Detroit Pistons player grades in 117-100 loss to Atlanta Hawks
By Tyler Lucas
Power forwards
Markieff Morris finished with seven points and six rebounds in 26 minutes of play while shooting 3-for-11. Morris hit a couple shots early but failed to provide anything after that. Mediocre offense and mediocre defense seem to be his calling card so far this season, and there haven’t been many signs that it will change.
Morris put up an array of bad shots and played porous defense, and also had a bone-headed technical foul called on hm in the third quarter, giving the Hawks free points. Morris has shown that he can be better than this in the past, and Pistons fans are hoping to see that version of him sooner rather than later, especially in Blake Griffin’s absence.
Thon Maker: D-
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One thing that fans can never say about Thon Maker: he doesn’t try. Maker is always hustling and working hard, he just hasn’t been able to put it together yet in his career, and especially not last night.
In a solid 19 minutes on the court, Maker only managed to score one point, and that just can’t happen when you have a team who needs offense as much as the Pistons do. Maker is still young and is something of a “project” for Pistons coach Dwane Casey, but this project is just not working out.
Maker had a couple of powerful blocks and strong rebounds, but that is about all he contributed to the game aside from easy points for the Hawks. Jabari Parker bullied Maker in the post, scoring baskets inside at will. For a guy who gets ample minutes off the bench like this, Maker will have to step it up on both ends of the court for all our sakes.
Man, I miss Blake Griffin.