Pistons starting lineup: Detroit could play small ball

The Detroit Pistons have been very active so far this offseason, making a couple of trades and now adding Marvin Bagley III and Kevin Knox on the first day of free agency.

The latter move continues Troy Weaver’s strategy of taking flyers on talented young players who have not yet reached their potential, which is smart, as they are low risk deals and you only need one of them to hit for it to really pay dividends.

But the Pistons now have five players on their roster who can play center, so there is already speculation about who is going to start and what their depth chart will look like.

If I had to guess, I’d say this will be the opening night starting five. Of course, this could change, as the Pistons are likely not finished making moves just yet:

• Cade Cunningham
• Jaden Ivey
• Saddiq Bey
• Marvin Bagley III
• Isaiah Stewart

This seems like the most-likely scenario at the minute, but things can change fast. Also, there is some concern that this group doesn’t have enough shooting around Cade Cunningham, but the Pistons have a whole lot of options, including going small at times.

Detroit Pistons starting lineup: 2 ways to play small ball

While I do think we’ll see the starting lineup above more times than not, the Pistons could also go really small in an effort to disperse their shooting between their starting and bench units.

Here is one possibility:

• Cade Cunningham
• Jaden Ivey
• Alec Burks
• Saddiq Bey
• Isaiah Stewart

This would be taking small ball to new “heights,” as this lineup maxes out at 6-foot-9 and would potentially struggle mightily against any team that had a legit post presence. But Beef Stew has shown he can defend bigger guys and not that many teams have post threats anyway.

This team would be fast and dynamic offensively with a couple of shooters around Cade and Jaden Ivey, and would be switchable on defense. But they’d also be vulnerable to those switches, as teams would probably just pick-and-roll them, hoping to get a guard defending a center.

While Cade Cunningham and Saddiq Bey could do that at times, it’s not ideal.

Of course, the Pistons could move a guy like Nerlens Noel into this group, as he is more of a traditional center who can handle bigs.

Another option would be to move Isaiah Livers into the starting unit:

• Cade Cunningham
• Jaden Ivey
• Saddiq Bey
• Isaiah Livers
• Isaiah Stewart/Nerlens Noel

This lineup is a little bigger, but still has solid shooting around Cade/Ivey and would be less of a liability on defense.

The Detroit Pistons are going to have a lot of flexibility in the depth chart next season and we may see this starting lineup change from night to night depending on the opponent.