After a relatively quiet offseason, the Pistons entered this season with the same glaring question, which is who on this team is going to generate offense other than Cade Cunningham.
It was a slog at times in game one, as the Pistons had trouble generating good looks out of their half court with Cade staring down a clogged paint.
Things opened up in the second half when JB Bickerstaff countered with copious shooting around Cunningham, mostly using the shooters as decoys to allow Cunningham to go to work.
The biggest surprise of the night wasn’t that the Pistons eventually went on a 23-0 run to seal the game, but that they did most of it with Cade Cunningham on the bench, which may have been the most encouraging sign from the first game.
Ausar Thompson, Daniss Jenkins and 3-point shooting
The Pistons showed that 3-point shooting can cover a lot of warts, as their offense sputtered for most of the night, but they balanced it with red-hot shooting in the second half.
Cunningham was on the bench for much of the 23-point run, as Detroit scored 18 of those points without him, and it was Ausar Thompson and Daniss Jenkins who did most of the ball handling.
Thompson effectively used the dribble handoff several times to get open 3-point looks for the shooters, and Jenkins was able to get into the paint a couple of times for kick outs.
The Pistons are clearly making an effort to make Ausar Thompson more of a ball handling threat, and it showed, as he finished the game with five assists, using an array of passes in transition, on kick outs and as a screener/passer in the dribble hand off.
If Thompson can consistently put up five assists per game, the Pistons will feel far more comfortable about not making a big offseason move.
Thompson’s development as a table setter is not only important for the Pistons to survive the minutes without Cade on the floor but lessens the burden on Cade when he is in there.
Cunningham had a relatively quiet night for him, was able to play more off the ball and wasn’t exerting as much energy to create all of the offense for the Pistons.
It’s only one game, but the early signs are encouraging that the Pistons are better equipped to survive and thrive without Cade Cunningham on the floor than they were the last couple of seasons.
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