NYLion

Cade is being paid to be a superstar player, he's the guy you are hoping to lead a championship core so I think it's fair to question if he is indeed a #1 option on a championship contender going forward when he continually got outplayed in the clutch while also acknowledging that this was his first playoff so we should give him time. It's an honest concern to have based on what we saw in this series. Putting antics aside, look at what Brunson did. That's what you need from a star to take the game over, Cade really hasn't proven to have a killer instinct yet in his career. He's a very good player but the Pistons need him to be a star going forward or their ceiling is limited. I do think it's hard to really judge him because the supporting cast with Ivey in particular out was undermanned but I'd like to see more take over mentality from him going forward, he's just too lackadaisical at times.

This game illustrates the difference between a star and a very good player. The team with the star won the game and series. JB is going to have to answer for why he took out Ausar, that cost the Pistons 5 points.

Exactly, 5 points for Brunson immediately after Ausar gets subbed out. Inexplicable decision

JB taking Ausar out with 3 minutes left for....reasons?

I'm baffled by the way JB has handled Ausar's minutes in this series. Brunson loves it though

Beasley picked a good time to get his 3 point shot back. Need Cade to be more aggressive in the second half, like Brunson has been.

He was great in the 4th. He and Ausar making me look like a dumbass for calling them out for their 4th quarter deficiencies.

An inexperienced and injured Pistons team without their 2nd best scorer and best defensive player, along with Ausar.

Ausar was a monster in this game, made me eat my words and the vets came through again. Cade woke up in the second half. Knicks needed like 3 Hail Mary threes, just like in Game 4, just to stay close late in the 4th. This was the Pistons game. Knicks now are bruised and battered, this could go 7.

Sure but how are those numbers in the 4th quarter? You don't see many transition opportunities in crunch time, it's a lot of ISO ball and pass to shooters. Who is Cade and Schroder passing to if, say, Ausar is there in place of THJ? Harris and ??? ?you need some shooters in there. Just seeing these options, it's a miracle that the Pistons not only made the playoffs comfortably but have also pushed a healthy Knicks team to the limit. There's a real talent deficiency with this group, especially with Ivey out, they've been carried by simply playing harder than the opposition and defense.

He's not even a backup. They brought in Bridgewater for the playoffs because they didn't trust Hooker as backup. It's a miss, the Lions aren't getting the dividends on Hooker unless Goff gets injured long term and Hooker gets them some wins. Holmes first two 3rd round picks were McNeil and Joseph for emphasis. I can even get the Martin trade in a sense because there's some upside for him to be a starter if he panned out, Hooker was never going to be a starter here.

I don't lump Sorsdal in with the other guys, he was a 5th round pick which have like a .0000001% chance of being an= regular NFL player. The Martin swing baffled me at the time but that was only mid to low round picks so not much loss. Manu was a gamble because they traded away the future 3rd (that was recouped with the Glenn comp) then used both of his comps plus their own 3rd next year for Teslaa. Those are the big risks, Manu and Teslaa so....we'll see. If they hit on Manu, they have their bookend tackles for the next half decade at least once Decker is done which is massive so very high reward on that risk. Teslaa? I don't know, unless he's a Jamo replacement in a few years I'm not sure it's worth the risk. We'll see.... I think the Lions are in a position with a stacked roster that they can take some swings with quality over quantity. They already got their plug and play guys early in the last two drafts so the homerun swings are understandable. I'd also add the Hooker pick into the miss pile. Odd move with very little upside for a team that already had its franchise QB. Could have traded a 5th or 6th for a development QB if they wanted one so bad.

Ausar is unplayable in the offensive end in crunch time. You can't have 3 on 5 on offense in clutch situations with Duren being the other unplayable guy. It's why I'm struggling to see both as part of a contending core going forward.

I don't even know why they need to admit it afterwards, just makes them look worse. "Owning it" after the fact doesn't change anything. With that said, it was a bad non-call but par for the course with the way the game was called so to say one thing in favor of the reffing, at least they were consistent in letting the teams play so the final play was just a continuation of the way the game was called. Bad non-call yes but consistent with the style of reffing in the game which favored the Pistons btw who need to muck it up to have a chance.

He was largely non-existent with scoring in the clutch again and turned the ball over a lot again. Plenty to criticize him about. We're talking about a high bar here, a superstar bar. Brunson was, again, big in the clutch while Cade wasn't. He's young, he'll learn to take over when the team needs him in the future hopefully but he doesn't have that in him right now.