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Basketball is fun! This was the best performance of the young season, and much like the Hornets the Bulls looked utterly broken other than Zach LaVine’s absurd shot-making but if not for laVine’s absurd shot making this would’ve been a slaughter.Maybe it is a contest for children.

Box score

Cade Cunningham:

Nice bounce-back performance for Cade. 25 poitns on 9-19 shooting as well as getting to the line and going 6-7 from there. In addition, he picked up a double-double with 10 assists. The scoring continues to not be as efficient as you would really like but he the lack of spacing around him most of the time means he is asked to carry a really heavy burden so you can live with it. His 6 turnovers are part of that efficiency and its worth noting that once again several of those turnovers were outright bad even when you consider how much the Pistons are asking of him. Overall though, he is the engine that makes the Pistons offense run and he did a good job of that tonight.

The best news out of tonight is that Cunningham got all the way to the hoop for finishes on multiple possessions (which of course led to more free-throws) and also took a couple of good Bulls defenders (most notably a couple of possessions where he was guarded by Alex Caruso) and simply dusted them. Any questions about his health or readiness for the season are pretty much put to be. If he hits a rough patch its just because he hit a rough patch not rust or still feeling the effects of his injury.

Killian Hayes:

A better night for Hayes, just 6 points but on just 5 shots and 2-3 from deep. Both he and Ausar have to take at least a little bit of blame for LaVine going off as those two (mostly Ausar) had his responsibility for most of the night but as I said earlier, LaVine was hitting some insane shots that you can’t really hold against the defenders. My gut feeling is that Killian is going to be the one bumped from the current starting lineup, whether by inserting +/- god Alec Burks or the return of Bojan, but he has acquitted himself very well and a couple more games where he hits some threes could edge him towards staying in place. He continues to make winning plays on both ends of the floor.

Ausar Thompson:

On one hand, 9 points on 3-7 shooting whlie missing the only 2 three-pointers you took despite constantly being left all the way open is not great. On the other hand, 12 rebounds and 5 assists along with some good defensive moments on LaVine (despite him scoring 51) is very good. The biggest issue for Ausar right now is not just his shooting, its that when he tries to create much beyond one or two dribbles he has gotten into trouble with turnovers or getting his shot blocked. That should be something that gets better with experience but it is one thing to cause the offense to be clogged up due to your lack of shooting, its another to take multiple possessions into your hands and get negative plays out of them.

To be clear, I love the vast majority of what Ausar is doing. most of his issues are firmly in the “Rookie mistake” category. But we should be honest about his impact on the game. I will continue to point out that he is the first guy defenses are abandoning to double Cade most of the time which makes his lack of shooting stand out even more than it normally would. It also speaks to the lack of respect defenses have had for him to hurt them other than his shot.

Isaiah Stewart:

Not great for Stew. Similar outing to the Hornets game but minus the flurry of production to close it out. 14 points is nice but 6-14 from the field (and 2-3 from the line) along with a pair of turnovers isn’t going to cut it when teams give you so much space. Defensively he picked up 4 fouls and wasn’t all that impactful but he’s obviously still solid on that end. The bigger concern than the numbers is that there were maybe 4ish possessions where the ball found him beyond the arc with space and he simply didn’t make a move. If teams are going to leave you that open you MUST make the pay. Whether by hitting 3s, cutting to the hoop, crashing the offensive glass, whatever. You can’t let defenses give that much space without something to punish them and he seemed hesitant on a number of possessions. The good news is that he looked far more decisive in those moments in the first two games so maybe it was just an off night. Still, not great game for Stew despite a gaudy +/-.

JALEN MOTHER FUCKIN DUREN:

Absurd. 23 points on 9-11 shooting from the field (and 5-5 from the line!) with 15 boards, 6 of which were offensive, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks isn’t enough, the eye test on defense is almost stupifying. No one in any of these games wants anything to do with the rim when he’s around, he’s blocking the hell out of the rare opponent who dares. Tonight also marked something of a mile-stone for Duren because he was completely unbothered by Nikola Vucevic. Duren had plenty of rookie mistake issues defensively last year but the most stark issue was he got torched by anyone who could shoot or generally play on the perimeter at all. Vuc is obviously a guy who does both and Duren not only didn’t get torched he completely dominated the matchup. Vuc finished with just 12 points on 5-12 shooting and 4 rebounds while committing 5 fouls. For the 2nd straight game, Duren went up against a really good center and completely ran them off the floor, the fact that the two corners are completely different versions of the position only adds to how impressive it is.

If you want to know how the upside for this year’s team goes from “We might win 33 games and be pretty fun!” to “We are in the playoffs”, your 19-year-old 2nd-year center playing at a borderline All-NBA level is how. We will see what happens as the season progresses. He will be on the scouting report now, but the defense seems legit. And I want to once again make clear that centers this young are not supposed to be this good on defense. When we talk about young guys I often focus on how much fans want to look at various outliers (Stanley Johnson can turn it around just look at Jimmy Butler!) but there is a reason those guys are outliers. Such a young center being this good defensively is an outlier that is foolish to expect or count on, but Duren looks every bit the part of an outlier and if this level of play sustains for a few months he will be almost on the same level as Cade in terms of importance to the rebuild.

Alec Burks:

Some day Alec Burks will start missing shots. But it is not this day. In 26 minutes of work he scored 18 points on 6-12 shooting from the field including 6-10 from deep. He also recorded yet another team-best +/- at +19. He’s been on a heater and it will slow down at some point but he has been absolutely huge for a team that really needs shooting.

Jaden Ivey:

Not a big night statistically, 7 points on 3-6 shooting with 3 assists in 22 minutes, but I felt like he played great. He made several awesome plays, didn’t look like he was forcing it, and his defense actually looked fine most of the time. I remain firmly in the belief that he is too good not to start.

Marvin Bagley:

Continues to thrive in his new role. In just 15 minutes he scored 11 points on 5-8 shooting and the low minute count helps keep the defense from being a problem. He also continues to show solid chemistry with both Cunningham and Ivey which is a nice plus.

Joe Harris:

Hit a three.

Marcus Sasser:

Scored once and also got a shot obliterated by Andre Drummond. His 6 minutes were all in meaningful time though they were not garbage time.

General:

Its fun to have a team that isn’t a complete tire fire. Duren’s leap looks HUGE, Cade has picked up where he left off, other guys make winning plays, the rotation mostly makes sense and there is actual structure on both sides of the ball. It’s worth remembering that the two teams the Pistons beat went a combined 67-97 and this Bulls team in particular looks like a mess out of the gate (they already had a players-only meeting after getting thrashed by OKC in their opener.) but once again, the fact they are competent enough to thrash the teams that are asking to be thrashed is great and a sign that they are dipping their toes into the pool of competency as an NBA team. The OKC game will be a big test.