If they winning because the young core ballin then I'm ok with that, and they're still gonna end up being a bottom 3 team so we should be good. An easy 20-5-5 is looking like the floor for Cade. He been coasting to that shyt since around the all star game even while in foul trouble and not getting no calls. He's unlocked the middy that he would use at will in college. Stewart seems like he setting better picks and Cade killing them pull ups off the snake dribble into the lane. L. And all that offense Bey was tryna incorporate into his have earlier in the season and looking horrible doing it is now starting to be real effective. These wind are from internal growth, not from playing a bunch of vets that ain't party of our future heavy minutes like previous years.
A team meeting, empowerment and culture: How Pistons coach Dwane Casey is steering Detroit in the right direction
By
James L. Edwards III Mar 2, 2022
91
The
Pistons spent part of the final hours of Valentine’s Day dishing out tough love.
It was about 9 p.m., and Detroit was still digesting a 103-94 loss to the
Washington Wizards. It was a performance that showed very little connectivity. The ball wasn’t popping around when it needed to. Missed shots on one end impacted the performance on the other. It was the Pistons’ eighth straight defeat, a funk still not rivaling a 14-game skid from mid-November to mid-December.
Back in the visiting locker room at Capital One Arena, with one game — a showdown with the
Celtics, who were the hottest team in basketball with nine straight wins — separating Detroit and the All-Star break, Pistons head coach Dwane Casey opened the floor. Anyone who had something to say could say it. Anyone who didn’t like
this, like
that — speak up.
Even for a young team in the early stages of a rebuild, those past two weeks of basketball weren’t acceptable.
“It was a defining moment,” Pistons second-year forward
Saddiq Bey told
The Athletic of the meeting. “We put all the cards on the table, talked about what we needed to do and what we saw out there. We put it all out there, and it’s something that impacted us without even having to say that it did.”
Detroit is 3-2 since the team meeting in Washington, with victories over three postseason-bound teams, including those red-hot Celtics just before the break.
The players never stopped believing in the process, even when it would’ve been easy to do so. The players haven’t turned on one another, even though they’re all trying to prove they belong. The Pistons haven’t quit on the season. As the grind of a tough year chugs along, Detroit has actually gotten better.
How is that possible?
“Coach Casey does a great job of getting us to see the process, the growth,” Bey said. “Once we see growth, we naturally believe. That’s just human nature. When you see growth and improvement, you come together more. We’ve seen improvements. It helps our morale. He does a great job of getting us to focus on the small things, the little things. He’s been there. He’s had the best record in the league, (been) the Coach of the Year.”
The 15-47 Pistons have endured a lot of losing this season, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. They had the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and currently have the NBA’s fourth-youngest team. The franchise is in the infancy of attempting to execute its plan of once again building something sustainable, this time from the ground up, through the draft.
The fact that there is a clear vision, though, doesn’t make it easier for players to accept the results. No one likes losing, no matter the age. Coaches, either. At this level, when the losses pile up like they have for the Pistons, finger-pointing often follows. There are usually public spats. Stories of in-house turmoil getting leaked to the media.
That, however, hasn’t happened in Detroit. In fact, as the season grows older, the youthful spirit of the club is still present. If these players don’t like one another, they deserve an Academy Award. All of them.
“Naturally, because we’re competitors, there has been frustration at points throughout the year,” No. 1 pick
Cade Cunningham told
The Athletic, “but the best thing that we’ve done, and coach Casey has done, is put everything in the air, discussed it, get it off our chest so that we go into the next day feeling like it’s a clean slate and we keep working.”
Casey, who was hired in 2018, didn’t come to Detroit for a rebuild. However, when it became more and more evident one was needed for the Pistons to possibly return to relevance, he was right there pounding the table. After all, he knew the value in stripping away the old and replacing it with something fresh, new. Casey was the coach who helped build the
Raptors into the respectable organization they’ve become over the past decade.
Players say that they have a sense of empowerment under Casey’s watch. He’s there to teach, but it’s not a dictatorship. Players have the ability to speak up, give input and, most importantly, be themselves.
Second-year big man
Isaiah Stewart is a prime example of the latter. Stewart’s energy is well-documented. He’s an aggressive, relentless player. At times, it can be detrimental — like when it leads to foul trouble. On the other hand, those same characteristics are what makes Stewart the player he is and has allowed him to have a positive impact in year two.
Casey doesn’t harass that energy. He just encourages Stewart to be smarter about it.
“He’s one of those coaches that allows us to play through mistakes,” Stewart told
The Athletic. “If I make a mistake, I know that I can talk to him about it. Even before I make a mistake, I can talk to him before I do it. No matter what, he’s going to answer and make sure I understand it.
“He never makes us young guys feel bad about asking a question if there’s something we don’t know or understand.”
Amid the losing this season, you never spot poor body language on the floor. You don’t see much arguing, either. The only thing remotely close to a public dispute came in November in Cleveland. With the Pistons down big late in the game to the
Cavaliers, Casey hollered for Hamidou Diallo to check in. Diallo, who was playing sparingly at that point, was slow to do so. Casey, not pleased with the speed with which Diallo reacted, then told him to sit down before pointing for veteran
Rodney McGruder to check in.
Diallo didn’t play in the next game. He only played nine minutes in the game after that. Shortly after, though, Diallo returned to the rotation. And, funny enough, he’s since played the best basketball of his career. Diallo averaged 14 points on 56.9 percent shooting in December. His production has remained steady over the last two months.
Stewart has blossomed into a really good defender and an imposing screener. Bey has improved as a playmaker for himself and others.
Frank Jackson has found a role as a gunslinger off the bench.
Killian Hayes has been more aggressive as an attacker since he was moved to the bench. Cunningham is more empowered to be himself, a natural leader.
The record might not show it, but the players can sense themselves getting better.
“It’s a credit to the situation coach Casey has put us in to improve, game in and game out,” Bey said. “It’s a blessing and something I don’t take for granted. He puts us in situations where we have no choice but to grow. We have to go through those experiences.”
According to the players, Casey doesn’t harp on the wins and losses. It’s the process of how those results, whether good or bad, come about that evokes the most emotion. The day-to-day focus is building good habits, paying attention to detail and playing hard. If you do those things, winning will come naturally.
“He’s big on competing,” Cunningham said of Casey. “We’re all young. He tells us, ‘Being young guys in the league, if you don’t compete, you don’t have a chance in this league.’ He tells us that everyone is always watching us, regardless of what people say about the team. Decision-makers around the league are watching us. Every day we have to play as hard as we can to try and win.”
The Pistons have found a second wind late in the season, even though their final destination has pretty much already been determined. The wins have been impressive, the losses competitive. Players are improving. The morale is high. The belief in what’s being built remains strong. There’s optimism for what’s ahead. All are hard things to pull off in a season stocked with losses.
Weird … it’s almost as if Casey has done this before.
(Top photo of Dwane Casey: Harrison Barden / USA Today)
