Facing the Knicks, inside Isaiah Stewart found himself defending on RJ Barrett, an outside much faster than him. Against the Pelicans, it was point guard Cade Cunningham who was forced to defend for a while on center Jonas Valanciunas.
These duels seen in preseason, clearly not the advantage of the Pistons, can obviously happen in the heat of the moment since the “switches” are now usual in the NBA, but in this case, they are not accidents. It is even a will to work as well as a strategy.
“We don’t want our opponents to shoot 3-pointers or close to the circle. We want them to take 2-point shots at mid-range,” explains Dwane Casey at The Athletic. “It will not be our only system because we are well aware that during the season, Cunningham should not take care of Jonas Valanciunas or Joel Embiid. But it’s a process to build our defense changes. We go from switching between the leader and the pivot, to switching between the leader and the strong winger before doing it between the leader and the winger. It’s a way to learn how to do that, during the training camp. »
To avoid being pushed by the “matchups” caused by these incessant defensive changes, the Pistons will have the obligation to be very reactive and very disciplined defensively.
“We will have to help each other”warns Marvin Bagley III. “Let’s say I’m not the switch player or the inside that’s on the action and I see Cunningham come up against a big guy, so I have to go help him and tell him to move. And if I’m on the outside, if I have players behind me who talk to me, tell me to steer over there or over there, that helps me a lot. »
Dwane Casey’s troops will have to create automatisms, like the Warriors who are part of the references in this area. The defending champions have excellent reflexes in particular to avoid endangering Stephen Curry, who is often the target of opposing attacks, and to multiply defensive assists.
“It’s just communication” concludes the former Kings interior. “It works if we talk to each other. Not all possessions will be perfect, but if we talk to each other, we will find the solutions and it will be fine. »
