s a good three point shooter and plays very good defense. If you want an in-depth analysis on how Hayes fits, check out my post on him, but in short, I think he can be a strong leader who can do a little of everything off the bench. If I know Hayes is running the second team, I’d feel pretty confident and comfortable with that.
While Ivey or Duren have not yet played any NBA minutes, they’re both highly touted prospects who have sky high potential. Starting with Ivey, he’s drawn a lot of comparisons to Ja Morant. In preseason, Ivey has just looked really comfortable out on the court. Ivey has fantastic speed, a nice shot, and can seem to get to the basket with ease. Duren, while once considered a contender for the number one pick, he’s fallen off a little bit, but still is highly regarded. Duren’s defense and rebounding has been spectacular in preseason. If Duren can become a consistent scorer, his potential will be off the charts.
Outside of the players Weaver drafted, the Pistons also have younger NBA players, who were once highly regarded, including Marvin Bagley III, Hamidou Diallo, and Kevin Knox II. NBA Veterans Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks, Cory Joseph, Rodney McGruder, and Nerlens Noel. And rounding out the team are a pair of unproven younger players including Buddy Boeheim and Braxton Key.
I don’t really think either Boeheim or Key will be real contributors. I liked watching Boeheim at Syracuse, but I don’t think he sticks with the team. Key had some nice moments last season, but I don’t really see him sticking around either. All of the veterans on the team I think will be fine. Their veteran presence will help the younger guys develop but I don’t think any of them stick around too long. In a perfect world, I think Weaver trades some of them at the trade deadline to championship teams and gets some prospects or draft picks in return.
The once highly regarded younger players are the interesting topic. Bagley was a fantastic player at Duke but things just really didn’t work at all with the Sacramento Kings. Being a Duke fan, I’ve always believed in Bagley. I think he could be a great player. I’d love to see him develop in Detroit but I’m a bit unsure on the fit… In my mind, Duren is the future big man for Detroit. So I guess Bagley could be the power forward (PF) for the future. But then that brings the question of Stewart into the picture. Stewart, Duren, and Bagley can definitely co-exist together on the same team right now, but things might get crowded as players develop. However, it is important to note that Bagley is going to start the season injured so it’ll be at least a few weeks until this “problem” has to be addressed.
Knox is really interesting to me. Coming out of college, I wasn’t too high on Knox. I thought he was solid, but not a franchise changing player. His time with the New York Knicks, the team that drafted him, was nothing to write home about. If anything, I feel like the Knicks have Knox more opportunities than they should have. Similarly, Knox didn’t really do much with the Atlanta Hawks. I think Knox could be a solid player off the bench, but I’m not really sure how he’ll develop. He’s still young, so there’s plenty of time, he just hasn’t had the most success yet.
Diallo played fantastic last year when his role was expanded. Because of all the health issues the Pistons faced, there were games where Diallo played a large amount of minutes and in those games he took advantage of the opportunity. To me, I think Diallo is a spark plug player – one that’s exciting and can energize the team but that’s his main role.
I know I mentioned the young core players, but let’s chat a bit more about them. Starting with Cunningham. In my mind, he is “that guy.” Cunningham is the future of the Pistons. Cunningham is the one who can lead Detroit back to a championship. I think Cunningham will have an all-star worthy season; whether he’s selected as an all-star, I’m not sure. But, I feel confident that he will at least make a case to be one.
Bey proved to be a really really good shooter since coming into the NBA. I think Bey will continue to develop his scoring outside of just hitting threes. I think Bey will be a reliable scorer and due to his age and couple years on the Pistons, I think he’ll continue to embrace a leadership role.
Stewart reminds me of the Bad Boys Pistons days. He plays with an energy, aggressiveness, and physicality that feels very old school to me. I think he’ll continue to bring that but also I feel good about the work he has put into his shooting during the off-season. If Stewart can knock down his shots, including threes, I think he can be a fantastic stretch four, which is extremely valuable in this modern age of basketball.
Ivey I have very high hopes for. During the 2021-2022 I admittedly wanted the Pistons to draft Paolo Banchero, who ended up going number one overall to the Orlando Magic, but I was very happy with Ivey. Being a Michigan and Michigan State fan, I was able to see a lot of Ivey from Big Ten play. To me, Ivey has always been extremely fun to watch and electric. Finding out he has connections to Detroit and that he wanted to play here is the icing on the cake. While Ivey’s draft class seems to be very good, I do think that Ivey will make a strong case to win Rookie of the Year.
I absolutely love Duren. I loved Duren as a recruit going to Memphis and I loved him at Memphis. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Ivey, I wouldn’t have been mad if the Pistons drafted Duren with the fifth pick. Duren is only 18… he has so much time to develop but has already shown his ability to defend and grab rebounds. I know that the Detroit Lions have the whole “grit” slogan, but I think the Pistons are adding players like Stewart and Duren who give the Pistons that grittiness that is reminiscent of players like Ben Wallace and Bill Laimbeer.
In terms of this season, I think it’ll be a fun one. I don’t think the Pistons are going to be “good.” I think they’ll be fun, but not necessarily good. I don’t think they’re a playoff team (yet). I think the best case scenario is that they are a fringe playoff team and that shows that the rebuild is going a bit quicker than I thought. Worst case scenario (while having benefits) is that the Pistons have a horrendous season, but then get a top draft pick (hello Victor Wembanyama…). Or of course, the Pistons could be an average team and somewhere in the middle of the pact.
Personally, I’d like to see the young guys develop and get decent opportunities and playing time while playing some competitive basketball. In a perfect world, I think I’d like the Pistons to be fun to watch and show great flashes of potential, but to finish with a record that allows them a chance for a top pick. If the Pistons can secure a top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, then they would go into the 2023-2024 season with Hayes, Stewart, and Bey in year four. Cunningham and Livers in year three. And Ivey and Duren in year two. Take those players, add a top pick and some established players and I feel like you have a very very good team who could be on their way to greatness.
"Thoughts" 