With Tobias Harris already out with a hip injury against the Heat, the last thing the Detroit Pistons wanted to see was Jalen Duren go out with a sprained ankle, but their center was forced to leave the game in the third quarter.
He rolled his ankle before halftime and tried to return, but it was clear right away that something wasn’t right, so Duren left the game. Hopefully, this is just a minor injury, but Duren has had issues with his ankles in the past.
Harris was already day-to-day, so the injury to Duren leaves them without their starting frontcourt with games against the Cavaliers and Knicks looming. Great.
It seems the Pistons are destined to never play the Knicks at full strength.
Detroit still has Isaiah Stewart to fill in for Duren, but that leaves them with just one big man in Paul Reed coming off the bench and no real power forward.
In the short term, coach JB Bickerstaff will lean on his depth as he has all season, and we are likely to see plenty of Reed and Ron Holland II over the next several games if Duren and Harris are still out, but it may also force Trajan Langdon into action.
Detroit Pistons depth chart: One injury away from disaster
The Pistons have three quality centers, and I would argue the two best backup centers in the league in Isaiah Stewart and Paul Reed, so they can weather the absence of Jalen Duren for a couple of games.
The loss of Harris is more difficult to absorb, as the Pistons don’t have a true backup four, and none of their other forwards can shoot at all. Harris certainly hasn’t shot the lights out from 3-point range himself, but he’s more of a threat than Holland or Thompson, at least as a shooter.
Trajan Langdon isn’t going to panic, and doesn’t need to, as injuries happen, but these just came at the worst possible time with the schedule heating up against key rivals.
But it may force him to look at his power forward depth and wonder if he doesn’t need an upgrade over Harris or at least some more depth behind him.
There are some potentially interesting options out there with teams like Houston having more power forward depth than they can use.
This was an issue going into the season, as we’ve been talking about power forward depth since the summer and wondering how and when the Pistons were going to address it.
It’s also an issue moving forward, as Harris is on an expiring deal, so we could see the Pistons look to find his future replacement before this season is over.
For now, Detroit is going to have embrace a next man up mentality as they have all season, but if either of these guys has to miss significant time, we could see the timeline for a move pushed up by a few weeks.