3 Takeaways From The Pistons Loss To The Wizards

The Detroit Pistons had their second straight outing against the Wizards in Washington and came away 99-96 losers. Lets look back on the last preseason game the Pistons have for some takeaways.

It isn’t the Josh Jackson revival, its the Josh Jackson revolution.

Josh Jackson put forth another impressive night. 13 points and 8 boards and shot 3-7 from deep. In the preseason Jackson looked like the Detroit Pistons best wing player and it wasn’t especially close.

Many (including myself) were somewhat skeptical that he was going to be worth anything, even if taking a flier on a player like him is a good move for the Pistons, but he already looks like a guy who will succeed.

Having watched him in the G-League a lot, I can tell you with confidence that he basically looks the same as his time there last season.

Jackson shot 38 percent from deep on over 6 attempts per game and showed a quick release, he continued to show that in the preseason. Time will tell what percentage of shots he ends up hitting over a larger sample-size but he is clearly a much-improved shooter.

Beyond that, he still has the talent that got him drafted so high originally of being a smart passer with real ball-handling skills. Even at his worse, Jackson was a dog on the defensive end as well.

It’s hard to gauge because it is unfair to set expectations to high for Jackson out of preseason and for his contract/NBA journey he would be a real success if he manages to spend most of the season in the rotation. But coming out of preseason, Jackson looks like he should be starting at the 2-guard spot.

Killian Hayes got a few shots to fall.

Fans should never get too excited or concerned about how many shots a guy hits in preseason, unless it’s with a totally new shooting form like with Josh Jackson, but it was still concerning to see Killian Hayes shoot so poorly so far.

If nothing else, it isn’t great for his confidence to see so many bricks. Tonight Hayes finally got to see the ball go through the hoop a few times, scoring 11 points on 4-11 shooting from the field. That still isn’t very good, but it felt better for him.

Toss in that Hayes continues to look like a high-effort player on defense who, after ironing out young-guy issues, should be excellent along with the continual showing of high IQ passes and tonight felt a lot better for Hayes.

3. Svi has got to play a lot.

Svi has real issues. His defense is ugly for most of the time, he sometimes tries to do too much with the ball in his hands.

But he is such a good shooter on a team that is likely to put out some lineups without a lack of spacing that the Pistons simply can’t afford to not play him big minutes.

He doesn’t need to start, especially if Josh Jackson is really going to play like this, but he will need major minutes. The Pistons are likely to spend a lot of minutes with poor spacing and his skill-set is invaluable there.