The Detroit Pistons started the season shorthanded with a starter and two key bench players injured, and another may be joining them tonight.
Jaden Ivey will be out for several more weeks, Caris LeVert and Marcus Sasser are still questionable, and now Ausar Thompson has joined them, listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Magic with an illness.
It looked as if something was wrong with Ausar in the last game, as he wasn’t playing with his normal intensity and only logged 15 minutes on the night. I’m not sure what the excuse was for the rest of the Pistons, but Ausar didn’t look right and could be held out of tonight’s game vs. Orlando.
With two starters possibly out, the Pistons will have to dig even deeper into their depleted bench for a hero, and it could help inject some much-needed life into the starting five.
Detroit Pistons injuries: Who will start in Ausar Thompson’s place?
JB Bickerstaff could turn to veteran Javonte Green, though that isn’t likely to help the slow offensive starts the team has been getting off to in first quarters, where they’ve been dominated by a nearly double-digit scoring margin in four games.
The Pistons have been lifeless in the first quarter, and it is costing them.
The energy tends to pick up as soon as Ron Holland and Isaiah Stewart come into the game, so hopefully one of them will be getting the starting nod tonight.
Holland seems like the more likely candidate, as he is actually a wing and can provide the defensive intensity on the perimeter that they will be losing if Ausar Thompson can’t go.
But when you look at Orlando’s jumbo starting lineup, JB Bickerstaff may choose to move Tobias Harris to the three and start Isaiah Stewart to match up with the Magic’s size. That would put Paul Reed as backup center and force him into minutes.
Coach Bickerstaff could swerve the other direction and go small, which is an option amidst Cade Cunningham’s current turnover bonanza.
He could go with Daniss Jenkins and push everyone else down on the depth chart and try to run the Magic off the floor. Jenkins would give the Pistons another ball handler to help Cade, but he could be overmatched defensively.
Orlando is not a high-scoring team, so the Pistons could try to push the pace and outscore them rather than grind it out in the half court, where they too have been bad.
None of those scenarios are ideal, as the first to push foul-prone players into increased minutes while the latter leaves the Pistons with a huge size disadvantage.
We knew this first week of the season was going to be tough, but it’s been made more so by a rash of minor injuries and illnesses that are forcing the Pistons to lean on their depth early.