Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham Preparing To Face Miami Heat, Giannis

Now that the Detroit Pistons have their first win in the books, the team can take a second to look around after a frenetic offseason both inside and outside of the Motor City. 

From a Detroit perspective, the Pistons primarily traded aging pieces for a more youthful supply of perimeter shooting, but the rest of the Eastern Conference made a series of home run swings to theoretically challenge for a title. And over the next week, the Pistons will have an opportunity to square off against two of those squads— the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers— after their turnover-laden offseason. 

”Both of them will be very different,” Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham said after practice. “Obviously, Miami with Giannis, applying stuff that we had to do against the Bucks. He’s a game plan in itself, then obviously Philly being LeBron and Jaylen Brown, both of those guys are high-level players that you have to game plan around. So, it’ll be a different game, but it’ll be fun. You get to compete at the highest level, and we’re ready for that.”

As Cunningham explained, the Sixers and the Heat are two teams that many have already pencilled into the Eastern Conference Finals after their productive summertime periods, but it’s all together too early to make such bold predictions. In their first game of the season, the Heat were boat raced by the Minnesota Timberwolves to the tune of a 131-106 loss on Wednesday night with Giannis as the only Miami player to cross the 15-point threshold, so clearly at least one of those teams needed more time to gel. 

From a stylistic standpoint, the Heat have one of the most rigid defensive front courts in the NBA with Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo patrolling the paint, but the squad seems a bit one-dimensional at this stage. Miami did go out and add Klay Thompson during the summer, but he’s far removed from the Splash Brothers days back when Golden State was a perennial Finals contender. 

As for the Sixers, Philly had the benefit of adding LeBron James, an all-time legend of the game, and Jaylen Brown during the same offseason. That much firepower joining a team all at once could throw off the group’s chemistry, but so far James looks comfortable playing like the most complete role player to have ever existed. In his Sixers debut, James posted 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as Philadelphia went into Madison Square Garden and walked away with a six-point win on the New York Knicks’ banner-raising occasion. 

For the most part, the Sixers stuck to their main five-man starting unit for most of the game. In fact, Philly only used four substitute players off the bench at all, and Jabari Walker’s three minute-cameo makes it feel more like just three reserve players. The Pistons used a similar approach in their comeback victory over the Boston Celtics on Opening Day, though Detroit still leaned on their bench a little bit more than their Philadelphia counterpart. 

In all, the Pistons relied heavily on Javonte Green and Duncan Robinson to pull Detroit back into the Opening Day matchup. But thanks to their perimeter shooting, the Pistons closed that gap and started the regular season with a 1-0 record. 

Either way, look for a pair of entertaining Pistons clashes over the next week as the team faces some stiff Eastern Conference competition starting with the Heat on Friday, Oct. 23 at 8 pm.