The Detroit Pistons are halfway through their Summer League schedule, the perfect time for wild overreactions about what we’ve seen so far.
Detroit beat Orlando in the first game, a sloppy effort with spirited defense and a whole lot of turnovers. The Pistons lost game two against the rival Rockets, as Jabari Smith Jr. went off for 38 points and Detroit didn’t have much of an answer.
There was plenty to work on and plenty to like in both games, and fans have reason to be excited about Ausar Thompson, Marcus Sasser and the development of Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren.
It’s just Summer League of course, so ultimately all of this is meaningless speculation for a bit of fun, so keep in mind that these are overreactions that might contain a little truth, but will need a LOT more time before we’ll know.
Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far
Ausar Thompson is the next Kawhi Leonard!
Ok, let’s slow down.
But you have to love what you’ve seen from rookie Ausar Thompson so far. First off, his athleticism stands out immediately like few players I’ve seen recently. He’s the bouncy wing the Pistons have been after forever and at the very least is going to be a very good defender in the NBA. He’s averaged 2.5 blocks and 2.0 steals in his first two Summer League games and has defended several positions.
He has shown instincts on both sides of the ball, gives big effort on defense, doesn’t force things and makes good decisions. If his shooting comes around, he’s going to be a dynamic two-way forward who can be an absolute stopper on defense.
So could Ausar become an MVP-level forward like Kawhi Leonard? A guy who can carry a team to a title? Probably not, but Kawhi wasn’t exactly a dynamic offensive player as a rookie. He made an impact grabbing rebounds (5.1 per game) and steals (1.3) per game while only scoring 7.9 points.
Those numbers are about what I’d expect out of Ausar Thompson next season, as he will likely come off the bench initially and will not get a ton of touches in the half court. He’s going to have to defend and rebound his way into the starting five, and depending on Detroit’s next moves, that could be soon.
It’s far too soon to anoint Ausar as the next great two-way forward in the league, but he’s shown that he can make a big impact without needing the ball much, so if he improves his shooting efficiency, Detroit may have gotten a steal.
Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far
Jalen Duren is going to be better than Jaden Ivey!
If you watched the first two Summer League games and didn’t know anything about any of the players involved, you might think that Jalen Duren was the Pistons’ best player.
Duren has looked very good, averaging 20 per game to lead the team in scoring while hauling down nine rebounds. He’s flashed some new elements to his game, namely a pull-up mid-range jumper that he hit a couple of times.
Even though the offseason is young, it appears that Duren, who is still just 19-years-old, has already improved.
Jaden Ivey played a couple of sloppy, turnover-riddled games that pretty much looked like last season. He took some ill-advised shots, forced things a few times and scored an inefficient 18 per game on 17 shots.
Duren shot 68 percent from the field, knocked down one of his two 3-point shots and outscored Ivey on fewer attempts.
But let’s pump the brakes here.
Duren has looked better on offense, and has always been a handful around the rim, but he still has a long way to go on defense, and that’s the area where he needs to make the biggest impact and improvement next season.
Ivey also racked up seven assists per game in the first two, was orchestrating an offense of guys who have barely played together and had spurts where he was definitely the best player on the floor. Ivey is going to be fine, as he’ll be sharing the ball handling duties with Cade Cunningham and will not be playing the same featured role that he is in Summer League.
Duren also isn’t going to be shooting many 3-pointers (I hope) or pulling up from the mid-range, so as nice as those things are to see, we aren’t going to be seeing them much in real games, at least not right away.
The good news is the Detroit Pistons appear to have two very good players from the same draft, but there is a chance that Duren becomes the more impactful over time. I’d still bet on Ivey, but it’s good if there’s an argument.
Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far
The 2-big lineup can work!
No. Just no.
If you just look at the box scores for Jalen Duren and James Wiseman, it looks as though they had huge games, as they averaged a 36.5 points and 19.5 rebounds combined after starting together in both.
They had some good moments together, but ultimately both players had negative net ratings when sharing the floor. There were two plays versus Orlando that encapsulated the advantages and disadvantages playing two bigs.
There were two possessions (one in each half) where the Pistons got multiple offensive rebounds with Duren and Wiseman on the floor, giving themselves second and third chances. However, they failed to actually score on either of them, and both led to wide-open 3-pointers for the Magic on the other end.
Offensively it doesn’t matter how many chances you get if you can’t make shots, and crashing those boards with two bigs leaves you vulnerable defensively. It wasn’t just that Wiseman was late getting back, on both occasions he ran straight to the rim (which is what centers are taught to do) while the man he was supposed to be defending was at the 3-point line.
It was even worse in the half court against Houston, as Jabari Smith Jr. pretty much did whatever he wanted with little resistance from Wiseman or Duren.
So aside from the obvious spacing issues on offense, it’s even a bigger catastrophe on defense, so let’s hope this is not something Monty Williams sees as anything more than a Summer League experiment.