Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. But his confidence is already shot and it’s getting worse by sticking him out there in the starting five and then benching him for the entire fourth quarter. When he came back from injury he looked like a better player, and that’s probably because he recovered some confidence. Starting him off the bench is probably better but it’s evident that beyond just confidence needs game time, preferably in the G league.
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Regardless of your opinion of his potential, I just don’t think that having him bring the ball up the court, pass it off to someone else, then going to the corner (where he is ignored by both the opposition and his team) for the rest of the possession is a meaningful development opportunity. It does, however, make life harder on a team that lacks shooting and overall offensive polish to play 4 on 5.
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I haven’t liked what I’ve seen from him but it’s been 27-28 games, only 1 NBA summer league and a serious injury to start his career. They will exhaust every option they have at their disposal to find his niche. The frustrating part is that he’s terrific defensively, look how he defended Lonzo. Lonzo went off late 3rd and it wasn’t Hayes out there. Pistons still need help I would be interested to see what it would take to acquire Marvin Bagley.
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I mean, if his niche is going to be shutting down the opposition’s fourth option when he’s the same height as their #1 option (who scored 30+), I guess that’s something. You’d think if he were a big-time stopper he’d take a turn on Lavine there?
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Jordan Poole going to the G-League was the best thing for his development and now he’s the key player for the Warriors. He played in crunch time in the playoff which tells you how far he has gone as a player.
Hayes going to the G-League could do him good IMO
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I actually think the G League might be good for Kilian. He’s the odd player that plays physical defense and shies from contact on offense.
But I do disagree with the idea that Cade is a PG. His value is his versatility. The last thing I want to for the Pistons to become like the Mavs where they just run ball screens for Luka and have zero other options and lose in the first round every year. Especially since Cade is not as good at them as Luka and he can affect the games in many different ways.
That being said, I’d like to see Frank Jackson in the starting lineup.
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Yeah, I didn’t understand them not trying him on Lavine when he was roasting the shorter guards.
Most of LaVine’s points came vs.Frank, so I don’t know if he’s the guy you want checking PG’s.
He’s 6’3”. Most PGs won’t have that kind of size advantage on him. Doubt Cade is quick enough to guard that position.
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Cade is going to struggle covering NBA guards.
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LaVine is only 6’5 looks much taller but he can rise above a lot of other guards. I like Hayes defensively but I can’t see how he would cause issues for Lavine he might be a top 15 guy in the league.
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So the solution is to have G-Leaguer Frank Jackson guard him then. I mean, someone has to do it. If Hayes is an eraser on defense, why not him?
Caught the second quarter of the game as my introduction to the New Bulls and I can’t say I’m super thrilled. I guess they played more defense than I expected and the starters were clearly better than the Pistons’ starters but, like, that is not a super high bar? Definitely seemed like a team that will be fighting it out in the play in.
I still have my Jordan era hatred of the Bulls but I like the guard rotation of Lavine, Ball and Caruso.
Their bench isn’t that great though, it gets a boost if White gets healthy but some of those guys aren’t very good at least certainly not good enough to cover if there is an injury to a player.
With anything especially a team that is still rebuilding there’s a balance of risk/reward. If I can have a player that can neutralize a PG that’s a great start. I am not a big Frank Jackson fan and hopefully his minutes are limited when Cade returns and you can give more minutes to Diallo.
Frank got rid of his awesome hair.
When he went from this
To this
he was awesome. Going from a deep bench role to averaging around 13 points and shooting 40% from deep.
Then he clipped it all off right after media day and now we have this:
We’ll see if there’s a Sampson-effect in progress here. The early results are concerning.
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Frank looks like three different dudes here. Total chameleon. I mean that first pic looks like 1980s Perry Farrell playing in a Rock N’ Jock game.
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Wild they don’t give Saben Lee a look. Someone needs to sort of run this offense.
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We’ve looked like one of the most talentless teams in the league so far. Someone needs to start the offense, and because it’s looking like we have the worst PG in the entire NBA, there should be no hesitancy in handing the keys to Cunningham.
People were way too deluded and forgot just how desperate the Pistons are for someone like Cunningham, fears of a heliocentric offense are cute tbh. Focus on his (and Bey’s) development, we already know how good he is off ball. He should get as many reps as possible in the areas where he needs improvement and has potential in, ball handling, passing.