Detroit Pistons: 3 takeaways from loss to the Wizards

The Detroit Pistons were coming off a promising win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in which their oldest starter was 24-years-old and they got huge contributions from rookies Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart.

The fun was short lived, as Dwane Casey stubbornly went back to his lineup of veterans so that the fans couldn’t have too much fun watching their team.

I mean, who wants to see your talented young players when you can see Cory Joseph get 33 minutes and score a whopping eight points?

Why play guys who are actually going to be on the team next season when you can get 33 minutes of CORY “I WON’T BE ON THE TEAM NEXT SEASON” JOSEPH?

If you can’t tell, I wasn’t happy about the allocation of minutes in this one and think Casey may have to be removed from the equation at some point down the stretch, as he seems determined to help Joseph and Wayne Ellington get more money on their next contracts.

Here are three other takeaways from the loss to the Wizards.

Detroit Pistons: The starting lineup was terrible

Yes, it was the second game of a back-to-back, so it didn’t surprise me when wet blanket Dwane Casey decided to insert Mason Plumlee and Cory Joseph back into the starting five.

If you removed Josh Jackson from the equation, the other four starters scored 28 points combined, half of which were from Jerami Grant.

Bey and Plumlee had a combined six points in limited minutes and the aforementioned Joseph scored just eight in his team-high 33 minutes.

This seems like a night when we should have seen more Saben Lee, but he played just 15 minutes off the bench. Same with Deividas Sirvydis, who could have gotten some run in a game that was essentially over after the 3rd quarter.

I have been a defender of Casey all season but his lineups and minutes are baffling me right now.