Pistons news: 3 encouraging takeaways from win over Hornets

The Detroit Pistons entered last night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets with the worst record in the NBA and not a whole lot to cheer about.

They recently lost star Cade Cunningham for the season and have been the centerpiece of just about every trade rumor as teams try to pick the bones.

Instead of talking about a competitive young team and the development of players, we’ve been talking about the right price for Saddiq Bey, which is not a fun place to be in for fans of a rebuilding team.

But last night against the Hornets showed that the future is still bright in Detroit, as the Pistons held on to an overtime win with that future on full display.

It’s been a mostly depressing season so far, but there were some encouraging signs in last night’s win even though it was against the NBA’s (now) worst team.

Detroit Pistons: Killian Hayes is no longer afraid

One of the real positives of this season has been the development of Killian Hayes, as he had a horrendous start but has since turned his season and career around.

It’s not just that Hayes is putting up numbers overall, but he is playing with confidence that we’ve never seen before. A couple of times last night I had to adjust my eyes to make sure I wasn’t watching a young James Harden, as Killian was taking and making some high degree of difficulty shots and doing it with poise and confidence

That included a dagger in the overtime period where he stepped back, pump faked, got the defender in the air and then drilled the 3-point shot to give the Pistons a four point lead. He’s controlling the offense, being the “quarterback” that Dwane Casey envisioned, playing tough defense and just doesn’t look like the same guy.

Losing your franchise player for the season sucks, but one of the positives that has come out of it is that Hayes has gotten increased minutes and made the most of them. He might now be the most promising player from the Pistons’ 2020 draft class, and when you look at where he was at the beginning of the season, this transformation has been nothing short of miraculous.

Detroit Pistons: Isaiah Stewart is a stretch four

One of the big questions coming into the season was whether Isaiah Stewart would be able to shoot well enough from the outside to make the move to power forward.

So far the answer has been a resounding yes.

Stewart poured in 19 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in the win over Charlotte, hitting 8-of-10 shots overall and 2-of-3 from long range.

Stewart has shot 45 percent from 3-point range on over four attempts per game over his last 15 and is now shooting 37.5 percent from distance on the season.

Beef Stew is now the Pistons 3rd-best 3-point shooter after veterans Bogdanovic and Burks, which is something that most wouldn’t have expected coming into the season.

But he is also improving in other areas of his game. As teams have started to try to run him off the 3-point line, Stewart is getting much better at blowing by the close out and taking it to the rack, as he does here for the thunderous slam:

Stewart is shedding the undersized center label and is becoming a weapon as a stretch four for the Detroit Pistons, which is a very encouraging sign for the future, especially when you see what is developing for them at center.

Detroit Pistons: Jalen Duren has a career night

Jalen Duren sure didn’t look like the youngest player in the NBA last night, as he ripped down 19 rebounds, a career high for the rookie.

Duren added three blocks and maybe most impressive was that he played 36 minutes, was able to avoid foul trouble and was on the floor in overtime as the Pistons closed out the win.

Dwane Casey is showing a lot of faith in his young center since moving him into the starting lineup and Duren hasn’t disappointed.

He did have a tough night shooting the ball, but didn’t let it affect other parts of his game, which is great to see from such a young player.

He was setting hard screens, rolling to the hoop and making plays at the rim all night. I’d been waiting all season to see the Stewart/Duren front court and this is the duo that looks like the future for the Detroit Pistons.

If Stewart continues to improve offensively, these two are going to be nightmares for opposing offenses as they get more reps together on the defensive end.

We can’t get over excited about an overtime win over a terrible team, but we also can’t forget that the future is still bright for the young Detroit Pistons and these three players showed us part of the reason why.