Three potential Detroit Pistons starting lineups with Cade Cunningham

The  starting lineup the Detroit Pistons start the season with

When you are coming off a 20-win season, you can do a lot of experimenting with lineups, because whatever you were doing, was not winning you games anyhow.

But, with the addition of Cade Cunningham, the Pistons will be looking to be as successful as possible. That might mean making the Play-in tournament, the main field of the playoffs, or just having a respectable record.

General manager Troy Weaver has made it clear that another 20-win season would be unacceptable. To have the same record with the addition of Cade Cunningham certainly would not be a good look.

So, let us say coach Dwane Casey does not get cute. He plays the top players at their natural position. Of course, as they say, it is not how you start but how you finish. Depending on the matchups, Casey could go big or small in the fourth quarter.

But, let us just say, this would be the expected starting lineup when the Pistons open the season at what should be a sold-out Little Caesars Arena on opening night.

• Point guard: Killian Hayes
• Shooting guard: Cade Cunningham
• Center: Isaiah Stewart
• Power forward: Jerami Grant
• Small forward: Saddiq Bey

Basically, this will be the same starting lineup Detroit ended with last year, with the exception of Cunningham swapping in for Hamidou Diallo.

This is the much talked-about ‘young core’ that Pistons fans hope will grow together to provide much future success.

Bey and Grant were the only ones who were full-time starters (over 50 games) last year. The rest got lots of time when the season was winding down, and the Pistons were not all that concerned about winning (i.e. tanking).

This will most likely be the Pistons opening night lineup but that does not mean these five will start all 82 games (yes, going back to 8s next year).  There are legitimate questions that only a period of playing games that count will answer?

Can Hayes and Cunningham really play together? Can Stewart handle being the starter at his size, or will the bigger Nigerian Olympian Jahlil Okafor become the starting center?

Cade Cunningham presents the Detroit Pistons so many options that they can now employ. Big, small or conventional, the No. 1 pick in the draft gives coach Dwane Casey a flexibility on who he puts on the floor that he did not have previously.