The Detroit Pistons were missing Jalen Duren and Cade Cunningham in their preseason loss to the Wizards, and it showed, as Detroit was nearly run out of the gym in the 1st quarter.
As with all preseason games, there were highs and lows, but one thing that was evident with Duren out is that the Pistons were undersized. Washington is a particularly big team with both Anthony Davis and Alex Sarr in the starting five and Deandre Ayton coming off the bench.
The Pistons held their own on the boards, and actually had one more rebound overall than Washington, which is not surprising, as Detroit has several non-centers who are plus rebounders, which makes up for their lack of seven footers.
A lot of this had to do with Detroit’s poor shooting, as they grabbed a ton of offensive rebounds to balance the totals.
But there are other areas in which their lack of size is more alarming, and we saw some of the results against Washington.
The Pistons rim protection and foul issues
Detroit dominated points in the paint last season and did again in this game, so scoring in the paint wasn’t a problem for the Pistons, but stopping the Wizards was.
The Pistons had just two blocks in a game in which the Wizards lived at the rim, which is not a great sign.
It’s also not a great sign that the Pistons had 36 team fouls and sent Washington to the line 51 times. There was some “interesting” officiating in this game, but 51 free throws is not a number you want to see, even in the preseason.
Two of the Pistons’ five starters fouled out, and Javonte Green, Ebuka Okorie and Tolu Smith added another 12 fouls between them.
A lot of this just comes down to sloppy preseason play, but some of it was that the Pistons didn’t put up much resistance at the rim, which led them to having to foul to stop easy dunks.
But some of it is a result of the Pistons lacking size in the frontcourt compared to some of the bigger teams like Washington. This showed up in the playoffs against both the Magic and Cavaliers last season and not much has changed.
Jalen Duren is not exactly a rim protector himself, so this issue doesn’t go away when he comes back, as the Pistons still don’t have a real seven-footer, making them one of the smallest frontcourts in the NBA.
They also lost their best rim protector in Isaiah Stewart, so this will be an issue to watch when the Pistons are playing teams that run with two bigs.
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