{"id":681946,"date":"2026-03-27T11:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/681946\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T11:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:18:17","slug":"pistons-playoff-rotation-battle-may-have-unexpected-casualty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/681946\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons playoff rotation battle may have unexpected casualty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons hope to be healthy when the playoffs start, and if they are, coach JB Bickerstaff will have some tough choices to make, and none will be more difficult than what\u00a0to do\u00a0with Ron Holland II.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pistons have had to lean heavily on their depth this season,<\/a> but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0unlikely that coach Bickerstaff will continue to use an\u00a011-12 man\u00a0rotation once the playoffs start, especially if he has everyone healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Cade Cunningham and Isaiah Stewart are question\u00a0marks\u00a0until we see them back on the floor, but if they are, Detroit may have some surprising players out of the rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons playoff rotation: The no brainers\u00a0<\/p>\n

If everyone is healthy, the Pistons starting five for the playoffs will be Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias\u00a0Harris\u00a0and Jalen Duren.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the starting five\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0used for most\u00a0of\u00a0the season\u00a0and has a +11.8 net rating, one of the highest in the league, so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a no brainer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Isaiah Stewart will\u00a0almost\u00a0certainly\u00a0be the first man off the bench and the one who plays the most minutes in the playoffs, so getting him back to 100 percent is crucial for Detroit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daniss Jenkins has played his way into the second point guard role and has shown the kind of clutch DNA<\/a> the Pistons will need in the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But other than these seven players,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0all up in the air for the Pistons, and depending on how many players coach Bickerstaff wants to use, there may only be two more spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons playoff rotation: 2 spots for 5 players\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pistons will\u00a0likely use\u00a0a\u00a09-10 man\u00a0rotation in the playoffs, though the names may change from\u00a0night to night\u00a0depending on how things go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That leaves\u00a0either 2-3 spots for Kevin Huerter, Javonte Green, Ron Holland II, Marcus\u00a0Sasser\u00a0and Caris LeVert, not to mention Paul Reed, who will be in there if there is foul trouble to one of the bigs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of right now, Huerter and Green have the inside track, as both guys have been solid defensively and have shown they can hit shots. Green is hitting 45 percent of his corner 3\u2019s and Huerter\u00a0has\u00a0shown recently that he is shifty with and without the ball and a\u00a0guy defenses\u00a0have to\u00a0honor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ron Holland has been as solid as they come\u00a0defensively but\u00a0has been in an extended shooting slump from 3-point range, hitting just 17 percent of them over his last 10 games. We know teams are going to leave him alone and let him shoot those all night, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0going to be tough for the Pistons to have a guy on the floor that the other team\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have to defend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u00a0sure Holland will play, but\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0going to\u00a0have to\u00a0hit shots to justify big minutes in the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caris LeVert and Marcus Sasser are on the outside looking in at this point, though both guys could see action in the playoffs if someone else\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0step up. We know JB Bickerstaff trusts LeVert, so\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0another guy who could put the squeeze on Holland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The playoff rotation will\u00a0likely be\u00a0fluid from night to night depending on results, but if it comes down to shot making, Holland could be the unexpected casualty after being a mainstay in the rotation all season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons hope to be healthy when the playoffs start, and if they are, coach JB Bickerstaff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-681946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116300867913582368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}