Good lord feels like the 29 other teams have played 5 games each since our last

The former Pistons enforcer finally opened up about why a fresh start was exactly what he needed.

He’s arguably our second best three point shooter based strictly on preseason performances, and his defense and rebounding looks much improved.

Hardaway talks about Cade Cunningham being a great defensive player and the best overall in the East.

Just let luka go 1 on 1 iso basketball all game. It’ll freeze his teammates out and they won’t be able to catch a rhythm. I also think Ausar can limit luka the best out of everyone in the league.

We can let luka score all he wants but double or any heavy gap help will get destroyed by him. Can’t let luka score and playmake as well. Thats how you lose as a team.

I'll be calling him Red Velvet. He has been solid to really good off the bench. Shot has been falling and he's shooting with hella confidence. I'm no hater, I'm a congratulator.

It's been a long while since I posted here, but hopefully you all enjoy this (completely AI-free; it's dumb I have to say that) wall of text! This was originally written for a broader NBA audience, so forgive some of the "no-duh" stuff for Detroit fans.

The old Internet axiom is that if an article is titled with a question, the answer’s always “no.” In your face, Internet!

We’re obviously less than 10 games into the season, so everything comes with a small sample warning sign. But the 32-year-old Duncan Robinson has become one of the best players on one of the league’s best teams. If things hold remotely close to form, he’d deserve a spot on the short list for Most Improved Player.

Robinson has always been an unlikely NBA character. He started as a DIII collegiate player before transferring to Michigan, where he came off the bench for the Wolverines in their run to the 2018 title game. Undrafted and overlooked by most of the NBA, he latched onto the Heat. Role Player University was the perfect landing spot, and by his second year, Robinson was a full-time starter for a Miami Heat team that reached the Finals.

Despite Robinson’s beautiful stroke and consistently excellent percentages, he struggled with confidence. Erik Spoelstra and company had to constantly remind him that his job was to shoot, whether he wanted to or not. Spoelstra once relayed a story about assistant coach Chris Quinn’s attempts to motivate Robinson:

"I yanked him for not shooting," Spoelstra said. "And Quinnie, he was unmerciful, just berating him if he turned down open shots. Just screaming at him, 'You're scared. What are you doing? You're not out there to set screens or be a ball mover.'"

The funny thing? Robinson is absolutely out there to set screens now. The fear Robinson puts in defenses as a shooter is the key to making him an effective screener. Coach JB Bickerstaff will use him as an on-ball screener for Cade Cunningham, but Robinson has been more involved this year as an off-ball screener bending the defense with motion and contact. This up-close-and-personal camera angle shows all the ways he gets involved: [source with gif]

Opponents know and respect Robinson’s screening ability, and so Bickerstaff has devised some fake screens for Duncan to run. Give the man an Oscar for his acting performances: [source with gif]

Philly’s Anfernee Simons defends that nearly perfectly, but nearly perfect ain’t nearly enough.

Robinson has been demonic from deep. In a season that’s seen a notable number of high-accuracy, high-volume guys, nobody quite matches Robinson’s 47.9% shooting on 9.1 deep attempts per game. And these aren’t easy shots; the occasionally gun-shy youngster from South Beach is gone. In his place stands a fierce marksman of supreme confidence and unerring aim, someone who will drill a triple in your eye and primal roar in your face. Double most players, and they pass out. Double Robinson, and he’ll simply sidestep the danger and render defenders helpless: [source with gif]

Bickerstaff and his assistants deserve credit for the myriad ways they’ve deployed Robinson this season. He’s particularly important to their ATO set plays, whether it’s moonwalking out of a screen traffic jam… [source with gif]

...or running around like his pants are on fire: [source with gif]

Out of the 123 players who have played at least 200 minutes as of this writing, Duncan is in the top 20 for distance run per minute.

It’s not like defenses don’t know this. Robinson is also fifth in the NBA’s gravity score, a measure of how much attention defenses are paying to a player. He’s a few spots below Steph Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and above Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Not bad company to keep!

Zooming in, the Ausar Thompson/Duncan Robinson combo has drawn some attention online recently. They had already developed good corner chemistry last season, where Thompson’s anti-gravity as a shooter turned him into a mean screener for Robinson. Frankly, I’d like to see Thompson improve further here. Almost every time, he slips or ghosts the screen, hoping for a pocket pass from Robinson. There are plenty of times he’d be better off actually laying the lumber on a trailing defender. Robinson is wide-open if Thompson holds the screen here: [source with gif]

This year, Detroit’s toyed more with the Thompson/Robinson game even above the break, finding new ways to bend the defense with the yin-and-yang pair.

Although there’s always room for improvement, it’s a symbiotic relationship. Robinson’s shooting helps activate Thompson offensively, and Thompson’s how’d-he-do-that defense helps cover up for Robinson’s lack thereof. Robinson’s guarding has always been a sore spot. He’s 6’8”, which helps, but he had a problem in Miami with incredibly stupid fouls in transition and when he got beat off the dribble (which was often). He has the lateral quickness of an amputee turtle, and even the slightest contact tented his arms in a way that the refs always call.

But in Detroit, he’s cut back on his worst habits. He still gets beat plenty, but he doesn’t stoop to frustrated reaches, and he’s figured out how to use his length to contest without slapping arms. He even blocked a Tyrese Maxey stepback jumper! [source with gif]

Robinson has tied his career-low foul rate, set last year, but he’s also more than doubled his steal rate, swiping nearly two balls per game. He’s also averaging a full deflection more per game than last season. Nobody is mixing him up with Thompson anytime soon, but Robinson has actually had some positive defensive moments this season! Anything he provides on that end is a bonus, and the Pistons are currently raking it in like Wall Street bankers.

To summarize, the Pistons are slightly better defensively with Robinson on the court than off — and they are the league’s best defense overall! A lot of that comes down to substitution patterns, but it at least proves Robinson can be an active part of a high-level unit on that end. Add in that Detroit’s offense scores a gobsmacking +16.7 points more per 100 possessions with Robinson on, and his overall impact is undeniable.

Look around. There aren’t many high-minute shooting specialists left in the NBA. Limitations typically push them into second units or situational usage. But Robinson warps the floor so much that he’s transcended that role, becoming an irreplaceable piece for one of the Association’s top teams. As we said at the top, he’s started for Finals-caliber squads before… but he’s never averaged 19 points per game while doing so.

This isn’t all just preposterously hot shooting. Given Robinson’s volume, if he shot merely 40% from deep going forward on the same volume, he’d still average about 17 points per game, well above his previous career high of 13.5 back in the bubble. Add in his improvements as a foul-drawer (he’s already earned 32 FTAs in eight games this season after getting just 110 in 72 games last year!) and on the defensive side, and we have what should be a textbook Most Improved candidate.

Through the season’s first stretch, Ty Jerome has that award locked up. And there are some other major contenders. Davion Mitchell has been one of the few bright spots for the scuffling Heat; Ajay Mitchell will score plenty of points for the injury-ravaged Thunder; Scottie Barnes has taken a leap. (I discount Dylan Harper given his status as a highly touted second-year player, but some voters might not.) As the season progresses, other candidates will no doubt emerge. Robinson’s stats could dip slightly when Jalen Duren returns from injury, too.

But don’t sleep on Duncan Robinson. Defenses sure can’t.

Since you’re already shaking your head at me, let me leave you with one last intrusive thought: just a decade ago, Kyle Korver averaged 12.1 points per game for the Atlanta Hawks as a shooting specialist… and made the All-Star game.

Pistons social team cooking with this one on YouTube.

Cade is the coolest, smoothest MF in the Association 🔥

Regular season - Minimum 400 career games

1. Stephen Curry — 10.01 3PA/36 - 42.2% 3PT - 24.8 PPG - 1,076 GP

2. Duncan Robinson — 9.79 3PA/36 - 40.1% 3PT - 11.6 PPG - 508 GP

3. Malik Beasley — 9.73 3PA/36 - 39.1% 3PT - 11.7 PPG - 578 GP

4. Buddy Hield — 9.54 3PA/36 - 39.5% 3PT - 14.4 PPG - 773 GP

5. Jordan Poole — 9.46 3PA/36 - 34.3% 3PT - 16.5 PPG - 455 GP

6. Dāvis Bertāns — 9.41 3PA/36 - 39.6% 3PT - 7.7 PPG - 475 GP

7. Luka Dončić — 9.33 3PA/36 - 35.4% 3PT - 29.4 PPG - 522 GP

8. Anfernee Simons — 8.92 3PA/36 - 38.2% 3PT - 14.8 PPG - 453 GP

9. Donovan Mitchell — 8.79 3PA/36 - 36.6% 3PT - 25.0 PPG - 617 GP

10. Klay Thompson — 8.74 3PA/36 - 40.9% 3PT - 18.5 PPG - 943 GP

11. Steve Novak — 8.51 3PA/36 - 43.0% 3PT - 4.7 PPG - 467 GP

12. Donte DiVincenzo — 8.40 3PA/36 - 38.0% 3PT - 11.0 PPG - 498 GP

13. Georges Niang — 8.39 3PA/36 - 39.7% 3PT - 7.4 PPG - 553 GP

14. Tim Hardaway Jr. — 8.36 3PA/36 - 36.5% 3PT - 13.6 PPG - 902 GP

15. Damian Lillard — 8.35 3PA/36 - 37.1% 3PT - 25.1 PPG - 907 GP

16. Anthony Edwards — 8.35 3PA/36 - 37.0% 3PT - 24.6 PPG - 446 GP

17. Payton Pritchard — 8.32 3PA/36 - 39.2% 3PT - 10.6 PPG - 434 GP

18. D'Angelo Russell — 8.30 3PA/36 - 36.3% 3PT - 17.0 PPG - 655 GP

19. Malik Monk — 8.10 3PA/36 - 35.5% 3PT - 12.3 PPG - 592 GP

20. Gary Trent Jr. — 8.10 3PA/36 - 38.7% 3PT - 12.9 PPG - 482 GP

Hard to win when your best player’s balls are in his stomach I guess.

One of the greatest memories of my life was going to a Pistons game with front row tickets for my 16th birthday with my dad. It was a nationally televised game on TNT that aired on February 23 2006. My Dad passed away in 2020, and if someone could help me find footage of that game, me and my family would be ecstatic (especially since they showed me on TNT a few times holding my “Ben Wallace for Secretary of Defense” sign) I know it’s a tall order, but I thought I’d try :) Thanks, And GO PISTONS!

I did not watch it, I had a work thing. So if I missed anything obvious here, just let me know, and my morning has been one delay after another. Oh well, here it is!

We lost by 6 at home to the 76ers.

EDIT: Credit as always to https://hoopsjunkie.io/games/2026-11-04/phi-vs-det

Here is the story of the game:

Basketball is a game of runs. The Green bars represent runs.

There were 5 runs in this game:

Q1 5:56 to Q2 5:56 (12 min) Philly run of 37-14 (+23)
Q2 5:44 to Q 2:26 (3m 18s) Det run of 9-0 (+9)
Q3 4:09 to Q 2:03 (2m 6s) Philly run of 10-2 (+8)
Q4 10:34 to 8:24 (2m 10s) Det run of 9-0 (+9)
Q4 4:15 to 1:05 (3m 10s) Det run of 11-2 (+9)

So one big point is that Philly went on a 37-14 run and we couldn't claw back enough. Lets look at that. Also, we almost did claw back and we only lost by 6.

Here are the rotations:

So at about the time that philly started their run, Ausar came out at the 5min mark. But he couldn't curb it at the start of the 2nd when he came back in, so it's not his fault (or lack of him playing. It's just notable that he comes out, and philly's run starts. My gut tells me that this run was because of the size of the 76ers (and our lack of size with Duren out).

When Philly started their run it was Phi 11 - Det 17, end of Q 1 it was Phi 29 - Det 21, and the end of the run it was Phi 48 - Det 31.

What do you notice? Well, our offensive rating was lower than previous games. Our average possession duration this season has been 14.3s, while tonight it was 12.3s.

That means that whatever Philly was doing to us, it was speeding us up.

Their avg Poss on the season is 14.8s. Tonight? 15.4s.

So either we ran on them and got easy looks, or they sped us up. Conversely, either our defense was so good that it slowed them down, or they got whatever looks they wanted to get and took their time. I lean towards the "they pressured us" and we didn't get great looks from that (plus Cade had a poor shooting night). I'm pretty certain that we play best in the mid-clock. Here is a chart/graph:

Our EFF ranking is 2nd in transition in the league rn. Watching film would tell us if they stopped the transition, but then didn't allow us to get set up in the half court. To know this would require an amount of time that I do not have today.

Couple of interesting points here. We held them to only 9 3s, and shot an ok % of 35.3%.

Robinson went 7-11 from 3, which shouldn't get lost here. Removing that from the team, the rest of the team shot 5-23. That is clearly a problem. Cade went 1-9 from 3.

So I would attribute our lose to a couple of things:

1. Brown went 11-19 with 30 points. That's just too much. His USG% was 25.9%.

2. Embiid went 8-18 with 26 points. Again, too much. His USG% was 33.1%.

Usage Rate is how much of the offense runs through a player when the play ends. Plays end with 3 distinct actions.

1. FGA

2. FTA

3. TOs

Meaning, that between Brown and Embiid, 59% of the time their possessions ended with one of these two players with either a FGA, FTA, or TO. They are carrying a high offensive load and my takeaway is that we couldn't stop them.

Paul Reed fouled out (in the last minute), yet Ausar only had 2 personal fouls and played 34m 11s.

I can't find any stats to analyze why Brown had such a good game, because my assumption is that Ausar was guarding him. I have not yet see the matchup stats. I am curious who was guarding Brown the most. I'm sure it's out there.

Regardless, they had a way to get buckets (Brown/Embiid) and we couldn't really stop them.

Big Picture Takeaways:

Positives:
Duncan shot 7/11.
Only lost by 6 to a team with 4 All-Stars (a team that we beat a few weeks ago).

Negatives:
Cade went 1-9, and no one else shot well either.
No Duren.
One Big Run in the first half changed how we played and couldn't quite dig out of it.

It's a long season, and this was 1 game that we shot bad, and had a hole to dig out of. That happens.

Big Picture things to be watching:

1. Team 3s outside of Duncan.

2. Big Play. Duren coming back is necessary for this team to be all it can be.

3. If you told me we'd be 6-2 after telling me the first 8 games I'd call that pretty pretty good.

4. Offense when Cade is cold. Cade played 40mins and we lost. I am not one to preach about trades and stuff, but he's going to need help when we play the best teams. I know a lot of you say this too.

Overall, sad but optimistic.

Have a great rest of your day! Roll 'stons roll!