3/28/25 7:00PM Cavs @ Pistons

[Tigeraholic1]

Detroit, MI - Little Caesars Arena

Pistons 41-32

Cavs 59-14

Looking ahead:

 3/30 @ Timberwolves 41-32

 

 

Edited Friday at 01:12 PM by Tigeraholic1

[Sports_Freak]

Is Cade playing tonight?

[Deleterious]

2 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Is Cade playing tonight?

He is not.  He was ruled out yesterday. 

[Deleterious]

The correct order should be Hunter, Pritchard, then Beasley.  But I don't have the guts to put money on it.  Great value though if you do.

[RandyMarsh]

 

[Deleterious]

I know we probably are not doing much in the playoffs.  But if we finally get there only to have Cade limping around.  Ugh, that will be hard to take. 

[RandyMarsh]

1 minute ago, Deleterious said:

I know we probably are not doing much in the playoffs.  But if we finally get there only to have Cade limping around.  Ugh, that will be hard to take. 

Kinda like the last time we made it except with Blake. We were likely going down easily against the Bucks but Blake playing on 1 leg killed any hope of us making it competitive.

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

Achilles tendinopathy sounds way cooler. 

 

[Deleterious]

That was nice

 

[buddha]

the pistons have blown a 16 point 4th quarter lead in 4 minutes.

[Sports_Freak]

No Harris. No Cade. And the Pistons win by 11? Amazing.

[Tigeraholic1]

Great win considering the talent deficit.

[Sports_Freak]

Typical Pistons;

[Deleterious]

Hey they pulled it out?  Nice win without Cade. 

[gehringer_2]

How did they beat CLE without Cade? NBA makes no sense at all some nights

[Deleterious]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

How did they beat CLE without Cade? NBA makes no sense at all some nights

And recently lose to Washington and Dallas with Cade.

It's why I never bet the regular season back when I gambled. 

[Motor City Sonics]

There shouldn't even be an argument,  J.B. Bickerkstaff is Coach Of The Year.    Sorry, OKC

[RandyMarsh]

Clinched a winning season and I believe reduced our magic number for the top 6 to 2. 

[RandyMarsh]

4 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

There shouldn't even be an argument,  J.B. Bickerkstaff is Coach Of The Year.    Sorry, OKC

The Pistons just became the first team in NBA history to triple their win total from the prior year. That is pretty wild especially since it wasn't due to adding a bunch of premium talent in the offseason like the Celtics did the year they got KG and Allen or Cavs adding Lebron and Kevin Love nor was it due to a generational draft pick like the Spurs getting Duncan(and a healthy Robinson back).

[Motor City Sonics]

3 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

The Pistons just became the first team in NBA history to triple their win total from the prior year. That is pretty wild especially since it wasn't due to adding a bunch of premium talent in the offseason like the Celtics did the year they got KG and Allen or Cavs adding Lebron and Kevin Love nor was it due to a generational draft pick like the Spurs getting Duncan(and a healthy Robinson back).

It's strange, though.   I almost feels like they did get generational talent in Cade THIS year.    The combination of bad teams, injuries and coaches stifling his development meant we didn't get to see the real Cade until this year.   And man, he erased any doubts about being a 1/1.     

Another thing to remember is that Jaden Ivey was having a very good year and they lost him and now they've won 3 in a row without Cade and without Tobias last night, who's been a veteran stabilizer.   The Dennis Schroder add has been quietly great.    They are absolutely a story and right now, if things lock in like they are, it's Pistons vs. Pacers.   Two teams that hate each other.  This might be the best Grudge playoff series we've had since the Wings heyday.   I know they didn't beat the Pacers this year, but the team now is not the same team from earlier in the year.  

Plus, the kind of excitement that's building with the team and around Cade might mean they attract some decent talent in the offseason.   They have plenty of space to sign their guys and add more.   Cade is now a guy that other players want to come play alongside. 

I mean, they are resting him, over a bruise, and they are still winning.   What a story this year.    I don't know how they do in a 7 game series against the big 3 (Boston, Cleveland and New York), but they have beaten all 3 this year.    Can any other team claim that?  (I'm not doing a deep dive like that, but with Cleveland and Boston having so few losses, I have doubts)

 

Edited Saturday at 10:54 AM by Motor City Sonics

[Deleterious]

A few teams have beat all 3.

Atlanta

Orlando

Indiana

Houston

OKC which makes sense

Philly has beat Cleveland and Boston.  0-3 against NYK, but they play them once more.

As far as adding guys this summer.  They have no cap space to do it.  They will basically have the MLE ($14 million) and most of that will be spent on keeping Beasley.   No 1st round draft pick, either.

Technically, they can get to $20 million in space.  But if Cade makes all NBA, and he should, they owe him more money on his extension.  So instead of it being a $38 million cap hit next year, it will be around $46 million.  That eats up the extra $6 million.  So figure on $14 million without any trades. 

 

[RandyMarsh]

40 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

A few teams have beat all 3.

Atlanta

Orlando

Indiana

Houston

OKC which makes sense

Philly has beat Cleveland and Boston.  0-3 against NYK, but they play them once more.

As far as adding guys this summer.  They have no cap space to do it.  They will basically have the MLE ($14 million) and most of that will be spent on keeping Beasley.   No 1st round draft pick, either.

Technically, they can get to $20 million in space.  But if Cade makes all NBA, and he should, they owe him more money on his extension.  So instead of it being a $38 million cap hit next year, it will be around $46 million.  That eats up the extra $6 million.  So figure on $14 million without any trades. 

 

These are the reasons why it's hard to say whether they are just getting started and have a bright future or if this could end up being their ceiling. The other day on the radio they talked about the Pistons having one of the brightest futures in the NBA due to how young they are and how well they are playing but unlike most other instances where a team is very young they don't have a ton of ways to improve the team from the outside due to their payroll and lack of 1st round pick. Also they don't have many real expendable assets they could move to get a proven player that could take them to the next level.

If they are ever going to take that next step it just looks like it is going to have to come from within. Ivey was playing really well before his injury, if he can come back and play at that level going forward that will certainly help. Then maybe Ausar adds more to his offensive game and maybe even Holland. If none of those things happen then this very well may end up just being an outlying year for us. /debbiedowner

[NYLion]

It could be a one or two-off in this case and it's hard to take too much from regular season when top teams cruise to the finish line sometimes but the wins against Boston and Cleveland (although Boston was without Brown) makes me think that the ceiling for this team is higher than I previously thought. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect more than a win or two in the playoffs but it's nice to know that they're capable of kicking into high gear.

[NYLion]

2 hours ago, Deleterious said:

A few teams have beat all 3.

Atlanta

Orlando

Indiana

Houston

OKC which makes sense

Philly has beat Cleveland and Boston.  0-3 against NYK, but they play them once more.

As far as adding guys this summer.  They have no cap space to do it.  They will basically have the MLE ($14 million) and most of that will be spent on keeping Beasley.   No 1st round draft pick, either.

Technically, they can get to $20 million in space.  But if Cade makes all NBA, and he should, they owe him more money on his extension.  So instead of it being a $38 million cap hit next year, it will be around $46 million.  That eats up the extra $6 million.  So figure on $14 million without any trades. 

 

The Pistons are actually in one of the most favorable cap situations in the league. More than half the league will  be well over the cap and I believe only a few teams will have more cap space than the Pistons in the offseason. This second apron has really put an emphasis on drafting and developing and thinning out depth on rosters so depending on how teams move money around this offseason, I can't see much player movement occurring outside of trades.