Troy Weaver gave Dwane Casey the type of size, length and versatility to put a very bright light at the end of the tunnel, but there’s going to be some stumbling around in the dark to get where the Pistons aim to go.
Some of it is the inevitable consequence of the unprecedented circumstances facing the Pistons and 29 other NBA teams amid the COVID-19 pandemic and everything it’s inflicted. The season is coming a month on the heels of lifting the trade embargo, holding the draft and commencing a wild ride through free agency.
The fact the pandemic coincided with the Pistons launching a rebuilding that included the hiring of Weaver as general manager and his radical makeover of the roster – only four players return from the team that ended the 2019-20 season on March 11 – has further complicated life for Casey.
And the blessings of a roster with depth and versatility are temporarily muted by the fact that all the lineup combinations such depth and versatility make possible are going to take Casey time to experiment with and observe before figuring out which ones work best.
“We’re trying to do that in practice, trying to do it in our scrimmages,” Casey said Tuesday after day three of training camp practices. “We’re looking at different lineups, seeing how guys fit. It’s going to be about competition, earning minutes at different positions. We have positions that are open.”
The Pistons have become a dramatically bigger team from the one that made its playoff drive in 2019 with Wayne Ellington as its small forward and last year often played Langston Galloway there.
Derrick Rose is now the only player on the likely 15-man roster under 6-foot-4. The players in line for minutes at small forward – Jerami Grant, Josh Jackson, Sekou Doumbouya, Saddiq Bey, Svi Mykhailiuk – are all at least 6-foot-8. Casey could field three-guard lineups that feature Killian Hayes and Delon Wright, both 6-foot-5, with Rose or Mykhailiuk or Bey, each of whom can swing between either wing spot.
Again, that’s all great. But Casey doesn’t have much time before the bullets start flying – the season opener is two weeks away – to figure out who fits best with whom. And, really, you can boil it down further to this: Who complements the mainstays, starting with Rose and Blake Griffin, best?
“Derrick is going to need different personnel around him. Blake’s going to have different personnel around him. If Jerami Grant’s at the four, he might need different personnel around him,” Casey said.
“Then, also – time, score, situation. If we need offense, that’s a great time for Wayne Ellington. Defensively, you’ve got Rodney McGruder. Different situations will call for different skill sets.”
And while the time from the start of training camp to the season opener doesn’t appear much different from typical seasons, the reality is a lot different. Camps opened Dec. 1 but only for individual workouts. The first practice came Sunday, five days before the preseason opener and 18 before the regular-season tipoff. But in typical years, the majority of the roster would have been in town for voluntary workouts three or four weeks ahead of the start of camp, workouts that always include scrimmages which get players in game shape more than anything else can approximate.
There was none of that this season. So conditioning is a huge issue to monitor early.
“We’ll see where we are conditioning wise,” Casey said of what he’ll learn from Friday’s preseason opener. “That’s going to be the main thing.”
He’s going into it figuring on shorter stints for players and a deeper rotation than usual – all while being mindful of the need to figure out the optimal starting lineup and most efficient playing combinations to flesh out the rotation.
“There’s an urgency about trying to figure it out, about being ready to compete to win,” Casey said. “But it’s a good situation that you have so many young guys you’re working to develop and combinations you could possibly have. Not only are you working on getting timing, you’re working also on the conditioning. There’s a big difference in conditioning when you’re in the weight room or on the bike vs. against the speed and quickness of NBA players.
“Everybody’s going through it right now. That’s the hand we’re dealt with the quick turnaround and the pandemic.”
But very few are going through it with 11 new faces on the opening-night roster or with infinite lineup combinations that need time to prove their merits. Casey is delighted with the enthusiasm he sees and with the makeup of all the new players – acquired with an emphasis on character and competitiveness – under his watch. The payoff, he suspects, will be worth it. But sorting it out is going to be a test.
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December 09, 2020 at 06:15AM
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So many options, so little time: Casey faces a challenge in figuring out best Pistons lineup combinations - Pistons.com
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