Milwaukee — The Pistons are coming off their best win of the season after snapping a five-game losing streak with a victory over the defending-champion Golden State Warriors.
Now, they’re setting their sights on their road series against the undefeated Milwaukee Bucks (5-0), whom they’ll play twice this week (Monday and Wednesday).
Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday, led Milwaukee to a 3-0 record last week and averaged 35.7 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in those wins over the Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks.
This edition of Mike’s Mailbag, crafted from questions via social media, looks at the matchups against the Bucks and how they differ from the Warriors; Cade Cunningham’s recent offensive surge; Killian Hayes’ role and more.
Question: I see a certain look in Cade (Cunningham’s) eyes these last three games. Is it just me? — @313lifebrand
Answer: It’s not just you. Cunningham’s aggressiveness has been evident over the past few games. He’s creating opportunities for himself and his teammates. Sunday’s game against the Warriors marked Cunningham’s third consecutive game with at least 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists. He’s taking his time and making the right reads, and when he wants to look for his shot, he successfully executes the pick-and-roll to find his midrange game, which looks unstoppable lately. He scored a career-high 35 points against Atlanta and became the youngest Pistons player to score at least 35 points since Isiah Thomas accomplished the feat in 1983.
Cunningham looks more focused on the defensive end as well. It’s not easy to take the ball from Trae Young, but Cunningham was able to do it on Sunday. He also blocked Stephen Curry’s layup yesterday, leading to an explosive dunk by Pistons rookie Jaden Ivey. If Cunningham continues to play with the same intensity, it’ll give the Pistons a better chance to remain competitive throughout this tough stretch against some of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
Q: How do we adapt to a very different team build in Milwaukee? What adjustments should we make? — @Santiag19100930
A: The Golden State Warriors are quite different from the Milwaukee Bucks. Ball movement is key to success for the reigning champions, whereas the Bucks’ offense starts and ends with Giannis Antetokounmpo. The two-time MVP dictates the flow of nearly everything Milwaukee does. He’s fourth in the league in usage rate (34.3%) and second in the league in points per game (34.4) and rebounds per game (14.0). Limiting Antetokounmpo is no easy task, so the Pistons’ best game plan should focus on preventing his teammates, including Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez, from finding their offensive groove. The same strategy can be said for the Warriors. Outside of Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole’s 30-point performances, no other Golden State player totaled double digits in scoring besides Andrew Wiggins.
Q: I’m curious what the sense is on Killian (Hayes). If we disregard where he was selected in the draft, are his facilitating and defense enough for the Pistons to want to keep him around when we have other scorers on the team? — @KornKat2020
A: Hayes, the former No. 7 pick from the 2020 draft, is struggling throughout the early part of this season with career-low averages of 2.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. He’s shooting 18% from the field and 14% from the 3-point line. It’s not the confident and poised Hayes that we saw in the preseason and some of it could be attributed to trying to find his way alongside Cunningham and Ivey.
The Pistons have four primary ballhandlers — Cunningham, Ivey, Cory Joseph and Hayes, who played nearly 18 minutes off the bench on Sunday against the Warriors. Joseph only saw about five minutes of action. Casey said his rotations aren’t “concrete yet,” so the coaching staff is figuring out the best way to have everyone fit alongside each other. Hayes’ defense and ballhandling are enough if the rest of the team is doing the heavy lifting on offense, but the Pistons desperately need other offensive options while Marvin Bagley III and Alec Burks recover from their injuries.
Q: How does our frontcourt rotation look moving forward? I want to continue the positive momentum while getting (Marvin Bagley III) and (Nerlens) Noel integrated into the team. How do we continue to build positive momentum without stalling it by over-rotating too many guys? — @DaEthiopianWolf
A: Detroit’s frontcourt rotation has been in question since Bagley sprained his right knee during a preseason game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Pistons knew they would be without Noel throughout training camp while he recovered from plantar fasciitis, but Bagley’s injury was a blow to the roster’s depth in the frontcourt. The only remaining healthy bigs on the roster are Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren, who suffered a scary ankle sprain against the Warriors on Sunday. Noel has been available since the regular season started, but the Pistons weren’t going to rush him out on the court if he wasn’t completely 100%. Now, there might not be any other choice. Noel could make his season debut this week against the Bucks.
Going forward, if Stewart, Duren, Bagley and Noel are completely healthy, it gives Casey an opportunity to play two bigs together. He’s been hesitant to play Duren and Stewart together because he didn’t want either of them to get into foul trouble. Once he has more depth at that position, we could see more natural rotation combinations in the frontcourt. The downside of playing two true centers together is one will need to move to the perimeter to stretch the floor. Stewart’s shown the ability to knock down the 3, but the Pistons will be in a better position if Bagley shows that he can make the adjustment as well.
Q: So it looks as though Cade (Cunningham) taking control is good for him and the team. How do you think they adjust to allow (Jaden) Ivey to grow and not just have to settle for 10-12 points per night? — @Moose_sounds
A: Ivey is slowly recovering from the flu, which held him out of Wednesday’s game against the Hawks and limited him to a season-low 23 minutes on Friday. He played in small spurts during that game, but regained his momentum against the Warriors. Ivey was able to get to the rim and finish with authority, just as he’s done when he was fully healthy. However, the main issue limiting Ivey is foul trouble. The Pistons rookie has totaled four or more fouls in three of his six games. Some fouls are due to his tendency to gamble for steals, but others have been officials’ questionable calls. In order for Ivey to be more effective on the floor, he’ll need to be wary of any unnecessary contact so he doesn’t pick up any cheap fouls.
mcurtis@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @MikeACurtis2