The Pistons finally dusting off Diallo?
Why has Hamidou Diallo been sitting on Detroit Pistons bench?
Coming into the 76ers game, Diallo, a hyper-athletic 6-foot-5 swing player, had played a total of 11 minutes in Detroit’s previous nine games, including six DNP’s. Diallo had sat in seven of the Pistons’ last 11 games.
But against Philadelphia, with the Pistons playing horrific defense, even for them, and constantly turning the ball over, Casey turned to Diallo. He dusted him off and try to and plug the sieve-like defense.
How did he do? Pretty good for a player who had not seem a lot of playing time in about a month.
Diallo scored seven points, grabbed four rebounds and, importantly, made just one turnover, in 12 minutes of action. His drives to the hoop helped Detroit’s offense, which needed it as the Sixers feasted on the Pistons’ 15 (!) first-half turnovers.
Diallo did not save the day, Detroit was a minus-14 during his time on the floor. But he did add some energy to what had been, to be kind, a lackluster performance so far by Detroit.
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Diallo had always been one of the Pistons top defensive players, since arriving in the Svi Mykhailiuk trade. With Detroit doing so badly on that end, and with Casey stating how important defense is to him, it is kind of mystifying he has been out of the rotation.
It is not like the Pistons are doing gangbusters in the win-loss column and Casey does not want to upset a winning combination.
Yes, you can say they might be tanking for Victor Wembanyama but, honestly, an uptick in defense is not turning them into the Boston Celtics.