The Cavaliers gave the Detroit Pistons the blueprint, but can they follow it?

Figuring out two bigs

Fans of the Detroit Pistons have argued ad nauseam about whether Duren and Stewart should be playing together as two bigs who aren't dynamic offensively, but the Cavaliers are showing it can work.

Neither Allen nor Mobley are great outside shooters, though Mobley can step out and hit a jumper. They don't shoot many threes and Stewart has been a far better 3-point shooter than either of them.

This goes back to the last point, as the reason Mobley and Allen can work is that they play elite defense and are surrounded by two star guards and a shooter.

This is where the Pistons run into trouble; if they put Ausar Thompson in the starting five, the offensive spacing suffers, but if they take one of him or Stewart out of it, the defense falls apart.

This could be solved by bringing Ausar or Stewart off the bench in favor of Simone Fontecchio, which then gives the Pistons a starting five similar to the one Cleveland runs out.

But the key to all of this working comes back to defense, as the Pistons can take the offensive hit if they are playing elite D, and right now, they are far from it.