Detroit Pistons Off-Season Grades: Preseason Edition

The Leftovers

The Detroit Pistons only kept four players from last season’s roster. Here are their preseason grades:

Blake Griffin A-

He didn’t do a whole lot of scoring, but he looks healthy and he’s moving really well. His passing was fun to watch, and he hasn’t lost any confidence in his three-point shot.

He didn’t look like he was pushing himself too hard to do too much,through the four preseason games.The biggest positive is that he’s healthy and ready to roll.

Derrick Rose A-

Like Griffin, Derrick Rose looks healthy and ready to go. Turnovers were a bit of an issue during the preseason, but Rose has a tendency to start the year a little sloppy.

Outside of his turnovers, he looked exactly how he left off nine months ago. Quick, crafty, and likely our best offensive player.

Svi Mykhailiuk: A-

I’m 87% sure Svi is never going to miss a three pointer again in his life. His confidence is through the roof, and he was doing some more with the ball in his hands than he ever has before.

Mykhailiuk didn’t get a ton of minutes, but Dwane Casey spoke highly of him after almost every game. His defense was solid as well, and that’s going to keep him on the floor as sort of a Klay Thompson lite.

Sekou Doumbouya: B+

Doumbouya was borderline invisible in the first and last games, but in those middle two he sure showed us exactly what we wanted to see. His energy was off the charts and his off-ball movement got him multiple scoring opportunities.

His shot looks better than it did last season, he doesn’t look lost on either end of the floor and all signs point towards Sekou having had an incredible nine months of development. Doumbouya knows what he needs to do, to be a contributing factor this season, and he’s shown us that he can do it.

Are you sensing a theme here? The four holdovers were some of the best players the Pistons had in the preseason, and that’s not a coincidence.

Final thoughts

All in all, the direction of the Pistons is clear, and if any of the draft picks pan out, all of the questionable decisions will be forgotten.

While asset management has been suspect, this team is more exciting, and has a brighter future than it did two months ago. The Troy Weaver era is here, and the rebuild is upon us.