UGLY WIN: Detroit Pistons Survive Atlanta Hawks, Cade Cunningham DELIVERS in Dramatic Fashion

UGLY WIN: Detroit Pistons Survive Atlanta Hawks, Cade Cunningham DELIVERS in Dramatic Fashion

The Detroit Pistons defeat the Atlanta Hawks to win back-to-back games to get back on a winning streak. But it was not pretty. It was a really ugly win and they have a lot to clean up. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked Onet, 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, Kahill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years. Baron Credential Media member over the last three years, and I appreciate all of you guys who make locked 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. 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 fandal.com to get started today. I also want to thank you guys for making Lockdown Network the number one sports podcast network in America. Appreciate all of you guys’ support every single day, making us your first listen. Later on, we’ll discuss turnovers are becoming a pretty big issue and if they don’t correct them soon, it’s really going to hurt the Pistons. We’ll break down why they’re becoming an issue, when they started becoming an issue, and how they can correct that a little bit later. And then also, we got to chill in Caris Levert. Per Pistons fans seem to be going after Caris a lot. I’m going to come to Caris Levert’s defense a little bit here. We’ll talk about that a little later and why he’s been catching so much smoke. Um, let’s start with just breaking down this game. The Pistons, I was at this game credentials. And this game was very ugly to watch. I’m not going to lie to you guys. This was not a very fun game to watch. It was very nasty. It was a nasty basketball game. The Pistons went 9998. Looked like a score from a mid2000s game or maybe a later 2000s game. mid 2000s like 70 80 whatever but uh maybe later 2000s early 2010s uh that’s what this kind of looked like 99 98 the Pistons pull it off they had a chance at the end of this game they had four consecutive attempts at the free throw line with a chance to ice the game and Caris who I just said I was going to defend the end of the podcast but it is what it is missed two straight free throws and then Danis missed two straight free throws and gave the Hawks a chance to win or tie the game both chances after those misses not a great way to post the game at all, but they pull off the win and a win’s a win. And before we go any further, I want to make this clear. The Pistons are 17 and4. You should be incredibly happy with that start. They have had an absurdly just fantastic start to the season. Absolutely fantastic start to the season. And no one’s taking that away from them. However, I forget what coach it was said that you would you should never accept what you do in wins that you wouldn’t in a loss. So, just because you win the game doesn’t mean you ignore everything that was going, everything that may have gone wrong or mistakes that have happened. Um, but it’s obviously better that the Pistons are having some of we’re having some of these conversations that we’re going to have after a win. The fact that the Pistons are finding ways to win games that aren’t necessarily the prettiest, like the end of the game against Miami wasn’t great, but they pulled it off still. This game against Atlanta wasn’t great, but they pulled it off still. You’d rather talk about it after a win than you would after a loss. So, give them credit for that and you will you don’t ever should apologize for a win. With that said though, the Pistons one, I thought in this game Duncan Robinson didn’t play and you got to see just how much he was dearly missed. The Pistons only made five threes in this game. Only five. They shot five of 26 from three, 19%. He was sorely missed. They needed his spacing. They need his offball movement. The Hawks went to his own defense and it really hurt the Pistons for a large stretch of this game. They you saw how much they need Duncan Robinson on the floor and why JB has been playing him so much. So maybe everyone anyone who is still questioning the Duncan Robinson signing if there’s anyone still questioning that, you saw his importance here tonight. Um Dannis Jenkins got the start. someone like myself who has been saying he needs to play. He got the start and he had a very very poor night. Three of 16 from the floor. Uh led the team in shot attempts which probably shouldn’t happen. He did hustle a ton. Still got eight rebounds for a guard. He was hustling all over the place but he also had three turnovers. Was not a very He went 0 of eight from deep as well. Was not a good game at all from Danis. And I thought especially at the end of the game really started to hurt the Pistons with how aggressive and how much confidence he was having in his shot. like you respect the fact that he has so much confidence, but at the end of the game, the ball was in his hands a little bit too much and he was dictating a little bit too much of the offense and and taking too many questionable shots. You need a little you need him to re it back in a little bit, you feel me? So, um they ended up subbing him out at the end of the game, which I understand not a great game to have for those uh like again like myself who have been saying he needs to play, but it’s only one game. and hopefully he plays better moving forward. But this was definitely he picked a bad night to have a bad night and so did Tobias. Tobias went two of 14 this game. He shot started off 0 of six. Um he also had three turnovers. He was really bad in this game. Really struggled against the Atlanta Hawks defense. Pistons again without Duncan. Tobias and Danis picked the worst nights to have their worst night. Um and the Pistons are able to escape with it because K Cunningham like we’ve been talking about for the majority of this season. And I understand against the Celtics, he missed the free throw high. Look, I get it, okay? He’s not perfect, but in the fourth quarter, K Cunningham had eight points on three of six shooting, including an incredible highlight play with around 20 seconds left in the game. He scored a little too early, I thought, but with how, you know, with him getting to the rim the way he did off of a spin move, split a double team, then went with a acrobatic reverse double clutch layup at the rim to put the Pistons up by four with around 20 seconds left in the game. Absolute highlight play. Crazy play. The crowd went crazy when he hit it. It was a wild play. Um, and that was backtoback buckets for Kate at that point. He scored again, like I said, eight in the fourth and helped close out the Hawks. And again, he didn’t have the greatest end of game against Boston, but 90% of the time so far this year, one of the main reasons why the Pistons are pulling out wins or maybe it’s ugly or making sure they’re closing out wins that are close is because K. Cunningham has been showing up in the fourth quarter and slamming the door shut on the opponents. And he did that in this game against the Atlanta Hawks, which mind you, he’s playing against a really hard matchup here against the Hawks. Dyson Daniels is no easy feat. Nquil Alexander Walker no easy feat. Jaylen Johnson no easy. Like they have a lot of length and defenders all over the place and he just he was able to do what he wanted in the fourth quarter when he turned it up late and helped secure the win for the Detroit Pistons. So if the biggest takeaway you should have from this game positive is that K Cunningham is that dude and he’s been showing us that every single game. We all already know this, but it’s fun to be able to sit back and just acknowledge it that like, yeah, that the Pistons got themselves a dude. And he continues to prove it and the end of games. And is he going to be perfect? No, he missed the free throw against Boston. But Michael Jordan didn’t make every single one of his shots. I forget what the exact quote is. Michael Jordan said something about like, I I’ve taken over 500 gamewinning potential gamewinning shots. I’ve made only blah blah. That you guys heard the quote. I don’t know what the exact quote is. Whatever. But K’s not going to be perfect. And was he perfect tonight? Absolutely not. But when the Pistons needed him most to deliver, he delivered just like he has for 90% of the season. And that’s why the Pistons are at 17 and four because their superstar plays like a superstar. Um, another great spot or great highlight I should say tonight is Jaylen Dur. He made his return. He had 21 points, 11 rebounds, zero assists, which I’m not going to lie to you, we’re probably going to have a film breakdown, probably gonna have an episode talking just about this because this is that part of his game is getting pretty concerning to me. Um, he was nine of 12. He was bullying inside. He did have a few possessions where he had his dribble drive galler to the basket and was able to convert an and one. Like that’s all great to see and he had a really good night. However, he did have three turnovers to zero assist and we’re seeing this happen a little bit too much with him where he’s having more turnovers and assists. We’re not seeing that playmaking because he’s so hyperfocused on scoring the ball on these dribble drives which again it’s helping the Pistons right now and is a great development. He’s having a great year, but we again, he had three turnovers tonight. We saw Atlanta do it. We saw Boston do it. If if Duran’s not going to make the right play out of these when teams help down and start reaching, he’s going to turn the ball over and it’s going to be harder for the Pistons to score. You got the first step completed. I’m a I’m a threat off the dribble. Defenses have to respect me. I’m a scorer now. They’re paying attention to me. The next step has to be when they send too much help to to me. when they send too much attention, he has to be able to kick out. And the frustrating thing is for me, which is why I may be harping on it when others are probably like, “Coo, he had a double W shot 9. Why are you harping on this?” I’m harping on this because I know he can make these passes. We’ve seen him make these passes. We’ve seen him make some great passes out of the short roll. We saw him do it in the playoffs last year. We know he’s a good passer. So, that’s why I’m harping on and why it’s frustrating for me is because that would really make him just unstoppable. That that would be the final step. That that’s the final completion of his game. He now is a great driver of the basketball. He is a an effective driver, scorer. When he has the ball in his hands, he’s dominating in the paint. He’s hitting free throws. All of this stuff. The final step, which we know he has, is to be a playmaker when teams send too much attention to him. He has to be able to start doing this because I think that that’s part of the issue the Pistons are having as of late with these turnovers is that guys are getting a lot of tunnel vision. And it’s bit them at times. They’ve escaped it the last two games, but it’s not something they will continue to get away with. Again, you’ll take it in a win. You can criticize yourself in a win. That feels a lot better. He had a great game nonetheless, 21-1. But like we’re about to get into here, the Pistons, if they want to avoid having multiple game losing streaks coming up, if they want to avoid uh uh falling off of this great start, they have to fix the turnover issue, these turnover issues that they’re having because they will not be able to win consistently while turning the ball over as much as they’re doing as of late. 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If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel, locked on 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. Before we get into the turnovers, I actually forgot somebody that I very much wanted to talk about on the first segment. Ryan Holland had a fantastic game, six of eight and and had 17 points in just 17 minutes of action. I saw a perfect tweet and this is from friend of the podcast, Hal, who we have all on all the time in the offseason talk draft stuff. Um, Vinnie Vincent Goodwill tweeted out, “I don’t know what Ryan Holland’s special offensive uh talent is or NBA talent is, but he just makes things happen.” And Hal tweets uh responds to him and said his special skill set is being able to do this and it’s just Taz from the Looney Tunes going crazy, ripping stuff off all out of nowhere. Don’t know how he does it. He’s just wild. He just goes crazy. He just makes things happen. That is like the best that is the best categorization of what Ron Holland is. He just makes things happen. He just does crazy stuff. He’s constantly active. He’s just He just goes all over the place. And somehow at the end of the night, he ends up with six rebounds and 17 points. Even some of his buckets, you’re like, “How did he make that?” I don’t know. He just threw it up at the rim, but he made it. He just makes like he’s crazy. And he had a very, very good game for the Detroit Pistons. And they needed all of those 17 points off the bench. Again, with Tobias having a really bad night, Danis having a really bad night, and Duncan being gone, they needed all those 17 points. And does it always look the prettiest? No. But he just makes it happen. And he gives full-on effort on both ends of the floor at all times. And he never lacks confidence in himself. So, it was great to see him have another good game. He had a good game against Miami after struggling for a while there. He’s had now back-to-back good games. This one was a very good game. Hopefully starting to turn it around after hitting what seemed like a little bit of a sophomore slump. Um, but let’s get into the turnovers now because that’s I think the biggest takeaway and the most important thing to have after this game. The Detroit Pistons had 22 turnovers in this game. They are lucky they didn’t they did not lose this game. Very lucky. They are very lucky they did not choke this game away. They had 22 turnovers to Atlanta’s 13. Atlanta made nine more threes than them. The difference really was just the Pistons got to the free throw line 13 times more and made 10 more free throws. That’s that that was the difference in the game. Atlanta shot better from deep. They turned the ball over less, but the Pistons were aggressive in the paint and drew free throws and they were able to escape with the win. This was a back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth game. And at the end, K was able to hit him with a dagger and extend it. But they got lucky. And they’ve been getting lucky. Actually, I can’t even say they’ve been getting lucky because one of the games they lost when they did this. Against Orlando, they had 24 turnovers and ended up killing them. They lost by three, but that was what killed them. Their turnovers killed them. Against Miami, they only won by three points. They were up by like 20. Why did it get cut down? I had a film breakdown going over this on the Substack I posted today. Why did that game get close? Why did the Pistons have a chance to blow that game at the end? Why did did Miami have the ball with a chance to take the lead at the end of the game after being down 20 earlier in the fourth quarter? Because the Pistons had so many turnovers. They had 21 in that game and Kade had multiple in the fourth and then they followed it up with another 23 turnover game against Atlanta. That’s not going to be good enough. You are not going to survive like this. You escaped Miami with the win. You escaped Atlanta with a win. turning the ball over like this, which was the Pistons’s kryptonite this past season, which was Cage’s kryptonite this past season and was his kryptonite very early in this season. It went away. It was gone for a long time for that stretch. Here are the Pistons turnover numbers after the Cleveland game when they went on a 13game win streak. 14 turnovers. Eight turnovers. 14 13 16 19 for And 14 17 15 14 17 13. They were taking so much better care of the basketball during that stretch. During that 13game win streak, they took better care of the ball. That was the leading reason why their half court offense was so effective. It was the leading reason why they were so good overall offensively. It was the leading reason why Cade was playing so spectacular and had launched themselves into MVP conversations. Is why the Pistons got to the top seed is because along with how stifling their defenses and how much they turn you over and how much they get in get into your stuff and force turnovers out of you. They weren’t turning the ball over. They were getting out in transition, but they weren’t turning the ball over. They were okay operating the half court. They were okay operating fast. They were okay operating slow. Didn’t matter. They won the possession battle. Oh, and by the way, they also dominated on the glass. And they also dominated second chance points. They just dominate the possession battle. And I know that’s the hot words, the the key words now in NBA in 2025 right now in the conver in in the talk around the NBA. But it’s true. The Pistons got way more possessions the other teams because they had a they have a great offensive rebounding team and they didn’t turn the ball over. That it was simple as that. and they had a superstar lean the way. That’s why they were able to go on this win streak and over the last three games they are going way too far back to what what they looked like at times a lot of times last year. And Cade is going too is going way overboard with looking a lot like the guy last year that struggled so much with turnovers. I saw someone tweet this earlier and it was crazy to look at. Kade found himself outside like at one point earlier in the season last year obviously he led the league in turnovers. He found himself outside I believe they said the top 10 in turnovers during the win streak. Ended up working himself out of it and then just over the last three games he put himself right back into the top five. I He’s had six turnovers, eight turnovers, eight turnovers over the last three games. We are looking at 22 turnovers in three games by one player. I mean, that’s just it’s just unacceptable. It is. I mean, I you can’t excuse it. Now, in this game, Kade did have a big impact on defense despite turning the ball over him. He had five steals, three blocks. I mean, he was you’re not seeing very many engines offensively going out there having eight stocks in a game. Like, it’s 1B and you find me the other person. So, that’s great to see. Yes. But the turnovers are just way too much. They are going to kill the Pistons. They’re going to bring them down if they don’t correct them. Now, the good thing is that we’ve seen them play a long stretch of games where they did tone it down, where they were able to keep it under control. So, that gives me belief that they’re they’re going to be able to correct this. And this is just a short, you know, blip that they’re, you know, they’re losing focus. They’re incorporating a lot of guys back and whatever you may have it, they’ll be able to correct these turnovers. But Cade has to be much smarter with the basketball. He has to take better care of the ball. It’s his It’s his biggest weakness. He has to be able to take care of the basketball. But along with Kade, and I’ve said this now on this podcast for two years now, those you guys who have listened to this podcast for a long time, you guys probably hear me say this all the time, your high usage guys are going to deal with turnovers every now and then. High usage stars are going to have a high turnover games every now and then. Like that’s going to be a part of it. Now again, three straight games, that’s that’s not good. I’m not trying to excuse Kate at all that he has to get under control completely. But your high usage guys are going to turn the ball over and every now and then they are going to have a high turnover game. That’s what’s going to happen. That’s what comes with the territory. What cannot happen is your low usage guys also having multi-turnover games. That’s when you that’s when it’s over with. That’s that’s what will kill you. You can survive a game when your high usage guy has a five turnover game and everyone else combines for seven. You you’re still only sitting at 12 turnovers. Okay, you take care of it. It is what it is. when when your high usage guys having eight, eight, six, and then you got Dennis Jenkins contributing three as well. You got Jaylen Duran contributing three as well. You got Tobias Harris contributing three as well. You got Caris, Isaiah Stewart contributing two as well. Like once you have that, now you’re cooked. It’s just over with. Your other guys can’t turn the ball turn the ball over. Tobias, he needs to just stop throwing lob passes. Two of us turn over on lobs that were just bad. Tobias is the worst lob thrower on the team. I it it it’s bad. I I don’t know how he’s so bad at throwing lobs, but just just stop throwing lobs. If if your score isn’t there, if you don’t have a simple bounce pass, just dribble it up. You feel me? Um Jaylen Durren’s turnovers, I I put a lot I believe all of them really come from him just being too aggressive as a scorer and getting tunnel vision and not looking at the open players around him. He’s also struggling with dealing with players um reaching down when he puts the ball down. But again, I feel like a lot of that would be avoided if he was processing the game better as a scorer and a passer. Um Danis was just way too aggressive. Like just like we were talking about earlier with his shot, he was just being way too aggressive and overconfident as a scorer and just too aggressive as a player overall and was doing things he shouldn’t be trying to do. Um, so that contributed a lot to his turnovers. It’s just that’s going to that’s going to bring the Pistons down. The other guys can’t be turning the ball over like this. They just can’t. And Kate has to get that under control. If they can get that under control, they’ll continue to be one of the best teams in the NBA. They’ll continue to be at the top of the Eastern Conference. I’m telling you guys right now, if the Pistons continue to turn the ball over 20 plus times a game, they will fall. That you’re that is not a winning formula. You will not sustain. you will not have winning uh st you will not win games consistently turn the ball over 20 plus times a game and again like I said the reason why this is such a big concern for me is because that was their biggest problem last year that was Kate’s biggest problem last year and it felt like during the win streak that you know they kind of corrected it and they were turning the corner and now they’ve went back to having three straight just horrific games when it comes to taking care of the basketball. So they correct that though they’ll be fine. That’s the only reason why they find themselves in these games against the Hawks and the Heat, though. They take care of the basketball and now all of a sudden they’re blowing these teams out. They were blowing Miami out until they started turning the ball over. So, they have to fix that massively. Massively. And is some of it maybe with the other guys incorporating everyone back and trying to figure out whose role is what. Yeah, I think that I think that sentiment is is you’re starting to see that affect the overall team play. Like I I think you’re seeing guys not really know what their role is and other guys trying to take on maybe too much because they think they have to take on this and other guys kind of falling back and not like I think they’re struggling right now. They’re getting wins but I think they are struggling a bit as a as a team to figure out what is what am I supposed to do? Okay, what am I supposed to do? Okay, I’m supposed to do this. Okay, they need me do this. And now everyone’s just they have a lot of guys trying to figure out what they need to do and what their role is here. I do think that’s that’s hurting him a little bit. So, I think you can maybe attribute it to that just a tad. Um, but overall, a lot of this is just sloppiness and carelessness that that and not seeing the game correctly here. So, they need to correct it. I think they will, but if they don’t, that could be a problem. We’ll see what happens, though. Coming up, I’m going to defend my guy Caris. And and and in route to doing that, I can’t believe I just said my guy Caris. I was not a big fan of Caris’s signing at all, but I have to be fair and I have to defend him here. And I think it’s a bigger conversation that needs to be had of why people are going at Caris. I see. Um, we’ll talk about that coming up. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. The holiday season is one of the best times for sports. Bull games, big basketball matchups, and playoff pushes. 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Price picks. It’s good to be right. So, I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free and available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. All right, look. I can’t believe I see so many people going after Caris as much as they are. And this is coming from somebody who is not a huge fan of Caris Levert’s signing in the offseason, but I am a fair person. And Caris Levert has played fine. Carris Levert has been outright good at times. Like we’ve talked about this over like now we go over the last 11 games. He’s averaging 11.6 points in 63 63 true shooting. In this game tonight, he was five of nine from the field, three of four from deep, had 14 points in 25 in in just about 25 minutes. He was a plus 10 in this game. again, they needed every single bit of all of his all of his buckets with how little anyone else was really offering as a scorer and without Duncan Robinson. And he came in and he scored the basketball. He also closed the game for the Pistons, which I really liked what JBstat decided to do. He closed with the identity of this team, which is defense. He closed with Cade, Assar, Caris, Stew, and Duran, and they got defensive stops, and they were able to close this game out. Now, there were two miscommunications that the Pistons got up by six and I thought it was over with like minute left. But there was back-to-back miscommunications in transition. That just can’t happen when you play a defensive lineup that allowed the Hawks to hit two threes and all of a sudden make it a game again. I thought they had closed it out. I was getting ready to talk about it. I was like, “Oh yeah, this lineup was great closing out and then they had backto-back miscues that ended up in open threes.” Again, when you play a defensive lineup, that can’t happen. But I do think it went overall really well and take those two miscues and put them to the side a little bit. I know you can’t completely ignore him. Obviously, it happened. But I like the process and I feel like I mean that’s what got them that six-point lead. They were getting stops and running. You assume that that won’t happen again that they will have backto-back miscues with threes when you have a full-on defensive lineup. But my overall point is I like the lineup that JB decided to close with. I hope I really wish they would close with defensive lineups more often because that is this team’s identity. But nonetheless, Caris has played really well. So the question, so the question you’re probably asking is why do you feel like you need to defend him? Why are people going after Caris? And it’s because the Pistons have a lot of questions right now with their whole guard rotation and the play of their guards. And I’m I’m going to go ahead and come out and just be flat out about it. The reason why people are talking about Caris so much and kind kind of directing their anger towards Caris is because Jay and Ivy has to play and I think everyone’s starting to come along with this that I’ve said for now for two plus years. He is not a point guard and if you play him off ball with another point guard he will look better. When you play him with other ball handlers who can handle breaking down the defense, handle making right decisions, all that stuff and just have him be a scorer. He looks better. So people are taking out their frustrations on Caris because Caris is not one of those guys. He is a guy he’s coming in to score. He’s not coming in create advantages for someone else and get them in better position. He is coming into the basketball game because you want him to score. And which is why when JB Biggerstaff played Ivy with Danis and Kade for all of his minutes last game against Miami, I came on here and said it was a great adjustment. You love to see it. But that’s why people are directing so much anger at Caris because they’re like, “Okay, well we have a combo guard combo scoring guard in Ivy. you have a combo scoring guard in Levert and you’re not really helping Ivy so now we’re mad at you which I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think that’s fair at all because Caris actually is playing well especially I feel like at times on the defensive end now he had a few miscues tonight defensively but overall for the majority of the the season I feel like he’s really been impactful defensively. He’s been active. He’s been getting deflections. I really like what he’s brought. I think overall he’s been pretty good for the Pistons. This is what I think everyone needs to accept here. Jayen Ivy who did not have a good night at all tonight. I I don’t think he played well at all. But what what people have to accept is that Jay Ivy is coming back from playing 11 coming back from not playing, excuse me, for 11 months. He’s been out 11 months. He has not played five on five NBA basketball in 11 months. This is his first action since January 1st. And no matter where you stand, I think everyone knows where I stand on the Jane Ivy and the whole Jane Ivy argument, but no matter where you are with the whole Jane Ivy experiment, the whole Jane Ivy argument, however you feel about him, the Pistons have to play him and you have to deal with these struggles early on because again, no matter where you stand, evaluating a guy after five games when he hasn’t played in 11 months and he’s on a man’s restriction is it’s not that fair to him. And I spoke about this before he came back. I said he was going to be in a tough spot because this team is rolling, but when he comes back, you have to also understand that you have to play him. You have to increase his minutes, but he hasn’t played in 11 months. So, it’s probably going to be hot and cold and going to be some struggles early on. So, how do you balance trying to get Ivy up to speed and dealing with some of his struggles while he gets back to whatever 100% is while also maintaining and realizing, hey, we have a great thing going here. We need to prioritize winning as well. It’s tough to balance, but what people, I think, need to just come to acceptance of is that you’re going to have some rough spot. You’re going to have some rough stretches over the next few weeks. It’s going to happen. They have to increase Ivy’s workload. They have to increase Iivey’s minutes as the time goes on. And that comes with he’s going to play some minutes with Harris. Now, I don’t think their minutes are going to go well. I brought up their numbers last game. They were like a minus 24 in their minutes of action. It’s a very small sample size, so I don’t really want to read too much into it, but I don’t think they fit well together. Nonetheless, you have to play Ivy and Caris. You just have to you are not in a position where you can just because you’re not you can’t bench Carris because Caris actually has been helping. Like I I I know he takes some dumb shots at times. I I get it. I don’t like some of his shots either, but he has come through multiple times for the Pistons. You have to play him. He gives you positional size. He tries on defense and he actually can create some with the ball in his hands. You have to play him. He’s been overall good and then you have to increase the load of Ivy. Ivy’s not can’t just play 15 minutes forever. You’re going to have to increase his minutes and the only way to do that is that he’s going to have to share some minutes with Caris and maybe it doesn’t go as well. But that’s the position the pos like people have to just accept that that’s going to happen and we’re just going have to deal with that. Iivey’s gonna have you’re gonna have to deal with Ivy working through some of these some of these struggles, some of these low spurts as he tries to get back to full speed and gets fully incorporated back. So, I don’t think it’s fair to take out that frustration, the fact that Ivy doesn’t play great with another point guard and then air that out on Caris because he’s not a point guard. I don’t think that’s fair to Carris because Caris is actually playing fine. It’s not his fault. He’s playing fine in his role. What he’s been asked to do for the Pistons, he’s playing fine. I I don’t think that’s fair. I think instead of criticizing Caris for not being what you want next to Ivy, I think you kind of have to just accept and moving forward have to come to the understanding that Ivy’s going to have some good moments and he’s going to struggle some because he’s coming back from an injury. You’re have to give them two, three weeks I feel like probably before you really start judging him. Now, whenever when should you start criticizing some stuff? I’ll leave that up to you guys. But now is way way way too early. He’s only playing 15 minutes a game. You’re gonna have to deal with sometimes in those 15 minutes it will be great. Sometimes in those 15 minutes it’ll look like tonight. Like you have to like that’s just part of the process of dealing with a guy who hasn’t played in 12 months. And you need to get up to speed because you have to get answers on him. You have to give him his minutes. So like it just like it’s going to come with the territory, man. Like that’s just what you’re going to have to deal with. Now, would I like for them to find their best way possible to make I like there was a stretch tonight where Ivy I believe in the third quarter Ivy played with not just Caris and Danis but also Kade like they were all on the floor together and I loved it. Actually, not I’m I apologize not with Dan as well. It was Cade, Ivy, and Caris. So, he was playing with two other ball handlers along with Ron I believe. So, he had multiple defenders on the floor and also multiple ball handlers and that stretch went better. But Ivy didn’t maybe score 10 points in that stretch, but the team functioned well in that stretch. So, do I think they should continue to find ways to play Ivy with Cade or Danis? Yes. But I going after Caris because Carris isn’t a point guard and therefore now him and Ivy Limes are going to be bad. So now let’s Caris, I don’t think that’s really fair to him. I like that’s not his fault. That’s not what he was brought here to do. That’s not what they’re asking him to be. Like that’s just that’s just what he’s the situation they’re going to find themselves in. you have to accept that Ivy’s working himself back in and hopefully it slowly starts to correct itself as he gets better and as he starts to work himself back into peak shape. But that’s my thoughts on the whole situation. We’re probably going to talk about this a lot over the next few weeks. The guard rotation um is probably going to continue to be hot cold hot cold hot cold because of everything we just talked about. So let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter how you guys felt after this loss. I saved this for the last end of the podcast real quick. I just want to throw this shot out there for anyone who makes it to the end of the podcast. You guys get to hear me say this. Assar only had four points tonight or four shot attempts tonight. He made three of them. Eight se eight eight points, seven rebounds. I saved this for the end because I wanted to rant. Just 30 seconds. I know we’re running along. 30 seconds real quick. Asar first 10 games was playing tremendous with the ball in his hands. He was playing really well. He was getting to the basket. He was shooting well from the floor. He was getting free throws. The team was winning in his minutes. They were looking better because he was being aggressive as a ball handler and they were putting the ball in his hands. last few games they’ve just put him in the corner and he’s just standing there and he’s not being aggressive and he’s not getting shots up. He’s not being utilized as a driver. You just he now he just feels like teams are helping off him in the corner and he’s just not being really utilized in the offense. They don’t have him being a screener a lot of the times. In tonight’s game against the Hawks, he literally was just standing in the corner for the entirety of the game. It felt like I really hope this changes because he was looking so good the first 10 games of the year when they had him operated a secondary ball handler. know they’re trying to incorporate so many guys back and there’s so many guys that need that that were having the ball in their hands so now he’s kind of falling into the background. I think that kind of happened with Ron as well before the last two games. Ron was struggling. I think that’s one of the main reasons why Ron was struggling too. I really hope JB starts to correct that a little bit because I don’t think that’s good. Four shots and just standing in the corner that doesn’t help anybody. I I that needs to change. There’s my daily SR rant. I He was looking so good the first 10 games and now he’s just like in the corner. So, I hope that that stops, but went a little longer than 30 seconds. 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 and available on all your podcast platforms. Hit the subscribe button to YouTube channel. Leave us a five star review, 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 edge Atlanta Hawks with Cade Cunningham’s fourth-quarter heroics, but are costly turnovers threatening their impressive 17-4 record? The ugly 99-98 win sparks questions about the team’s ball security and execution as Ku Khahil scrutinizes recent struggles, including Jalen Duren’s double-double return—and his concerning assist-to-turnover ratio.

Key discussion points include Tobias Harris and Danish Jenkins picking the worst night to struggle, the vital absence of Duncan Robinson’s floor spacing, and the rising fan criticism of Caris LeVert. Ku Khahil defends LeVert’s role and stresses the Pistons’ need to redefine their guard rotation with Jaden Ivey’s return. Plus: Ron Holland’s energizing bench impact, Ausar Thompson’s fading offensive role, and why the team’s identity hinges on defensive lineups and smarter playmaking. Can the Detroit Pistons clean up their game before turnovers derail their season?

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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