4 things to watch for the Detroit Pistons after the All-Star break

1. Looking at two guards

Wednesday’s workouts unveiled plenty about Kennard and Bruce Brown. The first is that Kennard isn’t ready for game action yet but began contact workouts. How he returns from his bilateral knee tendinitis, which has kept him out for the last 25 games, is going to be important to an appropriate evaluation process.

After the trade deadline, Stefanski said he liked Kennard because of his skill set, but also that other teams find him valuable. He’s been a part of trade rumors once already and those could ramp up again this summer. Once he gets healthy, though, will allow Casey to fully explore Kennard’s capabilities as a ball-handler and second option, perhaps playing alongside Derrick Rose.

Brown is far more interesting. Casey said he sees Brown more on the wing as opposed to getting more point guard minutes. He’s viewed as a secondary ball-handler when he’s on the court but will be more valuable on the defensive end and as a spot-up shooter and slasher.

"“Bruce going forward is probably not going to be a point guard for us,” he said, according to True Blue Pistons. “That’s (for) free agency, draft and all of that. But the experience he’s getting there is going to help him to tread water and be a secondary ballhandler. Hopefully, we get Bruce more time at his natural spot as a 2-1 instead of a 1-2.”"

From that comment, it doesn’t seem like a viable option to pair Kennard and Brown if the latter is going to be a secondary ballhandler. Perhaps a Rose-Brown rotation pairs better than Rose-Kennard to have Brown’s defense to cover for Rose and allow Kennard to have a greater role alongside Brandon Knight.