You can read this on my substack

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Another tough night. The Pistons are still pretty hurt, Burks made his return and Ivey half-made his return but Duren is now out. Hard to take away many positives from this one.

Box score.

Cade Cunningham:

Worst game of the season by far for Cade. In 38 minutes he scored just 10 points on 4-15 shooting, had 3 boards, and 5 assists with 1 turnover. The 1 turnover is certainly a positive here given how turnover-prone Cade has been this season but other than that this was a tough go for him. He committed too many fouls (even if a couple were tough calls they were not so tough as to say they were outright bad calls) got beaten on defense on a number of possessions, and generally wasn’t in the game on offense. For Cade to play 38 minutes and get up just 15 shots is bizarre. One of those nights where I won’t try to put my finger on what exactly happened other than that he clearly just didn’t have it tonight.

Killian Hayes:

Meh. Considering the bar for him offensively is so low this wasnt a horrid outing. 7 points on 3-8 shooting with 3 boards and 3 assists against no turnovers. But definitely a drop-off from the last few games, he even didn’t seem quite as sharp on defense as he has been this year. Maybe he just wasn’t on the ball as much as normal but either way I just didn’t feel him on defense like normal.

Ausar Thompson:

Similar to Killian. The bar on offense is so low that its hard to complain about this game but that is because the bar is so low. 9 points on 2-9 shooting (5-7 at the line) with 2 assists against 3 turnovers is really poor. He still managed to pull down 16 rebounds as he remains one of the more inexplicably incredible rebounders in the game, but that isn’t evidence of much other than that he clearly kept his motor running at a high level despite struggling to find a major impact on the game. Given he’s a rookie and still played with such force among the guys who simply didn’t have it tonight he’s the easiest to forgive.

Isaiah Stewart:

The only starter who had a solid outing. 17 points on 6-13 shooting (3-5 from deep) with 11 boards and a pair of assists. I’d still point to his defense as the reason why he isn’t totally off the hook because like the other starters it just didn’t seem like he was all the way into it, but he certainly produced offensively like he needs to so I won’t complain too much. Nice to see Stew have a bounce-back game.

Marvin Bagley:

Once again Bagley is clearly in over his head starting, he struggled on defense and on the glass a bit (although Stewart and Thompson played a role there) but he certainly gave it a respectable effort. In 23 minutes he scored 14 points on 6-12 shooting (2-2 from the line) with 5 boards and an assist. Not good enough for what you want from your starting center, but good enough for your backup filling in. I will once again reiterate though that it is pretty frustrating that with Duren hurt the center position looks like a gaping hole despite all the resources Detroit has invested into the position.

Kevin Knox:

Making his season debut and Knox was excellent. 18 points on 7-8 shooting (4-5 from deep) and even a couple of really nice defensive plays was not what I expected but hey we will take it. I would not expect this to mean anything going forward as this is firmly in the “hey he shot well tonight” category but still nice to see him look workable.

Alec Burks:

Back and right on schedule. 16 points on 3-7 shooting (2-6 from deep and 8-9 at the line) with 4 assists. Mr. Instant Offense is right back in his lane comfortably, perhaps the 2-6 from deep will signal the end of his absurd run of shooting but that’s okay, as long as he doesn’t regress by going totally cold we can live with it.

Marcus Sasser:

5 points on 6 shots, had 6 assists against 2 turnovers which is nice to see. Played fine without really standing out that much.

James Wiseman:

His best game as a Piston? As an NBA player? Just 14 minutes, 6 points, and 2 rebounds but he was actually in the right place on multiple defensive possessions (good for 2 blocks) and went +6 in those minutes. The bar is pretty low here but still, I genuinely felt like he was a positive on the floor which hasn’t happened often with him. Maybe this can be a turnaround point for him? Maybe? Possibly? no probably not but he did look alright.

Jaden Ivey:

Only played 11 minutes which is likely just a conditioning thing after being so sick, 6points on 2-4 shooting and 2 assists isn’t bad for 11 minutes. He looked fine but was on the floor so little its hard to say much beyond that.

General:

This is what happens. Even when healthy this roster made little sense and severely lacked in real NBA quality rotation players, when you take that and add in the injuries the Pistons have suffered you get the worst team in basketball. The good news is that when the Pistons get healthy, assuming Monty Williams makes wise rotation decisions, they will be better than this. The problem is that they will still be bad, and it is entirely possible that even with a slight improvement they will have dug such a hole that it doesn’t matter. Winning 30 games with a young team can be fun and even exciting. Playing at a 30 win pace after opening the season 4-20 doesn’t do much to ease that pain.