Betrayer

*raises hand* To be fair, I haven't missed a Piston's game since 2001. No joke. This game was pretty embarrassing. Not sure if I've ever seen a game where the opposing team waves the white flag, puts in their scrubs, and they go on to win after being down 14 points with about 3 minutes left. What a collapse. I mean, we all expected it to happen in the 3rd quarter like usual, this time it just took a bit longer. Same recipe as usual: -Opposition scores 30+ pts per quarter. -Pistons hang with them for 2 quarters or so. -Opposition decides to ratchet up the defense so Pistons only score 15 that quarter. -Pistons can't/don't increase their defensive intensity so opponent still scores 30+ that quarter. -Game over. You can't win when you're: -29th in points allowed at 119 -30th in point differential at 9.1 per game -30th in fouls committed -26th in forced turnovers -28th in opponent FG% It doesn't help that the offensive scheme becomes "Take turns going iso" in the 4th quarter of every game. Also doesn't help that they have zero game plan - did you see how they let Trey Young sit in the corner guarding nobody all night in the last game when every other team in their right mind goes at him on every single play on offense? This team has issues from the coach to the roster composition and it goes beyond just saying, "they're young."

You do whatever you have to do when it comes to bringing in a 23 year old MVP candidate. If they want Cade instead of Ivey, I'm fine with that. Luka is what you hope Cade could become someday if we're all very, very lucky and the stars align. Or, you could just get Luka at 23? Yeah, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd be fine going forward with Luka, Ivey, Duren, Stew, and whatever else is left, plus a bunch of cap space to bring in another star. Edited to add: It's kind of like asking if I'd trade the #1 pick and Ivey for Ja Morant. The answer is yes. In a heartbeat.

Yea, he seems to have everything in order.

The league needs a contraction to create more competitive teams, not an expansion. Expansion isn't going to stop 3 All Stars from joining up on one team, and so you'll just have even more bottom feeder teams, blow out losses, and less parity in the league.

Yep, these are my favorite as well.

Rodney McGruder had the same surgery and was one of the few to come back in the same season, but in reality Cade wouldn't be eligible to come back unless we made it to the Finals. Either way, everything I've heard says that he'll be back long before training camp next season.

Didn't know he had that in him. Nice!

I'm not a fan of the teal jerseys - wish those would've remained buried. Huge fan of the red alternates though going all the way back to the '04 reds. I was wearing last year's red edition Cade jersey.

My wife and I were at this game about 3 rows behind Casey. I was wearing a red Cade jersey and some friends who still live in MI (I moved about 4 years ago) told me we made it on the broadcast. So, I guess I'm famous? I'm just happy I managed to resist the urge to scream at Casey about his rotations. The game was a blast to be at. Back and forth the entire time with a whole lot of offense on display from both teams. Killian out there hitting cold blooded shots to ice the game is becoming a trend lately. Great to see him progressing so I hope that continues. Same with Stew playing the PF and hitting threes. Been loving Duren at the starting Center and he was just 1 shy of his first 20 rebound game at just 19 years old. He looks even bigger when you're just 20 feet from him. The dude is an absolute beast.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35240547/sources-pistons-cade-cunningham-season-ending-surgery

What angered me was the way he intentionally backed in and undercut guys who were jumping for the rim on more than one occasion last night. Such a dirty player.

Please don't let Beverly be on my team.

If they get another top 5 pick and plan to spend all that money in the offseason through FA or trades, then I imagine they truly want to take a step forward next season. There would be no better time to move Casey to that front office development role everyone has been saying they've already carved out for him.

Casey continues to boggle the mind. Jaden Ivey makes 2 three pointers in a row, comes out of the game, and then never gets off the bench again. Cojo plays the entire 4th quarter without scoring a point, even though Burks was 3 for 6 from three with 14 points and was also relegated to the pine. Meanwhile, Killian clearly didn't need a second point guard out there with him (12 assists only 2 turnovers). If you're going for the win, you play Burks. If you're developing the youth, you play Ivey. ...if Cojo has compromising pictures of you, you play him for the entire 4th quarter?

Bojan was insane. It was actually pretty fun to watch. Wins aren't great in the grand scheme of things, but holding Miami under 100 and watching Bojan shoot the lights out was still enjoyable in the moment, especially after watching this team give us so many 40 pt first quarters lately.

Allowing 40 point first quarters is a bad trend for this team. That's not going to win you many games.

He's actually been playing pretty well for the past dozen or so games. Not sure if it's a "corner" or not, because he has 100 games before that of pure trash, but he definitely looks like a different player over this stretch. With Cade on the shelf he's going to get plenty of time to show us one way or another.

Well, that was not fun. The Knicks would look like the '96 Bulls if they could play the Pistons for 82 games.

Games like this are what most people were expecting this year. Close and competitive, but still a loss. Defense was strong early on and decent for much of the night, but they once again hit the 4th quarter and went to Casey hero-ball to end the game. Didn't get any good looks at shots and everything seemed forced. Credit Cavs defense for stopping the first option and discredit Casey for his playbook that doesn't shift the defense at all, forcing guys to try to create with no time on the clock after 3 dribble-hand-offs did nothing. Defense looked way better early in this game than most of the year. Both Livers and Hayes were out there putting in some work defensively. Killian is slowly putting together a nice stretch of basketball here. Sample size is still too small for me to get excited after what we witnessed for the previous 100 games, but let's just see where this goes. Same with Knox. Bagley is a mixed bag as usual. Has a nice touch around the rim, but is a train wreck on defense most of the time.

Always feels like he's slightly unhinged. Prime candidate for the next guy to go into the stands and pull an Artest or Stephen Jackson move.

Wasn't it Luke Kennard, Bruce Brown, and 3 second rounders for Saddiq and McGruder in a three team deal with BKN and LAC?

First road win last night. Will they make it back to back?

Hayes and Ivey were struggling down the stretch so Casey went to his vets in the backcourt to seal the deal. A lot more CoJo minutes than I like to see, but watching a win was a nice change. Part of the problem is the Casey hero-ball scheme. I'd watch a Nuggets offensive set where someone would cut or screen off ball rather than stand around and I'd think, "that'd be nice." But every time down the court our players would just take turns trying to size up their man with dribble moves while everyone stood around watching. That requires a lot of reading and reacting to what the defense is doing and the vet guards simply have the experience to do that better than the young players. If they actually ran a decent offensive set to get guys open off ball, we could have had the youngsters out there in crunch time which would have been good for their development. However, I am glad Casey finally let Duren close the game over Bagley. I wonder how long before he just puts Duren in the starting lineup.

Cade, Ivey, Booker, Scoot lineup incoming?

When the three ball is going you can score some points, but you aren't stopping anyone with that front line out there. It was looking better with Duren in the game, but Casey did Casey things in the last 6 minutes to throw this thing away. As soon as he put Bagley back in they targeted him and went to work. Not to mention giving up second chance points because he couldn't rebound the ball. Bagley is an absolute train wreck on defense. Also, Killian iso against a double team for a mid-range floater is not what you need coming out of a timeout down the stretch of a close game. Three games on this road trip so far and all three were winnable with a coach who could get this team to play better than the sum of their parts rather than below it. Not that anyone is rooting for wins right now. Tank crowd is full steam ahead just 18 games into the season. This is going to be a loooong 5 months.