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Basketball is more fun when you win.

Box score.

Cade Cunningham:

Was terrible and that’s actually highly encouraging! Well, not for Cade but its encouraging that he could be so bad and the Pistons still managed to win comfortably. 12 points on 4-13 shooting from the field (2-2 from the line! He got a call!) with 6 assists against 5 turnovers while being in foul trouble all night before fouling out after 24 minutes on the floor. And we need to be completely honest here, those 5 turnovers were not of the “well it happens” or “oh he got a ticky-tack travel call” he straight up tossed it to the other team. Worth mentioning that he did have some good moments where he penetrated the defense before scoring or setting up teammates.

So while it was a bad night, if he could’ve dodged the foul trouble he showed enough juice that I think he would’ve likely salvaged the night in the end.

Killian Hayes:

Same story as game 1. The defense was exceptional and the offense looked better than the stats suggest but that isn’t saying much because the stats were 6 points on 2-10 shooting with 3 assists against 3 turnovers. It’s hard to know exactly how this will work out in the longer run and for the second straight game Alec Burks put up a massive +/- but I still think he was a net positive player tonight with the defense and even some of the ball-handling he is able to provide. He does need to score at some point though.

Ausar Thompson:

Very similar story to the opener. The defense had some excellent moments even if there were some rookie mistakes. Rebounded the hell out of the ball with 12 on the night, moved well without the ball, and continues to show off incredible passing with 6 assists. The downside is 6 points on 2-9 from the field, he joined the crew in foul trouble with 5 on the night and also did have 3 turnovers. The more glaring issue for Thompson has actually been the worst perpetrator in terms of the awful spacing. Stewart has done enough to garner some attention, and I think people have just enough respect for Killian that Ausar is the guy opponents are ignoring the most. Especially if Stew can keep at least some attention of defenders it will be hard to justify him remaining in the starting lineup if he doesn’t start making defenses paying for ignoring him so much.

And to be clear, none of this is a huge issue. He’s a rookie, we always knew that the shot needed some work. Just for the time being it might be a tough sell until he progresses a bit.

ISAIAH MOTHER FUCKING STEWART:

I mean yeah. He actually didn’t have that great of a night but he started some mess with the Hornets and followed it up by impacting the game and blew kisses to PJ Washington after Washington was ejected for trying to block Stews garbage-time layup and that is the type of thing that will earn you the honors.

The first half was basically an example of why I remain skeptical of him as a 4 in the long run. PJ Washington paid just enough attention to Stewart to keep him from having free runs to the hoop and he was basically invisible on offense. On defense he mostly just followed PJ Washington around the 3-point line and struggled to make much of an impact there as well. Once again, after a dust-up in the 2nd half he had an awesome stretch with several buckets and a massive block so for now he’s doing fine, but that first half is basically the concern. He also was very much a guilty party in the turnover fest with 4 of them despite not having the ball a ton.

On the whole, though, 15 points on 6-10 shooting, even with the 4 turnovers, is how he has to produce when defenders are ignoring him. So far so good.

Jalen Duren:

Monster game. 14 points and 17 boards (6 of them offensive) with 3 assists 2 steals and 2 blocks is impressive enough on its own (even if he joined the turnover party with 5) but it gets more impressive when you get past the stats.

First off, Hornets center Mark Williams is genuinely a really good player and Duren ran him off the floor as in 21 minutes Williams finished with more fouls than points or rebounds. Duren completely outclassing a guy of Williams’ caliber is eye-opening. The other thing is that Duren has been everywhere defensively in these first two games but I felt like it was even more on front-street tonight. This Summer I spoke about how I thought that with the team being less of a tire-fire we would see extra scrutiny on the many holes Duren had on defense last year. After two games the exact opposite is happening. Not only has Duren improved enough that he isn’t standing out negatively, but he is standing out for how good he is. THIS IS NOT NORMAL FOR 19-YEAR-OLD CENTERS. If this defensive impact continues for Duren we might legitimately revisit where this team can go this season. Tomorrow’s game against Vucevic will be a nice test to see how he handles a stretch big which was his biggest blind spot last year.

Alec Burks:

HUGE night from Burks. Played 31 minutes, and had a team-best +/- for the second straight game at +28(!!!). A final tally of 24 points on 5-10 from the field and 11-12 from the line and he was huge. With Cade out the Pistons needed offensive creation and Alec Burks (with some help from the refs) provided it. The dude hits jumpers and draws fouls, its pretty inexplicable but it is proven for him at this point. I still kind of like the idea of having the starting lineup just be all-defense at least till the Pistons get healthy but it might be hard for Monty Williams to resist following the lineup data and starting Burks over one of Killian or Ausar.

Jaden Ivey:

Bounce-back baby! 18 points on 8-14 shooting along with 4 assists and even though he had 2 turnovers both of them were tough travel calls as he tried to catch and drive before he got his dribble in. He looked like he was pushing too much when he first got on the floor but quickly settled in, for a stretch of the game the Hornets simply could not stay in front of him as he sliced and diced to the hoop. Also in good news here is we saw him get some real minutes with most of the starters which I suppose is good news for my campaign to have him start. And that campaign is far easier to run when Ivey plays like this.

Joe Harris:

Got a little extra time due to foul trouble and even played some at the 4. Didn’t really do anything.

Marvin Bagley:

Another game where he actually looks pretty viable in his bench-role. 14 poitns in just 13 minutes on 5-9 shooting with 4 boards, and the limited minutes means his effort can do a bit of extra lifting to cover up his other issues. I like bench Bagley.

Marcus Sasser:

Played 8 minutes but didn’t do anything of note.

General:

Great to win. It is worth talking about that this game may have been more about the Hornets being broken than how good the Pistons are, for instance there was a stretch in this game where the Pistons front-court was Joe Harris and Marvin Bagley and they were still unable to generate any effective offense, but after the last few years that’s progress! The Pistons have been the team that is so bad they make mediocre teams look good, the fact that they are now good enough to at least make a team that is having an off-night look bad is great. And when you remember that the basic hope is “win more than 30 games” this game is a great sign that the Pistons may reach that goal. I’d come away from this game feeling very good about the situation.

Lastly, shoutout all of us for not having to watch a Dwane Casey coached team.