Detroit Pistons: It’s only preseason, but it would be nice…

Detroit Pistons: It’s only preseason, but it would be nice…

To see more competitiveness

Both Dwane Casey and Troy Weaver talked about this season being the one where the Detroit Pistons start to “compete.” That doesn’t mean they are going to win every game or make the playoffs, but this is the year they want to start being more competitive and putting themselves in the position to win a few more games.

Yes, it’s only preseason, but we’ve not seen much competitiveness out of this group yet, as they’ve been lackadaisical with the ball, slow to rotate on defense and just haven’t had much life. This is a young team and can’t expect to just “turn it on” when the games get real.

The Milwaukee Bucks didn’t win a preseason game either, but last night I watched Giannis diving on the floor for loose balls and pushing Ben Simmons around in the post. Again, I don’t care if Detroit wins tonight, but a little more competitive fire would be nice.

Preseason doesn’t count as far as wins and losses, but it does set a tone, so Detroit needs to ramp up the effort tonight regardless of who plays.

For Killian Hayes to stay aggressive

Killian Hayes has been a bright spot so far, especially after scoring 20 points in the last game on efficient shooting. I expect we’ll see a fair amount of him tonight if the Pistons decide to play their starters in limited minutes.

His shooting has been up and down, which you’d expect, but what I love is that he has been aggressive looking for his shot and has not played tentatively on offense as we’ve seen in the past.

Hayes is a good enough passer that teams have to respect his ability to set up teammates, which should lead to more looks for him. So far he’s been taking it to the rack, trying to draw fouls and has not hesitated to hoist shots when he’s open.

The results may be inconsistent at times, but he has to stay consistently aggressive on offense. And it would be nice if he made more than 33 percent of his free throws.