The Trailblazers travel to Detroit to face the Pistons for the first time this season and bring Chauncey Billups and Jerami Grant back with them. For Billups, it is as the Head Coach and for Grant it is after inking a lucrative contract with the team in the offseason.
Chauncey Billups is obviously the more notable return since his jersey is hanging in the rafters, so I am sure he will get a civil greeting from fans, can’t say it will be the same for Jerami Grant since fans seem to become hostile to anybody that played for the team at one point and no longer does.
Besides those two, both of these teams have a lot of fun young players that makes for an interesting matchup.
Game Vitals
Where: Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, MI
When: Wednesday, November 1 at 7 pm EST
Watch: Bally Sports Detroit
Odds: Pistons (-3.5)
Analysis
This is one of the rare times where the Pistons are actually favored in a game. They have played well early this season, with the exception of last game against the Thunder, so maybe that will be more common this season.
The Blazers are a rebuilding team after finally putting an end to the Damian Lillard trade saga and sending him to Milwaukee. They already had a few pretty solid young building blocks in Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons, and they were able to add Scoot Henderson in the draft and Kris Murray along with DeAndre Ayton and Toumani Camara via the Damian Lillard trade.
They haven’t had the time yet that the Pistons have had to assemble their young core, but with more draft picks coming from the Lillard trade along with a likely league-bottom record, they should be able to build things up pretty quickly.
It has been a struggle early-on for number 3 pick, Scoot Henderson. The Blazers are giving him time to work through the kinks, but he enters this game shooting 33% from the field and only 8% from 3 point range on the season. He is also only averaging 8.3 points and 4 assists while turning over the ball 4.3 times per game. His life won’t be made too much easier with either Cade Cunningham or Killian Hayes defending him, although he should be able to beat them off the dribble with his superior athleticism.
Jerami Grant is in a similar situation as he was when he was with the Pistons a couple seasons ago as the veteran starter in a lineup full of young players. I am sure it isn’t what he signed up for, but a 5 year, $160 million contract can help with that. The Blazers do have other young players that you could consider veterans like DeAndre Ayton and Matisse Thybule, but this team is still a few years away from getting back to any kind of playoff contention.
They are currently being led in scoring by Malcolm Brogdon, who they got from the Celtics in the Jrue Holliday trade. He was subject to a lot of trade rumors during the offseason that ultimately fell through due to medicals, but he has appeared healthy in the early parts of the season.
For the Pistons, they had a disaster matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday and it is a game Cade Cunningham will want to forget. Oklahoma City trapped him all game and it led to 7 turnovers on the night. As good as Cade has been this season, teams are beginning to figure out that you can force him into bad decisions by trapping him, which is possible without getting burned due to the lack of shooters in the starting lineup.
It is rare that you call for a starting lineup change 4 games into the season, but it may be time. The Pistons have to get somebody with some more offensive punch into the starting lineup, even if it sacrifices the defense that has been good so far. That player will be Bojan Bogdanovic whenever he returns, but that is still about a month away.
Luckily for the Pistons and Cade, the Blazers are not as good of a team defensively as the Thunder and don’t have a shot blocking center that can also space the floor like Chet Holmgren.
There is a chance the Pistons are without Jalen Duren, who has been impressive this season, due to an ankle injury. If he is out, the Pistons will be without arguably their best player so far this season. It also means that James Wiseman will receive his first playing time of the season.
Hopefully the Pistons can get back on track and put the Oklahoma City game behind them.
Lineups
Detroit Pistons (2-2): Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren
Portland Trail Blazers (1-3): Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Matisse Thybulle, Jerami Grant, DeAndre Ayton
Question of the Day
Are you concerned about Cade Cunningham’s turnovers this season or will the return of Bojan Bogdanovic fix all the issues?