Last week we took to Twitter to see what Detroit Pistons fans were the most worried about heading into the season.
The arrival of the NBA’s preseason warrants theories among fans on how their favorite team will preform. With this generally brings in worries and concerns on what could possibly go wrong for their team. We wanted to ask Pistons fans what was concerning them for the season in front of us, here are some of those replies:
My biggest concern is our lack of depth at the center position. Small ball doesn’t work in a series against Philly. Really hope Christian Wood makes the squad.
— Luke (@LukeyBucketsNBA) October 2, 2019
This has become an issue of growing concern, for as well as the Pistons did in making off-season acquisitions, they’ve still not fully addressed the situation with the backup center position. As it stands Christian Wood is competing to land the roster’s 15th and final spot, where he would be the clear cut owner of the second unit’s center spot. However, if he does not make the team, the Pistons will have to resort to Markieff Morris and Thon Maker as their contingency plan.
Markieff has had experience playing center, however as it was correctly pointed out in that tweet – the Pistons cannot afford to rely on small ball to win them games. Thon struggled throughout the second half of the season in almost every conceivable way, most notably his inability to handle passes and inconsistencies with perimeter shooting. Though admittedly Thon is still a work in progress and can still develop, the Pistons have a tough issue on their hands.
This seems to be a consensus – Luke Kennard needs more shot opportunities this season. Heading into his third year in the NBA, Luke will presumably begin the season coming off of the bench with the Pistons explosive second unit. Detroit needs Luke to take a leap this season as a wing, one that begins to separate him from what his identity has been (to national media) so far – which has at times been an inconsistent scorer.
Luke is able to create his space off the dribble and attack the basket with ease. This has turned him into an effective scoring option for Detroit – ergo the necessity to bring him off of the bench. Coach Dwane Casey will have a second unit back court consisting of Derrick Rose and Luke Kennard. This will pair Luke with one of the best passers he’s had a chance to play with, which in turn could increase high percentage looks along the perimeter.
Expect Luke Kennard’s shooting volume to go up.
Finding opportunities to rest Rose and Griffin to prevent a late season injury like last year.
— J Roze (1-0) (@DetroitRoze) October 2, 2019
Luckily this was addressed during media day last week. Dwane Casey made it clear that he was well aware that the team needed to pay close attention to both Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin‘s usage this season. Monitoring their health on a nightly basis could very well be the difference between Detroit landing the sixth seed or the eighth seed for the playoffs.
If the Pistons are able to get Derrick to play around 65 games this season, it’ll maximize their chances of succeeding. Naturally avoiding Blake getting hurt – at all – would be optimal as well.
https://twitter.com/CapsSlick/status/1179659817432027136
This has been a huge topic of discussion ever since Sekou Doumbouya was selected in the first round of the draft back in June. What Pistons fans have to understand is that as well as he reportedly played in training camp, he’s still only 18 years old.
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It’s important for Detroit not to throw him to the wolves and try to get him to produce immediately, and there will likely be games this season where he doesn’t see the floor for a single minute due to how deep the power forward rotation goes. His ease of movement on offense while in transition is something we’ve not seen from an 18 year old in a considerably long time. Ultimately as it’s been said before, his willingness to play aggressive defense could very well be the difference between seeing floor time or not. Dwane Casey will play anybody as long as their committed to playing defense.
Pistons fans have to play the waiting game with Sekou, and the preseason will tell us a lot about the progress he’s making.