The Detroit Pistons are surely ready to get home following their first road trip of the season, remaining winless on the road after Tuesday night’s ugly loss to the Wizards. While there were many points to take away as areas that we are looking to improve, there were a handful of bright spots during an overall tough night for the young Pistons.
While injuries have thrown a bit of an unexpected aspect into this team taking shape, the play and effort over the road trip has left us with much to yearn for. Some guys have shown positive signs of improvement relating to previous areas of concern, and we hope that these can be built upon as the season progresses.
Here are three positives from an otherwise ugly night for the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit Pistons: Bojan Bogdanovic’s scoring ability and veteran presence
The acquisition of Bogdanovic is off to a great start for the Pistons, continuing with a 25 point performance as the team’s leading scorer against the Wizards. He was able to get super hot immediately, making his first five shots, including four from long range, and was the primary offensive generator early on.
Bogdanovic may be the Pistons’ best player as of now, and oftentimes will need to be relied upon to invigorate the rest of the offense.
Playing and practicing with a player who knows how to score like Bogdanovic will be huge for the younger players who are working toward being able to score with the same ease that Bogdanovic does.
Shooting continues to be a main focal point for this young team, but having a true scorer like Bojan will be a positive moving forward to minimize the time where the offense is stuck in a rut.
Cade Cunningham’s post defense
There were multiple possessions in a row where Cade Cunningham saw the Wizards offense try to exploit him in a mismatch guarding Kristaps Porzingis in the post. Both times, Cade was able to make the stop, showing a positive effort defensively while finding himself in a tough situation.
Cunningham certainly struggled from the field and turning the ball over throughout the night, however he still was able to make an impact on the opposite end of the floor at specific points during the game. He did start to get it going a bit more offensively in the second half, but Cade will need to show some of that aggression early on so the Pistons minimize situations where they are forced to claw back into a game.
I think that the shots will begin to fall for Cunningham, however if it does take some time, it’s important for him to find other ways to impact winning. Continuing this effort on the defensive end when he is forced to switch onto a bigger guy will be helpful and a momentum driver for the Pistons.
Jalen Duren protecting the rim
Wizards center Daniel Gafford had his hands full going up against Duren on Tuesday night. Gafford, the much more experienced NBA player, wasn’t able to get up easy takes against Duren, oftentimes seeing his shots near the rim go in and out due Duren’s defensive pressure.
Duren also saw success on the boards against Gafford, not allowing him any second chance opportunities.
Seeing success in these matchups early on can prove to be a huge confidence booster for Duren, who is currently the NBA’s youngest player. I’m interested to see how he builds upon these and goes at the other difficult matchups he’ll have to take on early in his career.
One big question mark with Duren coming into the league was his rebounding, however so far it has seemed that this concern may not last. Through his four games in the league, Duren is averaging eight rebounds per game, and we hope to see him continue to exploit tough matchups he’ll face as we have seen so far.
Having a young player who can hold his own against much more experienced players will be huge for development, as well as helping solidify Duren’s role within the Pistons rotation.