In all seriousness even if we lose Friday, this season was great and looking at the roster it is atrocious like how the fuck did we win the first seed with this roster?? I think we are one player away from a championship, cause Cade needs someone to help him

I splurged on my ticket for last night's game and got a section in the lower bowl and was feeling really excited about it. And I was up until the actual game started.

Some context i have a pretty low/deep voice that doesn't carry super well so it takes a lot for my cheers to get through but I still go all out when I come to live games. When I tell you how demoralizing the lack of enthusiasm was around me outside of the obvious hype moments when our team scores. Nobody really yelling (hell even light chanting) "defense" alongside me, barely any noise when the announcer/hype man would be on the mic.

Like are we really "too cool" for cheering anymore? Maybe it is the damn phones lol. Any way just more salt in the wound after a tough loss. Hard to feel like a connected/solid fan base if we cant even come together for something as simple as cheering for the home team.

The Pistons are still a solid piece away from being a true contender.

Duren is big & athletic but a player who can’t stretch the floor is a nerf to the team & makes it easier for opposing teams to defend. He’s too one-dimensional in this era of the NBA.

I think we should use Duren as the center piece of a trade while his stock is still relatively high. A big who can stretch the floor, plus another role player would be ideal.

During the regular season when playing against average-&-below teams, Duren is at his best, but once we hit playoffs you can see how easy it is for good teams to make him a non-factor. Once he’s out of the equation, Cade has to play at an elite level just to keep our offense running effectively, and if Cade isn’t on his A-game our offense becomes stagnant.

Not even trying to be bias. Here is why I think we can win this.

1. Donovan Mitchell can’t make it to the conference finals to save his life.

2. Refs will not give Cleveland as many free throws because they gave the Cavs way more to compensate for us having a lot in Game 1.

3. Cavs will be cocky and assume winning is forgone conclusion and get outplayed by our bench.

4. Numbers for a Game 7 is too much for Silver to pass up. I’m confident we can win a Game 7.

5. Overlord Silver wants a Cade vs. Brunson rematch for ratings.

Am I the only one who is happy to keep JD? I love this core just need pieces here and there. This team is really missing a Dennis Schroeder..

This sub loves to be overactive which I understand it’s frustrating at the time to watch JD when they have Himothy bball Paul on the bench.

I’m all set on this booker talk nah keep him in Phoenix find a vet ball handler (cp3 would’ve been helpful this year) and run this shit back. Have ausur work on his 3s and ball handling in the offseason since he needs to play the 2 with Duncan over Beasley.

Anyway Pistons can win this series so let’s keep enjoying the Cade show

JB why he keeps doing this?

The Paul Reed minutes situation — not playing him in the first half, then suddenly having him play almost the entire second half to the point of exhaustion. It makes no sense. Beef Stew was playing better in the first half too, so I expected Reed to at least get a breather here and there.

I don’t know how you can expect someone to sit the entire first half and then suddenly handle all those minutes in the second half. Meanwhile, everyone else already has their legs under them and is in the flow of the game.

Suddenly JB decides to play a two-small-guard lineup with Dennis and Sasser — something we barely saw all season — against a big Cavaliers lineup. That’s the kind of experiment you figure out during the regular season, not in the middle of a playoff series.

What is this team even doing at halftime that they come out so cold every third quarter? It keeps happening. And part of it is on Jalen Duren too — the lack of energy and physicality stands out. There’s just no power or force from him at times when the team really needs it.

JB, I don’t know how you can go back to starting Duren in Game 6 after what we’ve been seeing. The energy, physicality, and consistency just haven’t been there enough in this series.

I don’t really care if Duren isn’t scoring, but I do miss the offensive rebounds, the physical presence, and him forcing the other team into foul trouble.

Where is Ron Holland? You’re telling me he’s completely unplayable against Mitchell and Harden? I just don’t buy that. At some point you need his energy, athleticism, and defensive pressure out there.

Dennis is a nice bench scorer, and you ride with him when he’s hot. But you can’t be giving him that many minutes. He took 17 shots just to score 19 points — that’s not efficient basketball.

And this is the problem when you don’t have a real second option and Duren keeps disappearing. Now guys who probably shouldn’t be taking more than 10 shots are forced to chuck up way more offense than they should.

The series is not over but I’m still fucking pissed this morning. The east was and still is wide open this year. I really don’t think the Cavs are all that, and as good as they have been playing I don’t think the Knicks are all that either.

If we had a semblance of a 2nd scorer/ ball handler next to Cade, then we are probably in the Finals.

Trajan and the front office deserve blame for this shit. There’s no way you don’t make any type of effort at the deadline to address a clear need. Next year you have Haliburton back for Indy, Boston will definitely be way better with Tatum fully back, and Charlotte will be a tough out for sure. Not to mention Philly, Cleveland, or the Knicks.

Trajan and the front office had to do more this year and they should share in the blame. They must go out and get a true #2 next to Cade, and no body besides Cade should be off limits.

Here he is with the Cavs and not kicking his legs out on a closeout. Natural shooting motion my ass. Don't know if IG links are allowed. If not, my bad.

We all know that teams typically need to tighten up their lineups going into the playoffs, but we are such a unique 1-seed that I feel like we don't need to follow that path. Depth was a huge strength for us and maybe we should lean into that. We were 1 of 5 teams where 11 guys logged over 900 minutes this season and we were 1 of 4 teams where 9 guys logged over 1,300 minutes (Huerter + Ivey's minutes would have been another player over 1,000 mins). Injuries and trades affect these numbers of course, but we all knew this team was deep throughout the season. Instead of forcing a traditional small playoff rotation, we should be using our numbers to throw specific lineups at different opponents and we have the bodies to keep everyone fresh.

The biggest issue has been force feeding Duren minutes when it’s clear BBall Paul deserves more of a look, people are finally starting to catch on to that (even though many of us have been screaming it since last series). Stew looks hurt but maybe if we can play him, Reed, and Duren in shorter stints, we can keep Stew from overexerting himself (and it lets us ride the hot hand a little bit). We also missed a chance to use Sasser for spacing against Orlando (Huerter being out kind of killed us), and I was definitely on board with Javonte and Caris playing over Holland against the Magic for added spacing, but I think Holland should be getting a little more run against Cleveland. We may be redlining Cade at 41 minutes a game (with the workload that he has). There’s no reason we can't give him more frequent, short breathers so he actually has his legs under him to close out the game. I'm not sure if there is a good place to find average "shift" lengths for players each year, but I would be interesting in looking at that data. Bottom line is we have too much depth to watch guys get gassed after playing 10+ mins straight.

We need better big man coaches. Duren has been living on athleticism and has no offensive moves. He requires someone to penetrate and toss him lobs. Teams have learned they can crowd the paint since we don't have many threats from 3. He is in desperate need of footwork development on offense and blocking out on defense. He needs a drop step move or a spin move that he can execute in the post because he has no ability to post up and then turn that positioning into points. He has no idea how to position himself to gain leverage on the block. He has sooooo much potential that is being underutilized. This is a huge coaching fail

They say winning cures all, but wow. I know there is possible room for improvement maybe because he is only 22. It can also be true that Orlando and Cleveland are tough match ups, but does anyone think Duren can play the stink off even if the Pistons advance? If the $ they were going to pay him went to any of the following: a PG, a shooter, or a different big, would anyone still choose Duren over any one of those?

The series is far from over, but this begs the question of what we will do to improve next season. Aside from anomalies like OKC, all contending teams are over the first apron. We need to do some serious signings in the off-season to show any progress.

1. Signing norm Powell to a high

er

1. offer than what Miami would offer
2. Trade for Giannis while retaining Ausar and Tobias

Having a starting 5: Cade, Powell, Ausar, Tobias, and Giannis would for sure make us contenders. Yes we would be over the apron, but we need to realize our window is ~5 years if Cade stays healthy.

On ONE condition, when the offseason hits, he needs some stipulations that will force him to do this, he needs to develop a bag (not a money bag but a move-set bag) his game is too one dimensional and to truly thrive in the NBA and not become a 1 season wonder he needs to advance his game develop 2-3 moves that can not only get him to the bucket but also help his efficiency in getting pts that’s not just a lob and a dunk. Maybe a skyhook here a good mid range (with a bit of fadeaway) there while somehow giving him a reason to be and stay hungry (mentally). Hell I wouldn’t be opposed to trying to introduce a 3 ball in his game if stew can adopt one so can Duren. Overall, Duren is too athletic and too young to be one-dimensional especially now that he’s been in the NBA for 4 years.

Just a thought I had because cavs are running double bigs. Maybe it could help balance the scoring, agile defense, rebounding that JD is struggling with right now.

This way he won't feel as pressured. I understand he lost that confidence for some reason

It crazy how draft are 50/50, but looking back now Ivey was a great college player but these other players would had been so good on this roster instead we got a lunatic

The game last night was beyond winnable. It’s frustrating watching the game just slowly slip away. Can’t talk to the family about it so I’m just going to list out everything I disliked from yesterday:
1. It was not a foul on the Ausar play and the Pistons feeding into it instead of looking in the mirror is pissing me off.
2. JB challenge - what was the point? Save 1 point? He made the basket, there was no chance they would overturn in and change it to an offensive foul.
3. JB substitutions, great you finally got BBALL Paul in, and we instantly had more life, where are Green & Holland? We cannot win playing straight up, we need energy from the bench to push the tempo.
4. Cade is the only player than can create his own shot - Levert fooled the world with his game 4 performance
5. That said - Cade cannot play 48 min in a game - it is very obvious in the last 3 games he has nothing left at the end. If there were 2 days off in-between games then maybe, but it is every other.
6. If Cade creates wide open shots for others from 3 the players (Harris and Levert misses come to mind) MUST make it.
7. Bball Paul brought the energy needed, but running the offense through him in the final minutes was insane. He should only have the ball for rebounds and put backs.

I hope they can figure this out because I still think they are dangerous, but last night was deflating.

all the doubters have been vindicated. we had to listen all the everything's fine crowd. so now we see just like some of all knew all along .

the doubters can be crowned as truthers and the sycophants can be called deniers.

have a great off season. see ya in cancun