Detroit Pistons vs. Chicago Bulls 2019-20 Season Preview

Blake vs. the Bulls Defense

The Pistons were able to dominate the Bulls last year largely because Blake Griffin was unstoppable. The Bulls had no one who could guard him (not many teams do) so the Alpha Ginger was able to have his way against the young and depleted Bulls.

Not much has changed, as the Bulls still don’t have anyone to guard Blake, though having a healthy Markkanen should help. The Bulls are more of a finesse team, with their bigs playing away from the paint. Young should be able to at least compete with Andre Drummond for boards, but the Pistons center will still do his thing, so the Pistons should have a huge advantage in the frontcourt.

The Bulls ranked towards the bottom of the league in team defense and there is no reason to think that won’t be the case again this season, as Lopez was a very capable team defender who joined his twin brother, Brook Lopez, in Milwaukee.

As the for the backcourt, LaVine is below average defender while Kris Dunn is quite active, gets a lot of steals and in general gets his hands on the ball. The Pistons should try to make LaVine work on both ends of the floor by attacking him with pick-and-rolls and dribble penetration. LaVine is mostly known as a scorer, so he should be one of the focal points of the Pistons’ attack.

Same goes for Markkanen, who will likely have to guard a small forward, as he will get pushed around by Griffin. This should create plenty of mismatches for the Pistons to exploit. The Bulls will have to do something to try and slow down Griffin, which should open the door for guys like Luke Kennard to have big games against the Bulls this season. Even if Griffin isn’t as dominant as he was last season, the Pistons’ offense should be able to put up big numbers on this Bulls’ defense.