Cade Cunningham’s EXPLOSIVE Preseason Performance | Is Detroit’s SUPERSTAR Ready for MVP Race?

Cade Cunningham’s EXPLOSIVE Preseason Performance | Is Detroit’s SUPERSTAR Ready for MVP Race?

If Kate Cunningham is going to shoot his pull-up threes and these step back threes as consistently as he did tonight, if he’s going to get to the free throw line as consistently as he’s done in preseason, he’s coming for first team all NBA. And he’s coming for some MVP votes this season with the Detroit Pistons. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host, Cuckoo Hill. You can find me over on Twitter, cuckoo. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for four years now for the Lockdown Network band credential media member over the last three years. I want to thank all of you guys. Make locked Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free and available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons, hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets used across the app. Head to the FanDuel. Head to FanDuel.com to download the FanDuel app to get started today. Later on, we’ll talk about uh some really good minutes, I thought, from Bobby Clipman and Chaz Laneir in the Piston second preseason game. We’ll talk about what we saw from them and maybe some from some not so great minutes from some other role players. We’ll discuss that as well. Um, also want to talk about this uber aggressive Assar Thompson we’ve seen um in in games one and two, especially in this game two. Um, we’ll talk about that a little bit later as well. But I want to start off with Cade Cunningham. Um, and actually before we get to Kade, I do have to let you guys know the Pistons went with the new starting lineup tonight. They went with Cade, Ryan Holland, Assar, Duncan Robinson, Isaiah Stewart. That’s obviously due to um Tobias sat out due to rest. Duran is still dayto-day with his hamstring. And Jay Ivy, I know it’s one everyone’s probably asking about. He also sat out due to rest. Now, I’d like to I don’t really understand that. I I feel like and again, I’m not a doctor or anything, but I feel like just from the outside looking in, played sports, like if you haven’t played in eight months, I feel like it would be best for you to play during the preseason, kind of get that conditioning up. Um, but maybe they have a plan for him that I mean, obviously they have a plan for him and they believe this is better for I don’t get that. I I I feel like it would be better for him to play and try to get his conditioning up during preseason so he’s ready to go. But that’s that’s just me. But he was out do the rest. So the Pistons went with a different lineup. I told you guys throughout the offseason they wanted to see how Ron and Assar could play together. We got more of those minutes tonight in this game for a much longer stretches. I think we’re going to see more of them in the future during the regular season. I think we’re getting we’re getting clear signs that we’re going to see that. But wanted to give you guys that update for I’m sure if some of you guys looked at the box was like where’s Ivy? Where’s Tobias? That was it. Um now we can get to Cade. Kade has been fantastic in preseason. absolutely fantastic. First game he had 20 points in the first half. This game in the first half in just 19 minutes 19 minutes he had 266 and six. 266 and six in the first half of this game in preseason. He looks absolutely fantastic. He had a pull of three from deep off a pick and roll which I absolutely loved. His defender went over the screen. He was trailing. It was from about five feet beyond the three-point line. pulled really confidently. Money. Then he had a step back there in the right wing. I love seeing that. That was money. He’s getting to the rim. He’s finishing through contact at the rim. He had multiple tough finishes through and once tonight he got to the free throw line in this game. In just the first half eight times. Got to the free throw line eight times in the first half. When did K get to the free throw line? Eight times all of last year. What? Maybe like five times in one game. Like five times. Like he did that in the first half. Eight free throws. And we got the signature K Cunningham headbutt after and one. He headbutted the ball. Um I I forget who it was that fouled him, but it was a tough finish and you saw that that version of K come out that everyone always talks about. Um so my takeaways from how Kates played there’s I have a few So I have a few like more in-depth uh takeaways here. the Pistons are playing him not I don’t want to say offball because offball like kind of insinuates that like he’s when you say offball it seems like that he’s not getting the ball in his hands. He is he the ball is coming to him obviously or he wouldn’t be scoring but they are so far through two games he’s still obviously running a lot of pick and rolls like he’s still doing that but through two games you’re seeing different ways in which JB is utilizing him. You’re seeing Assar with the ball in his hands initiating action. you’re seeing um uh at times Ron Holland not as much but at times Ron Holland mostly it really is Assar so far at least in this game in this game it was a lot of Assar initiating action but then maybe even Marcus Sasser when he was on the floor with Kate he was initiating some you saw um uh I’m why am I drawing a bl Jenkins like you’re seeing the other people initiate the offense where Cade is not every possession he’s getting is not him just staring at a defense it’s him coming off a pin down or him coming off a handoff or him getting put in a good position already. Instead of him having create this good position for himself, he’s coming off this action that’s creating him an advantage for him and now he’s feasting off of that. He’s playing off of Ether. So now you’re seeing more of Cade through preseason on ball creating his own advantages, but then also the Pistons kind of designing these actions to make life a little easier for him and trusting these other guys to run the actions. And I think he’s looked absolutely fantastic doing so. I I think this is something you’re going to see more of. I think this is something the Pistons want to do. Again, we talked about this this last episode with Matt that JB’s statements feel like maybe they could be contradictory. I when he said that, “Oh, we don’t want to take the ball out K’s hands.” But then also saying, “Yeah, we want to put the ball in the Sar’s hands when he’s on the floor with K. We want, you know, blah blah blah.” I don’t feel like I feel like what JB was trying to say was that we’re not taking the when he says we’re not taking the ball out of K’s hands, I think he’s more so saying that like Kate’s still going to get his shots. He’s still going to be the main focal point of our offense. It’s just maybe not going to look the exact same way. It’s not going to be Kade coming down 14 seconds on the shot clock, pick and roll, ISO every possession like it was all of last year really. Like Kade was asked to do everything for the Pistons offense, create every advantage and he had a high usage for doing that. I think what JB is saying is, yeah, you’re going to still see him get the same amount of shots up, maybe even more shots. I mean, he got 14 shots in this first half. It’s not like Kade’s not getting his shots. It’s not like Kade’s not getting his usage, it’s just looking slightly different. Instead of just only picking rolls, you’re starting to see pick and rolls. You’re starting to see dribble handoffs. You’re starting to see him coming off pin downs. You’re starting to see him maybe get some movement threes. You’re starting to see him get some catch and shoot theories. You’re starting to see him get past the ball in transition. Instead of him leading transition, he’s being past the ball in transition and finishing off of that. You’re starting to see how versatile Kade is as a player, which I think he’s really feasting on through two games of preseason. So, I think that’s been a lot of fun to watch. I can’t wait to see that during the regular season. I think it could really help Cade uh manage his stamina more if that is the case to where it’s not just him facing a set defense every single possession having for everyone every single possession. And again, like I said, with them using him just slightly different just going to him in slightly different ways. In just 19 minutes, he’s gained 266 and six. Like this was talked about Cade pre-draft about how versatile of a player he is offensively. You can play him on ball, he can be your engine, but then he can also play off these other actions. He can do all these other things. And because of the roster the Pistons have had for years, you just haven’t really got to see him do these other things. But through two preseason games, you’re starting to see the different ways in which he can be utilized. And I’m loving it. I think he’s looking absolutely fantastic. And then the last takeaway, the second takeaway I have is if his finishing actually is making this kind of this kind of improvement, and again, it’s preseason. We’re not don’t want to go too crazy into anything like that, but if his finishing actually has improved and he’s trusting his step back and pull up threes like he’s doing in preeason, I am telling you guys right now what you guys know if you guys listen to the podcast all year or all all summer really, you guys know, I’ve said it over and over and over, the one thing that Kade has to work on is efficiency. If he upgrades his efficiency and improves finishing at the rim and becomes a more consistent pullup three-point shooter, I don’t know how you guard him. He’s one of the best passers in the NBA. He’s one of the best mid-range shooters in the NBA. He’s the best post-up guard in the NBA. He has incredible touch in the paint. He has incredible touch on mid-ranges. He already shoots fine from three, especially on catch and shoots. He already is he’s able to get to the paint whenever he really wants. If now all of a sudden he’s finishing at a high level and now he’s also hitting pullup threes and it forces defense to guard him differently as well. I don’t know how you stop him. He’s going to be unguardable. And that’s first team AllNNBA. That’s MVP votes coming for Cade if this is actually how he looks. And I think everyone should be very excited. Everyone should be very excited because I remember last offseason. I remember last preseason I should say when he wasn’t being aggressive. Everyone was like, “Oh god, what’s going on with Cade?” This preseason, you’re seeing a completely different demeanor. You’re seeing him play absolutely tremendous in the preseason. And hopefully this means we won’t see yet another slow start for Cade. Cage had a slow start to every year of his career and then he picks it up after like game seven, game 10 or something. It seems like he focused and not seems like we know he focused a ton on his conditioning all offseason. Seems like he’s coming to camp and coming to preseason in excellent shape. Looks much stronger. Looks way better. Maybe this means that we will get a better start to the season and maybe that leads to a better Pistons season overall. I I think Cage looked fantastic, man. He’s looked absolutely phenomenal in preseason, man. I cannot wait for the regular season to get started here. Let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cook how you guys feel about how Kade has played so far through preseason and have you picked up on how the different ways in which they’re trying to use him. It’s not crazy. Again, he’s still running his pick and roll, still getting his eyes, whatever. But have you picked up on the minor ways that they’re they’re trying to change how he maybe gets utilized within the half court? Let me know all that comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cuckoo. Yo, coming up, we got an uber uber aggressive game from Assar, which with excuse me, some mixed results. We’ll talk about and break it down. Coming up, today’s episode’s brought to you by Prize Picks. Every day we make decisions, but on prize picks, being right can actually get you paid. Don’t miss the excitement of this football season with prize picks, which good to be right. Playing prize picks is such a fun, simple way to add more excitement to football. 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Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. Um, I do want to apologize to you guys if it feels like I’m not maybe the most um energetic right now. I’m dealing with some like serious ear pain. Like, I don’t know where this came from. This morning I woke up and I’m just getting like this like major ear pain with my right ear. I had to end the playback stream early because of it. Um trying to tough through it for the podcast. Um but I I if if I if it’s coming off like I’m not like as maybe loud or excited or or passion whatever, it’s because like I’m just trying to like this this thing’s really really bothering me. Um so I apologize about that. But I want to talk about Assar now because this second game of preseason is by far the most aggressive we have I think maybe ever seen Assar. This is the most aggressive we have ever seen us Thompson in his career. In just 21 minutes of action he shot the ball seven times. Shot three of seven. He got to the free throw line 10 times. So that’s the equivalent in just 21 minutes of action. That’s the equivalent to 12 shot attempts. And those were not 12 shot attempts coming off of dump offs. Those weren’t 12 shot attempts coming off of putbacks. Those weren’t 12 shot attempts of uh alleyoops. That’s not what those shot attempts were. Those were I I’m almost 100% sure every single shot attempt besides one tip in. He had a tip in. All those shot attempts besides one tip in was self-created downhill coming off a pick and roll, coming off an isolation, posting up a smaller guard, going iso and trying to score. All of it was just him creating for himself, trying to score, being aggressive, getting downhill. And I think we got some mixed results. We got some m we got a mixed bag in how it at times it looked really good and at times it looked bad. Um, I want to start with the good though. I talked about this all pre or all offseason. His best games in the playoffs came in the final two games of the reg or final two games of the series because he was being aggressive and he got to the free throw line a total I believe 22 times and even when he does not again this is not me we’re going to get to the bad this will be brought up in the bad point is even when he’s missing free throws you want again we’ll get to the bad he has to hit them we’ll talk about it but even when he’s missing getting the other team in foul trouble getting yourself in the in into the bonus and simply creating those type of advantages and creating those type of possessions is beneficial to the Pistons offense when he is aggressive because he’s again you need him to hit the free throws but getting guys in foul trouble and getting to the bonus and having that type of aggression it’s just beneficial for the Pistons offense. So the fact that he got to the free throw line 10 times in really one half showed just how aggressive he was being. teams can’t stop him. We’re really or I mean let me not say teams. The Milwaukee Bucks could not stop him from getting to the paint without following him. And I love the fact that you’re seeing him use his strength creation. You’re seeing that he really feels confident about the work he put in on his strength and his body this off seasonason. And every single drive, it’s not that he’s not using his speed or his quickness. Every single drive, he’s just trying to push people around. Like he’s just I’m stronger than you. You’re going to bump I’m bumping you off of me and you’re going to have to follow me. and he had a really good drive bump off finish on Jericho Sims. He had a really good bump drive, pushed someone off of him when he went to uh he went to a floater with his left hand, I believe, again around the rim. Mo all of his drives were him just being uber aggressive and and physical, which is that is really good to see. That’s exactly how his brother drives, by the way. That his brother uses all of his strength and just brushes people off of him. And that’s how he’s trying to drive in this game. He he was what we’ve seen from Assar is that he truly feels like I am much stronger now and I’m just going to use this strength to create my separation and it was happening in this game. So that’s the positive. The other positives is that I feel like the the handle clearly has gotten tighter. Again, we’re going to get to the negatives in a minute, but the handle’s clearly gotten tighter to where he trusts himself to do to attack on these drives. some of these drives that he was pulling off, he wouldn’t have been able to do last year because his handle wasn’t tight enough. His handle is much tighter than it was last year. And I like the fact that in these first two games, he’s going against some really dogs at the point of attack. In this game, he went against Ryan Rollins, which is really a really tough match up at the point of attack. He’s a really good defender. I like the fact that he’s getting that kind of action. And he had zero turnovers in this game. Didn’t turn the ball over one time with how much he was at the point of the the not the point of attack. Assar was creating the the offense, setting the offense up, playing point guard more than Cade was tonight. Now, he was doing it a ton in this game. He didn’t turn the ball over once. I thought there was some possessions where he he got the ball knocked loose and it slowed down the possession a little bit. There was like one possession we had it knocked out of bounds, I think, with like 13 seconds left on the shot clock. There was another possession where I think that um I I there was one possession where he tried to drive isolation, ended up not getting it. So then with they ended up kicking it back out with like 4 seconds left, he had to force some BS up. Like you had some of those possessions, but you didn’t have very many possessions I don’t feel like where he just like lost control of the ball and turned the like he just didn’t turn the ball over. So that’s another positive. So and then the last positive I’ll say is this is that the process is over the results for preseason. The process is being aggressive, trusting your handle, getting to the basket. The Pistons want him to be aggressive. They want him to be attacking like this. They want him getting downhill. They want him getting to the free throw line like this. They want all this to be happening. And he did that. And the process looked good. He’s getting if he’s getting to the free throw line 10 times in one half, the process is good. Now, you need him to hit the free throws, but if he’s getting to the free throw line 10 times in one half, you’re you’re getting what you want. he does want him to finish a little finish some of these looks and make more of the free throws, but the process is looking good. So, I thought for the for the most part, I think it’s a positive takeway you’ve got. Now, the negative side from the from the possessions we saw, um Hal tweeted this friend of the podcast, How and I agree with him. I don’t there there were times where I really did not I disliked the way in which they were asking Assar to attack like there were times there were times at at in which it it really looked like Assaar was just bringing the ball down the floor to go attack into an isolation. Don’t think that’s like we want Assar to be aggressive. We want Assar to drive to the basket. I don’t know if it should be like out of isolations. I’m not saying he can’t get like the post up later in the game he had on a smaller guard. I forget who it was and he turned around and finished. Those I like. Those are good isolation. The smaller guard and he’s stronger. He like I like that’s all good. What you don’t want I don’t think is like trying to like draw up isolations for Asar coming from the top of the key. I don’t think that should be like regular occurrence kind of thing. I don’t think that’s how you really want him attacking. But again, it is preseason. I’m sure they’re just like testing things out and just giving them everything and just saying, “Hey, here go do something.” So, I get that. I I understand testing out preseason. No problem with it really them testing out. I just hope that’s not like the main way in which they’re trying to have him attacking during the season. And then he’s not really coming off of DHO’s and attacking downhill. Almost all of them were just one five pick and roll at the very top of the key and he’s just coming around trying to attack. Now again, I think a lot of the process was good from his part. Again, he got to the free throw line 10 times and didn’t turn the ball over. So like he was getting to the paint and drawing fouls. Like you like that, but also I’d like to see them like if you’re if Assar is going to be more aggressive with the ball in his hands, like you’d like to see him maybe again, like I said, come off some dribble handoffs on some secondary action on the weak side. Maybe he’s not the one initiating it. It gets swung to him. Now he’s attacking like that kind of thing. You don’t you haven’t really seen that type of attacking from Assar because he’s been asked to just be point Assar for a lot of the preseason, which I like, but I I hope that they start to be I my takeaway is that I think they’re doing this on purpose because it’s preseason. They want to give him the whole point guard reps, see where he’s at, so then they’ll dial it down to whatever they think is good enough. That’s what I think JB’s doing. But I just hope that during the regular season they start to get a little bit more if they’re going to put the ball in his hands this much. I hope they get a little bit more versatile and wish they use it. That’s one. Two, his finishing needs to so far in game two and again it’s just preseason. We’ve seen guys get better in preseason. We’ve seen guys get worse in preseason after or after preseason. So you don’t want to read I we I’m trying not to read too much into anything. But the finishing in game two was not the greatest. He had a few d again. He ended up finishing three of seven. Actually, I should have checked what his true shooting was at the end of this game. He ended up with 11 points, but shot five attempts from free line. Couldn’t have been great. Um, but I think there were two specific finishes that he would have liked to have back. Um, two other finishes that he drove and tried to just throw up something to get a foul call. Um, but there were two specific finishes I feel like he should have finished and he’s going to want back. Um, so I think the finishing still seems like at least and it’s just a small sample size, but he needs to improve the finishing still. We need to see that finishing become a little, you know, we need to see in game three of preseason or in game four of preseason him start to convert some of these looks at the rim. Um, I think that’s big. And then obviously the free throws, like that’s the big thing. Like if he shot three of seven but shot eight of 10 at the free throw line or seven of 10 at the free throw line, I think everyone’s walking away saying this was a fantastic game. But the fact that he shot five of 10 at the free throw line instead, now you’re talking about more of an still, even despite the fact he got to the free throw line, it’s not nearly as efficient of a game. Uh there was a time he went 0 of two at the free throw line during a set. Like you can’t have that. The free throws have to be more consistent. I talked about how the the last 29 games of this past season shot around 70% from the free throw line. That has to be he has to be closer to that. They need him around 70% at the free throw line. He has to get much better there as the season gets closer once the season comes around. If he’s able to get to the free throw line that much and he starts hitting his free throws more consistently, like that’s gonna like solve everything. Like if you again, if he just hits two more free throws, shoots seven of 10 from the free throw line and now you’re looking at the end of the game, Assar just scored 13 points on seven shots in 21 minutes, you’re like, “Oh my god, that’s like that was that’s great. You’ll take that.” But five of 10, you can’t have it. Like he has to free throws have to come around. Um, and then like I said earlier, there were a few possessions where like the pressure of Ryan Rollins allow made him like set the offense up a little bit later and then you would have liked and the Pistons dealt with some late shot clock situations. So again, it wasn’t all perfect. It wasn’t all great. It wasn’t all bad. You got some really great possessions. The ones when he’s drawing fouls and he has those finishes with his left hand, he bumps someone off of him. the ones when again there was one possession in the second quarter he just drove straight to the room knocked a dude over and tried to finish over and drew a foul like that kind of aggressiveness if they’re not gonna be able to beat him to the spot I mean you’re gonna love that but then again there’s other possessions where he blows a finish that maybe you would have liked to see him finish there’s possessions where maybe he gets the offense into it late because the pressure is bothering him a little bit and maybe there’s some drives that that he should have instead of looking to score maybe he should have just kicked the ball out and kept it moving Again, like I said, there were some really good there was some there was some stuff that needs to be improved upon. We’ll get an idea. Most of me feels like that they’re just kind of telling him, “Look, we want you to just go all out aggressive. I we want to see you be aggressive. Don’t be shy. We need you to be aggressive this year. So, during preseason, just go all out.” I think that’s what we’re seeing right now. I think you’ll see some of it get dialed back just a tad and in different ways. Um, but yeah, I I I look I overall I’m liking what we’re seeing from Assar. Overall, I think this is good. This is really good what we’re seeing. Um, you just want some of it to be fine-tuned and I think it will as the season goes on and obviously as preseason goes on. It’s only preseason game two. So, let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter. How you guys felt about Assar Thompson being even more aggressive in this game too and being utilized even more so as the point guard initiating the actions in this game. Game game two. The Pistons did score. I will say for the half that he played, they scored 72 points in the first half. So, it wasn’t like they were struggling to score. Like, I think overall it’s pretty good. Um, but let me know what you guys think. Comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cookie. Coming up, we got some really good minutes from Bobby Clipman and Chaz Leer. And we got some not so great minutes from other guys. We’ll talk about it and break it down. Coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet and put down five bucks and if it hits, you’re unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love how FanDuel gives me so many ways to plays. I’ve built parlays, try player props, and even follow live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. 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My ear is like this thing is actually really bothering me, man. My god. Let’s go ahead and get this thing uh wrapped up. Let’s let’s let’s talk about Chaz and talk about Bobby. Um Bobby had a great first half. He had eight points in the first half. A very sick put back dunk that he had. He was very aggressive with his three-point shots. He had a a corner two corner threes actually made in which he uh one of them was a moving three over a defender. Another one was a quick uh a quick shot catch and shoot over another defender. Shots I feel like you wouldn’t have seen him try last year. Like he was very shy when he came onto the floor any in garbage time. He just wouldn’t get shots up. Uh I really like seeing him be aggressive with his three-point shot and trusting his three-point shot. He shot two of four, three of six from the field. He had eight points, six rebounds, two assists. This was the best I’ve seen Bobby look on an NBA floor by far. This game right here, best I’ve seen him look. He was active on the glass. He was much more aggressive as again, like I said, as a shooter. He was more aggressive on the offensive glass. Like him going for that putback dunk. I just don’t feel like we would have seen that even that that type of aggression out of him last year. So, it was a really good first half for Bobby and those limited minutes that he got. Um, I thought he looked really good. I thought that was the best. Again, I think that’s the best Bobby has ever looked on the NBA floor. And you’re happy to see that for a second guy like that, for him to come into this year after a shaky offseason, a shaky summer league performance. You love to see him come into the preseason, have a performance like that where it kind of builds confidence for himself and it looks like he belongs on the NBA floor. Like he he looked really good in those minutes. So, thought Bobby looked really good. Best he’s ever looked on NBA floor. Um, Chaz Laneir though, this is my takeaway from Chaz so far in preseason. Now, he only shot two of seven from deep. Not great, but this is my takeaway from Chaz. Chaz, and this is like an obvious takeaway. I feel like he obviously has a beautiful shot. Like a obviously a beautiful shot. The shot gets up quick, too. And it looks good. The the the process in which he gets these threes is good. he’s able to get it off before a contest. Like when when Chaz has been asked to just play defense and he’s just catching shooting, then running transition, playing defense, catching and shooting. When he does that, he looks fine on the NBA floor. Like he looks like now he needs to hit more of his shots. He shot two of seven from three in this game, but he shot much better in the first game. Like the process of Chaz when he’s just minimized into that, he looks fine. Like, okay, yeah, I like he can get some minutes. Like he, you know, he survives out there. He’s fine. He, you know, he’s doing his thing. He’s not hurting the team. He’s not a star out there, but he’s not hurting the team. Like, he looks fine. So, I thought he had when he was asked to just do that, he looked fine. You’d like to see him make more shots, but the process was fine. Like, I think he looked good. It was the possessions in which he has to attack a closeout or he’s asked to do anything with the ball in his hands. Like, for example, he had to attack a close out in the left corner. Um, took two dribbles, tried to bump the guy off him, go to a midi pull-up, didn’t create any separation, ended up throwing like a a triple bounce pass. said like bouncing the floor three times to the outside above the key after him almost falling out of bounds wasn’t great because he had to put the ball on the ground. Then there was another possession. He caught the ball at the right wing was just trying to start the action. There was like 17 seconds left on the shot clock and he was trying to hit the I I believe it was Stu coming up to the high post or wrapping around to the high post to get the next action started and the ball pressure was causing him so many issues that he had to take a dribble lost the ball and he ended up turn or or almost turn the ball over and then the Piston ended up in a late shot clock scenario. So Chaz when he’s asked to put the ball in deck and asked to do anything but catch and shoot that’s when you start to see some of the concerns rise up with him. But when he’s just minimized to run in transition, play defense, if you get a a cut, if you get a loose ball, go ahead and take it to the rim, dunk the ball. He had one of those in the first half. And when you catch the ball, just let it fly. Like, he looks fine doing that. You want to try to keep his role minimized to that as much as possible because when he has to do other things, that’s when you start to see some trouble. Um, but overall, I like I liked what I saw from Bobby and the process with Chaz, I low-key liked. I I think Chaz has been fine in the preseason. Um, I think he’s looked like a second round pick. don’t it doesn’t look like to me he’s a guy like oh why did you waste that pick on him he looks like a guy that’s a second round pick you can see like what his NBA skill is looks fine but he doesn’t look anything spectacular or anything so I’ve been okay with Chaz and I liked what I saw from Bobby um Javvante Green minutes I I don’t think were very good um he doesn’t look he’s a good veteran good guy to have in the locker room but his minutes so far in the preseason just have not been very good I I haven’t you know Uh, I joked and this was a joke, so don’t take it serious. If anyone happens to see this, this was just me joking around. But during like the broadcast, during the live watch party, I was like, “Okay, these Devonte Greens feel like they’re waste of reps for someone else.” Like someone else would just get these reps because the reps just weren’t looking good. Um, but he’s a vet and he’s a good in locker room and, you know, I he didn’t h it wasn’t he ended up turning around a little bit. He hit a three, but I I haven’t liked what I’ve seen from Javante. And then we’ll wrap it up with Dannis Jenkins. I thought this was the worst I’ve actually seen Dannis play. It looked like he was a little rushed. He shot three of 11 in this game. Looked like he was rushing his his his process offensively. He took a few shots that I haven’t seen him actually try to take before. Like he had a few tough finishes at the rim that he usually turns into kickouts. Um just seemed like he was he was he was being overly aggressive and kind of rushing his process and I haven’t really seen him do that before. So thought this was a rough performance for Danis. I think he’ll bounce back move in the next preseason game. you’d like to see him bounce back, but definitely I I think this was a performance he’d like to, you know, get better then. And and uh definitely I I again, like I said, I think this was the one of the worst performance I’ve seen from him. But I I I I think that’s fine. He’ll be he’ll be straight. Let’s see him play better in the next game. Um but outside of that, um no real other takeaways. Ryan, actually, I’ll wrap it up with this. Ryan was surprisingly very quiet in this game. Like very quiet. Like he he had some really good playmaking reps. He had some very good kickouts, but he was very quiet in this game. Um, I wonder if we start to see him be a little bit more aggressive or see his number called a little bit more during preseason. Um, but yeah, this was just like a very a very quiet game from from Ron here. Um, but that’s all I’ve really got for you guys. Thank you guys. Make lockdown Pistons your first listen every single day. Free available on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review. Whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. For those of you guys who are not joining the playback room, you guys need to join it. Watch it with watch the games with us. We’ll be obviously streaming all the regular season games. We’ll be streaming the next two preseason games as well. And also in this game, my wife Megan finally made her first appearance. She was with us uh on stream watching the game together. It was a lot of fun. Everyone was trolling with her. She was trolling back. It was fun. Um so if you haven’t already, check the links down below. Join the playback room and watch the games with all of us. It was a lot of fun. So, but that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Stay safe out there. Till next time. Peace out, everybody.

Cade Cunningham’s preseason dominance signals potential MVP-caliber season for Detroit Pistons. Is the young star ready to lead his team to new heights?

Host Ku Khahil breaks down Cunningham’s impressive 26-point performance in just 19 minutes, highlighting improved shooting and free-throw consistency. The analysis extends to Ausar Thompson’s aggressive play, Bobi Klintman’s standout half, and Chaz Lanier’s beautiful but limited shooting. Ku examines how these preseason showings might reshape the Pistons’ strategy and player roles heading into the regular season.

Tune in for expert insights on the Detroit Pistons’ evolving roster and their path to success in the upcoming NBA season.

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

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