UNDENIABLE: Detroit Pistons SHOCK NBA With 11th Straight Win as Cade Cunningham DELIVERS Again

UNDENIABLE: Detroit Pistons SHOCK NBA With 11th Straight Win as Cade Cunningham DELIVERS Again

The Detroit Pistons take down the Atlanta Hawks to win their 11 straight game as they continue to put the entire NBA league and fan base on notice. 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 Locked On Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host Kahill. You can find me over on Twitter, Cuckoo Kahill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years, being a credentialed media member over the last three years. And I appreciate all of you guys who make Locked on Pistons your first listen every single day. I thank all of you guys who helped make Locked On the Locked On Network, excuse me, the number one podcast sports podcast network in America. I appreciate all of you guys’ support. 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 to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started today. Today we’ll be talking about the Pistons win over the Atlanta Hawks, how well they played in this game, and why this was such an important win to me. Also later on, we’ll talk about how good the half court offense has been, and whether that is a solved problem. And then also, I want to talk about unlikely contributors. I want to kind of dive into the rotation a little bit more as well. We’ve talked about the rotation a lot the last few episodes, but I want to dive into it again and also give credit to a lot of these unlikely contributors to the team. If you’re wondering why I did not have an episode immediately after the Pistons win versus the Hawks for those of you guys who don’t follow me on social media, um I am dealing with some incredible pain in my right ear. A very severe ear infection apparently and it’s making it very hard to talk. Um very hard to move my mouth at all. Um, and right now I am on a lot of medication, so the pain’s subdued a little bit. Um, so I was like, you know what, while that’s the case, let’s see if I can knock the podcast out and just talk slowly and not be as, you know, uh, uh, passionate, I guess, when recording the podcast and get you guys an episode still. So, appreciate all of you guys, but let’s go ahead and get into today’s episode. Just want to give you guys an update on why the scheduling release was a little different for this one. I’m going to try to continue to drop them normally moving forward, but enough of all that stuff. If you guys don’t care about that, you guys want to hear about the Pistons. And the Pistons get a win 120 to 112 over the Atlanta Hawks. They have won 11 straight games. And before this game was played on the previous podcast, I said that there was a lot of people saying that the Pistons strength of schedule was the whole reason why they were on this big win streak. They were playing a bunch of tomato cans. They’re playing nobody who really matters. or they’re playing a bunch of bum teams. Even though they beat the Orlando Magic, who everyone told me was going to be better than the Pistons. Even I thought the Orlando Magic were going to be really good this year. They beat the Orlando Magic. They’ve been the Houston Rockets this year. That’s a team I was told is going to be, you know, a Western Conference contender. Uh, you know, it is what it is. But coming to this game, they’re playing against an Atlanta Hawks team that was over the previous 10 games 8-2. It had the fourth best defense in the entire NBA. And yes, they were without Trey Young, but there’s a lot of speculation about whether they’re actually better without Trey Young. That’s a big thing going on in the in the Hawks fan base right now. So, this was not a, oh, the Pistons took advantage of a team that was injured. The Pistons took advantage of a team that wasn’t very good. No, this was a very competitive game, and this was a very competitive team, a very respectable team that the Pistons got a win over. And again, the Pistons, for all this injury talk, the Pistons are winning these games without any of Assar has missed four of these games. K has missed three. Tobias has missed eight. Stu, I believe, has missed three or four. Duran, I believe, has missed two. Like, the whole injury excuse is not one to use against the Pistons. The Pistons are dealing with injuries up and down the roster and are still not fully healthy. Assar wasn’t even able to start and play this whole game. So, like I I reject that whole premise. Anyways, the reason why I bring all that up is because the Hawks were playing very well. And I want to bring up some stats to kind of back this up. over the last pre over the previous 10 games that the Atlanta Hawks had played. Just to I’m bringing this up to buffer the Pistons apparent quote unquote quality of wins. So if people try to dismiss this one, I just want to rebuttle it with this. Over the last 10 games, the Atlanta Hawks had the fourth best defense in the entire NBA. They had a defensive rating of 110.5 over the last 10 games before the Pistons game. An incredible defense. They’ve been playing extremely well. Again, they were eight and two over the last 10 games. Jaylen Johnson was playing great. Dyson Daniels was playing great on Okong who was playing great who also Okong who had a really good game against the Pistons tonight. I thought he gave a little bit of a glimpse into the Pistons still have somewhat of an issue guarding stretch bigs. I thought he was giving Duran some problems on the defensive end when it came to that. He got a lot of clean looks off the difference was which we’ll talk about. Jaylen Dur has not elevated to a point offensively where he’s still able if he gives up something on the defensive end he’s kind of making up for it a little bit offensively with how you know how great he’s been. But again, we’ll talk about that coming up. So, they had a great defense, fourth best defense the previous 10 games. The Pistons against the Hawks yesterday had a 121.2 offensive rating against the Hawks. That is the second best offensive performance that any team has had against the Hawks since the end of October, which is basically since Trey Young went down because obviously with Trey Young, they’re not a very they’re not as good of a defense. Since Trey Young went down, they’ve been an exceptional defense. So, since then, they’ve put up this they put up the second best offensive performance against the team that is that has been just excellent defensively. That doesn’t sound like a fluke to me. The Pistons went against a great defense and still had a great offensive performance. They they played extremely well in this game. So, that was my one stat I wanted to throw out there to kind of back up the whole Pistons aren’t beating anybody. These wins aren’t aren’t impressive. Well, they just took on one of the best defenses in the league and and made them look like a a poor defense throughout the entirety of this game. So, with that said, now let’s move on to some of the individual performance in this game. I can’t say enough about Cade. I Cade has been he is going to win clutch player of the year if he continues to play like this. He had nine points again in this fourth quarter. He shot four of seven from the field. And in the final two minutes of this game, this game was extremely close. It was a onep possession game. It looked like the Hawks were soaring back again. All respect to the Hawks. The Hawks are a very good basketball team and this was a very fun competitive game. I said on the last podcast, I feel like all NBA fans should be tuning into this game because this is a game between two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. I know maybe they weren’t expected to be two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, but they are right now. And it was a very very good game. I I I thought it was a very entertaining game. Anyways, at the end of this game, one possession game, very close, and in the final two minutes, K Cunningham got the ball and said, “Move out my way. I’m going to take us to victory.” At one play he drove left from the left wing against Dyson Daniels, a guy who could have won defensive player of the year. Was getting a lot of noise for that last year. Drove left on him, got walled off, went to a counter spin move, dribbled into the uh right around the free throw line area and elevated into a Kobe fade away over Dyson Daniels all net. Put the Pistons up two possessions. Then on the next possession, they get a stop. Kade runs in transition and finishes through content or contact in uh in transition and puts the Pistons up another possession. Does those backtoback clutch baskets against a really good defensive player in Dyson Daniels and a really good defense in the Atlanta Hawks? Again, the Pistons best player, their superstar, their clutch player of the year. He came through when they needed him most and just like he has multiple times this year, he has come out in the fourth quarter and slammed the door shut on any type of comeback from the opposing team. This is I I think fans I I’m sure they are, but I think fans are are probably over the moon with how Kate is playing in the fourth quarter, even if he hasn’t been the most efficient to start this season. and really over the last 11 games or over the last eight games he’s played. He’s been hovering around like 57 true shooting, which is right around league average um over the last few years. So, he’s played better. A lot of that was way down from the beginning of the year. But, he’s getting better as the game goes on. He gets better in the third quarter. He gets better in the second half and he gets better this year. He rises to MVP level type of stuff when the team needs him most in the fourth quarter. And that’s what one of the biggest complaints from a lot of fans were this last year. He came went to the offseason, worked on it, improved his conditioning, and now he’s one of the best fourth quarter players in the league, and it’s a big reason why the Pistons were on this win streak. And before I get to Jaylen Dur, like that’s another thing that really like confuses me when I see some of this national talk about, well, the Pistons haven’t had a great strength of schedule. Like sure, first of all, as I’ve said to you guys over and over and over again, what makes a great team great is most of the time they take care of the teams they’re supposed to take care of and then they split or maybe play just a little bit better than 500 against teams on their level. And that’s and all of a sudden at the end of the year, you end up with 50 wins because you beat the teams you’re supposed to beat. You maybe win 10 to 13, you know, 10 15ish games against teams that are just at your level. You like split with them and now all of a sudden you’re at 50 games one. It’s not like these great teams, unless you’re Oklahoma City Thunder, it’s not like these great teams are just going 90% win rate against teams that are on their level. That’s not how it works. But anyways, the other thing that really just confuses me about this is that if you watch the games, if you’re watching the Pistons games, especially during this win streak, what makes them so impressive is that the games be in the balance and the Pistons are finding ways to win. The Pistons best player is outplaying opposing teams best player. The Pistons best player is going against good defenses on the other end and slamming the door shut. He’s making clutch plays. They’re making the winning plays down the stretch. That’s what makes a great team great as well is there’s a skill to learning how to win. There’s a skill to winning games. And obviously on his face, that’s a that’s an obvious statement, but the point I’m making when I say that is a lot of teams, and we saw this with the Pistons over the last few years, found ways to lose. And when you become a really good team, when you become a great team, you start learning how to win down the stretch. You start making those winning plays. You don’t freak out. You don’t you don’t panic. You stay calm and you start making those winning plays and your superstar player comes through when you need him to and hits big-time shots to close out the deal. And that’s what they’ve done over and over and over again. The Pistons were in control of this game against the Hawks for a lot of this game. And then the fourth quarter, the Hawks made it a really good game. They tied the game up. It was looking like, oh god, the Hawks might steal this one. And yet again, the Pistons found winning plays. Assar went crazy defensively in this fourth quarter. I believe he had two blocks in the steel just in the fourth quarter alone. Shut down Jaylen Johnson and then Cade went down the other side of the floor and close the deal out. That’s what winning teams do. They close out games like this. So that that this whole narrative is really frustrating to to hear. Just just give the Pistons their respect and actually talk about what’s happening on the floor. With that said, I know this has been a long segment, but I do want to talk about Jaylen Duran here and we probably will talk about him even more in this second segment. So it’s fine that we went a little long in this game. game. He had 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. Eight of 12 from the field. He got to the free throw line 11 times. I’m just going to continue to say it and I’ll save the numbers I wanted to use for the second segment. So, just stay tuned. But, I guess we’ll just to give you guys a teaser into what we’re going to talk about with Jaylen Duran. I I I can’t put enough emphasis about how important and how big time it is that the Pistons have a fiveman that is drawing free this many free throws and is shooting this well on on free throws. Even shooting around 73% is really good for a big that’s drawing this type of volume. He’s It makes the offense so much harder to guard when teams know that once you get two feet in the paint, you have such great touch around the basket, which he showcased on a lot of different layups this year. You’re able to just dunk through guys. You’re just you’re probably 99% of the time you’re going to be stronger than anyone else that’s guarding you in the paint. You’re just pushing people around. And then when they do decide, okay, we’re not giving you the easy two, you have to go earn it in the stripe. You’re just earning at the stripe as well. It’s so it’s such an efficient way of playing basketball and that’s why Jaylen Dur is having such an absurd efficiently efficient season this year. He’s not missing many shots like he’s missing one two shots a game. He’s he’s playing exceptional and it’s because obviously some of the improvements he made on ball which we’re about to talk about but the other reason for this I mean he has a 72 true shooting percentage and it’s because when he gets to the rim he has such great touch but teams are deciding to follow him a lot of the time because they can’t stop him and he’s just making them pay at the free throw line too. He’s just he’s really been close to an unstoppable inside the paint once he touches the ball. Once he gets two feet in the paint he’s he’s been borderline unstoppable for teams. So, we’ll dive further into what he’s done so well and why that’s contributing to maybe the Pistons half court offense has been solved. We’ll talk about it coming up. And by the way, real quickly, 28 minutes he played. He put up that sat line. He’s playing doing that in 28 minutes of game play. It’s truly it’s truly incredibly impressive. But we’ll talk about why Duran and some of the other players we’ve seen play well are contributing to maybe the Pistons half court offense is solved this year. We’ll talk about it coming up. When Skiims announced they were making underwear for men, the reaction made perfect sense. Per people have been talking about Skiims comfort for years. Most guys though stick to whatever they’ve been buying since college. The same fits, the same waistbands that roll, and a whole lot of settling. Skiims men’s ch changes that on one upgrade. It’s obvious why people have been talking about it. They’re designed to feel good, fit right, and actually stay put. No slipping, no sagging, no adjusting, just genuinely great underwear that makes you feel confident and comfortable. What stood out right away was the fit and the fabric. Soft, supportive, and comfortable all day long. They don’t ride up. They don’t lose their shape, and they hit exactly where they’re supposed to on the thigh. 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And coming into the year, for me and for a lot of people, the biggest concern with the Pistons offensively and really with the team overall was their half court offense. They were not a very good half court offense this past year. They were not a very good half court offense in the playoffs as well. And they made up for that by being one of the very best defenses in the entire NBA. And they made up for that by being one of the best fast break teams in the league, one of the best second chance teams in the league, being one of the best early transition teams in the league, and scoring off points uh points off turnover. So that’s how they made their made their hey. And it worked and it’s still working this year. They’re doing all those things still. That’s their identity. But as I heard throughout the offseason from people I talked with around the organization and people who analyze obviously this team, you need a half you need a good half court offense if you want to take the next step. You can’t be a poor half court offense. It’s going to be hard to take the next step if you are a poor half court offense. And now with the Pistons on an 11game win streak, I decided to go ahead and look at ah my goodness that hurt. Sorry about that. Um, I decided to go ahead and look at the Pistons last 11 games and see how are they performing within the half court. Here are the Pistons numbers right now, guys. The Pistons over the last 11 games, which is really another way to look at it. It isn’t just the fact they’re on 11ame win streak. They could have lost the game in this. They could have lost two games and I still would have looked at this uh this sample as being very important because what it really marks for me is the the Cleveland loss. The the way they played the first four games of the year and then especially the Cleveland loss was a completely different type of team that we’re watching now. So whether they were nine and two, eight and three, even seven and four over this stretch that the fact that they’ve won 11 straight games isn’t why I’m using this stretch. It’s because the first four games of the year they just look completely out of sorts and they didn’t look like they were well accustomed to each other at all. So, I’m just using sense the Cleveland loss. I think that’s the turning point of the beginning of the year. It’s now about 11 game win streak. It’s just that loss was so bad they turned it around after that. So, anyways, over the last 11 games, they have the fifth best net rating in the NBA. They have the third best defense in the entire NBA. This is according to defensive rating. They have the seventh best overall offense in the NBA. Again, they have a top 10, a top seven offense and defense over the last 11 games. They also have the very best half court defense in the NBA over the last 11 games. You go against the Pistons, they are making life literally hell in the half court. It doesn’t matter what you have on the other end. the the personnel in which the Pistons now have on the defensive end of the floor and the I would say the added buyin that you’re getting consistently playtoplay game to game from Jaylen Duran but also Kade Cunningham the Pistons size and length are is just we already know how great defenders Assar is and Isaiah Stewart is and Ron Holland is by having that kind of buyin from Jaylen Duran and having this buyin from your best player to be as good as we know he can be being cade play to play is just making their half court defense truly just a literal hell on anyone that goes against it’s hard to score against the business in the half court. Absolutely hard. And Jackson Frank um I forget where Jackson writes for it now. Um sports casting I believe it is. He wrote a really good article. Um he’s been in the NBA space for a long time. Really a great person covering the NBA. He wrote an article talking about the Pistons defense and and this is something that you hear when you’re at the games, but JB has like this no middle uh mentality, no middle uh key to the defense. If you watch the Pistons play, they try to push all of their opponents to the sideline, push all their opponents to the baseline. They they try to keep them away from getting into the middle because the middle obviously is a harder defense and it makes people help down. You can get kickoffs out of it. The Pistons make it very hard on teams to get into the middle, especially when you have someone like Assar at the point of attack who makes who gets over screens. His screen navigation is so good that it makes it hard for opponent ball opponent’s ball handlers to get to their spots in the mid-range or not in the mid-range in the middle of the floor because a star is getting over the screen even when you set a screen and beating you to that spot making you turn. So, and then you also have been getting better point of attack defense from guys like Caris Levert as well who has more size and length and even Dannis Jenkins who’s been playing really hard and and has some physicality to him as well. So, along with obviously you have the playmakers defensively too. The Pistons have guys who get deflections to just make plays. But that’s their half court defense. We haven’t even got to the main part of this that I wanted to talk about. Along with all the stuff I just hit on, they have the eighth best, you guys are hearing me correctly, they have the eighth best half court offense in the NBA over the last 11 games. They’re not just dominating on defense. They’re not just dominating on the glass. They’re not just dominating in the paint. They’re not just dominating in points off turnovers, on fast breaks. They’re not just getting a ton of blocks. They’re not just getting a bunch of steals. They’re not just getting a bunch of deflections. They are also when you force them to slow down, when you are for forcing them to play within the half court, when you do finally score on them and they have to walk it up and play in the half court, they are picking you apart. They are picking you apart to start this season. Why is that happening? I think one of the main reasons to go back to Jaylen Duran is how efficient he is playing and how much he has improved in one-on-one situations on dribble drives and also how much more comfortable he has gotten playing as a scorer against four and three situations. I want to start with his 101 play. So far this year he is scoring 1.25 25 points per possession on drives to the basket. That is absurd. Scoring over 1.2 points on every single drive. That is insane efficiency. Just absurd efficiency that he is having. Anytime he drives to the basket, he is drawing points. It It’s almost an automatic point for the Pistons. Actually, it is an automatic point every single time he drives to the basket. It’s absurd efficiency. And along with this, when he’s in isolation, he is he is in he has had 18 isolation possessions according to synergy this year. That is the most in he’s ever had just in in this kind of game 11 game sample. Whatever. He’s never had this kind of usage. And he’s in the 88th percentile in isolation. 88th percentile. He’s one of the very best. Now again, it’s not like he’s hardened. He’s not having five, six, seven isolation possessions a game, but he has increased his usage. He has increased his scoring um um responsibility and he’s been overly efficient with that responsibility. Usually when you see guys take on a larger load, you see the efficiency drop a little bit because it’s something new and they’re it’s harder to do. It’s harder to be to continue to be as efficient with higher volume and Duran is completely shattering that. He’s been absurd offensively. And then to hit on what he’s doing against four on threes. You saw this against the Hawks. And you’re seeing this really throughout the stretch, but against the Hawks, it really popped as well. Kade is drawing two almost every single time they run a ball screen. Heck, sometimes even when he doesn’t run a ball screen. I was watching the Hawks play like a two-3 zone, but it really was like a boxing kind of like a boxing one against Kade. They were just as soon as Kade got past half court, they had two guys kind of up there just trapping Kade. and it was kind of like a two- three, but it really was just a trap cade and we’ll rotate back before he can even get to the three-point line. And in those situations, Dur has obviously been a very good passer in those situations. But Dur, and I did a film breakdown on this over on the Substack, I believe last week, Duran has become so much more comfortable, so much more patient, and the footwork is so much more better. He knows he knows how to leverage his strength so much more now that when he catches the ball inside the paint within 10 ft when it’s four on three, he understands and recognizes it’s probably not going to be against someone of his stature, of his strength, of his size, and he just moves people out the way. So now, yes, he can make the kick out to a corner three. He can make the dump off pass to Assar cutting down. But he also, which he’s been doing a ton this year, which is just generating easy points every time a team traps Cade, but he’s just catching the ball, drop stepping or giving a quick shoulder and then just dunking over someone or just finishing over someone, pausing for a second, waiting for everyone to calm down and then just taking a spin move or taking one dribble drop step and just finishing o over a defender at the rim. He’s He is making teams absolutely pay for running double teams and trapping Cade, which then teams now are left with with a dilemma. Are we gonna trap Cade and give Jaylen Duran, who’s been one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA in this kind of play style where he’s just going to dominate us, whoever we have rotating down, and if we follow him, he’s going to make free throws. Are we going to do that? Okay, we’re not going to trap. Okay, now we can just run ball scream with Cade now. And Cade’s either going to get all the way to the basket, find himself in the mid-range, or he’s going to throw a lob, Duran, or he’s going to find a wide open three-point shooter. And now he’s killing you that way as well. See, along with the Pistons dominating on four and three situations, along with the Pistons dominating out of traps, which by the way, Cade, there was a stat I saw today that I wanted to make sure you guys saw. The P or Cade scoring turnover percentage is at 93rd percentile. That’s good. It means that when he’s in opportunities to score and trying to score, he has not turned the ball over nearly as much as he did last year. That was one of the worst things Kade had this past year is that he was turned the ball over a ton, especially in scoring situations. And this year, this year, he has taken much better care of the basketball and the Pistons are winning the possession battle. To give you guys a better understanding of this as well, last year Kade had a 16.0 turnover percentage. This year he has a 12.3 turnover percentage while still maintaining that same usage. This would be a career low for Kade in turnover percentage despite having a 32.4 usage rate. He has cut the turnovers down insanely to an insane degree this year, especially like I said in uh scoring situations. So not only is Durham making you pay in the pick and roll, not only is he making you pay in the four and three situations, but then when you decide not to trap, Cage is coming off ball screens and just making you pay. whether it’s a score on a lob or a kick out three. Another number to back this up, the Pistons across the NBA are in the 87th percentile on pick and rolls this year. That would rank, if Synergy can load up, they are the fourth best pick and roll team in the league this year. And that’s while having 275 possessions of it. It’s not like it’s not a big volume or it’s not something they it’s a mainstay of their offense. It’s one of their most important offenses. It’s what they’ve run almost every possession and they are the fourth best team in the NBA scoring uh 0.95 points per possession on pick and rolls. They’re they’ve been fantastic this year on pick and rolls. The pick and as a pick and roll man in the NBA across the league, the Pistons are second in the NBA on their pick and roll man scoring efficiently out of pick and rolls. So whether it’s as a ball handler scoring, whether it’s a ball handler fighting passes, or whether it’s the pick and roll man finishing these passes, again, if you want to do pick and roll ball handler including passes, the Pistons still ranked fifth in the NBA, 87th percentile. You include passes, they’re at 1.05 points per possession. So they’re just dominating teams in the half court because Darren has improved to such a degree in killing teams when they trap Cade. Kade has not turned the ball over as much. He has improved as a finisher at the rim. That’s another area of his game that we haven’t really talked about and hit on. We will definitely talk about it moving forward in a future podcast. His finishing around the basket has gotten so much better. But he’s also finding open three-point shooters. He’s getting the ball out of his hands quickly when he is getting trapped. And they’re just picking defenses of apart in the half court. It’s in it’s incredibly impressive what the Pistons are doing to start this year, especially in the half court offense. when you think about a team that everyone said their biggest weakness would be half court scoring because they don’t have a lot of creators. So I this is incredibly impressive. I am this is probably the most impressive part of the Piston season so far to me. This was a very long segment but it had a lot of information I had to get out and just showcase how good the Pistons have been in the half court. So let me know in the comment section down below or over on Twitter how you guys feel about this team and how they’re performing in the half court. Coming up, the Pistons have a few unlikely contributors playing really well. And I want to touch again on the rotation and what it could look like moving forward coming up. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make you make work easier, excuse me, but now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and don’t simply work together. That’s not SAS. That’s SAD software as a disservice. And that’s why you need Ripling. Ripling is the unified platform for global HR, payroll, IT, and finance all in one place. They’ve helped millions of businesses replace a mess of disconnected tools with one system designed to give leaders clarity, speed, and control. Whether you want to run your HR, IT, and finance operations as one, or just fill the gaps in your software stack, Rippling can do it all. And right now, you can get six months free when you go to rippling.com/lockdownba. Learn more at r i p l i n.com/locktonba. That’s rippling.com/locktonba for 6 months free with rippling. So I want to thank you guys again making lockdown 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 locked 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 we’ve hit a lot on, you know, Dan Jenkins on the podcast lately and we’re going to do it again here because he’s just played so well. Like you can’t I feel like you just it would be unfair to not to continue to give him credit. But it’s not just him. Um Danis in this game, 14 points, seven assists, one turnover on six of 10 shooting. He played really well. He was in the starting lineup. He played 29 minutes and he just continues to just play exceptional. Like the fact that I know I’m going to sound like a broken record, but I I feel like it’s deserving. The fact that the Pistons have hit on the margins this well on a guy that’s a two-way player was undrafted, a five-year college player, and find him and him impact the game as much as he has over the last five games. Over the last five games, he’s averaging 20 points a game on 7.6 assists on 58.4 for true shooting. He’s been efficient. He’s hitting shots. He’s playing defense. He’s having two steals a game also over these last five games. He’s given his all the on the defensive end of the floor. He’s making plays. He’s getting key rebounds. I think that’s another thing that people aren’t really noticing with him is that and that’s really across the board defensively for the Pistons. Like even Chaz had a few big rebound. We’ll talk about Chaz coming up, but Javvante Green as well. Obviously, Assar Cade, even Duncan, like they have a lot of guys crashing the glass and getting key rebounds when they need it and getting that kind of kind of effort from your guards is a big deal. So, Dannis is playing extremely well. He continues to play extremely well. And another player who has been playing consistently over this stretch of games where the Pistons are not only winning, but also dealing with these injuries is Chaz Laneir. And I I’ve said over and over when I’ve seen him play, he just sticks out to me as like he just does the right thing. Like he’s usually in the right place all the time. He’s usually, you know, rotating and relocating, I should say, offensively and finding open spots to get a catch and shoot three off. In this game, he finally saw his three-point shot start to fall um as much as he’d like to. He started taking a little bit more contested threes. he started to feel a little bit more confident. Um he went through seven from deep in this game. He looked really good, but really before this game, he wasn’t hitting his three as much as you’d like to see it, but even he was still playing the same way, and it still was pretty impressive. He was playing hard on defense, making the right rotations. I again, his wingspan pops off the screen when you watch him. He looks stronger than you would have thought um coming out of the draft. He his wingspan again looks longer when you watch him live. it gives him a chance defensively and allows him to make some of the plays he’s making defensively. I think that’s what been one of the things that have jumped off to me the most. Um but yeah, I mean he he had a really good game. He had nine points in this game, but over the last five games he’s played 26 minutes, 18 minutes, 18 minutes, 18 minutes, 10 minutes, and he’s contributed to all these wins. He’s playing well. So, I you can’t give these guys enough credit for stepping up when injuries are are happening and and playing well and contributing again not to a bad team, not to an average team. They’re helping contribute to the best team in the Eastern Conference so far, to a team that is 13-2. That’s who they’re contributing to. So, you got to give these guys the absolute utmost credit and respect for how well they’re playing. And I want to wrap it up by talking about the rotation now. And we’ve talked about it now multiple times and we’re probably continue going to talk about it until everybody gets healthy. But like Dannis is playing so well that he there is no way he can leave the rotation. And Chaz, you did use a draft pick on him and he’s looked well. He’s looked really good in his minutes, I would say. Now, I’m not saying that Chaz has forced his hand to where he has to be in the rotation, but it’s like, okay, well, I drafted this dude in the minutes he’s playing. He’s playing well. Like, I like what he’s bringing. He’s hitting shots. He’s playing defense. He’s spacing the floor. Like I probably would like to see him play. I’m assuming that’s just I’m talking from like Trejan’s point of view or really the team’s point of view. You got Ryan Holland who obviously is going to have to play. He he’s going to get his minutes. Javvante Green has been an absolute dog and is just making winning plays all the time when he’s on the floor. He was a guy that maybe you weren’t expecting to be in the rotation, but continues to play extremely well and playing extremely hard and playing Detroit type of GA basketball. and he played 28 minutes in this game and you did this in a game where you did not have Caris Levert, Jay and Ivy or Tobias. So those are three guys that you have to try to find in the rotation and get their minutes while also these other guys are playing so well that you’re like I I do we really want to take them out the rotation as well. So it’s like a it’s a good problem but also like a tough issue to to a tough problem to navigate as well. And then there’s another thing I’ve seen a lot of people talking about it like does Tobias get his starting spot back when he comes back healthy? I think he has to. I I don’t see how you you bench Tobias, but if you do bench Tobias, one of the the thoughts was okay, well if you play Stew and Dur in the starting lineup, then you can still create minutes for Paul Reed. But is that really true? Because how is Tobias still going to get to his minutes? Are you going to play 12 people in a rotation every night? That’s not going to be like I The team is really good. the team is playing extremely well and everyone should be proud of the team and look every player that stepped up has done their job and I and you love to see it. I am going to going to continue to talk about this and be extremely interested in in what JB does because I don’t think this is an easy decision especially with what are you going to do in the starting lineup? What are you going to do with the type of lamps you want to play? What are the combinations you’re going to want to go to and who ends up losing their spot and who are your big minute getters? Like that’s another thing too that people aren’t really talking about. Like people say, “Oh yeah, well he’ll play. He’ll play. He’ll play.” Well, like how many minutes are you going to be getting these guys? Because like you want like you want Cade, Assar, Dur like they you want them to get their minutes. You want I don’t it’s it’s I’m gonna be very interested to see how JB handles this. Absolutely. And and this is another thing too and we’ll wrap it up here. Actually, we’ll we’ll wrap it up right here with this point. I you bet like everyone needs to be hoping that by the time Ivy and Tobias come back that Assar, Cade, Duran, all these guys are like at 100%. Because if you’re trying to work those guys back into the rotation after missing Ivy for what’s been a year and Tobias probably going to be like 10 plus games at that point. If you’re going to try to work them back into the rotation, them not being 100% stamina wise or need to knock off the rust and then you’re also trying to work Assar back into game shape and play at his peak self which JB talked about the end of the game or Cade or JD all these guys. I think that now that I think could actually cause the Pistons issues when you’re trying to work so many guys back into a rotation that aren’t at 100%. You kind of have to be careful with everybody. I think that could be a problem. So, I think you really really need to hope that when those guys come back, the other guys are already here are at 100% to where now it’s just okay, we’re working Ivy and Tobias back in and it’s not we’re trying to work around everybody trying to get back to 100% and now it gets confusing. So, good problem to have. I think a tough problem at at some point, but also a good problem. Um, let me know what you guys think comment section down below or over on Twitter, Kahill. That’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making Lock on Pistons your first listen every single day. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel if you haven’t already. Leave us a fivestar review, whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. And until next time, I will see you guys later. Stay safe out there and peace out, everybody.

Detroit Pistons silence critics with a statement win over the Atlanta Hawks, extending their streak to 11 victories. Is this the birth of a new powerhouse in the NBA’s Eastern Conference?

Ku Khahil details Cade Cunningham’s clutch heroics and Jalen Duren’s dominant paint presence, revealing how Detroit overcame injuries and a tough Hawks defense. The analysis spotlights the Pistons’ revitalized half-court offense, the tactical use of pick-and-rolls, and their tenacious perimeter defense, led by Ausar Thompson. Unlikely contributors like Daniss Jenkins and Chaz Lanier step up amid rotation challenges, raising questions about future lineups as injured stars prepare to return. What does this mean for the Pistons’ championship aspirations and the evolving hierarchy of the Eastern Conference?

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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