Pistons open practice: Cade, Killian and hints at a starting lineup

The Detroit Pistons had their open practice in front of a sizable crowd at Little Caesar’s Arena and the vibes were good.

I was unable to attend since I live overseas and do not currently own a private jet, but I had a few moles on the inside and was able to glean some details from their feedback as well as some of the Pistons’ beat writers.

Preseason starts tomorrow but did we learn anything about the Pistons from their open practice? Here are three takeaways.

Detroit Pistons open practice: Cade Cunningham is going to post

Towards the end of last season, we saw Cade Cunningham shooting fewer 3-point shots and taking more from the mid-range and post, where he is very difficult to stop.

He should be even more difficult to contain after putting on more muscle and strength this summer, and we saw it in the open practice, as Cade was getting to the deep post and finishing.

In these highlights, you can see Cade getting to the rim several times and finishing over smaller guards. I think this is going to be a theme this season, as Cunningham has the size and strength to bully smaller guards and can finish with either hand in the paint.

With more shooters around him, the paint should have more space to operate this season, so I think we’ll see Cade post up a lot more.

Detroit Pistons: Killian Hayes being aggressive

Probably the most encouraging news from the Pistons’ open practice was that Killian Hayes was reportedly aggressive looking for his shot and was actually hitting them.

Several people in attendance had takes about Hayes that sounded something like this:

Hayes has a couple of aggressive drives to the rim, was passing well and even hit a couple of mid-range jumpers, which you can see here.

Some of those drives were against Buddy Boeheim, so I am not going to get too excited, as he is a glorified traffic cone, but the mid-range shots are encouraging.

In my opinion, this is the key to unlocking Hayes’ games, as defenders are going to sag off to prevent dribble penetration, so that mid-range should be there a lot of the time. If he can hit those consistently, it will open up more passing lanes for kick outs and lobs to his teammates, which is where Killian can really shine.

The open practice was a great start for Killian Hayes, let’s hope it carries over to the preseason and eventually to real games.

A hint at the Detroit Pistons’ starting lineup?

We can’t read too much into a practice, but Dwane Casey may have given us a hint at the starting lineup we will see on opening night:

Marvin Bagley III ran as the center with the starters and Isaiah Stewart played as the backup power forward along with center Jalen Duren.

This doesn’t mean this is the starting lineup we’ll see on opening night, but we knew that if Bojan Bogdanovic was going to start, then one of Bagley III or Stewart would have to move to the bench.

Bagley III probably gives the Pistons their best offensive starting five, but potentially leaves them weak on defense, while a Stewart and Duren front court may be stout defensively but have some spacing issues unless Beef Stew shows he can shoot.

It’s possible coach Casey just wanted to get Stewart more run with Duren to see how it works and that Stewart will be the starter once the games are real, but Cade and MBIII had a nice two-man game going, so who knows, this might end up being the starting lineup we see to begin the season.

It’s something to keep an eye on as preseason starts and we edge closer to real games, though I am sure coach Casey is going to experiment with several configurations.