These kids are so young they don’t even reach mid career for another 5 years.

Killian took the 2nd-most shots on the team.

4/12 for a total of 10pts. Fucking fine if he’s there for defense and running point but I’m definitely not letting him take 12 shots again. 0/6 from 3.

Ivey got up 7 shots and underperformed but these shot attempt numbers should ABSOLUTELY flip. Like, Friday. You agree?

It doesn’t matter. If you’re talking about how would this team look as a legit title contender, then both of these guys, Hayes and Ivey, would be players off of the bench. Cunningham, Duren and Thompson are the serious people on this team and the starting core. To compete at a high level the Pistons still need another guard and another forward who can start with those three and provide both reliable offense and a professional level of defense. Guys like Ivey, Hayes and Stewart need to be the core of a dominant bench unit.

It’s all about Cade, first and foremost.

And last night, we saw the Heat devote 2 or 3 defenders to Cade in the second half, and just ignore the hell out of everyone else. Cade fought through it for the hardest 30 point game I think I’ve seen in a long time.

Cade can’t continue to work that hard - he can’t carry that kind of offensive load night in and night out. He’s a chef out there, but on offense all he had to work with besides himself was dollar store macaroni and beef jerky. That he made something out of it is a sign of his skill.

Monty has said that he wants to save Cade’s energy from having to guard the best opposing perimeter player - but imo Cade expends more energy and takes more abuse if he’s the only perimeter creator/threat.

Hayes is better than people credit, but he is a complete non-threat to create off the bounce for himself or for anyone else - he is absolutely no threat to get to the rim. He cannot - literally cannot - go right for more than one dribble in traffic. He doesn’t put any pressure at all on opposing defenses - he’d be a good connector-type guard if we had multiple offensive weapons, but we don’t.

On offense, Ivey is exactly the kind of guy that Cade needs next to him - in theory. Puts a ton of pressure on the defense, can actually create for himself and others as opposed to having to have Cade create for him, and can actually create for Cade as well.

But right now, Ivey is totally out of sorts. It’s not too early to say it’s weird. Bad body language, super tentative and uncertain play.

My overall concern is that they keep going with an all-defense, zero-offense unit around Cade, and he breaks down under the load of trying to do everything.

I 100% realize this is an irrational take, but I think back to Ausar and Ivey on the floor during Ausar’s first summer league game and though it may have been an unfair assessment, it was perceived that Ivey was icing him out of the offense. I wasn’t the only one who noticed it, felt like a dick move on Ivey’s part. Maybe Monty noticed it too, since he’s been nothing but praise for Ausar.

I need examples of players who were able to claw out of Monty’s doghouse while he was in Phoenix. Last night’s body language was brutal. I know Ivey cares, and wants to make it work, especially in Detroit, but man did he give off some serious fragility. It’s only one game, so no going off the deep end, but if we go 10 games and he’s in the same predicament, I would not be surprised if he was on his way out.

I did not have Killian taking Ivey’s minutes on my bingo card…pretty wild.