NBA Season Preview 2019-20: The 5 biggest questions for the Detroit Pistons

Will a quiet summer be enough to finally get the Detroit Pistons out of the first round of the playoffs? We ask five big questions for their 2019-20 season.

1. Is this going to be the year of Luke Kennard?

I really hope so. If it were up to him, or me, every year would be the year of Luke Kennard. He possesses the skill and shotmaking ability to be a big part of this Pistons team. Adding Derrick Rose should only help him find more space to navigate within the offense, as Rose puts immense pressure on the defense with his driving/slashing ability, even at this point in his career.

When he isn’t playing with Rose, Kennard should be entrusted to run pick-and-rolls with both Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin, using his craftiness to pick apart defenses efficiently within his role. Drummond provides enough rim protection and help defense to hopefully make up for some of the tougher matchups for Kennard on defense.

2. If he’s healthy, Blake Griffin is the __th best player in the Eastern Conference this season.

A healthy Blake Griffin will definitely be a top-10 player in the East this season. Depending on how Rose meshes into the equation, Griffin could reach as high as the third-best player in the conference. Being such a force on offense through his post presence, 3-point potency and court vision makes him one of the harder guys to stop in the league. If he can be part of a solid Detroit defensive effort, there’s no reason he shouldn’t have a chance to earn a starting spot in this season’s All-Star game.

Being realistic, I think it’s fair to say there no chance (injury aside) that he’s more productive than Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid. I think he has the potential to out-produce every other player who in the East who is healthy going into 2019-20. I’m going to slot him fifth, behind the two mentioned above, plus Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving. Butler is the guy in Miami and should put up the career numbers, and the same can be said for Kyrie in Brooklyn this season. Griffin will be dominant, but for better or worse, bringing in a ball-dominant guard like Rose could take a few shots away from him depending on Dwayne Casey’s rotations.

3. Do you stan Bruce Brown Jr. or Khyri Thomas?

I stan Bruce Brown Jr. While Thomas was special in college, he’s a little on the small size at the NBA level at 6-foot-3, especially considering that he’s not going to be a point guard. Brown earned the trust of Dwayne Casey on defense last season, but did not exactly stretch the floor with his 26.8 3-point percentage on only 1.3 attempts per game. Brown will be a part of the rotation, but in order to help the Pistons thrive he will need to ramp up both his volume and efficiency from behind the arc.

If Luke Kennard is the sixth man, Casey may elect to go with Brown’s length in the starting lineup, particularly if he starts to make shots at a higher clip. Thomas also has potential on the defensive end, but it’s hard to see a 6-foot-3 shooting guard that lacks above-average shot creation skills cracking an NBA starting lineup. Brown feels like the guy to stan and pray his jumper comes along, while Thomas could be a solid 3-and-D guy off the bench.

4. Outline the rules to a simple drinking game that will buoy the spirits of Pistons fans this season.

This is one is simple. Every time Luke Kennard scores, drink. Some nights, you may not remember. Some, you may want to forget because he got lost in the rotation or in a bad matchup. Regardless of which it is, Pistons fans should be rooting for the Luke Kennard of last April to emerge on a full-time basis.

Kennard scored 27 points against the New York Knicks in the final game of the 2018-19 season, and followed it up with 21- and 19-point performances in Milwaukee in the first two games of Detroit’s first-round playoff series. Kennard was a ridiculous 8-for-11 from 3-point-range in those two games, but Milwaukee adjusted and put the clamps on him for the rest of the series. Still, he averaged 15 points per game against the best defense in the NBA in a playoff series in his second year.

Root for Luke. Drink for Luke.

5. I think the Andre Drummond-Reggie Jackson pick-and-roll can still be a weapon: Change my mind.

This might not be the Pistons’ first option for offense. Or second. Or third. Okay, maybe third. But probably fourth, at least if things go well for the team. And it can be decent against an opponent’s bench when Griffin and Rose are off the floor.

Detroit’s first option for offense is obviously to play through Blake in some form, while the second option now is probably just giving D-Rose the ball and letting him do D-Rose stuff, since he averaged 18.0 points in only 27.3 minutes per contest with the Minnesota Timberwolves last season.

The third option is probably some combination of Luke Kennard and Andre Drummond, depending on the matchup on a given night. Reggie Jackson will probably struggle to get the kind of volume he’s had in the past with Rose in the fold, but when the matchup is right, sure, run the Jackson-Dummond pick-and-roll. If it occurs too often, however, we might need to make up another drinking game.