On Thursday night, Pistons star point guard Cade Cunningham returned to the lineup as Detroit capped off its preseason with a 119-98 victory over the Washington Wizards at home, and Motown’s All-Star showed just how skilled he is at covering up gaps within a team’s lineup.

“We had a strong training camp, strong preseason,” Cunningham said after the 19-point win. “We went hard, got better, so it'll be good for us to get our legs back under us and get fresh.”

Earlier in the day, the Pistons announced that guard Jaden Ivey would be sidelined for around four weeks after undergoing knee surgery, so Cunningham worked to run Detroit’s offense in the preseason finale without one of his key running mates, logging 16 points and 12 assists in the process. 

“We all hate to see that,” Cunningham said of Ivey’s injury. “He’s been dealing with stuff for a while, but he's been, I mean, his spirits never, never dropped. He just ducks his head and works. That’s who he is. He doesn't get ahead of himself. He just ducks his head and works every day, so I know he'll be fine. He's going to come back better than ever. Just got to get all that stuff cleaned up. In the meantime, him not being available takes away from us a lot. He brings a lot of ability, so we got to all lock in and take another step as far as finding out what it takes for us to fill in that gap.”

Last season, Ivey was averaging over 17 points per game before his season-ending broken leg, so the explosive guard was contributing mightily, both from a scoring perspective and with his ball handling and willingness to run the Pistons’ offense. 

The Detroit Pistons Will Need To Shuffle Lineup With Jaden Ivey Sidelined The Pistons focus on multiple ball handlers comes at a crucial time considering Jaden Ivey's absence.

Now, losing Ivey is a big blow to the Pistons for the first several weeks of the regular season, but point guard Daniss Jenkins has emerged as one of the Pistons’ potential stop-gaps while Ivey still recovers. Both Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Cunningham have spoken glowingly about Jenkins’ performance lately, and the latter did so again after beating the Wizards. 

“He was great,” Cunningham said. "He’s been great for a long time now. He’s been doing his thing day in and day out, working, being in the gym, working [at] practice, being vocal, being loud. He makes it hard for people not to notice him, so that’s the thing I love about him so much. He’s a great dude. He’s a better dude than basketball player, for real. He’s just a guy you want around, and he took full advantage of this opportunity as far as getting real minutes in the preseason. I thought he did great.” 

Last season, Jenkins was a key member of the G-League’s Motor City Cruise and contributed more than 20 points per game when on the floor. So, Jenkins, who is currently on a two-way contract, has a key opportunity to cement his place on the Pistons lineup as the regular season progresses. 

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