The Pistons finally dusting off Diallo?
If Diallo not the future, what are the Pistons are prioritizing?
Diallo is just 24-years-old, despite being in his fourth NBA season, so age-wise, he fits in pretty well with the inner core of the team. However, his contract expires at the end of the season, so whether his future is in Detroit, remains to be seen.
What was interesting in the SIxers game was, the player who seemed to get lesser minutes due to Diallo playing was veteran point guard Cory Joseph.
After playing 12 minutes, 45 seconds in their previous game against Utah, Joseph just played 3:38, and it was in garbage time, with the result already decided.
Why would a wing take minutes from a point guard? Good question, particularly since Joseph is the only other point guard available outside of Killian Hayes.
When Diallo was in, Jaden Ivey did a lot of the ballhandling or Bojan Bogdanovic simply brought the ball up himself, basically cutting Joseph out of backup point guard minutes.
With the avalanche of turnovers in the first half, one would think Casey would prefer a steady hand like Joseph running the show. Instead the Pistons went with no point guard when Hayes was not in.
No offense, but the starting lineup is getting slapped around at the beginning of first or second halves (not being able to put two good halves together has been a major problem all season) in just about every recent game, so it is not like the starters jobs should be etched in stone.
But three of them are former Pistons first rounders selected by general manager Troy Weaver (Hayes, Duren, Ivey) while another was just signed to big, long-term contract (Marvin Bagley). Bogdonavic, well, he is just good and deserves to start (until he gets traded).
It seems like instead of taking time away from a developing, or highly=paid player, Casey is simply swapping role player minutes between Diallo and Joseph. Players doing badly and being able to keep their starting spots does not seem a way to encourage competition.
dark. Next. Even Vegas is taking notice of Killian Hayes’ improvement
The bottom line is, the Pistons are bad on defense and they have a very good defender sitting on the bench. Diallo also contributes on offense with his athletic drives (outside shooting another story) so, on a team desperately in need of solid defenders, in makes no sense not to play Hamidou Diallo.