Site ranks Pistons backcourt ahead of Miami and Lakers

Always nice to have a fresh pair of eyes looking at your players. A Philadelphia site took a look at NBA backcourts and the Detroit Pistons were heaped with praise, if not a high ranking.

This is the time of year ( i.e. nothing happening now that Durant is not leaving) when reporters have time to look around the rest of the NBA and see the landscape of the other teams.

Christopher Kline of The Sixer Sense (who is also a national NBA Draft writer), ranked the backcourt of every team in the NBA recently. You can read the whole thing here.

Although if Jaden Ivey will actually start at the beginning of the year is still not known, veteran Alec Burks might ease the transition, for purposes of the story, Kline, has Ivey starting with Cade Cunningham. Since Detroit fans hope that is the backcourt for the next 10 years, probably smart.

The pair of Cunningham and Ivey are ranked 22nd out of 30 teams. To compare, the Lakers, with Russell Westbrook, is 29th (he obviously is really not a big fan of his) and the Miami Heat backcourt of Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry is 25th.

Cunningham arch-rival Jalen Green (and Kevin Porter Jr.) is just 28th.

While they were not ranked in the upper half of the backcourts, Kline heaped much praise on Cunningham and Ivey:

"Cade Cunningham is about to take off into the stratosphere. … The Pistons were compellingly competitive late in the season, and Cunningham showcased the full breadth of his offensive skill set. He can do it all…  Jaden Ivey, perhaps the most explosive and electric guard to enter the NBA since Ja Morant."

Due to their youth and inexperience (Ivey has yet to play an NBA game) it could be expected that the Cunningham-Ivey combo would not be highly ranked before the season. But, the potential is obvious, even to people in Philadelphia.

Pistons fans (and probably coaches and management) are looking forward to seeing Cunningham and Ivey in action. And the rest of the country is also, apparently, intrigued by it as well.