Betrayer

With Griffin getting on guys about mistakes and trying to be a leader this season, how long before he gets on Dre about those shots? Hopefully soon. This game has been the worst so far, but he’s done this consistently his entire career.

Dre is killing us. His shot selection is terrible and IQ so low. Defense isn’t so hot either. Rebounding well as usual, but that’s about it. Stanley is useless. Blake has been amazing but he can’t do it all.

Defense has been bad and a lot of it points to Dre (and somewhat Blake) on rotations. Guys are going to get beat on the perimeter in this league where you can't impede progress, but the help defense has to rotate over. It's not happening right now, so you're seeing teams get open looks in the paint. Dre looked like he had lead in his shoes for most of the night. On the other end he wasn't much better. Your big man can't shoot 5-13, taking fade away jumpers and threes he can't make. Stanley is a mess. He was -21 on the court. The next closest to that was Robinson with a -5. All the other starters were positive or even. The PGs were solid on the offensive end. Ish is shooting 50% from three so far this year. Last year he wound up at about 35% by shooting 41% post All-Star. Clearly, he's been working on it and it's great to see it paying off. Blake was awesome. Love how he's come out this season. What happened to Kennard? Dog house already? In general, this team isn't good enough to play with the freedom that Casey is giving them. Lots of bad shots from guys who need to understand their strengths better. The IQ needs to improve on the offensive end and the defense really needs to improve from top to bottom in order for them to keep winning beyond these bottom of the barrel teams. Here's Casey's postgame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GeeWaX43kc

I get the idea of playing Stanley at the 4 (and agree with it to some extent) in order to mitigate the issue of his shooting. The problem is you're asking him to punch above his weight - which he's capable of due to his strength - but he won't be playing bully ball at that spot, so you've taken away his greatest weapon.

Never tried this before, so I have no idea how well it works, but apparently NBA Live Stream is available for tonight's game: NBA Live Stream

Preseason Game 1 - Full Highlights

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2018/10/02/dwane-casey-eager-see-detroit-pistons-preseason-opener/1498777002/ Casey saying all the right things like, finishing better at the rim, getting to the free throw line, drive-kick-screen philosophy, and so on. Curious to see how it plays out with the personnel he has.

First game tonight! Unfortunately, no way to watch it that I'm aware of.

An inefficient player from point blank range and a barely passable free throw shooter is going to try to spread the court from the 3...pretty sure defenses are salivating at the prospect. I can just hear the gameplan now: Opposing Assistant: "OK Coach, how do you want to defend their primary play? Reggie is going to get a Blake screen at the elbow. Bullock will be spotting up in the strong side corner, Kennard at the top, and Drummond in the weak side corner to spread the- Opposing Coach: "Wait! What? Drummond in the weak side corner and he'll shoot the three if we bait him by bringing his man over to help cover the screen?" Opposing Assistant: "Yep, that's what the scouting report says. If he's wide open, he's been given the green light to shoot it from there." Opposing Coach: "Well, that's the coverage. Seriously, does anyone cover this team any other way? Just do that every time...I swear, sometimes this job is just too easy."

No harm in trying...after all, we haven't traded away our lottery pick this year.

I think the idea is that Minnesota gets a good player(s) on contract and we get cap relief + chance to re-sign Butler. If you don't move Dre, Griffin, or Jackson there's no point.

Definitely wouldn't be Drummond in a 2 team deal because of KAT. Griffin would be a tough fit as well. You'd need to bring in a 3rd team to make that work. Jackson could work in a 2 team deal, but we'd also have to toss in picks, Kennard, and who knows what else to make it more appealing.

Does it allow us to move either Drummond, Griffin, or Jackson's contract? If so, I'd consider it.

Reggie Jackson's ankles still made of Doritos Also, some good articles about what to expect with Casey as head coach for the basketball nerds out there: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Oh, wow. I thought it was related to his other injury. I didn't realize all his joints were made of Doritos.