The 2024-25 NBA season is right here! We’re breaking down the most important questions, best- and worst-case situations, and fantasy outlooks for all 30 groups. Take pleasure in!
DETROIT PISTONS
2023-24 end
Offseason strikes
-
Additions: Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr., Malik Beasley, Paul Reed, Ron Holland, Wendell Moore Jr., Bobi Klintman
-
Subtractions: Quentin Grimes, James Wiseman, Evan Fournier, Troy Brown Jr., Malachi Flynn, Stanley Umude, Taj Gibson, Chimezie Metu
The Massive Query: Is Cade Cunningham price constructing round?
We’re three years into former No. 1 general decide Cade Cunningham’s profession, and we are not any nearer to answering the query: Is he a foundational star? He has proven glimpses of greatness. He completed third behind Scottie Barnes and Evan Mobley in 2022 Rookie of the Yr voting. He returned from a shin damage, which price him all however 12 video games of his sophomore marketing campaign, to common a 23-4-8 per recreation final season.
It was encouraging to see Cunningham play as arduous as he did final season, at the same time as his Detroit Pistons misplaced an NBA-record 28 consecutive video games and completed with a bottom-five file for the fifth straight season.
These finishes yielded a string of lottery picks, together with Cunningham. Killian Hayes was a bust. Jaden Ivey is perhaps good, although the earlier head coach didn’t consider in him. Ausar Thompson shot 18.6% from deep final season. Ron Holland was thought of a attain because the No. 5 general decide on this yr’s draft.
In concept, Ivey, Thompson and Holland ought to complement Cunningham. They’re a group of electrical athleticism. Ivey could possibly be an explosive secondary creator as Cunningham’s backcourt associate. Holland is perhaps a bucket-getter on the wing, the place Thompson has been keen to do anything. Jalen Duren, the No. 13 general decide in 2022, has proven as a lot promise at middle as any of them at their positions.
In follow, none of them are able to push the group ahead. So the Pistons added Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley over the summer time. They don’t seem to be the bones of an amazing group, however they need to be adequate to definitively reply this query: Can Cunningham elevate their degree of play?
Harris, Hardaway and Beasley have all loved productive seasons within the area created by superstars. They’re succesful NBA gamers, one thing that was in brief order for Detroit final season. At the very least when Cunningham drives into visitors he can belief that somebody is able to making a shot on his kick-out.
Cunningham has all of the instruments. He’s a 6-foot-6, 220-pound level guard. He has the imaginative and prescient and the dimensions to create in opposition to any protection. He shot 40% from distance in faculty. And he performs with the deliberate tempo of a high-usage famous person. He simply has not been an environment friendly offensive hub. However he has all the time had excuses. No person anticipated him to raise the hodgepodge of prospects the entrance workplace put round him.
These excuses are gone. Nobody thinks he’ll flip this group right into a playoff menace, both, however can Cunningham promote some degree of competency with this offense? Can he meet Harris, Hardaway and Beasley at a baseline of mediocrity? Can he give the entrance workplace cause to consider that — if there may be greatness in Ivey, Thompson and Holland — Cunningham will expedite it and meet them at their degree?
The Pistons would possibly as effectively discover out now, since Cunningham’s $224 million max contract comes due in July.
Greatest-case state of affairs
The Pistons are in a catch-22. They owe a top-13 protected decide to the Minnesota Timberwolves. This decide’s protections started in 2021; they may stay till a) Detroit isn’t horrible or b) 2027. However the Pistons have been so unhealthy for therefore lengthy that they can’t presumably endure three extra years of this, proper? Think about if the No. 1 decide spends the whole thing of his rookie contract on a group sure for nowhere. The Pistons have to be higher, collectively, and that begins with Cunningham. On the intense facet, they will present some progress, nonetheless end with a bottom-13 file and preserve the decide, however no less than they may have confirmed us one thing.
If every little thing falls aside
Cunningham isn’t the reply. Neither are Ivey, Thompson or Holland. The Pistons emerge from 5 seasons on the backside of the standings to the identical hellscape they have been in earlier than, after they spent a handful of top-10 picks on Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson, solely to high out as an eighth seed that might not win a playoff recreation. Rinse, repeat.
Fantasy spin
Cunningham is one among my favourite picks within the third spherical this season. If his preseason is any indication of what to anticipate, fantasy managers are in for a productive yr from the fourth-year guard. Cunningham is averaging 14.8 factors, 5.2 rebounds and seven.5 assists with simply two turnovers in 24 minutes this preseason. The shares and 3s will come, however it is time to board the motorCade.
Duren is a giant man to focus on within the fifth spherical of drafts. He’s one among 4 gamers in NBA historical past to common no less than 13 factors and 11 rebounds per recreation earlier than turning 21. He’ll end among the many leaders in double-doubles and a bump in shares will push him inside the highest 50 in fantasy this yr. Harris continues to be a boring decide however stays constant in fantasy. He completed within the high 65 in 10 consecutive seasons, but his ADP is 67 — underrated as common.
Thompson (sickness) hasn’t been cleared for contact but, whereas Ivey put collectively top-of-the-line preseasons within the league. That efficiency won’t hold, however he is actually price a late-round flier with a modest ADP of 133. — Dan Titus
2024-25 schedule
Take the beneath. It is the Pistons.
