REVITALIZED: Detroit Pistons Get PAYBACK Against The Zone Defense | Cade Cunningham The CLOSER!

REVITALIZED: Detroit Pistons Get PAYBACK Against The Zone Defense | Cade Cunningham The CLOSER!

The Detroit Pistons secure back-to-back wins over the weekend and what seems like also their first blowout win of the season. They continue on what seems to be one of the best possible starts to the season anyone could have imagined. 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 your host Cahill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years. B credential media member over the last three years. I appreciate all of you guys who make Locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We’re free developing on all your podcast platforms. If you hadn’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 us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Also, I want to thank you guys for help making Locked Podcast Network the number one sports podcast network in America. Appreciate all of you guys’ support every single day. But anyways, in today’s episode, should the Detroit Pistons just start Stew and Duran moving forward together in the front court? And we are over half or not halfway, we are over a quarter into the season. You guys know I like evaluating the season in 20s. Uh, every 20 games I look at as a quarter of the season. So, I want to review what we’ve seen from the Pistons in the first quarter of the season and how everyone should be feeling about them moving into what is going to be now the second quarter of the season. So, we’ll talk about that in just a few moments. But, we’re going to start with this weekend of play. I went to the game uh I was cential for the game against Portland on Friday. The Pistons handled their business against Portland. Even though that game was pretty close, we’ll get to that in just a second. They win 122 to 116. And then on the back end of that back-toback they played, Milwaukee got their payback after Milwaukee stopped what should have been a fivegame win streak right now for the Detroit Pistons. Milwaukee got that upset of a win a few days ago when Giannis went down with what is now known to be just a calf stream. So, thank God. Um, but they ended up getting that win over the Pistons. And if they would have won that game, the Pistons would be yet again on another longer win streak. Um, but the Pistons got their payback on uh on Saturday. score 124 to 112, but it felt way more of a blowout than it was. This is what like it felt like the first blowout of the season for the Detroit Pistons. I remember um after the game against Portland in the presser um they asked JB Bickerstep about playing in so many close games and playing in these in these games where you find yourself in control for the majority of the game and then at the end it gets close and now you have to fight and claw just to get it out. And he spoke about how the players love it. He said that he’s had multiple players tell him over the last few days that they really love it. They find it a lot of fun. You know, they they they really thrive in the clutch moments for what you for what you will. Um and he followed up with and I told him absolutely not. Can we blow a game? Can we blow a team out? Like I I’d rather win by 20. I don’t like this. I don’t like doing this. Now, obviously, he was joking around a little bit, but being serious as well. And that was a problem the Pistons have been having. Now, we’ll talk about later on what a fantastic start to this season when we go over their season review. But over the last two weeks or so, the Pistons have found themselves in control of so many games and then at the end of the fourth quarter or late in the second half or in the third quarter, later on in games, they start to lose grasp of the rope and they start to give the other team momentum and they start to turn the ball over and now what ended up being like a 15-point game turns into a four-point game, turns into a two-point game. Heck, against Portland, the Pistons were in control the whole game and then found themselves down by five with three minutes left. I I was sitting there in my seat just absolutely in shock because it felt like the Pistons were going to be running away with this game and then somehow someway they found themselves down by five with three minutes left and I thought we were about to witness, oh, here we go. This is going to be yet again another one. They fumble at the end of the game. They just should not lose this game. But they ended up pulling it out and that’s why I want to start with the Portland game first. Kade Cunningham was not having a good game against Portland. I don’t feel was very it felt passive um and just wasn’t having what I would call a great game from Kade standards. And then in the fourth quarter, specifically after the three-minute mark, again, like I said, the Pistons went down by five after being up by 15 earlier in that quarter. They went down by five with 3 minutes and 21 seconds left in the game. From then on, Kade scored 10 points and helped secure the win for the Detroit Pistons, scoring 11 points in total in the fourth quarter alone. He continues to be a clutch closer for the Detroit Pistons. And I know that he missed the free throw against Milwaukee. I know that he hasn’t been perfect, but like I’ve brought up multiple times before, Michael Jordan in that quote, what is it that I’ve missed over 200 shots. I’ve made so many gamewinners, but I’ve missed just as whatever it is. You’re not going to be perfect. Okay, I probably should get that quote pulled up to be honest. I should probably have it like written down on my desk somewhere. So, every time we talk about this, I just pulled this quote up. I just show it up to the camera. Um, but nonetheless, has Kade been perfect? No. But has he been one of the best fourth quarter players in the NBA this year? 100%. He’s been one of the best clutch players in the league this year and has showed up again against Portland. And that when we get to the quarter season review, I think will be one of the biggest takeaways for the Pistons season from a lot of fans will be the fact that they have found themselves in these close games. They have found themselves in these clutch games and just like he did against Portland when they found themselves down by five and it looked like momentum has swung all the way back to Portland. Kate Cunningham shows up, gets aggressive and ends up closing the game out for the Detroit Pistons. Love seeing that. He’s been doing it all season long. It was great to see him do it against Portland. And then you follow it up with the back end of a backtoback against the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that just upset you a few nights earlier. You could tell the Pistons were not happy about that loss to Milwaukee because they came out and absolutely destroyed Milwaukee. What it felt like from opening tip off, they were very physical. They were aggressive throughout the game. I thought this was probably Assar Thompson’s best game of the season. He only had 13 points, eight assists, six rebounds. But like we talked about um on I believe I was it Friday’s episode, it might have been Friday or Thursday’s episode, we talked about this where yes, Milwaukee employed a zone. And that doesn’t mean just because when a team employs a zone against you means that Assar Thompson or a non-shooter should be incapable of breaking that zone. I spoke about and I tweet out a bunch of clips of how Assar broke the the zone multiple times in the first match up against the Milwaukee Bucks and I think in this game he ended up with eight assists and that’s what I feel like made this so much of a great game for him. Now, he was obviously very efficient in this game, only missed one shot, but eight assist off of him just being hyper aggressive, getting downhill, getting into the gaps against the zone, finding guys, whether it’s in the corner kick out for for a corner three, or whether it’s dumping it off to Jaylen Dur once you get to the middle of the floor and then finding Jaylen Dur for a dunk underneath, or whether it’s driving the lane and then kicking to the top of the key to Kay Cunningham for a catch and shoot three. He was doing an absolute eight triple plus job of attacking the zone. And I’m happy that this was able to happen. The Pistons were able to dominate in this way and Assar was able to play this type of game um against Milwaukee because I saw a few comments in the community about, oh, they’re running zone because Assar can’t shoot. They’re running zone. You can’t play Assar against the zone. And that kind of thing just really is frustrating to hear because it feels like that people who are saying that just haven’t played basketball, haven’t been coached in basketball, haven’t been around basketball enough because there’s there’s multiple ways of breaking a zone. Yes, shooting them out of the zone is 100% a way to do so. But the one of the best ways to get quality shots against the zone is to hit the gaps of the zone and have players who are able to attack gaps and find those gaps within a two- three or a 3-2 to then force the defense to then suck in and then you can kick it out or if they get caught lacking because a lot of times when you’re playing a zone, you don’t have your eyes on what you know you learn in middle school, eyes and ball or the ball and player I should say. Sorry. Where you can see both your man and the ball because you’re a lot of people just have eyes on the ball at the top of the key which means a lot of cuts can be wide open. You can slip behind players. You can slip into gaps and then catch the ball immediately tap touch past it somewhere else. So hearing that throughout the last few days as if that was somehow a reason where again I tweeted out a bunch of clips where SAR was a main reason when they broke the zone. It’s just it’s a frustrating it was a frustrating thing to see because I feel like people just weren’t being either taught or told the right things or just going with the narrative because Assar dominated this game against Milwaukee just from being someone that was constantly breaking the zone by the getting into the gaps over and over and over again. So, I thought that was the main thing on display against Milwaukee is that people you’re going to see teams run the zone against the Pistons. They’re they’re more teams are going to try it and it may not go as swimmingly as it did against Milwaukee in this past game, but you saw the Pistons come out with a clear plan of how they’re going to attack the zone. They were they were spacing a lot better. They were picking their spots a lot better. Players were in the right spots at the right times and they shredded Milwaukee zone. So hopefully they needed this game and and they have this tape on reruns over and over and over again for when they do go against his own again because like I said, they will see it again. Teams, there’s a reason why you call this league a copycat league because everyone sees teams are doing this against the Piston. They see that Milwaukee was able to win a few nights doing it. teams are going to try it again. I think the Pistons have a lot of guys who are able to make it pay, especially if you’re going to have Duncan Robinson back in the lineup, which they did have Duncan Robinson back in the lineup against um against the Bucks, which obviously brings a different level of gravity. I’m not saying you don’t need shooters, you obviously do need shooters on the floor. Um but Duncan obviously brings a level of gravity that attracts players in the defensive end, too. So, that was my biggest takeaway from this weekend of action. Finally got a blowout win. They destroyed the zone which in a way and which was very obvious of getting into the gaps and finding open players. They K Cunningham closed out the game against Portland and they find themselves in the middle of another win streak. So let me know what you guys thought about and it was a great great job of getting backtoback wins on a backtoback. That’s usually really tough to do and they were able to do it. So great job by them. Um let me know what you guys think about this weekend of play from the Detroit Pistons. They’re coming up. You saw the Pistons start Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Duran in this game against the Milwaukee Bucks. And again, it looked really good. I can’t believe I’m saying this. I can’t believe me, Cuckoo Hill, is going to be the one that has to ask this question and answer it. Is it time for the Pistons to just go ahead and start the double bigs of Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Duran moving forward even when Tobias is healthy? 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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. And before we get into the news, or not the news, or breaking down, I should say, the double big lineups with Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen D. I do got to let you guys know this. You already live your team every day. Now, take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everydayer Club, which is new, debuting today, and get locked on pistons with no interruptions. membersonly Discord access, which I’m super excited for, and more. All just for $5 a month or $50 a year. You can head and you can find that out in the description down below. I’ll put the link down below for all the YouTube listeners and obviously obviously for all the podcast listeners as well. In the bio, you can find a link to go do that. I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure you guys are going to love the ad free stuff. So, if you want to check check out the podcast or check that out to where you don’t have to hear no more ads from me, um you can check that out in the link down below. uh just $5 a month or $50 a year. Now, let’s get into the double big lineup, which everyone who listens to this podcast is aware that I was not somebody who was ever a big fan of the double big lamps in years past. I I I was not a fan. I did not like it at all. I thought it was a waste of people’s time. It it just wasn’t it was not something I was a big fan of. And last year seemed like the team agreed. Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Duran only shared eight minutes total last year the entire season. Eight minutes played together. And last year Isaiah Stewart went away from being trying to be a stretch four. He went back to just being an inside punisher. And he was doing that really well this past year. I thought last year was his best season of his career. He was fantastic. They played him in the back of5 role. I thought he was playing in his best position possible. They used him, I thought, the best way possible. And it led to, I thought, his most impactful season of his career for the Detroit Pistons. And again, it led to them not playing Jaylen Duran or Isaiah Stewart together at all. And I thought that was the right decision for sure. I was all in on that decision. Obviously, we know two years ago, how many of you guys locked down Pist Pistons listeners remember when we had the fight about the we had the fight with the Wiseman stand base about you can play Wiseman and and Duran together that you got you got to give them a chance. Play play them together, man. They can do it. You guys remember those days, man? We were in we were in bad times, man. We were it was it was it was it was a dark time there for for business fans for a while. But the double bigs was something we had to see and I was such a such I I was so against it that I I literally felt like I was scratching my eyeballs every time I had to watch it. I hated it so much. I never thought it was good. And for what it’s worth, the numbers back it up that it wasn’t good during those years. However, 2025 is a new year. 2025 is not 2023. 2025 has JB Bigger Staff at coach, not Monty Williams. Not, and all respect to Dwayne because he’s in the Pistons front office in the organization. Great dude. Um, but they they have they don’t have Dwayne Casey no more. It’s a new year, new team, and so far this year, I have to be honest, the double big lineup is punishing teams. It absolutely is. It It is. It is pummeling teams. In 168 minutes this year, when you play Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Durn together, they are winning their minutes by 14.9 points per 100 possessions. They have an offensive rating of 129.4. It would be the best offense in the NBA. They have a defensive rating of 114.4, which would be a top a top defense, not the top, but a top defense in the league as well. How are they doing it? And am I a believer in it? And should they start it moving forward? All questions we’ll answer right here. One, how are they doing it? Steu is shooting well from deep. He told me on media day, I asked him about it. I asked him, “Are you going to shoot threes this year? Is that something you’re going to go back to doing?” He said, “Yes, I want to shoot threes.” I told the coaching staff, “It’s something I want to do.” And he’s shooting 41% from three right now. Now, it’s on very small volume. Very small volume. Only 2.4 threes a game. But in games, we’ve had to start as a four. next to Jaylen Duran. Like, let’s just use this last game against Milwaukee as an example. He gets five threes up. When he’s forced to play when he’s forced to play as the power forward, as the starting four with Jaylen Duran, he knows that his job is to get threes up. He knows that. And it’s shown up every time. He’s shooting really. anytime that opportunity shows up, anytime he he he knows that he’s going to be starting, he knows that they’re going to need him to do so. They’re going to need him to space the floor. He can’t be out there just in the paint. I mean, you go all the way back to the game against Indiana, that’s another one, when they played a lot of Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Duran together. You go get November 17th, I should say, against the Pacers. He gets five threes up, makes two of them, 40% from three. So, in the games where Isaiah Stewart is playing with Duran, it’s no, it hasn’t been so far this year like in years past or two years ago, three years ago where it’s like, okay, he’s developing, he’s at 34%. You know, teams aren’t really guarding him. You know what? It’s not like that. He is actively hitting shots at a very high clip and he’s also getting up a decent volume when he is asked to be that starting four. So, that’s one of the reasons why they’re winning their minutes. The other reason is is that when you play those two guys together with Assar with Cade, you just have so much size on the floor. You’re just going to dominate the glass. They dominate the glass every time they start together. It’s that’s it’s going to be hard for any team. I mean, there’s a few teams I can think of like Houston could would do a good job against them. Um, a team like uh why am I uh Cleveland. I I was blanking on their name. Um, Cleveland I think could handle it. Um, so yes, there’s other teams that where maybe they wouldn’t just dominate the glass, but not many teams are doing it. OKC is obviously OKC would dominate anything. They’re playing like the best team of all time, so let’s just move them. Let’s just move them to a different uh area here. Um, but you get what I’m saying. Not a lot of teams are ready to battle with the Pistons, double bigs, and that type of size throughout the entire lineup. I mean, in this game against Milwaukee, you got Jaylen Durn who had 16 rebounds. This game, Isaiah Stewart didn’t have a lot of he only had two rebounds, but you get six from Cade. You get six from Assar. You get 10 from Paul Reed. So, when you have those two guys on the floor together, they’re just going to destroy you on the glass. Like, that’s that’s reason number two. And then obviously reason number three, which is something we’re gonna get into the last uh segment of the podcast, is Jaylen Darren has made such a crazy leap as his own initiator and as his own creator to where he when he has the ball, it’s almost like I was watching football today, uh, watching Red Zone and they said something I was like, “Oh my god.” It like light bulb went off in my head. I was like, “That actually is pretty good way of explaining like the impact of having Jaylen Duran with the ball in his hands.” And it was it was when the Browns I was watching the Browns game obviously perfect timing. You feel me? Um I was watching the Bear not the Bears the Browns game and they had Wildcat. They went Wildcat for a play and I forget who was on the broadcast. I think actually it was Mark Sleareth. Either way they were talking about how when you go Wildcat you do you go QB draw or QB run whatever it gives you an extra blocker and makes it harder for you to guard. And it kind of is the same thing where with with with when when you have a big man like Jaylen Dur was able to have the ball in his hands and make plays because just like you would for example when you’re running with a QB power or a Wildcat, it’s now defenses have to pay attention to that guy and it gives you extra space because you have an extra blocker. In basketball, you put the ball in your fiveman’s hands with spacing around him. Now teams can’t just be watching off of him or or with their eyes on the ball off of him or sagging off of him or helping off of him. They have to now address him. They have to guard him which makes it there’s no more there’s one less backline defender. There’s one less help defender. It opens up the floor more. And now that now Jaylen Dur because of how good he’s been this year at driving the driving the basketball and getting to the paint, it makes it so much harder for defenses to have to guard. So, I heard that and I was like, you know what, that was a really good, you know, I thought that was a good parallel when I heard it. I was like, you know, that actually is kind of the same thing. So, I think that right there makes it really, really difficult as well for teams. And not only is Steu shooting well, Duran is not just rolling and catching lobs or whatever or dunker spot stuff. He’s creating his own action. So, now when he gets the ball, you got Stew in a corner. You got Assar in a weak side corner probably cutting down. But then you got Cade and Duncan on opposite wings and the floor is just spaced out and Duran can attack downhill. It’s it’s look and obviously I I mean I saved this for last week. I feel like this is the most obvious thing. Their defense is just going to be absurd. Like they’re going to they’re going to be super physical. They’re going to protect the rim. You get Stu protecting the rim. You get Assar in the weak side protecting the rim. Jaylen Durn’s been a better rim protector. You’re going to get a bunch of size ability to switch amongst your bigs. Switch in the front court. it it all of the ideas of why it would work. There was a for a long time I said that it was just the idea of the double bigs. I said it all the time in the podcast. I I would say yeah double bigs would be great if you actually had the personnel to run double bigs. Like if you had personnel that could do this that could shoot threes at a decent enough volume that could have a a floor stretch uh stretching five or a guy at the five position that could handle the ball and all this stuff. If you actually had this type of personnel, then yeah, double picks would be great, but I said I don’t think the Pistons have the personnel. Well, they might be proving me wrong this year. It might be no longer isn’t an idea. It actually is the reality of the situation. The Pistons double bigs are murdering teams when they’re on the floor. Question is now, should they start it moving forward? I don’t think so. I I don’t think you can do that. I I think you got Tobias. You can’t just not play Tobias. I I don’t see how you can do that. Not Not just not play. I’m sorry. And made it seem like he would be out the rotation. I don’t see any way you could bench Tobias. I think Tobias is too important. I think he has a a very clear role in this team. I don’t think they want they would like to do that. And the other reason why is that I still believe I don’t think that the start them starting together um Duran and Stu is like the long-term future and because I still believe they need a high volume three-point shooter at the four position. So, I don’t think that’s the long-term answer. And I also don’t think you can start it in the in the meantime because I think you need Tobias’s ability to stretch the floor a little bit more consistently than Stu. I think they teams pay him a little bit more attention than they would Stew as obviously. Um, and then also Tobias’s ability to destroy mismatches so far this year. He’s been so good at the end of shot clocks. So, whenever they get a mismatch, I’m just giving him the ball in the post and him making a play. Um he he’s been so good with that that it is a bailout option for the half court offense. So do I think you run it more in stretches? I do. I think you do run it in stretches for sure. But I I don’t know if I’m at the point yet where I’d say bench Tobias for these double bigs. But let me know what you guys think. Comment section down below or over on Twitter. Coming up, I’ll give my quarter season review. We are well over the quarter of the season in. How have the Detroit Pistons looked? How do we feel about them? We’ll talk about it coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds, every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is best when the game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel lets you jump into the moment. Live spreads and money lines adjust instantly. Player props update as guys heat up. You can also bet next touchdown scores, drive results, totals, and more. It keeps you locked into every snap, every drive, every possibility. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your live NFL bets all season long. That’s with FanDuel. The game moves fast. So can you with FanDuel. So I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free to avail on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Locked OnPistons. 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. I I think this is pretty if I wanted to if I wanted to just make this like a one, two, three, click end pockets right here. This is an easy way to evaluate the Pistons once one quarter in. You want to just most basic way to evaluate the Detroit Pistons. How have the Pistons done? Someone comes up to you, how do you think the Pistons have been this year? How how good do you think they are? Are you happy with their their their season so far about all that? Easiest way to answer this, there’s only one team in the NBA with more wins than them. It’s the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let that sink in. There’s only one team in the NBA that has more wins than the Pistons this year, and it’s the unbeatable Oklahoma City Thunder. That’s the only team. OKC has 22 wins. The Pistons have 19. The next closest to the Pistons, not in the East, in the entire NBA. The next closest team in the entire NBA is three games behind the Pistons. It’s the Denver Nuggets with 16 wins and the Lakers with 16 wins. So, how do I feel about the Pistons a quarter of the way through the season? I feel fantastic. I think they’ve been absolutely fantastic. I think they’ve been better than anybody could have possibly imagined. I think they took advantage of every possible opportunity given to them with this schedule. They took care of business against teams they should take care of business against. They got some really good wins against some quality teams like Houston earlier in the year, like Orlando earlier in the year. They have been I I I can’t say it enough. I don’t They have shattered every possible expectation that you could have had for them through 24 games. 19 and five through 24 games. There is no way anybody on this earth is going to convince me that they thought that their prediction before the year was, “Yeah, I think the Pistons be 19 and five and only the Oklahoma City Thunder would be better.” There’s no way. No one saw this coming through 24 games. The Pistons have a top four defense. They have the fourth best defense in the league. Only defense is better than them. Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, and again just Do we just give up? Does the league just give up with OKC what they’re doing? I mean, Houston’s number two defense 110.7 net rating or defensive rating, excuse me. OKC has 104.2 defensive rating. the distance. They have a six-point lead defensively on them and the second place team. Six points goes from Houston at number two. You’d have to go all the way down to the number 20 ranked Pacers to have that big of a difference. That’s how big of a difference there is between one and two. Okay, I they’re just I don’t know how who’s going to beat them. Um but the Pistons, they’re the fourth best defense in the league. I think we all expected that. But they are one of only few teams, OKC is one of them, to have a top 10 defense and a top 10 offense. They have the ninth best offense in basketball. And that’s with, as we’ve talked about in the podcast, over the last five or six games not being that great. They they they last five or six games outside this win against Milwaukee, this blowout win against Milwaukee as of late, they weren’t playing their best. They were turning the ball over quite a bit. And despite all of that, they are still one of only a handful of teams that have a top 10 defense and a top 10 offense. The Houston Rockets can say that. The Oklahoma City Thunder obviously can say that. And I think I think that’s it. It’s OKC. It’s Houston, Detroit. Yeah, if I’m looking at this correctly, this is that’s Oh, Cleveland. Four teams. Cleveland. I think that’s the only other team I can find here. So that’s the company that the Pistons find themselves in. One of four teams to be top 10 offense and defense. They have the sixth best net rating in the NBA. Plus 5.4. The only teams with a better net rating than them. This one’s shocking. This one’s actually really shocking. Boston at plus 7.2. That is I can’t believe that Boston’s actually this good. Uh New York plus 8.2. That’s shocking to me as well. Denver plus 8.6. Houston pummeling teams plus 10.8 and OKC again just five points better than the second best team at plus 15.3 just just unfair. Um but the Pistons have remained a top defense. What we saw after January last year, they’ve continued that. But now they’ve made another step forward offensively. They’re one of the before the last six games, we’ve talked about this, they were a top four half court offense. Now that’s dropped a little bit now because the last few games they were not very good in the half court before this game against Milwaukee they were in those previous five games a bottom actually I believe they were the worst half court offense over those games. So that’s brought it down a little bit, but overall through the first quarter of the season, you’ve seen improvements in the half court offense. You’ve seen improvements overall offensively, excuse me, you’ve seen them maintain the defense that they were at last year. And then also, obviously, you’ve seen big improvements from a Jaylen Duran who has made a big leap as a driver. I tweeted this out the other day. Let me get this number actually right in front of me. what he is doing on drives to the basket is is I I can’t it’s unfathomable where he’s at. He is averaging 1.18 points per possession or points per Yeah. points per possession on drives this season while also averaging So, let’s just stay with 1.18. That right there is insane. That’s that’s incredible efficiency just on drives. But then when you then when you add on top of it that he’s averaging 1.2 29 free throw attempts per drive attempt while shooting 75% at the line. So, he’s either scoring on you almost every single drive or he’s drawing a foul where he’s not going to the free throw line and missing one of one of two or missing both. He’s going to the free throw line and and making two out of two a lot of the times. So, he’s getting two points it feels like damn near every drive. Whether it’s through free throws, whether it’s through a drive to the basket, it’s been in not only has the volume of it went up, he’s obviously doing it a lot more this year compared to last year, but the efficiency jump has been insane. It’s been absolutely crazy. So, Jaylen Durren’s made a big jump. I think Assar has made a jump. Don’t think it’s been nearly as big of a jump as Duran has, but I think Assar is making a jump and improving. I think Kade is having the best season of his career. He’s made a huge huge jump as a closer and as a fourth quarter uh scorer, as a fourth quarter player. And I really wish I could have said that he was making big improve improvements when it came to taking care of the ball over the last six games. He just completely destroyed all the improvements he had made over the 13game win streak. Just just destroyed it. So hopefully the next quarter season review, we can talk about him being a better uh taking better care of the basketball. But Cade, I think, is having the best season of his career. I think Stu again has taken another step in just being more comfortable on the floor. You’re seeing all these young guys get better right in front of you along with the team taking a huge jump win-wise. I don’t know how you don’t give the Pistons a triple plus just 105 a grade on a out of a possible 100. Just give them the extra five extra credit points. Like th this has been an absurd start to the season for the Pistons. again, one that only sees the OKC Thunder with more wins than them, a top 10 offense and defense, and the sixth best net rating in the NBA. I will tell you guys this now. If we reach two quarters into the season, and they are still one of the only handful of teams to be a top 10 offense and defense, and they are still towards the top of the league in net rating. After the second quarter review, we will start discussing them as legit contenders in the league. I don’t want to do that now. I want to see more of a sample. There’s four quarters to a season. I want to see how they start because they have had a softer schedule. That’s that’s true, but they’ve done the abs. They’ve smashed it out of the ballpark and they they’ve been excellent. I want to see after another quarter of the season. Okay. This the schedule starts to tighten up a little bit. Teams start to game plan for you a little bit more. Can the Pistons sustain? They’ve ran into a little bit of a bumpy road. They they were three and three over the last six games before this this backtoback. How does that look? Do they start to recover? Do they go on another win streak? Do they start to answer some of the game plans? Do they consistently find a answer to the zone defense? They do they go back to taking care of the basketball? I want to see these answers because there’s they answer the first handful of questions. They knock it out of the park, but as the season goes on, teams get more film on you. More questions will come. And now that more questions are coming to them and more things they have to figure out, will they figure that out just as well as they did the beginning of the year? I want to see that before I start talking about them as legit contenders, but they’re on their way. They have the makeups as of right now to be there. We’ll find out in January, February how they’re looking and if they’re on pace to be one of the Eastern Conference to be one of the one of the contenders to represent the Eastern Conference in the finals this year. We’ll talk about it then, but that’s all I’ve got for you guys. Man, this has been a fantastic start for the Pistons. A+ and hopefully continue it on throughout the rest rest of the season. That’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making lockdown on Pistons your first listen of every single day. Free up on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. Stay safe out there. Till next time. Peace out, everybody.

Detroit Pistons secure back-to-back wins and their first blowout victory of the season, fueled by Cade Cunningham’s clutch fourth-quarter dominance and a revamped frontcourt pairing. Can Detroit sustain this hot start and emerge as a legitimate contender in the East?

Ku Khahil breaks down the Pistons’ impressive run, spotlighting Jalen Duren’s leap as a creator, Isaiah Stewart’s improved shooting, and Ausar Thompson’s dynamic play against zone defenses. The analysis examines the effectiveness of Detroit’s double-big lineup, its defensive strides, and its offensive momentum, while raising key questions about lineup choices and Tobias Harris’s future role. Bold defensive improvements, top-tier net rating, and upcoming tests against NBA juggernauts set the stage for Detroit’s next chapter. Don’t miss this hard-hitting review of Detroit’s stellar season start and what it means for their playoff aspirations.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com
PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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