Detroit Pistons STUMBLES Through Third Preseason Game Loss To Cleveland Cavaliers

The Detroit Pistons had a very rough third preseason game. And while it’s not time to worry or be concerned if you’re a Pistons fan, there are some things to pay attention to. We’ll break it down today’s episode of Locked on Pistons podcast. Let’s go. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On 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 Cuckah Hill. You can find me over on Twitter, Cuckah Hill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network, Ben Credential Media over the last three years. And I appreciate all of you guys who make Lockdown Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free up 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 Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase. And today’s episode, we’ll break down some of the positives. There were some. This was a very rough watch. Not a very good game from the Detroit Pistons at all in this third preseason game. We’ll break that down, but there are some positives. We’ll get to whatever positives there were later on. And then also, Jane Ivy didn’t play again. Why is he not playing? We’ll discuss it a little bit later as well, because I am pretty confused about this. Um, but let’s go ahead and get into the game right off the bat. Kade did not play in this game. Jane Ivy did not play in this game. Marcus Sasser did not play in this game. And Caris Levert did not play in this game. Jaylen Durren only played in 13 minutes. Isaiah Stewart only played 11 minutes. So, I guess we can just get out the way the whole, you know, how at practice a few days ago, we just recorded last episode, JB Bigger Staff talked about how they wanted to use the final two preseason games to simulate real games to try to simulate real rotations and real lineups of what they’re going to try to do and how I said I was super excited to watch these two games because of that. I thought we were going to get a clear look into how they’re maybe looking at some lineup combinations, how they’re planning on using certain guys with which players like I was excited to watch that. That was clearly not the case. They We were lied to. JB, you didn’t tell me the truth. You You lied to us, man. What’s going on? You can’t be can’t be do I’m trolling. I’m joking a little bit. Not I mean, I’m partly joking. I’m not being serious. But wasn’t it doesn’t seem like it was the truth here because like I said, Kay didn’t play, Ivy didn’t play, Levert didn’t play, and Sasser didn’t play. Don’t know why there was no update before the game. There was no announcement before the game. I looked at all the beat writers tweets to see if they got something. They didn’t say nothing about it before the game either. Um, we haven’t gotten any postgame pressers from JB Bigger Stop as of right now. So, I don’t we haven’t seen any quotes from him at this point. Um, so I’m just going to assume they were sitting down due to rest. Um, I saw Cade and Caris on the bench. I did not see Ivy and Sasser on the bench for whatever that’s worth. Um, but now that we got that out the way, without Cade on on the floor, this was a really rough watch. The Pistons half court offense offense, excuse me, was horrible. It it was it was very very bad. And this was just an overall the first half the first quarter was really bad. The second quarter they tried to pick it up a little bit. The third quarter played a little bit better as well. They got better a little bit as the game started going on, but overall this was a very rough watch for the Detroit Pistons. So Thompson, this was his worst game of the preseason. First two games, I thought he looked good. First two games I was really liking the process that we were seeing with the with the ball handling, with the drives. We were seeing him get to the free throw line a ton. We were seeing him be aggressive on drives a ton. I was loving it. I I I was taking the process is what it is. In this game, if you look at the raw box score, you may think to yourself if you didn’t watch the game like, “Oh, nine points, five rebounds, four assists on four of seven shooting. Couldn’t have been that bad.” I think this was a very bad I like I thought this was a very bad game for Msar. He had he fouled out of this game. Now, I know it’s preseason. I’m sure if it wasn’t preseason, they wouldn’t be as aggressive, I guess. Like I’m sure he wouldn’t foul out in in 24 minutes, but he did. Not very good. You didn’t want to see that. Then also there were two possessions. There were two possessions I was really frustrated with the SAR and really upset. Um he came off a DHO with a clear advantage at the top of the key. It looked like he was going to easily be able to get to the basket whether it was for a dunk or for um to draw a foul. One of the two. It looked like he was going to have a clear lane and he basically dropped the ball on the catch. like he came around, caught the DHO, and before he even put on the ground, he like just dropped it. So, there went that drive. That was a wasted possession that he has to be able to take advantage of. That was probably his worst possession of the game. Um, and then other points throughout the offensive, like in the first half, the previous two games we watched from Assar, some people were saying he was being too aggressive. They didn’t want to see him be that aggressive. I was happy seeing him drive constantly, try to get to the paint and get fouls. I love that. In this game, it was a lot of dribbling around the perimeter. No driving into into the paint. There wasn’t a lot of drives at all. Like it was just a ton from Assar and from other players. There’s a bunch of dribbling around the perimeter in the half court. It was it was terrible to watch. And Assar is gonna play the lead initiator when Cage off the floor like he was in this game. That falls on him. It was not a good game from Assar. And he shot 105 from the free throw line. Look, man, he cannot shoot that bad from the free throw line. Last year he was at 64%. The final like 20 or so games, he’s at 71%. I refuse to believe he’s actually that bad at the free throw shooter. I refuse to believe he’s g he’s gonna take five steps back as a free throw shooter. I’m going to believe it. So preseason he’s not going to rust off. He’s not going to shoot one of five from the free throw all like that’s not going to happen. I refuse to believe it. But just bad game from sorry no if fans are butt about it. This was his worst game. He did not look very good in this game. Ryan Highland started out good in this game. Ended up looking start looking more rough as the game went on. I mean, you could see that all of these guys were really struggling without having Kade on the floor, which I think you shouldn’t take anything from preseason too seriously to get too concerned about. But if there’s one thing that maybe that jumps off that you are maybe slightly concerned about is that this team still looks like I mean, and now I let’s give the caveat just a little bit. The Cavs are an elite defensive team. And when you’re playing without Kade into this Cavs defense with you don’t have Levert either. You don’t have any of the other ball handlers. Not any of them. You don’t have Levert, Ivy, uh, uh, Cade Sasser. You were playing Dennis Jenkins, who we’ll get to in just a minute. Um, you saw Danis playing a ton like that. It wasn’t the greatest recipe for success going into the Cavs specifically. Um, but the Pistons half court offense still looks like it’s going to lag a little bit, at least in this game. And I don’t want to read too much into one game at all. Like, I’m not trying to, but without Kade, you could clearly see they were struggling without him. But Ron, I thought he was really effective early on. He had a nice catch and shoot three. He missed his next two three-point attempts, which wasn’t great, but he had a nice three-point shot in the first half. Had some nice drives, but then after, I think he missed his next six shots. Had a few turnovers that weren’t very good. So, Ron was very up and down as well in this game. He had four turnovers in this game. Actually, that’s not very good at all. Duncan Robinson in the first half continued to look a little I don’t he didn’t look lost, but kind of like he is affected by the fact that the half court had no drives and no real movement because that’s how he’s going to make his work. In the third quarter, he had a really nice uh DHO action and a dump off to Assar cutting to the basket. Thought that’s his best possession of the preseason, but overall didn’t look very good. Um Dannis Jenkins, I want to get to him just a little bit here. Um, again, if you look at the box score and see he’s four or five from the field, you’d be like, “Oh, he must have had a good game.” When the Pistons, he had five turnovers. First of all, he had five turnovers. And when you saw the the if you remove the minutes that he played at towards the end against like the other, you know, not as good players for the Cavs. He started this game and the last two games, as you’ve seen him pick up more reps against better competition, the quality of his minutes have dropped down a little bit. Um, he hasn’t played as well. He I did not think he looked very good in this game either. The turnovers were were a lot. He didn’t look comfortable in the half court at all running the offense. Um and look, I I like Danis. We want to see him continue to get better. He’s he’s shown in multiple spurts that he deserves a chance to be on, you know, to be on an NBA roster, but these last two games have not been very kind to him. He has not looked very good. He was struggling against the pressure. He turned the ball over a ton inside the paint. Um you could see that the length was bothering him a little bit as he got closer to the paint. Um, so I I didn’t think it was very good minutes for him either. Um, outside that though, I mean, Duran was fine. Nothing good, nothing bad. I I mean, it wasn’t nothing Let me not say nothing good, nothing great, nothing bad. I thought he was just all right. Um, overall, this game was just not a very good watch at all. The players that you want to see stuff from, like Ron, like Assar, um, didn’t give you much to be happy about in this game. Um, there were moments. Asar had a really nice transition. uh uh and one finish um going coast to coast. You’d love to see that. Ron had a really nice drive in that second quarter that looked really good. Um again, he had that nice three. He had a really nice uh putback dunk as well. Like there was like sure there was moments where each guy did maybe had a highlight or two. Um but overall this was not a very good game for anybody. I think they really struggled without Kate on the floor. Um, and for some reason like they didn’t play fast. We talked about this a lot on the podcast that they looked their best obviously last year, but even in preseason they were playing much faster even in preseason off of makes they were playing fast and they just like they weren’t playing fast at all in this game. They were slow in the half court. They didn’t try to drive the basketball a ton. Um, they played they played slow off of misses even like they just weren’t playing to what makes them great, which is when they’re fast and just use their athleticism. Don’t know what was up with that in this game. They just it was not a good game for the Pistons at all. Um, go ahead and wipe that slate clean. It’s preseason for a reason. You knock this rust off. You figure out what was going on and you get ready for regular season. None of this really matters. So, good thing it doesn’t matter, but it wasn’t a very good game for the Pistons here. So, let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter. How did you guys feel about this game? What were your guys’ biggest takeaways? Were you guys upset with the watch? How rough was the watch for you guys? Let me know again comment section down below or over on Twitter Cookah Hill. Coming up, we’ll talk about the few positives. Isaiah Stewart thought he looked great. We’ll talk about it. Tobias, another guy. Look, Tobias played, man. Preseason game three. He’s older, 15th season. Who cares? He loves hoops. He’s going to go out there and hoop. We’ll talk about the positives we saw in this game coming up. Today’s episode’s brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there is Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Term Supply, that’s code L O C K D O NA for $20 off your first purchase. Swipe, tap, ticket, go with game time. So, I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on Pistons your first listen 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. If you want to join us for the live watch parties when the season officially starts, I don’t blame you guys if you guys want to skip out on the preseason games. They have not been they at times have been a lot of fun, but as the third quarter rolls around, it’s time to like peace out, go to bed. So, I get it. But opening night, if you want to be a part of the live watch parties, I’ll link it down below. I know a few of you guys have been I had even more of you guys DMing me today saying you guys were having problems getting the link to work. Um, if you guys are wanting to join, you guys need to go to your app store. Whether you’re on iPhone, what is it on Google Play? There’s a Google store or Google phones, whatever, Samsung. Um, whatever phone you got. Um, go to the app store, download the Playback app, and then look up Watch Pistons. If the link is not working, um, I I had a few of you guys saying the link wasn’t working. You were trying to get in. So, if you’re having problems with that, you have to download the Playback app first. Download the Playback app and then you’ll find me on there. You’ll join the room, create an account, all that stuff. you’ll be able to watch live with all of us. Um, it’s always a lot of fun. Even during the preseason, we’ve had about around 50 60 people in there. It’s been a lot of fun. I mean, it gets to even more in a much larger audience. It’s been a lot of fun with all the Pistons fans during the season starts. Um, and I will have a film breakdown for you guys coming over this game within like the next 24 hours. Hopefully, Synergy usually takes like maybe 24 hours to get all the clips uploaded where I can use them. Um, so I should have one out for you guys over the within the next 24 hours going over what made the Pistons offense look so what I want to focus on is why their offense looks so bad in this game. Um, outside of just obviously saying, “Well, Kade didn’t play.” So stay tuned for all that. I’ll link it down below for you guys as usual. But let’s talk about the few positives in this game. If there’s if you want to talk about a positive like a there’s no ifands or buts, there’s no roller coaster ride. It’s it’s something to feel really secure about. It is the play of Isaiah Stewart. Isaiah Stewart looks fantastic and he only played 11 minutes in this game, but I was saying this during the stream. I feel like he was the Pistons best player tonight. Two blocks, two steals in just 11 minutes of action. Was fantastic on defense as usual. Great at protecting the rim. He was running the floor well. He got underneath the basket and got some good post up opportunity. had a really good and one opportunity in the first half off of an offensive rebound against uh Evan Mobley. Isaiah Stewart I think has he’s probably been one of my favorite players to watch develop for the Detroit Pistons over the last like 10 plus years because Stu when he first got here I liked him when he very first got here. Then after his first year I started to fall off of him a little bit. I feel like a lot of people try to say he was their starting center. he’s going to be a 40% three-point shooter. And that kind of made me lower on him. But then after his second year, after his third year, I started to get higher and higher on him again. And he’s just like he’s just consistent. You know what you’re getting from Stu? You’re going to get great defense. You’re going to get hustle. You’re going to get boards. You’re going to get blocks. You’re going to get steals. You’re going to get that that attitude. you’re gonna get one of the best defensive play from a backup big, if not the best defensive play from a big in general in the league. Like I feel like he’s really found his role in the NBA. He’s comfortable with his role within the NBA and he knows how he can be impactful and he knows how valuable he is. So I thought Steu was fantastic this game. I there’s nothing really to point out specifically about him. It’s just that Steu is Stew like he’s just he’s the same guy almost every night. He’s going to play great defense. He’ll get a few buckets here and there. He may hit a three here and there when he spaces out. And you’ll get that every single night from him. Like I whether it’s preseason or not, he’s very consistent what he brings to the team. So I thought I thought Stu was seriously their best player tonight in that first half at least. Tobias started to go get hot in the second half, which we’re about to talk about. But in that first half, I thought Stu was their best player. Um Tobias five of 11 from the floor, had 19 points. Tobias in the preseason has looked a little, you know, a little bit more athletic. He’s been going for some dunks, trying to go for some posters. He went for a poster on Jared Allen. Jared Allen sent it out of bounds. Assaar also tried to poster Jared Allen. Jared Allen met him at the Apex and sent his stuff all back to three-point line. Jared Allen is one of the best rim block rim protectors in the league. He wasn’t having that. Um, but seeing Tobias look as spry as he’s looked in the offseason or in this preseason, I’ve talked about in the offseason, I was like, you know, he’s heading into year 15. When are we going to expect to see some drop off from Tobias? Is it potentially this year? Do we see him start to maybe uh, you know, take a step back a little bit. He is getting older. Doesn’t look like that’s the case. He looks really good in preseason. He looks he he was the Piston’s only real offensive option for real in this game in the minutes that mattered. Um, he looked very comfortable. He looked very comfortable. He looked just as athletic as last year. Like I I think Tobias has looked overall pretty good. Um, and he looks even more like energized going into this year. I don’t know how to explain it, but I I think Tobias has looked good. Um, some bench players that have stood out not just in this game, but really throughout the preseason, Bobby Clipman. Listen, Bobby has a very good feel for the game, and we’ve talked about that many times before. He has a good feel for the game of basketball. He makes the right plays. He makes the right passes. He goes for passes that maybe other players wouldn’t have. There was one turnover he had in the third quarter trying to pass uh through two defenders to Jaylen Durren off of a DHO. Now, it ended up being a turnover, but the fact that he saw this pass, the fact that he saw this opening even there, and then the fact he was able to get this ball through two defenders, honestly, I feel like Duran should have caught it. Like, that read in and of itself was a crazy read. Crazy read. Crazy attempt of a pass. And then I feel like they’re kind of finding something with Bobby. Now, I don’t think he’s going to be in the rotation this year. He still need he still needs to develop on ball skills and and consistent offensive scoring option at all. Um but I feel like they’re they’re testing some things out with Bobby that that has looked good in preseason like having him come off DHO’s. I think he’s looked actually a lot better than I thought when you get him downhill creating with the advantage. He’s able to make reads off of it. He had a really nice lob to Jaylen Dur in the first half as well off of a DHO. He looks much better coming off DHOs than he is attacking close outs than he is running a pick and roll or anything like that. When he’s getting flowing downhill and he already has an advantage creating for him, he’s a good enough guy with his with the feel and with his playmaking where he can make something happen. Um, but overall, I feel like Bobby’s looked a lot better in this preseason than I thought he would. I still don’t think he’s going to be in the rotation that he like that does doesn’t mean he hasn’t looked better though. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t improved. He looks better. He looks improved and I think people should be happy about that. I I’ve really liked the minutes you’ve seen from Bobby in the preseason. And then I got to give it up, man. I trolled them on the last podcast. I said I was joking. I did. I said I want to make it clear. I said I was joking when I said this. But I I said jokingly again that when Javvante Green plays any minutes in the preseason, it’s like a waste of reps because you don’t need like you know what you’re getting out of him. Let’s give some minutes from some other guys. Look, he came on this game. Javvante was really impactful. He had six points of three of seven shooting. Not the most efficient night, but defensively he was all over the place. Defensively, he was he he was aggressive. He was physical. He was active. He was active in transition. He had a nice euroep finish off of a Jaylen Duran leading transition outlet to uh uh Javvante Green. Euro step finish at the rim. He was getting all kinds of deflections on the defensive end of the floor. I thought Javvante Green actually looked good in this game. So, for all the trolling I did last episode, or I believe it might have been two episodes about Javvante, he actually did play pretty well in this game, and he deserves credit for that. So, I think that wraps up really all the positives from this game. It was not a very good watch. If you want to talk about some few moments from some of the other guys that didn’t play well, like I said earlier, Ryan had a really nice putback. He had a really nice uh catch and shoot three at the beginning of this game, and he had a very, very tough finish going down the right side of the floor. um a a floater type of finish that was really tough. Uh really nice drive from him. You had a really nice transition uh drive and finish from Assar Thompson and one look that was great to see from Assar when he actually was aggressive getting downhill to the basket. And then you had a really fantastic weak side rim protection rep. I believe it was on Evan Mobley. Um that was fantastic. Jaylen Dur, like I just mentioned, we saw him grab a defensive rebound, go full court, and then find Javvante Green off a live dribble for an easy bucket. That was really encouraging. I know people want to talk about the Jaylen Duran post fade we got at the end of the shot clock in the first half. Um, in the first quarter, I should say. I’m not going to really care about that. It was in a shot clock. It’s not something that’s sustainable, not something that you drew up. It wasn’t like it was something that they wanted to happen. You just kind of had to throw something up. Um, I find the the defensive rebound dribbling full court and then finding a pass off a live dribble a lot more intriguing and enticing. Um, so that was some good stuff from Duran. Um, and then like I said, Duncan Robbins had that really good coming off a DHO to the corner, Duran rolling, and then Sar cutting down the middle of the key, found a Sar cutting to the basket, got him an easy bucket. I thought that was the best play of Duncan Robinson this preseason. So, but that’s really it that with the positive. This game was not good. It was not a good watch. It was it was bad basketball for 90% of it. Um the Pistons hopefully can wrap up the preseason with a better showing come Thursday. Um and not saying they have to win preseason. Like that’s not what I’m just let some more rust off. Look a little bit more, you know, alive, a little bit more active in the half court. Just look like you’re putting some things together a little bit more heading into the regular season. But coming up, Jane Ivy did not play again. I’m confused. I I I really I I don’t get this. I’m not a doctor, but I’m not understanding this. We’ll talk about it coming up. 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Again, if you new customer, put down five bucks. If it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets you used across the app. Again, visit fanduel.com to download the FanDuel app today to get started. So, I want to thank you guys again making Locked On Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free to develop 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. I don’t really even know like I’m sorry I hit my mic right there. Apologize. I don’t even really know like where I even wanted to go with this, but I just am like so confused by this I had to talk about it. I guess now we’re at the um it’s been like 30 minutes after the game ended. So, let’s go ahead. Let’s see if we’ve gotten any quotes that matter from JB about this. Um doesn’t look like I’m looking at all the beat riders. I don’t think we’ve gotten any quotes or anything from JB. It is a road preseason game, so I wouldn’t be shocked if any of the beat riders even went to this game. So, don’t think we’re going to get anything. Yeah. Excuse me. I don’t think we’re going to get anything from JB over this. So, we’re just have to go with what, you know, speculation here. Jane Ivy didn’t play again in this game. He hasn’t played. He didn’t play in the last game either, and he played a little bit in the first game. Um, I did have a listener say to me that they thought they saw Jay and Ivy um, grabbing at his uh, grabbing at his back in the first preseason game. Uh, I can’t confirm that. I don’t know if that actually happened. Um, I like I can’t confirm that. I do know that there I had a few listeners say they thought they saw him grabbing at his back. So, I don’t know if maybe he just tweaked something and or just, you know, maybe he’s just dealing with a sore, you know, whatever it is and just like whatever. first presum whatever. Don’t know if that’s what it is. Um, but since I didn’t see that, I can’t confirm that. I’m going to go off of this. If they’re just trying to rest him going into the season, like just to give him rest, I am so confused about this thought process here. I will give the caution g give this the start first or my goodness, can I speak? I will start off with this. I am obviously not a doctor. So, if the training staff has like this crazy, you know, plan for him that we all just don’t get, then okay, I guess we got to kind of just accept that. Um, but you would think for a guy who hasn’t played since January, didn’t play in the playoffs, didn’t play in the regular season, I know he did have an offseason, but hasn’t been able to play real five on five action for real. someone that important to your team that we’ve been told is this important to the team who’s been off for that long. You think you’d want him to knock the rust off during preseason? You think you’d like to get him some live game reps during the preseason? And now again, we haven’t been told anything. So, we’re kind of having be we’re forced to speculate here because we haven’t heard anything about him being hurt. We haven’t, you know, we haven’t been we haven’t heard anything about and I was at the live practice for the Pistons and he was out there. He wasn’t he wasn’t there was a few guys that weren’t just like actually practicing like Kade didn’t practice didn’t really practice. Ivy didn’t practice. Um there were quite a few guys that just didn’t practice but he was suited up and he was doing like shoot rounds and stuff whatever. He didn’t look like anything like I’m I’m not again I’m not a doctor. Who knows? But he was suited up and laughing with everybody and going through shoot arounds and stuff. But I don’t know. I just don’t really I I like I don’t understand like what their thought process is here because if he comes in the regular season and in the first game this is the first time he’s playing basketball really because in the first game he barely got to play. This is the first time he’s playing he’s clearly going to be rusty. I like if he plays well that would be great but I feel like the odds are stacking against him to play well right away if this is going to be his first game action in what eight months like nine months coming off of big injury. Like I I feel like the odds are against him starting off well. So it’s like okay what’s going on? Like wouldn’t you want him to start off well and then it’s going to take him? I I would assume like we’ve seen we’ve all watched basketball for a while. We see how these things go. Usually it takes a guy few weeks then to work off of that and try to knock that rust off and get back into pure game shape and be back at where they were. So like I I just don’t get like how again if they have some big plan I’m obviously they have to. I’m not saying that they’re out there just throwing stuff at the wall with no idea of what they’re doing. I’m just questioning how effective this like this is going to be. Like I don’t I just don’t understand even if it’s just for your few minutes. Now again if he’s hurt he’s hurt but we haven’t been told that. So, I don’t know. I I I think this is weird. I don’t really understand why they’re not giving him minutes and letting him knock the rest off. I don’t see how this is beneficial for him, but I guess we’ll just have to wait to see. Maybe I’m wrong and and this was the best thing for him. He comes out the gate all of a sudden being amazing, but I just I don’t see how that’s I Yeah. See, I even even go I go on I I just got a bunch of uh Twitter mentions. I already have a bunch of people telling me that he was limping. They said that he looked like he was grimacing in the Memphis game. I must have missed this play. Again, this is just a few listeners. Probably like five or six listeners that have told me this. So, take that with a grain of salt, but I don’t know. I I don’t I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand it. I do want to give props. I said something about this earlier to um about Tobias. Give the props up to the old heads in the league that even though it’s preseason, we get out there and play. We got Chris Paul out here playing. We got KD out here playing. We got Tobias out here playing. Like, we got these old heads coming out. We got these young guys sitting out resting. We got these old heads coming out. Just love the game. Pure love of the game. Who cares if it’s a preseason game? We like to play basketball. We love hoops. We’re going to get out there and play. Clap it up for them, man. Clap it up for them. We We need more guys like the Tobias, like the Kevin Durant, like the Chris Pauls. We need more guys like that who come out here don’t necessarily have to prove anything. They’ve been in the league forever, but just because they love love ball, they get out there and play some minutes in the preseason, man. That’s what we need. But that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making 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 view whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. Till next time, I’ll see you guys later. Stay safe out there and peace out everybody.

Detroit Pistons struggle in third preseason game. Is it time for concern or just growing pains?

Host Ku Khahil breaks down the Pistons’ offensive woes without Cade Cunningham, highlighting individual performances and team strategy. From Ausar Thompson’s disappointing showing to Isaiah Stewart’s defensive impact, Ku analyzes key players’ contributions. The absence of Jaden Ivey raises questions about the team’s preseason approach and potential regular-season implications.

Please tune in for an in-depth look at the Pistons’ preseason challenges and what they mean for the upcoming NBA season.

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21 comments
  1. Its preseason…….but Ausar has to be better!! His freethrows are still flat, and he's not as aggressive offensively as he should be. When Cade and Ivey aren't playing, he has to be the lead dog!!! Hes just not there yet……..hopefully playing with Cade will help him tremendously, but so far this preseason, he hasn't really shown much growth

  2. We got the wrong Thompson twin, and that's why Trajan picked Ron instead of Matas last year. Bricking FT's and scared to score – Ben Simmons lives on

  3. Bro WTF are you talking about we didn't have most of our starters in this game And they had and kept their starters in most of the game and a lot of our young guys did pretty good we were still close most of the time until the end sucks we lost but it wasn't some completely horrible game smfh it's basically practice for the bench guys

  4. Stewart reminds me so much of the hustling BAD BOYS and also Ben Wallace. Stewart embodies the Piston winning culture, hard work, hustle, physicality and defense.

  5. Ausar has not looked good at all this preseason 8ppg on 0% shooting from 3 and 41% from ft line through these 3 games

    Ron has outplayed him thus far and has shown strides shooting the ball from 3 and ft line also is never scared to take a good look

  6. Ya it’s just preseason but Ausars handle is not there at all, has no idea how to play in the half court. And still just makes bad decisions looking lost half the time. I’m so confused by him. I used to think he was a really good processor but he continues to make boneheaded decisions on both sides of the ball. Hell figure it out I think but a rough first couple preseason games

  7. Daniss had a better game in than I think you made it out to be. Playing against one of the best defensive teams in the league with hardly any supporting cast. 19 points in 80% shooting (3/4 from 3) and 6 assists. Thats a very tough matchup and yes he turned it over more than we would like but he played a pretty good game all things considered.

  8. Eventually, you all will learn that Ausar is only good defensively. It's going to be a long year if the Pistons keep putting the ball in his hands. 1/5 free throws is diabolical. Zero 3's is insane from someone many think should be Cade's #2.

  9. If Cade has to miss any games we’re screwed!!! We need a back up PG immediately! Last year when Cade missed we had Beasley & also i remember TJH taking over two games Cade missed. Duncan & levert can’t take over a game

  10. It wasnt a bad game until the 4th when the Cavs decided they needed to play mitchell, Mobley, and Allen big minutes against the back end of our bench in order to get a win.

  11. Stop the Ausar experiment.

    It looked bad because there are no other real weapons on the team. This experiment to make Cade great surrounded by role players will not work. Teams will take us serious this year and there is no other real scorer on the team that scores at an elite level.

    Should have played Ivey. Ivey isnt some guarantee star that needs to be protcted.

  12. Who is Ku and the rest of Detroit boosters kidding? Duncan Robinson has been absolutely invisible in 3 straight games. The Pistons do not have a single legitmiate scorer who can initiate beyond Cade. (Perhpas Ivey but who knows). Major regression in the loss of Beasely, Hardaway and Schroder. Even with max defensive line up, Pistons constantly give up open corner 3s. Great GM moves last season, but not this year. This year is going to be a slog.

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