I don't think the Pistons defensive woes are due to a lack of athletic ability to keep up with rival players. My read of the problem: The Pistons do WAY too much double-teaming. I can remember in 2005--before that fateful inbounds pass --hollaring at Rasheed Wallace not to leave Horry open by doubling Ginobilli. Of course, he DID double Manu, leaving Horry wide open for the trey, which he buried--thus burying the Pistons. Today in 2023, I feel like I see ridiculous double teaming by the Pistons happening at least every other trip on defense. Last night against the Celtics, it led to countless wide open 3 point tries and a few uncontested dunks. The Pistons need to play their man...mirror him...stick to him like glue. Put it this way: eliminating most of the double teams couldn't make the Pistons point hemorrhaging defense any WORSE. I can live with getting beasted by a "good defense defeating" offensive player like Jayson Tatum. If a guy's just THAT good that you can't do anything to stop him, it is what it is. But the Pistons just constantly GIVE away points with all their stupid double teams.

I'll tell you something else: The Pistons turnover situation is ridiculous. Way too many low probability of success passes (looking at you Cade and Jaden). And too many "took your eye off the ball" drops. None of this is talent. ALL of this is concentration--or lack there of.

As much as I like Jaden, it's a real tragedy for the Pistons that they fell in the draft and missed out on Paolo Banchero. Right now, they don't really have a irresistible force, good defense defeating scorer (Bogdonovich is close).

On James Wiseman's debut, the good things I saw were an ability to finish and a decent looking stroke. He looks pretty confident on the offensive end. On defense, he did seem to communicate pretty well out there, I liked how he looked when he had to switch and guard on the perimeter, and he did alter some shots with his length. There were a couple of negatives that struck me. First, as big as he his, he doesn't appear strong enough to impose his will in the paint. He appears to lack strength in his legs because he was too often easily boxed out; It might be that he lacks the badass mindset in some cases too. He missed that layup on the break which led to a Celtics 3 pointer and thus a 5 point swing. I wanted to see him determined to lay the thunder on the drive, impose his will and slam that sucker home. The second negative that stuck out to me was the number of times he seemed to be in perfect position to grab a rebound or a loose ball, and..he somehow, inexplicably didn't. He kept snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in that regard. I don't know if he needs glasses to improve is depth perception or just more playing experience. Whatever the issue, I would like very much to watch Wiseman play in the future and not constantly find myself saying "Jeez, how did he not catch that?""