I don’t understand what NJ is doing. They want to lose, they have FIVE first round picks I’d think they want to develop. This seems like an easy solution! Wolf made his debut and then was inactive for the next two nights. Nolan Traore is also inactive and has played 3 of 10 games, 33 minutes, no injuries. Ben Saraf has been healthy and been inactive the last 4 games. Demin does play - he’s doing FINE, I guess, but doesn’t go inside the arc basically ever. Powell has been hurt. I just don’t get it!
With Zion out (surprise!) Derik Queen has at least looked like what he’s supposed to be, especially offensively? 36 points, 17 assists, 20 boards in his last 3 games (a bit less than 23 minutes per game). He’s never going to defend I think, but w/e.
Queen being a passer and a rebounder is pretty interesting to me. I think everybody had him as a high feel meh effort guy. Him figuring out how to pass is not shocking in that case but the rebounding says maybe there’s a bit of a light going off?
Also isn’t Weaver’s draft record surprisingly good? It’s just that he failed miserably at everything that wasn’t scouting?
obviously for the Pistons fans here, the majority of the Pistons “young core” was drafted by him (literally any GM in the league was drafting Cade so no credit there, but Duren, Ausar, Ivey, Stewart as well).
Obviously drafting high for the majority of his tenure was helpful
My recall of Queen’s scout was passing was an asset, but I may be wrong.
Weaver drafting wasn’t the issue. It’s the other GM duties that were an issue. He sucked at collecting assets, didn’t properly build a team around Cade and kept reclaiming lottery pick busts like Wiseman, Bagley, etc.
Not sure what you mean, obviously he scored because he was an NBA player on a team without any other NBA players, but his outlier skills as a prospect have been ball handling, passing, and rebounding.
There’s a reason people called him Baby Jokic or compared him to Sengun, etc.
nevermind the things I was wrong about (Tre Johnson can only shoot, apparently, not borne out here), but lets concentrate on things I DID see (Will Riley is more than shooter!)
(I will absolve myself by saying I probably saw 20x the Will Riley minutes than Tre Johnson minutes)
Philly triple teamed him a couple times last night. Down the stretch they became more aggressive guarding him and it worked a little. The mid-range jumpers that Thomspon and Holland hit felt a little fortunate. But once Cade figured out how to beat it himself it was game over. His dunk over Drummond was spectacular.
Having Duncan foul out didn’t help either. At a minimum when he is in it is harder to double and triple Cade because teams refuse to leave him alone. When he is in and they double Cade and stick hard on Duncan it becomes a three on two when Cade makes a pass. Without Duncan it is a 4 on 3 which is a little easier to defend.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Pistons will do with Ivey returning at some point this season. I do bet on his continued shooting improvement from the 3 pt line. It’ll be harder for defense to double on Cade because of Ivey’s ability to pressure the defense at the rim.
I’d imagine the closing line up would be Cade, Ivey, Ausar, Beef and Duren. I’m fine with switching out Beef for Tobias, but Beef is currently shooting better, although he’s shooting at a low volume at 3 attempts per game.
