DEBUT DOMINANCE: Jaden Ivey REJOINS Detroit Pistons as Cade Cunningham and Team CRUSH Bucks

DEBUT DOMINANCE: Jaden Ivey REJOINS Detroit Pistons as Cade Cunningham and Team CRUSH Bucks

Jane Ivy made his season debut as the Detroit Pistons inch closer to being completely full strength after defeating the Milwaukee Bucks. 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. As per usual, I am your host, Cuckah Hill. You can find me over on Twitter, Cookah Hill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network, brand credential media member over the last three years, and I appreciate all of you guys who make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free and available on your podcast platforms. 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 fandal.com to get started today. And also again, I want to thank you guys for all the support, not just to Lockdown Pistons, but to the entire Locked On podcast network, as you guys have officially made us the number one sports podcast network in America. Appreciate all of your guys’ support. Later on, I want to talk about is a 12man rotation realistic for the Detroit Pistons to enroll out uh game to game. We’ll talk about that a little later. And also, are the Detroit Pistons legit contenders, not makebelieve contenders? Should we start discussing the Pistons as legit contenders? We’ll talk about it coming up. But the Pistons, we’re going to start with their win over the Milwaukee Bucks. They won this game 12916. They were nearly up by 30 points at one point. They completely dominated this game. I felt like from opening tip off. Ryan Rollins was, we’re gonna get into some other things, but Ryan Rollins, that first half was maybe the the the spookiest half of basketball he’s ever had to play in his life. Um, but the biggest news obviously coming from this game is that Jayen Ivy made his season debut and played his first minutes of NBA basketball since January 1st, which is kind of you. It it’s it’s definitely something that his last game played was due to a Cole Anthony play that injured him and then his first game back is against Cole Anthony. That was uh what do you say? Uh a little weird uh coincidence, but I thought I we’ll talk about everything else, but I want to start with Ivy. Obviously, I thought Ivy looked pretty good in 15 minutes of play. He only played 15 minutes, which is something we’ll talk about later on. Um, but in just 15 minutes of play, I thought he fit in pretty well. Um, I I was I’m not going to read too much into how they’re utilizing him and his first game back from not playing in like 10 months. Um, but I thought the way they did utilize him in this game was really smart that he was running a lot of offball or he was playing a lot of offball. He was attacking G. He had a few uh catch and shoot attempts. He attacked in transition. I believe Tobias got a defensive rebound. He just took off right down the middle. Tobias outleted it to him and he just took it off all the way to the rim and was able to finish in transition. I thought the way in which they utilized him was really smart. He kind of just fit into exactly everything they were doing. They didn’t change everything when he was on the floor. They didn’t run a completely different type of offense. He was playing off of everybody else. He was playing off of the the actions the Pistons have been running, which is a lot of Jaylen Duran DHO, a lot of pick and roll with Cade, a lot of DHO with Cade, um, a lot of movement threes for Duncan Robinson. They even tried to run uh an offball action to get Jane Ivy a movement three on the right wing, which he ended up getting up. He didn’t take the initial catch and show. He tried to go to a sideep, which he’s feeling himself in. But overall, I thought the way JBstaff reintegrated him into his first game, I thought was really good. I thought he did a really good job. He had a nice pull up mid-range shot along the left baseline, which was really nice to see. Had a few nice finishes at the rim. Got to the basket a few times, drew a foul. Um, it’s going to be a work in progress with figuring out what exactly they want Ivy to do, what it is they exactly plan for him to do, um, and how he’s going to play. I mean, I don’t know how long he’s going to be on this miss restriction. Um, right now he’s probable for tomorrow and they have him down at down for reconditioning. Um, so I I I suspect that he’s going to be on this limited minutes for quite a bit. Um, it’s been 10 months since he’s been able to play NBA basketball. It’s going to be a minute. But his first action back, I thought he looked just as explosive. There wasn’t any concern. And we saw a little bit of him in the preseason, too. But, um, I didn’t I didn’t feel like we saw any lack of explosiveness. I don’t think all of a sudden the injury took away any of that. He still looked just as just as explosive, just as fast. Um, and I’m going to be interested to see how they utilize him moving forward. I I thought it was a good debut for him. I’m interested to see if he gets closer to 20 minutes in this next game, how long it takes him to break that 20 minute threshold. Um, but he was basically just utilized as a as a scorer. Come into the game, score the basketball. come into the game, run in transition, score the basketball, get shots up. Um, I thought he did a fine job at that. He didn’t have as much rust as I thought when it came to scoring the ball. He had a few nice looks. And again, it’s not going to be perfect for him the first few weeks back. He has everyone needs to be easy on him. It’s been 10 months, but I thought this was a good first game back. Um, outside of Ivy though, which obviously he’s the biggest story, but outside of Ivy, I thought everyone contributed to this win that played in this game. Again, they completely dominated the Milwaukee Bucks. Uh Sar had, like I mentioned earlier, Ryan Rollins in absolute hell. He only had six attempts in this game, shot attempts, Assar that is. Um but it felt like all of his energy was just channeled to just playing point of attack defense. He didn’t really do anything offensively. He was kind of just in the corner the whole time. Didn’t really run any actions or anything. Like it l he was pressing Rollins full court the entire game, the entire time he was in the game. And he just didn’t really do anything offensively. I hope that changes a little bit moving forward, but if it seemed like he just wanted to channel his uh Gary Payeyton uh you know pulled that kind of defense off and play that way. Um he’s a little bit on a miss restriction as well JP said before the game so he only played 27 minutes. Tobias Harris made his uh return as well. He didn’t look like he had any rest to knock off. He had 18 points and seven of nine shooting. He also was on a minute restriction at 23 minutes but he played extremely well in those minutes. Jaylen Darren Domin had 19 points in just 10 shots. JD something to watch for with him. He is slipping just a little bit from free throw. I’m I’m going to be interested to see if he gets back to shooting that 80%, but the last few games he’s been hovering around under 70%. He’s been missing a lot more free throws the last few games. So, um, five of eight isn’t too bad. I’m not saying to freak out or anything. I’m just saying watch. Maybe he was it’s possible we might be seeing a little bit of a regression to the mean when it comes to the free throw line um conversion rate, but we’ll see. Just stay stay on top of it. But outside of that, he was fantastic as usual. And Kade is I saw that he ended up in the top five now MVP ladder on NBA.com. He’s going to keep flying up those man. 29 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds on just 10 of eight shoot uh 10 of 18 shooting. Made all of his free throws. He’s playing exceptional, man. On defense, on offense. He’s just been great. He’s been absolutely sensational since the first four games of the year. He is playing like an MVP. And the longer the Pistons continue to win. Their win streak, by the way, I should have mentioned this by now, is at 12 straight games, the longer the Pistons continue to win, the longer he’ll continue to be in these MVP conversations. I think he’s trying to lock up first team all NBA. the the first team or first seed in the Eastern Conference with how well he’s playing. I don’t see how that’s not an automatic lock for first team all NBA. Now, obviously, the Pistons have to stay there, but with how he’s playing, he’s playing like a top five top five guy in the league. He he’s been absolutely exceptional. But like I said, everyone contributed to this win. Isaiah Stewart had some great minutes off the bench in 23 minutes. Caris Levert made his return in 13 minutes. I thought he looked fine. We obviously talk about Jay and Ivy, but Dan Jenkins, he played 13 minutes, had seven points and three assists. I thought he played really well. Ryan Holland, he had a few really good reps against Ryan Rollins as or yeah, Ryan Rollins as well. Um, he had two steals in this game. I thought his defense was really good offensively. Something to watch for with Ryan. He’s been struggling. I It doesn’t seem like the team has like a a a crafted out role for him. It seems like he’s just kind of spotting up in the corner. And I think a lot of that has to do is that the Pistons are figuring out how they want their hierarchy of ball handlers. Like it’s obviously Cade, but it seems like that they are realizing, okay, we want Duran to soak up a lot of the usage as well. And then obviously Ivy’s coming back. You got Caris Levert, you got Assar. So I’m interested to see how he looks offensively and how they utilize him because right now he’s mo mostly just kind of wandering out there and I think that’s hurting him a little bit. He doesn’t seems like to me from me watching it, he doesn’t really know where he wants to be offensively, but overall defensively he was good. And then Javvante Green also he contributed um got seven points and three of three shooting. He played really well. The Pistons went with the trail 12man rotation in this game. Everybody contributed. It was a really good win. Got the Bucks win 12 in a row. They’re at the top of the Eastern Conference. They are now 14-2. They are playing exceptional. But the question is, can they continue to run a 12-man rotation on a game-to-game basis or will JB Biggerstep have to make a decision a decision soon? We’ll talk about it coming up. Let’s be real. No one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. That’s where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and fast. Whether you’re hiring, onboarding, or paying employees, Gusto helps you do it all from one place without the hassle or hidden fees. Unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price, which means no surprise charges at the end of the month. So try Gusto today at gusto.com/lockdownba and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That’s right, three months of free payroll at gusto.com/lockedonba. One more time, that’s gusto.com/lockdonba to get three months free when you run your first payroll. Now, I got to tell you guys about another one of our sponsors, Wayfair. The holiday season is right around the corner. And that means it’s time to get your home ready. Whether you need more seating for guests or a fun serve uh serveware for holiday hosting, Wayfair’s Black Friday sale is here to help you make your space shine. I’ll go ahead and let you guys know I just got done using Wayfair. We got a new dresser. You don’t see it in the camera, but I got a new dresser over here in the corner. Kind of help organize things, organize my clothes a little bit more. Came in just two days. Easy to set up. Uh, it was great deliver. Like, it was fantastic. I loved loved using Wayfair. Good pricing, all that good stuff. This kind of thing you can do over there. And I did take advantage of their Black Friday deals that are happening all month long. Up to 70% off everything from sofas, dispatches, and like I said, to dressers. So, don’t miss out on early Black Friday deals. Head to wayfair.com now to sign up and shop with Wfair’s Black Friday sale up to 70% off. That’s w afir.com. Sale ends December 7th with Wfair. So I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free to 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 this on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. The Pistons have won 12 straight games. They are the top of the Eastern Conference. This is something I wanted to mention in the first uh segment, so I’m going to take a quick second to mention it here. The Detroit Pistons main question coming into the year, and we’ve talked about this a few times in the pod already, but it just continues to get even better and better. One of the main questions was, can the Detroit Pistons have a good half court offense? Last year, they were a great defensive team. They led the league in fast break points, second chance points, points in the paint, all that stuff. And this year, they have been pumme pummeling teams, points in the paint. They’ve been getting out in transition. They’ve been getting second chance points. They’ve been getting out in fast breaks. All that stuff that we know that they were going to be great at. And obviously defense. They’ve been one of the best defenses in the entire NBA. We know all of that. But the question is, could they have a really good half court offense this year? And that was some of the question the off seasonason, which is why you heard rumors about the Pistons being interested in potential stretch bigs that they thought, do we need more shooting? Do we need to space the floor more? Like that was something they need to address. And since the first four games of the year, over the last 12 games, the Detroit Pistons have the third best halfcourt offense in basketball. Not third best overall offense, not third best transition team, not third best fast break team. They have the third best half court offense in endpoint, period. They’ve been dominating teams within the half court. And there’s so many reasons for why this is. Their second chance points, their offensive rebounding is just killing teams. Even when they miss a lip at the rim, we’ve talked about this a few times, just being aggressive on drives. They have so many good offensive rebounders that they just destroy teams with it. Um, but the other thing obviously is that Jaylen Duran is scoring on an absurd rate on drives. So far this year, he’s scoring around 1.25 points per possession on drives. This is better than just actually let me go ahead and give you guys and trust me we’ll get to the 12man rotation but this is something I really wanted to talk about. So we’ll table the 12man rotation talk for just a second but this is I want to compare these numbers from Jaylen Duran what he’s doing on drives. Actually I I I was wrong what he was scoring on drives. He’s doing better scoring 1.36 points per possession. Just absurd for those of you guys who be wondering okay is that good? How good is that? Well, you’re scoring more than a point every single time the person drives. First of all, that’s insane in of itself. But then you go ahead and compare it to some other guys. I went and looked at some random bigs. Julius Randall, really good driver. He’s scoring 1.21 points per possession. Giannis, he’s scoring 1.08 points per possession. Jokic 1.14 points per possession. Sangun is at 76. not not that great. But you see, Duran is scoring at a more efficient rate on his drives than any of those guys I just mentioned. And those guys are all considered to be like elite drivers at the big man position. What he’s I part of me wants to say it’s unsustainable. Like he is like the rate that he’s at is crazy. I like it’d be hard to imagine that he’s going to continue to be this efficient on drives. Like this is absurd. This is like LeBron kind of stuff. Like the efficiency is otherworldly. Um, but that’s a main that’s one of the biggest reasons why the Pistons have been so good within the half court because he’s just taken another step, just a leap actually as a driver um as a self-creator for himself, a scorer off the dribble. He’s been fantastic and that’s pummeling teams for teams that want a double cade. He’s making them pay on mismatches. He’s making them pay when they play four on three. if he’s making the tagging defender constantly pay because that he realizes I’m just stronger than you. So, he takes his time and he dunks on you or pivots and gives a drop step and finishes at the rim. He’s been absurd as a scorer offensively. So, I think he is the main reason or I would definitely say if he’s not the main reason, he’s like a top two three reason for why the Pistons half court offense has been so good lately. And then obviously I think one of the other reasons very clearly is a is how good K Cunningham’s playing. 30 points a game on 11 assists a game as well. Um he’s shooting what is it? Uh 47% from the field but 57 true shooting percentage. There’s a bunch of talk about you know is he going to be efficient this year. Now he’s at league average efficiency over the last 12 games. first four games were really bad, but he’s been a league average uh efficiency from an efficiency uh perspective while being a high volume scorer and a high volume assist guy. He’s been fantastic. He’s also averaging two steals a game, but that’s overall just how good Kate’s playing. But Kate’s been really good within the half court. He’s been a better finisher. Even this last game against Milwaukee started to hit some of his threes. Hopefully that’s coming around because that really was the only thing limiting him. And we’ve talked about in the last podcast, his turnovers are down across the board. Just completely down across the board. So, the Pistons are answering the question about whether they could be a good half court offense. Jaylen Dur’s contributing to it. K Cunningham’s contributing to it. I think Assar Thompson’s aggression has been contributing to it. Like I mentioned, even if he doesn’t score in the drives, he’s been drawing free throws, which lately, last two games, I know he’s been coming back from injury. He hasn’t really been as aggressive. But I’m chalking that up to the fact that JB he’s on a minute restriction. They’re trying to handle it. and we had like 10 games of him taking 10 plus field goal attempts a game. I’m going to assume that will go back once he’s back playing his normal minutes. But either way, Assar driving even when he misses because they’re so good of a offensive rebounding team doesn’t really matter. Um he was aggressive drawing free throws obviously. Um Duncan Robinson has been on an absolute heater for the Pistons. Like everyone was dogging Duncan Robinson to start the year and he’s been fantastic. He’s shooting 44% on the year. If you just go since the Cleveland game, he is shoot he is on such an insane heater shooting 47% from three on 7.6 attempts. He’s been absurd as a shooter for the Pistons. And people were worried about whether they would have enough shooting to make up for what they lost with Millie Beasley and Duncan Robinson has completely shown up and done his job. And then you got the steady presence of Tobias Harris. that’s able to post up mismatches and and space the floor out and give the Pistons a little bit of on ball juice as a scoreer whenever they need um whenever someone’s off or he has a favorable match up, he’s able to attack that. So, Pistons are not only a top 10 defense, they are a top 10 offense. And on the year, even if you go including the top four games or the first four games, excuse me, the Pistons have a top 10 half court defense and a top 10 half court offense. There’s only five teams that can say that. Atlanta, who the Pistons beat, Detroit, Miami, Minnesota, and obviously the Oklahoma City Thunder. Those are the five teams. They’re in elite company. They’re an absolutely elite company at towards the top of the league. It’s it’s it’s been it’s been a crazy start for the Detroit Pistons. And actually, I’ll save this point I was going to bring up for later. Now, I guess we’ll hit on this cuz we honestly we don’t really need to take too much time with this the 12man rotation stuff. After the game, JB Bigger Staff said for now he is going to go with the 12man rotation because he wants to reward people. And they asked him, “Well, have you ever done that before?” He’s like, “Nope, I’ve never done it before in my life.” The reason why he’s never done it is because nobody does it. No one runs 12man rotations. It’s it’s nearly impossible to do. Now, some people will ask me, “Well, Coo, they didn’t they just do it? What do you mean? What’s wrong with being deep? What’s wrong with keeping your guys fresh? You should absolutely want to play everybody. This is the problem, guys. And I know everyone I I understand this with fans that they start to love certain players and they want to see the players get rewarded and like the power friendship. I get all of it. 12man rotations I like are virtually impossible to do game to game. There’s there’s a reason why no one does it. Yes, teams aren’t as deep, but even OKC struggles unless they are winning. Unless OKC is sitting their starters for the fourth quarter, which they’ve been doing a lot of, so fair enough. But unless that’s happening, it’s hard to get 12 guys consistent minutes a game to game. The reason why the Pistons are able to do it right now is because Assar is on a minute restriction. Tobias is on a minutes restriction. Jane Ivy is on minutes restriction. I’m assuming Caris Levert also is on one because he’s been in and out of the lineup with injuries. So those are four guys. Um, did I say Tobias? Tobias is on restriction. I I don’t know if I said Tobias, but those are four four to five guys who are all on man restrictions that once they are off their mans restriction, that’s going to be what 25 minutes having to be soaked up by them. The reason why the Pistons have all these minutes available, they’re just spread out to everybody because you have Jay and Ivy playing 15 minutes and Tobias playing 22 and Sar playing 27 and Caris playing 13. Like that’s why they’re able to play. It’s not that Cade’s not playing so much. He’s still playing 32 minutes. It’s not that Jaylen Derer’s not playing. It’s because their other guys are on minutes restriction. So there there’s a lot of minutes left for everybody. So once Ivy gets to 100%, Assar gets to 100% and Tobias gets to 100%. There’s not going to be that many minutes to hand out. Um that’s one I that’s not going to continue. I get I I I respect JB trying to reward everybody and I understand it and for the time being you probably can get away with it and I’m sure part of the process as well is let’s see who plays themselves into staying after the 12man rotation and who plays themselves out. I’m sure that’s part of it as well. Um but it’s not it’s at some point soon. I’d say within the next like two weeks, two to three weeks cuz you’re going to want Ivy to get up to speed. I’d say within the next two to three weeks weeks, maybe even sooner, JB’s going to have to make a decision about how he wants his rotation because you just can’t run 12man rotations. It doesn’t happen and it’s too hard to do. And you hear players talk about this all the time. It’s hard for any player, especially some of your more important players, to get into a rhythm if they’re not playing as many minutes or they’re playing such short stretches and constantly having to come out because you’re playing so many guys. I It’s good to have depth. It’s good to be deep, but you know, let’s save that I think in a few weeks once they get Ivy up to speed and full strength and Tobias is full strength. Once that happens, let’s save all that deep talk for if maybe a a knock on wood an injury happens, you need someone to come in. That’s what that’s great for. doesn’t mean you should be playing 13 guys and and spreading 15 minutes across everybody. Not only one is it nearly impossible to do so too, it is going to be impossible to do once all your main guys are no longer on restrictions. So, but nonetheless, I’m going be interested to see who tries to play themselves into it because someone’s going to have to lose their spot soon. Um, I’m interested to see and obviously they didn’t have to play Paul Reed four minutes. Uh, it didn’t have to happen. They just found minutes for him to play. But either way, let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cookie, how you guys are feeling about the rotation. Also, all the other stuff I said earlier about how the Pistons half court offense is looking, how they are the only one of five teams to be top 10 and half court defense and half court offense. Coming up, are the Detroit Pistons real contenders? Should we be discussing them as legit championship contenders? We’ll talk about it coming up. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets in everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. So, right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And so head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. So I want to thank you guys again for making locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. Free available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel, 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. The Pistons are sitting at 14-2. first in the east. But it seems like there’s a lot of hesitancy from not just pe I won’t even just troll people outside Detroit. It’s not just people outside Detroit. There’s also a lot of people within Detroit that has a little bit of hesitancy to saying they’re actually contenders. Not just a a very good team, not just a good story, not just a again like I said, not just a very good team that can finish top four in the East. There’s a lot of hesitancy to say this team is proving to be legit finals contenders. So, I want to ask the question, and I’ll answer it myself for what my my answer is. I want to hear from you guys what you you guys think in the comments. The Pistons have, I think, a lot more to prove before anyone’s going to feel comfortable calling them contenders. And I don’t think that’s wrong to say. I feel like I feel like not just with the Pistons, but with any team there, you have to prove a lot before people just start throwing the contender label at you. And especially this early in the season. This early in the season is too oftent times stuff is too noisy. Um, and there’s not a lot of sample. Now again, I I think the Pistons have been incredible. I think they’ve been they are going to be incredible. So I’m not saying they can’t be contenders. No, I’m not saying that at all. point here is that it’s going to be hard for people to to give them that contender status until they continue to stack up this sample of being a top 10 offense and a top 10 defense. They have the numbers back up saying that they’re a contender. They have the profile of a contender. They have a top defense. They have a top offense. They have a top half court defense. They have a top half court offense. They have an identity. They have an MVP franchise type player. They have a very good coach. They have depth. They have a supporting cast around that that that franchise player that are all improving. Like there’s a lot of arguments and a lot of numbers that back up this is a profile of a contending team. However, I will I am not taking even 1% away from anything the Pistons have done. Not even a little bit. However, I think we would be trolling people if we were to not at least somewhat acknowledge the Pistons have had a decent decently good a good schedule. Like I’ll say this is basic this is really what I wanted to say. I was going to say this earlier. Um the Pistons beating the Bucks without Giannis isn’t helping isn’t helping us beat the camp get an easiest schedule of all time uh allegations. It’s not I we got to be honest. That’s not helping our allegations here. So like like they’re taking care of business, but I just thought it was funny because they’re not helping, you know, Giannis not playing isn’t isn’t helping the allegations here. It’s going to continue to happen. Um but as I’ve said over and over, you can only play who’s in front of you. And the good to really great teams all take care of business against the teams they should take care of business. and then they split or play slightly above average, I believe, against teams on their caliber and that’s how you end up with around 50 wins. It’s not because you’re beating everyone that’s on your every time you play against someone on your level, you’re just going 100% against them. That’s not realistic. You’re going to lose team lose games to teams that are on your level. You just want to split those ones really and just take care of business against the teams you should be winning. And that’s exactly what the Pistons are doing. Um, and they also do have a few quality wins. I’ve brought this up before, like people said the Mags were going to be great. The Pistons beat them. They beat Houston early in the year. Now, for what it’s worth, it was the second game of the year and maybe Houston hadn’t figured it out by then. Fair enough. But that is still a really good win, beating the Houston Rockets. They beat the Atlanta Hawks who everyone said was going to be a litmus test for the Pistons and they did defeat them. That’s a really good team, a top defense since Trey Youngs went down and the Pistons beat them. Um, also to have that type of focus to be on a win streak like this, not every team has to be able to focus every single night and bring your all every single night to be locked in, not take a night off. Not many teams are able to do that. And the Pistons are doing all that. So, have the Pistons have had a favorable schedule 100%. I I don’t think I I think anyone lying to themselves or trolling people by saying they’re wrong by saying that is you’re just trolling. They have had a favorable schedule, but they’ve done exactly what you want them to do with a favorable schedule. Not everyone with this schedule would do this. The Pistons are. They’re locked in. They’re playing extremely well. They have a great defense. They have a great offense. I just I will end this with saying I I don’t want to talk about contenders talk yet because I do believe you need to have some good wins under your belt before people start talking about you as contenders. And I think again, like I said earlier, I do think that is fair. I I don’t think that’s just specific to the Pistons where people are just being Piston haters. I think that’s really across all sports, not just the NBA, but NFL with any team. Before people just start calling you a contender, you need to have some really good wins under your belt or at least some very good performances against like some of the top teams in the league. Unfortunately for the Pistons, I think they’ll be dealing with this kind of I don’t know these allegations thrown against them for a minute because they’re not going to be going against I don’t think any like crazy great teams until maybe December 30th against the Lakers. Um like here these are the Pistons next few games. They got the Pacers, the Celtics, the Magic, which I it depends how people are feeling about the Magic. One day they’re great, the next day oh they’re bad. Next day they’re great, next day they’re bad. So who knows how they’re feeling with the Magic. Maybe they’re just overrated, but we’re not going to get into that. But Pacers, Celtics, Magic, Heat, the Hawks. I think the Hawks are good wins, but apparently when the Pistons beat them, they’re not. But anyways, Hawks, Bucks, then Trailblazers, Bucks again, Dallas, Charlotte, Portland again, Sacramento, Utah, Clippers. Like, I’m not going to sit here and lie to people and say the Pistons out here playing top tier teams here. Okay, I get it. I think the stretch of the season where the Pistons can really start to get people to be sold on them and start talking about them like this where people are just like completely confident in it. It’s the stretch to end the year and to start the 2026 year. They got Lakers heat Cleveland New York in a four game stretch on December 30th, the 1st, the fourth, and the fifth. That stretch right there, I think if they can go two and two, heck, even three and one. If they were to go three and one, that would be incredible. Those are some really good teams, teams everyone respects. I think that’s the stretch we should be eyeing. Not to overlook the rest of these teams, but if you want to look for, okay, when can the Pistons really shut this narrative narrative up and really get this for get this contender label thrown at them where people believe, okay, this team might actually make the finals. I think that’s the stretch where they can do it. Lakers, Heat, Cleveland, New York. I think that’s when they can really do it. But until then, to be honest, go ahead and just win 20 games. Win 20 games in a row. And if people at that point want to say, “Oh, you’re at 20 games in a row, but you’re still not beating people.” Then so be it. Let’s head into December 30th feeling good then. Like I I don’t know what to tell you. Nonetheless, I think the Pistons are proving that they are to be taken very serious. And again, like I said, if it wasn’t for their history and being a young team and being just one of the worst team in NBA history two years ago, I think if you removed all of that and you just had someone who didn’t know anything about the NBA, you just say, “Hey, who’s the best? Who’s some of the best teams in the NBA?” And you threw these numbers at them and this profile that the Pistons have, they say, “Oh, yeah, that’s probably one of the top five teams in the NBA.” But fortunately, that’s not how it works. So, I think this is a great team. They’re proving it every single day and I think that they’re going to have to continue to prove it and I think they want to do that. I think they want that responsibility and and they’ll get their chance. I think they’re going to do great and we’ll see how they do. We we’ll see what happens. Let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter. Do you believe the Pistons are contenders right now? Um again, let me know. But until next one, that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys. Make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. Free on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel. Leave us a five star view. Whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. Until next time, peace out everybody.

Detroit Pistons dismantle the Milwaukee Bucks as Jaden Ivey returns to action—could this surging squad be legit Eastern Conference contenders? Ku Khahil breaks down Detroit’s dominant 129-116 win, spotlighting Ivey’s seamless comeback, Cade Cunningham’s ascent into the MVP conversation, and Jalen Duren’s elite efficiency in the paint. The Pistons’ 12-game win streak puts them atop the East, but can a 12-man rotation hold up once everyone is healthy?

Key takeaways include the evolution of Detroit’s half-court offense, Ausar Thompson’s relentless defense, and Duncan Robinson’s shooting resurgence. With Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert easing back from injury, Ku explores whether Coach JB Bickerstaff can balance depth with rhythm, and if the Pistons’ favorable schedule masks their actual ceiling. Are Detroit fans ready to call this team a genuine title threat—or will upcoming matchups against top contenders provide the real answers?

Substack: KUKHAHIL.SUBSTACK.COM

Playback: PLAYBACK.TV/WATCHPISTONS

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