Detroit Pistons: The bad, ugly and really ugly in back-to-back losses

Detroit Pistons: The really ugly from back-to-back losses

The bench

Woof.

Before we get into this, it should be noted that the Detroit Pistons have not had their full bench and it will look at lot better once Alec Burks and Marvin Bagley III are there to provide some scoring.

But right now, I am not sure the Pistons’ bench has an NBA player on it other than Jalen Duren and Isaiah Livers.

Killian Hayes, Hamidou Diallo and Kevin Knox have been just awful so far this season. In the case of Killian, he at least provides some value on defense, but he can’t score, and if he’s not surrounded by shooters, his playmaking is null and void, as teams just sag off and dare him to shoot.

Diallo and Knox don’t look like NBA rotation players, and the return of Livers wasn’t enough of a boost to matter last night.

The Detroit bench has been outscored 124-51 in the last two games and last night coach Dwane Casey was reluctant to even go to the bench, with every starter playing at least 30+ minutes in the second game of a back-to-back.

Coach Casey cannot continue to run all bench units out there, as there aren’t five guys on that bench right now who should actually play in an NBA game. I can’t really blame Casey, SOMEONE has to play, but he’ll have to stagger the starters and keep at least one of them on the floor at all times, as these bench minutes are killing the Pistons.

At least there is hope for this one, as MBIII and Burks should provide a boost of scoring and will also help Killian Hayes by giving him more options and space. Nerlens Noel should help if he ever gets off the bench. But until then, the bench minutes are going to be tough to watch and going to continue to cost Detroit games unless someone steps up.