Detroit Pistons: 3 biggest questions from training camp so far

The Detroit Pistons are nearing the end of training camp, with the open practice tomorrow and preseason starting on Tuesday October 4th.

The Bojan Bogdanovic trade shook up what was otherwise a fairly quiet offseason, and will hopefully put Detroit in a better position to be competitive this season.

But they still have plenty to prove and there are still some big questions lingering over the last few days of training camp.

How serious are the injuries for the Detroit Pistons?

Last season, Cade Cunningham got hurt in training camp and had to miss the whole preseason, so we are knocking on wood that nothing like that happens this year.

But there are already a few Pistons nursing injuries, so the real questions are how serious are they and how will these injuries affect the rotation.

Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel and Kevin Knox all have injuries that make them questionable for the start of the regular season.

The worst seems to be Burks, who had offseason surgery and will be re-evaluated in three weeks, which means he will miss some of the regular season.

Noel is coming off an injury-plagued season, so his absence from camp is a pretty big red flag. And Kevin Knox is trying to earn his way into the rotation, which won’t be easy if he has to start the season on the injured list.

Losing Burks would be the biggest blow but all three players are worth keeping an eye on as the season gets underway.

Are Isaiah Stewart, Marvin Bagley III and Jalen Duren really going to be shooting jumpers?

One of the biggest challenges coach Dwane Casey is going to have is figuring out how to use his big men most effectively.

Being able to use Isaiah Stewart or Marvin Bagley III as a power forward would give the Pistons the option of going big at times, but there are concerns about spacing considering that neither of them have really shown that they can shoot.

Same with Jalen Duren, who was mostly a dunk machine in college and rarely took a shot outside of the paint.

But coach Casey has said that he wants these guys to improve their range (I cringed) and now footage has been surfacing of all three bigs working on their 3-point shooting with assistant coaches Rashard Lewis and Andrew Jones.

Look, we see practice footage of guys working on things that they will never use in games all of the time, think of Ben Simmons or Andre Drummond launching threes in practice as an example.

But given what Casey has said, I do wonder if the bigs extending their range is part of the plan. In the case of Isaiah Stewart, it does make some sense, as he has shown he can hit them and extending his range would make the Pistons a much more versatile team defensively, as he could play with a rim-protecting big.

But count me as someone who does not want to see MBIII or Duren take a single shot outside of nine feet this year, as neither of them have ever shown that they can hit them. Duren is throwing up bricks in an empty gym in this video, so I can’t imagine what that might look like with a defender.

This is just practice of course, but it does raise the question of how Casey plans to use his bigs.

Will the Detroit Pistons be elite in transition?

The Detroit Pistons were 26th in fast break points per game last season, getting just 10.5 points per game in transition.

To put it in perspective, the best team (Memphis) scored 17.4 fast break points per game, and that difference is often the margin of a close game.

Detroit’s half court offense was better without Jerami Grant and should be even better with Bojan Bogdanovic in there, but they still need to get more easy ones on the fast break.

One video from practice that stood out was one in which we saw Cade pushing in transition, kick to Ivey who then takes a few dribbles to draw in the defense and then kicks it out to Bogdanovic for the open corner 3-pointer:

Having two unselfish guards who can push the pace and draw in defenders should open up a lot more transition opportunities for shooters like Bogdanovic, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Livers and even Isaiah Stewart.

Ivey’s speed alone should lead to a few more fast break chances per game, so I do think that, along with better shooters, should lead to the Pistons making a big leap in fast break points this season.

If they can get closer to the top of the league than the bottom, it could be the difference in some of those close games.