The Pistons’ young star duo in the backcourt will have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders next season. Cade Cunningham is the clear cut engine of the offense and will have the ball in his hands very often when he’s on the court. Jaden Ivey will play next to him as the shooting guard and also play some back up point guard minutes. Both need to focus immensely on a key weakness - turnovers - in order for the Pistons offense to evolve.
Turnovers are the Pistons’ Achilles heel
In a copycat league, protecting the ball will be more important than ever now that the Thunder have secured a championship. The Thunder have an unstoppable MVP leading the offense, which most teams cannot replicate (but the Pistons actually may be able to in the future). But the more replicable aspect of their success is their frenetic defense which thrives by causing turnovers.
The Thunder achieved a historic defensive season by forcing tons of turnovers. Last season, they averaged 17.3 forced turnovers per game, which led the league. Other teams are now following that model with rangy wings to force more turnovers and get out on the fastbreak. Turnovers are doubly devastating not only because they create a defensive stop, but also ignite easy offense going the other way.
Unfortunately, turnovers are one of the Pistons’ biggest offensive weaknesses. Cade Cunningham often gets a lion’s share of the blame for this problem. Last season, he was second in the entire NBA with 4.4 turnovers per game. This number certainly needs to improve but some of Cade’s turnovers can be excused when he’s also dishing out nine assists per game and serving as the team’s heliocentric playmaker. Still, Cade has multiple turnovers per game that seem to result from carelessness rather than overenthusiastic playmaking, and those are the ones he needs to eliminate.
However, Jaden Ivey also has very poor ball security and it’s often underdiscussed. Ivey averaged 3.0 turnovers per game last season, which was in the top 20 of the NBA. Importantly, nearly every name ahead of Ivey on the turnovers list was a first option so he’s turning the ball over more than almost anyone else in his role. Ivey also does not make up for his turnovers with assists at the same rate that Cade does; Ivey only averaged four turnovers compared to his three assists. For Ivey, improved processing speed will be the biggest factor in lowering his turnovers.
Both guards drastically need to improve their ball security next season for the Pistons to take the next step. The league is full of turnover-hungry defenses now and this continued weakness will only make it harder for the Pistons to get where they want to be. If Cade really wants to be one of the top players in the league and Ivey really wants to be paid like a premier second option, both need to reduce their turnovers.