Pistons preseason guide: Depth chart projection, key storylines and predictions -

As always, in the blink of an eye, seemingly, the summer months evaporate and basketball sits right in front of you. In Detroit, a pivotal season begins on Monday when media day kicks off the start of the preseason.

The Pistons are coming off a league-worst, 17-win season, one that saw them without their franchise cornerstone, Cade Cunningham, for all but 12 games.

Cunningham, and from all accounts every other player, will return to the Motor City in full health for the start of the preseason. There’s a new coach in town, Monty Williams, who won the most games in the NBA over the past three seasons with the Phoenix Suns. Detroit added veterans Monte Morris and Joe Harris to a young core. Ausar Thompson, the No. 5 pick in June’s draft, has been impressive in every public setting throughout the summer.

Every move this summer signals that Detroit is interested in putting the losing in the past and making a run at the postseason.

But many national pundits don’t anticipate the Pistons playing beyond the regular season. It’s not very often a team goes from winning 17 games to the playoffs the next season, especially without any significant roster turnover. However, the return of Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, could be deemed as a “significant” roster addition. If he’s able to stay healthy and enter the conversation as a top-25 player in the NBA, Detroit could be a surprise this upcoming season.

In the end, as has been the case for the last few seasons, internal development will dictate what the Pistons’ ceiling is in both the short term and long term.

To prepare you for the next month, before Detroit opens the regular season in Miami on Oct. 25, here is a guide to Detroit’s training camp/preseason. It will feature the roster (guaranteed contracts only), key storylines and a few predictions from yours truly.

Preseason depth-chart prediction

PG	SG	SF	PF	C
Cade Cunningham	Jaden Ivey	Bojan Bogdanovic	Isaiah Stewart	Jalen Duren
Monte Morris	Alec Burks	Ausar Thompson	Isaiah Livers	James Wiseman
Killian Hayes/Marcus Sasser	Marcus Sasser	Joe Harris		Marvin Bagley III

Three key storylines

Will Killian Hayes have a role?

This is probably the question most people want answered.

Everything the Pistons have done this summer points to the No. 7 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft spending his last days in Detroit. The Pistons traded for Morris, drafted Sasser in the first round, have not yet extended Hayes and have Cunningham returning from injury, all creating a real logjam (a good one) in the backcourt.

Assuming there isn’t a trade between now and the start of the regular season, and Williams uses a standard 10-man rotation, Hayes would have to beat out Cunningham or Ivey or Burks or Morris (or maybe even Sasser) to be granted regular playing time. While not impossible for Hayes to get the nod over one of Burks or Morris (or Sasser), that just doesn’t feel at all likely at this time.

Hayes will have to impress this preseason/training camp to guarantee himself a spot in the rotation and, in turn, a long-term future in the Motor City. How the 22-year-old guard performs over the next month will be one of the more talked about storylines leading into the regular season.

Are we sure Ausar Thompson doesn’t start?

I’m not. However, I still can’t get myself to go on record and say with the utmost conviction that Thompson will 100 percent start by the time the regular season begins. I can’t get there right now, at least.

The knocks against Thompson starting are obvious: lack of proven shooting alongside Cunningham, as well as inexperience. On the flip side, though, Detroit needs to get better defensively, it needs to be more forceful in transition and it needs to rebound better. Thompson checks all of those boxes. Defense seems to be the emphasis for the Pistons moving forward, so that’s where my inkling about Thompson starting comes from.

For Thompson to be a Day 1 starter, it would be at the expense of either Bogdanović or Stewart. The former, of course, is a proven scorer and floor spacer. It wouldn’t be smart to assume that the 34-year-old Bogdanović, who had a career-best scoring season last season, won’t start. Conversely, Stewart is one of the team’s best defenders (if not the best) and has shown signs of being a capable floor spacer. If defense (and rebounding) is the emphasis, it doesn’t seem wise to bench Stewart and play Bogdanović at the 4.

The most realistic starting lineup that Detroit could use to be an above-average defense is as follows: Cunningham, Ivey, Thompson, Stewart and Duren. Offensively, there will be a lot of questions that need to be answered, but if the 3-point shooting of Cunningham, Stewart and Ivey improves, this lineup would be the most balanced that Williams could toss out there to begin games.

So, yeah, I’m not sold that Thompson won’t start come Oct. 25.

How does Cade Cunningham look?

I saved the most obvious for last.

Cunningham hasn’t played for the Pistons since Nov. 9 after dealing with a shin injury and then electing to get surgery. He’s the engine of this Detroit team. His development and potential stardom will decide how far the organization can go both now and in the future. Cunningham has the skills and leadership to turn a franchise around.

This is the season to see those seeds planted.

The 22-year-old Cunningham has put on significant muscle since he last played and, from all accounts, it’s benefitted him greatly this offseason. While out in Las Vegas as part of the U.S. Select Team going up against the U.S. World Cup roster, Cunningham was considered to be one of the top-3 performers during training camp. Everyone that I’ve talked to who has watched Cunningham this summer said he looked impressive and motivated.

The preseason is the preseason, so it doesn’t hold great importance, but I’m sure it would ease the minds of a lot of Pistons fans if Cunningham excels in exhibition play and can make it through without any injuries. After last season, Detroit fans could use an injection of hope once again. Cunningham could provide that with a few head-turning moments over the next month.

Three preseason predictions

1. The Pistons will make a trade before the regular season starts. This roster has talent, both younger and older, and competition is good. However, it feels like there is a little bit of redundancy in some positions. Does Detroit need both Wiseman and Bagley? Do the Pistons have Hayes in their plans? Is there enough belief in Thompson to be impactful from day one that Detroit elects to collect assets by trading Bogdanović? Could they trade Burks to make room for Sasser or Hayes? All are questions that I’m sure the organization has asked itself over the last few months. Per league sources, Detroit has been active in trade talks over the last few weeks. Eventually, I think general manager Troy Weaver does something to tweak the roster before the season starts.

2. Outside of Duren and Stewart, I don’t think Detroit experiments with two bigs as often. Due to the latter’s potential as a floor spacer, Duren and Stewart are the only two “bigs” I see playing together with great regularity. The Duren-Wiseman experiment at summer league didn’t go particularly well. I don’t see a Wiseman-Bagley frontcourt working out too well, either. Maybe we see flashes of Wiseman and Stewart together. In the end, though, Williams will either play Stewart as the backup five for a good portion of preseason and/or have Wiseman and Bagley play center alongside Livers, Bogdanović or Thompson.

3. Detroit will fill its 15th roster spot. As of right now, the Pistons have 14 players under contract for this season. Some teams choose to go into the regular season with 14 spots filled in case something presents itself in the season. It provides flexibility. In Detroit, though, I believe the Pistons will fill that final main-roster spot by the start of the regular season with a proven veteran who can provide locker-room leadership. Rodney McGruder just signed a training camp deal with the Golden State Warriors. If things don’t work out there for the veteran, maybe he returns to the Pistons, where he’s a beloved voice of reason for many of the young players. Detroit has a lot of youth. I’d be a little bit surprised if the Pistons used that last spot to take a flier on another young player. If the last spot is filled, it will be because of a trade that brings back one player more than Detroit sends out or by signing a veteran who won’t be expected to contribute on the court with regularity.

(Photo of Cade Cunningham: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)

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