The Detroit Pistons’ young core is making believers around the league.
The 2023-24 NBA season tipped off last Tuesday and the first week was incredibly exciting. There have already been some amazing games, individual performances, and intriguing storylines, meaning this has the potential to be an amazing year of basketball.
One of the more exciting teams to watch during the first week of the season was the Detroit Pistons, who have a strong core of talented young players like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, and Ausar Thompson, who are showing glimpses of their immense talent.
Let’s take a deeper look at these three players’ performance so far this season and see what makes them such a weird and fun team with the potential to be very good down the road.
Cade Cunningham has officially arrived
Cade Cunningham’s first two seasons in the NBA were rocky, to say the least. As a rookie in 2021, he was the team’s primary initiator and he struggled a little bit. His box score numbers were fine, but he was very inefficient, he struggled to shoot from distance, and he turned the ball over at a pretty high rate.
Obviously, he was not amazing right off the bat and he had some real issues. However, his production wasn’t terrible and some of his struggles made sense when considering his usage and how much he was asked to do offensively as a 20-year-old.
Flash forward to the next season and he faced a massive setback. Twelve games into the 2022 season, Cunningham underwent season-ending surgery on his left shin, cutting his sophomore season short. After an up-and-down rookie season, many people thought he would take a leap during his second season, but he would have to wait another year for that to happen.
At this point, there were some concerns about his future because he had yet to show that he could play at a high level consistently. He didn’t play much in 2022, but he wasn’t much better in those 12 games than he was the year prior. He did turn the ball over at a lower rate and his defense was proving to be pretty good, but he still hadn’t found his groove as a scorer and shooter.
Well, things have changed now. We are just three games into the 2023 season, but Cunningham looks like a different player. He is currently averaging around 22 points, three rebounds, and eight assists per game on 44.1/38.9/88.9 shooting splits.
He hasn’t been perfect, shooting just 30.8% from 0-3 feet and turning it over at an 18.2% rate, but he is shooting the ball way better and his passing volume is quickly approaching elite territory. He also looks more confident with the ball in his hands and he is attacking defenses in a variety of ways, showing that he has incredible upside as a three-level scorer
If Cade Cunningham can put it all together and become an efficient scorer, he has a chance to become a top-fifty player sooner rather than later. He’s a special player and he has finally arrived.
Jalen Duren is a future star
Cade Cunningham isn’t the only young player who has been impressive to start the year. The Pistons’ center Jalen Duren has also played out of his mind
It’s important to not overreact to just three games because that is an extremely small sample size. However, it’s impossible to ignore that Jalen Duren has been playing out of his mind and looks like a star despite being just 20 years old.
He is currently averaging around 18 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks per game while shooting 80% from the field. This is a small sample size of course, but he has been way more productive this year than he was as a rookie. Last season he averaged fewer points, rebounds, assists, and blocks per game and shot worse from the field while playing fewer minutes. He has a bigger role now and he is taking advantage of his increased playing time, dominating his opponents as a rim runner, rebounder, shot blocker, and passer.
While his numbers have been unreal this season, there are a few areas in which he could improve. First, he is extremely turnover-prone. His turnover rate of 23% this season is extremely high, especially considering that Duren isn’t a high-volume playmaker. He’s a good passer for a big, but he doesn’t generate assists at a high enough rate to excuse his turnovers.
Duren also hasn’t shown that he can space the floor in the NBA. He has attempted just two three-pointers since entering the NBA a year ago and he doesn’t shoot a lot of mid-range shots. He showed flashes of being able to hit mid-range jumpers at Memphis, but this skill hasn’t translated to the next level, at least not yet. If he develops a jumper, Duren could be a special offensive player at some point.
Overall, Jalen Duren is developing into a fantastic big man who protects the rim at a high level, throws down lobs as a roll man, and makes quick, smart decisions as a passer. There’s a chance that his production regresses and he doesn’t continue to perform at this level. However, if his improvements are real, we could be looking at one of the best centers in the league someday.
Ausar Thompson is more than the box score
A few years ago, there was this idea in the basketball community that you could tell whether or not someone had serious knowledge of the game by asking them one simple question: how good is Draymond Green?
Now that Draymond is past his prime, we need someone else who can serve as a litmus test for whether a person is “box score watching” meaning they are basing their opinions by just looking at the box score and not watching the games or doing any in-depth research. Ausar Thompson might just be the guy for this because he is the definitive “underwhelming stats, great impact” type of player at the moment.
Some fans may believe that Ausar is struggling because he is averaging just six points per game on 35.8% true shooting, which is well below the league average. His scoring has not been great by any means and his shooting percentages are pretty poor across the board. Luckily for him, scoring isn’t the only thing that matters and there are a variety of ways to impact the game.
While Ausar is struggling to put the ball in the basket, he has been great everywhere else. He is averaging five assists to just two turnovers, his rebound rates are phenomenal for a guard/wing, and his block rate is a blistering 5.6%. He is adjusting to a different role, playing off the ball next to Cade Cunningham, but he’s been extremely effective despite his poor shooting.
He’s been very good as a passer while limiting turnovers, his rebounding is remarkable, and he is defending at a very high level. Players who can do all of this at a high level are extremely valuable in the NBA!
To make things even better, there are reasons to be optimistic about his scoring moving forward. He is currently shooting below 40% from 0-3 feet, which is terrible but unsustainable. Ausar was a great finisher in the Overtime Elite league and he should improve in this area moving forward.
Also, his perimeter shooting has been a bit of a disaster so far, but he is shooting 75% from the free-throw line. He hasn’t attempted a ton of free throws this season, but there is a possibility that his shooting will improve moving forward.
Ausar Thompson is a fascinating player who will criticized by some fans due to his underwhelming production as a scorer. However, his impact goes beyond his points per game and true shooting. He’s been awesome and fans will fall in love with him once he learns how to shoot and score.