Three Takeaways From The Detroit Pistons Close Loss To The Hawks

The Detroit Pistons had a close loss to the Hawks after making it close at the end. With Blake and Rose out we saw a very different team.

Killian Hayes might be starting to settle in

Detroit Pistons rookie point guard Killian Hayes finally got to play through an entire game without being immediately pulled when he had some growing pains and it paid off.

It wasn’t a remarkable game, but 10 points on 12 shots with 8 assists against 1 turnover and 2 steals is a tidy stat-line for a 19 year-old. There remains some concern about him seeming to float in and out of the offense when he is on the floor, but that is mostly a result of Dwane Casey’s non-offensive scheme.

At some point Hayes will need to simply hit more shots and it’d be much nicer if he got deeper penetration, but for such a young player games like tonight are what we are looking for. Games where even if it wasn’t exactly a stand-out performance, it was an actively positive one.

The thing to remember is that young point-guards are almost always actively negative NBA players, which Killian has been in his first two outings, so any time that isn’t the case is a win for the French international’s development.

Jerami Grant may be up to this challenge

27 points on 20 shots for Grant on an impressive night. He still got most of his points marauding for cuts and spot-up threes, but he had several legitimately impressive takes to the rim.

When he picks up the ball out of a dribble hand-off with a full head of steam he is at the hoop almost immediately and he is so long and athletic that he can finish over guys.

A lot of his attempts at creating offense for himself still look very ugly, but he’s still awesome at picking up easy buckets when he isn’t the focal point and is currently getting just enough of those ugly self-creation attempts to fall.

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A thing to watch going forwards is that we officially have a trend with Grant and getting to the free-throw line. He only shot 6 free-throws tonight, but considering that he spends a lot of time without the ball in his hands, when he goes it himself he has gotten a lot of calls.

This could be a key for him going forward, that even if many of his drives are ugly and slightly out of control, his long arms flailing may have a real knack for drawing fouls. Drawing fouls is typically a requirement for anyone who wants to be efficient on any sort of volume as a scorer so this is a good sign for him.

There is still some question. First off, the Pistons have opened up against three teams that do not figure to be good defensively so at some point many of the easy buckets off of cuts and running in transition will dry up.

But the bigger question is when teams start to actually play him like a real scoring threat. Grant has still shown little ability as a passer, and if he keeps playing like this teams will start to send help to his drives which will force him to become a passer.

The Pistons should be pleased with what he’s shown, but he does have one more thing to prove.

Isaiah Stewart is a mad man

In just 14 minutes, his first NBA minutes, Stewart had 5 offensive rebounds and 3 fouls. His energy is remarkable and his bounce is elite. He has a long way to go before he is a positive player, his energy needs to be channeled into some more constructive ways, but he will be entertaining.