Wheaton North beat Brother Rice and St. Rita by a combined score of 80-33 in the Class 7A state semifinal and title games last season. That’s two Catholic League powerhouses soundly defeated on the biggest stage.

It’s a new team this season for the Falcons, but that level of excellence and a winning culture is firmly entrenched.

Wheaton North arrived in Geneva on Friday without star linebacker Ross Dansdill, the only familiar name from last year’s state championship team. Dansdill injured his shoulder and is out for the rest of the season.

But the Falcons didn’t miss a beat, winning a thriller 20-13 thanks to two huge plays from wide receiver/defensive back Matt Kuczaj.

The junior caught a 64-yard touchdown pass from Max Howser with 5:06 left that wrenched the lead back from Geneva.

Then, on 4th and goal from the 7 he made the defensive play that saved the win. Geneva quarterback Nate Stempowski scrambled left and then right and sent a pass into the corner of the endzone. Kuczaj batted it down, preserving the Falcons’ win with just 2:30 to play.

“Last week we didn’t do a very good job of sticking to routes when the quarterback got out of the pocket,” Kuczaj said. “I knew it was fourth down so I didn’t want to risk getting a pick so I just slapped it out of bounds.”

Howser, a junior, was 8-for-12 passing for 129 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Senior Tyler O’Connor also plays quarterback for Wheaton North, he’s the running option.

O’Connor busted open what had been a dull game with a 48-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter. He had 10 carries for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

That score gave the Falcons a 12-3 lead. Geneva answered with a field goal and then Jackson Reyes set up the game’s fun finish with an interception he returned 36 yards for a touchdown to put the Vikings ahead 13-12.

“This team responds,” Howser said. “I trust that we can come back, we have done it before. We have a bunch of dogs that just love football and we are out here for each other.”

Walker Owens had 13 carries for 72 yards for Wheaton North and Luke Beedle added six carries for 44 yards.

“Geneva pushed us right to the end and had a chance to win it and luckily our kids pressured the quarterback and got him out of the pocket,” Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski said. “He had to throw on the run and we had good coverage.”

The Vikings (5-3, 3-3) have dropped two consecutive games now. They lost at Batavia last week. But the program is heading in the right direction overall.

Stempowski, a junior, was 8 of 19 passing for 120 yards with two interceptions. He had 13 carries for 49 yards for the Vikings.

Talyn Taylor, a highly-regarded sophomore, had three receptions for 32 yards. Sophomore Troy Velez contributed 13 carries for 49 yards for Geneva.

The Falcons (7-1, 5-2 DuKane) only loss this season was a 22-21 defeat at St. Charles North. They beat Batavia and shut out Providence.

“We will be a tough out in the playoffs,” Wardynski said. “If we go out and play a good game we should be able to hang with most people. We’re a good group, not a great group. But I like our chances.”

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1. Mount Carmel (8-0)

Won 60-0 vs. St. Viator

2. Loyola (7-0)

Saturday vs. St. Patrick

3. Lincoln-Way East (8-0)

Won 37-10 vs. Lockport

4. York (8-0)

Won 50-0 vs. Willowbrook

5. Simeon (7-0)

Saturday vs. No. 24 Morgan Park at Gately

6. Glenbard West (6-1)

Saturday vs. Lyons

7. Hersey (8-0)

Won 42-0 at Elk Grove

8. Lemont (8-0)

Won 42-8 at Hillcrest

9. Prospect (7-1)

Won 44-12 at Wheeling

10. Marist (5-3)

Won 44-30 vs. Carmel

11. St. Rita (6-2)

Won 26-16 at Providence

12. Warren (7-1)

Won 28-0 at Lake Forest

13. Maine South (6-2)

Won 28-7 at Evanston

14. Crete-Monee (5-2)

Saturday at Bloom

15. Neuqua Valley (6-2)

Lost 14-0 at DeKalb

16. Prairie Ridge (7-1)

Won 48-41 at Crystal Lake South

17. St. Charles North (7-1)

Won 14-7 at Glenbard North

18. Wheaton North (7-1)

Won 20-13 at Geneva

19. Batavia (6-2)

Won 41-14 at St. Charles East

20. Kankakee (7-1)

Won 42-0 vs. Thornton

21. Lake Zurich (7-1)

Won 42-7 vs. Mundelein

22. Plainfield North (8-0)

Won 40-7 vs. West Aurora

23. Naperville Central (6-2)

Won 28-0 at Metea Valley

24. Morgan Park (7-0)

Saturday vs. No. 5 Simeon at Gately

25. St. Francis (8-0)

Won 35-14 at Riverside-Brookfield

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Matt Eberflus commented on Justin Fields’ status Friday

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields was noticeably frustrated following the teams’ loss on Thursday Night Football. Head coach Matt Eberflus tried to downplay Fields’ complaints on Friday afternoon. But Fields’ point of view late Thursday night made sense. The Bears had several chances to score a second touchdown to win the game. But they fell short. Bad drops, errant throws, and turnovers cost the Bears a chance to win their third game of the season.

The Bears’ offensive line didn’t help matters. Injuries to Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins made the second-year quarterback a free-for-all for the Washington Commanders’ aggressive defensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, Fields was hit four times and pressured 15 times Thursday. He was sacked five times by the Commanders.

Following the game, Fields told reporters that he re-aggravated a shoulder injury. According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, Fields also said he was tired of where the Bears are at currently.

“We always get told that, ‘we’re almost there, we’re almost there.’ Me, personally, I’m tired of being almost there. I’m tired of being just this close. I feel I’ve been hearing it for so long now. But at the end of the day, all you can do is get back to work.”

Matt Eberflus said Fields would be ok

Fields looked sincere when he made his statements Thursday. However, Matt Eberflus appears to think Fields’ comments were just post-game irritation. According to Courtney Cronin with ESPN, Eberflus told reporters Friday that Fields is in a good spot Friday.

Matt Eberflus sounds delusional Friday. Fields was visibly frustrated with the pathetic help surrounding him on the offensive line and at wide receiver Thursday. Fields made a few bad throws, especially the interception in the red zone. But Fields’ efforts of 190 yards passing and 87 yards rushing should have been enough to set up the team to score more than seven points.

He knows his surrounding talent sucks. Fields called out himself and his teammates for not finishing. And a lot of Fields’ post-game comments were directed at his supporting cast for failing the Bears.

There’s no way Fields is pumped about the next few games on the schedule. The Bears go to Foxborough to play the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football in Week 7. Following that game, the Bears will face the NFL’s best pass rusher, Micah Parsons, in Dallas Week 8.

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Matt Eberflus commented on Justin Fields’ status Friday

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields was noticeably frustrated following the teams’ loss on Thursday Night Football. Head coach Matt Eberflus tried to downplay Fields’ complaints on Friday afternoon. But Fields’ point of view late Thursday night made sense. The Bears had several chances to score a second touchdown to win the game. But they fell short. Bad drops, errant throws, and turnovers cost the Bears a chance to win their third game of the season.

The Bears’ offensive line didn’t help matters. Injuries to Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins made the second-year quarterback a free-for-all for the Washington Commanders’ aggressive defensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, Fields was hit four times and pressured 15 times Thursday. He was sacked five times by the Commanders.

Following the game, Fields told reporters that he re-aggravated a shoulder injury. According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, Fields also said he was tired of where the Bears are at currently.

“We always get told that, ‘we’re almost there, we’re almost there.’ Me, personally, I’m tired of being almost there. I’m tired of being just this close. I feel I’ve been hearing it for so long now. But at the end of the day, all you can do is get back to work.”

Matt Eberflus said Fields would be ok

Fields looked sincere when he made his statements Thursday. However, Matt Eberflus appears to think Fields’ comments were just post-game irritation. According to Courtney Cronin with ESPN, Eberflus told reporters Friday that Fields is in a good spot Friday.

Matt Eberflus sounds delusional Friday. Fields was visibly frustrated with the pathetic help surrounding him on the offensive line and at wide receiver Thursday. Fields made a few bad throws, especially the interception in the red zone. But Fields’ efforts of 190 yards passing and 87 yards rushing should have been enough to set up the team to score more than seven points.

He knows his surrounding talent sucks. Fields called out himself and his teammates for not finishing. And a lot of Fields’ post-game comments were directed at his supporting cast for failing the Bears.

There’s no way Fields is pumped about the next few games on the schedule. The Bears go to Foxborough to play the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football in Week 7. Following that game, the Bears will face the NFL’s best pass rusher, Micah Parsons, in Dallas Week 8.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Through two games, the Blackhawks have been what the hockey world expected them to be: Losers.

They’ve been fairly competitive losers, they’ve been losers in very difficult matchups and it’s not exactly the players’ or coaches’ faults they’ve been losers, but there’s no way around the fact the Hawks have lost both games.

The two losses — 5-2 at the Avalanche on Wednesday and 1-0 at the Golden Knights on Thursday — did finally provide some meaningful data worth analyzing, though. So before the Hawks wrap up their opening road trip Saturday against the Sharks, here are four major takeaways from their first 120 minutes of hockey.

Penalty kill adjusting

One of new coach Luke Richardson’s most noticeable and discussed early changes was to the Hawks’ penalty-kill strategy. The new approach is far more aggressive, pressuring opposing power plays in the neutral zone and even at times forechecking into the offensive zone.

“A lot of teams fall back into a 1-3 and take their chances at the blue line,” Richardson said during training camp. “I don’t like those odds against the best players in the world. I’d rather disrupt things up ice. They’re not used to it, they don’t like it, and it bodes well for our team, especially adding a little more speed this year.”

The preseason results were encouraging: the Hawks’ penalty kill allowed thefourth-fewest shot attempts and second-fewest scoring chances in the NHL.

But the Avalanche’s loaded ‘PP’ units — Cale Makar in particular — were able to break through the Hawks’ pressure Wednesday, take advantage of the extra space they found after doing so and score four times on six opportunities.

On their second power-play goal, the Avalanche executed a high-low-high play in which Hawks defensemen Connor Murphy and Jarred Tinordi both focused on Mikko Rantanen at the goal line, leaving Artturi Lehkonen open in the slot to bury the goal. Richardson singled that out as a teaching moment.

“We have to seal those off,” Richardson said. “The goalie has no chance on that. [If] we give up the low wrap to the goalie, we have a chance on that. That’s on us to kill those and make sure we give the lowest percentage play.”

On Thursday, the Hawks’ penalty kill looked more comfortable with the new scheme, squashing all three Knights power plays and surrendering no high-danger chances during the final two. Richardson attributed that to being more organized with the up-ice pressure and having better-placed sticks in the defensive zone.

Defensemen Jack Johnson and Seth Jones and forwards MacKenzie Entwistle and Sam Lafferty have received the most shorthanded ice time so far.

Lacking offensive firepower

The most glaring statistic of all through the Hawks’ first two games is their even-strength goal total: Zero.

The offense has generally looked just as harmless as that goose egg implies, recording only 35 even-strength shots on goal. The Penguins, for comparison’s sake, have recorded 37 — and they’ve only played one game. The power play certainly hasn’t been dominant either, but at least it has found the net, thanks to Jonathan Toews and Max Domi’s man-advantage goals Wednesday.

All of the Hawks’ per-60-minute rates at even strength (46.8 shot attempts, 21.5 shots on goal, 21.5 scoring chances and 1.99 expected goals) would’ve ranked last in the league last season.

Although some upward regression is inevitable, those numbers are alarming, not least because they match up with any simple eye-test evaluation of the Hawks’ roster: Outside of Kane, they just don’t have any proven high-end scorers.

Domi has historically been a pass-first playmaker and Andreas Athanasiou has historically struggled to finish most of the plentiful chances his speed creates, and neither has done anything to indicate they’ll be different on the Hawks. Toews centering Taylor Raddysh and Tyler Johnson has clearly been the Hawks’ best line so far, but they’re never going to be an explosive trio, either.

The Hawks will add one more forward to the mix, albeit a defensive-minded one, this weekend when Jason Dickinson — having finally cleared Canadian immigration — joins the team. Buddy Robinson was sent down Friday in a corresponding move.

Defensive shuffling

The Hawks’ defensive health woes may finally be turning a corner, with Connor Murphy surviving two pucks-to-the-face to play in both games and Caleb Jones returning from his shoulder injury Thursday.

“When you’re playing, you don’t really feel it much — you have the adrenaline going — but it’s definitely a little sore after the game,” Jones said. “[I felt] a little bit of rust. I’ve got a little bit of work to do to clean some things up. But there’s some positive stuff there I can build off.”

With Jake McCabe also possibly returning during the opening homestand, the Hawks will soon be able to reassign one or two defensemen to Rockford, with Alex Vlasic — who hasn’t even played yet anyway due to a minor leg injury — the most likely candidate.

Alec Regula and Filip Roos, the other two “bubble” guys who made the initial roster, have both been bright spots. They’re the only two Hawks defensemen with positive even-strength scoring-chance ratios (although Regula’s sample size is only one game). Roos holding his own in his first two North American games has been particularly impressive.

“He’s not afraid to shoot it,” Richardson said of Roos. “He moves the puck crisply. That’s a little bit of that European skill you see a lot of from Swedish players that come over.”

With so little inexperience and consistency in the defensive lineup, Seth Jones has been counted on to handle massive workloads. He played 25:05 on Wednesday and 27:05 on Thursday.

Solid goaltending

Of all the Hawks’ obvious weaknesses entering the season, the goaltending duo of Petr Mrazek and Alex Stalock seemed perhaps the biggest. But so far, they’ve been the best position group.

Stalock was arguably heroic Thursday. His heart-stopping, ultra-aggressive style — charging out of his net at will all night — made all 36 of his saves (on 37 shots against) exhilarating. As a result, he currently leads the league in goals saved above expected (GSAA) at plus-2.3, per Natural Stat Trick.

Mrazek’s .857 raw save percentage Wednesday doesn’t impress at first glance, but the Hawks’ PK struggles — and the Avalanche’s propensity for tipping pucks — can be primarily blamed for that. At even strength, Mrazek stopped 24 of 25 with a plus-0.9 GSAA.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Through two games, the Blackhawks have been what the hockey world expected them to be: Losers.

They’ve been fairly competitive losers, they’ve been losers in very difficult matchups and it’s not exactly the players’ or coaches’ faults they’ve been losers, but there’s no way around the fact the Hawks have lost both games.

The two losses — 5-2 at the Avalanche on Wednesday and 1-0 at the Golden Knights on Thursday — did finally provide some meaningful data worth analyzing, though. So before the Hawks wrap up their opening road trip Saturday against the Sharks, here are four major takeaways from their first 120 minutes of hockey.

Penalty kill adjusting

One of new coach Luke Richardson’s most noticeable and discussed early changes was to the Hawks’ penalty-kill strategy. The new approach is far more aggressive, pressuring opposing power plays in the neutral zone and even at times forechecking into the offensive zone.

“A lot of teams fall back into a 1-3 and take their chances at the blue line,” Richardson said during training camp. “I don’t like those odds against the best players in the world. I’d rather disrupt things up ice. They’re not used to it, they don’t like it, and it bodes well for our team, especially adding a little more speed this year.”

The preseason results were encouraging: the Hawks’ penalty kill allowed thefourth-fewest shot attempts and second-fewest scoring chances in the NHL.

But the Avalanche’s loaded ‘PP’ units — Cale Makar in particular — were able to break through the Hawks’ pressure Wednesday, take advantage of the extra space they found after doing so and score four times on six opportunities.

On their second power-play goal, the Avalanche executed a high-low-high play in which Hawks defensemen Connor Murphy and Jarred Tinordi both focused on Mikko Rantanen at the goal line, leaving Artturi Lehkonen open in the slot to bury the goal. Richardson singled that out as a teaching moment.

“We have to seal those off,” Richardson said. “The goalie has no chance on that. [If] we give up the low wrap to the goalie, we have a chance on that. That’s on us to kill those and make sure we give the lowest percentage play.”

On Thursday, the Hawks’ penalty kill looked more comfortable with the new scheme, squashing all three Knights power plays and surrendering no high-danger chances during the final two. Richardson attributed that to being more organized with the up-ice pressure and having better-placed sticks in the defensive zone.

Defensemen Jack Johnson and Seth Jones and forwards MacKenzie Entwistle and Sam Lafferty have received the most shorthanded ice time so far.

Lacking offensive firepower

The most glaring statistic of all through the Hawks’ first two games is their even-strength goal total: Zero.

The offense has generally looked just as harmless as that goose egg implies, recording only 35 even-strength shots on goal. The Penguins, for comparison’s sake, have recorded 37 — and they’ve only played one game. The power play certainly hasn’t been dominant either, but at least it has found the net, thanks to Jonathan Toews and Max Domi’s man-advantage goals Wednesday.

All of the Hawks’ per-60-minute rates at even strength (46.8 shot attempts, 21.5 shots on goal, 21.5 scoring chances and 1.99 expected goals) would’ve ranked last in the league last season.

Although some upward regression is inevitable, those numbers are alarming, not least because they match up with any simple eye-test evaluation of the Hawks’ roster: Outside of Kane, they just don’t have any proven high-end scorers.

Domi has historically been a pass-first playmaker and Andreas Athanasiou has historically struggled to finish most of the plentiful chances his speed creates, and neither has done anything to indicate they’ll be different on the Hawks. Toews centering Taylor Raddysh and Tyler Johnson has clearly been the Hawks’ best line so far, but they’re never going to be an explosive trio, either.

The Hawks will add one more forward to the mix, albeit a defensive-minded one, this weekend when Jason Dickinson — having finally cleared Canadian immigration — joins the team. Buddy Robinson was sent down Friday in a corresponding move.

Defensive shuffling

The Hawks’ defensive health woes may finally be turning a corner, with Connor Murphy surviving two pucks-to-the-face to play in both games and Caleb Jones returning from his shoulder injury Thursday.

“When you’re playing, you don’t really feel it much — you have the adrenaline going — but it’s definitely a little sore after the game,” Jones said. “[I felt] a little bit of rust. I’ve got a little bit of work to do to clean some things up. But there’s some positive stuff there I can build off.”

With Jake McCabe also possibly returning during the opening homestand, the Hawks will soon be able to reassign one or two defensemen to Rockford, with Alex Vlasic — who hasn’t even played yet anyway due to a minor leg injury — the most likely candidate.

Alec Regula and Filip Roos, the other two “bubble” guys who made the initial roster, have both been bright spots. They’re the only two Hawks defensemen with positive even-strength scoring-chance ratios (although Regula’s sample size is only one game). Roos holding his own in his first two North American games has been particularly impressive.

“He’s not afraid to shoot it,” Richardson said of Roos. “He moves the puck crisply. That’s a little bit of that European skill you see a lot of from Swedish players that come over.”

With so little inexperience and consistency in the defensive lineup, Seth Jones has been counted on to handle massive workloads. He played 25:05 on Wednesday and 27:05 on Thursday.

Solid goaltending

Of all the Hawks’ obvious weaknesses entering the season, the goaltending duo of Petr Mrazek and Alex Stalock seemed perhaps the biggest. But so far, they’ve been the best position group.

Stalock was arguably heroic Thursday. His heart-stopping, ultra-aggressive style — charging out of his net at will all night — made all 36 of his saves (on 37 shots against) exhilarating. As a result, he currently leads the league in goals saved above expected (GSAA) at plus-2.3, per Natural Stat Trick.

Mrazek’s .857 raw save percentage Wednesday doesn’t impress at first glance, but the Hawks’ PK struggles — and the Avalanche’s propensity for tipping pucks — can be primarily blamed for that. At even strength, Mrazek stopped 24 of 25 with a plus-0.9 GSAA.

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Justin Fields, who is in his first entire season as a starter, and the new-look offense for the Chicago Bears under new coordinator Luke Getsy, put up yet another subpar effort. Fields completed 14 27 passes for 190 yards, one touchdown to Pettis, and one interception overall on Thursday. With 583 passing yards through the first five games of the season, Chicago had the worst passing offense in the NFL going into the matchup on Thursday.

Thursday night, Fields leading receivers were Dante Pettis and Darnell Mooney, the latter of whom was targeted on the failed final play of the game as the Commanders defeated the Bears 12-7 at Soldier Field. Last week, though, Ihmir Smith-Marsette made a crucial mistake by failing to get out of bounds, which allowed the Minnesota Vikings to strip the ball and seal a victory over the Bears.

Per Daniel Chavkin, On Thursday night, one of Fields’ former college coaches observed the receivers’ difficulties. During the game, Ohio State’s wide receivers coach, Brian Hartline, tweeted his objective view on the Bears’ receivers.

Following a successful NFL career, Hartline has spent the last five years at Ohio State, the final four of those as the wide receivers coach. When Fields played for the Buckeyes in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he was a coaching staff member. 

Large receivers are in high demand right now, and Ohio State is home to two first-round prospects in the 2022 NFL draft. Hartline is there, fore aware of the presence or absence of significant receiver expertise.

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If the starting power forward spot has been decided for the Bulls as of Friday, coach Billy Donovan is pulling off one heck of an acting job.

Throughout this week of practices, Donovan continued to insist that the competition would go on through the weekend and into the two team practices next week, before the Bulls fly down to South Beach and prepare to tip off the season against the Heat.

“Certainly the rest of this week and going into next week, we’ll do that,” Donovan said, when asked about experimenting with different looks and combinations.

However, the only combination that is really being looked at remained is Patrick Williams better suited to develop with the starting unit or with the reserves?

While Derrick Jones Jr. did get one of the preseason starts, that scenario remained the longshot. It’s basically down to either Williams or Javonte Green, and don’t expect Donovan to reveal his decision until as late as Wednesday, before tip-off.

Green did start twice against the Heat last season, and was not much of a factor in both losses. Donovan went small in the third and final meeting of the season with Miami, starting Alex Caruso, alongside Zach LaVine, Ayo Dosunmu, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, but that was even less successful. Caruso went scoreless and the Bulls were blown out by 18.

What Donovan, however, has reiterated several times throughout the power forward competition is it will likely remain fluid. Whoever gets the nod in Miami might not necessarily be starting by the time the Bulls then travel to Washington.

Whether it will be performance based or matchup based remained unanswered.

‘Scary’ Terry

Dalen Terry has shown that he’s rarely short on confidence, but the rookie did admit that his 11-point outburst in just 18 minutes against New Orleans in the preseason opener was huge in justifying that he not only belonged at this level, but that his high-energy playstyle had a place.

“I got confidence after the first game, obviously,” Terry told reporters. “I’m a pretty confident person. I don’t really think there’s a lot of things I can’t do, so when it came to that first game and just how the energy picked up, I just tried to make sure that every time I came into the game [after that] I picked the energy up and just made the level of competitiveness jump every time.”

That showed, as Terry finished a combined plus-35 in plus/minus in the four preseason games.

Rough entry

There will be no easing into the season for this roster, and the schedule through the first 15 games can be thanked for that.

Not only do the Bulls open up in Miami – a team they have gone 1-7 against the last three seasons – but 12 of those first 15 games are against playoff or playoff-caliber teams.

The only chances to come up for air in that time? At Washington on Oct. 21, home against the Pacers on Oct. 26, and then down in San Antonio on Oct. 28.

After the game with the Spurs, the Bulls play Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Boston, Toronto twice, and New Orleans twice with a Denver game in between.

Addition

The Bulls announced they have signed Kostas Antetokounmpo to a two-way contract. Kostas is the younger brother of Milwaukee standout Giannis Antetokounmpo.

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Our second preview of the Central Division takes us to the young and promising Detroit Pistons

Part two of a look inside the Central Division. I looked inside the Indiana Pacers first, which you can read here. Today, a team creeping towards relevancy with an eye on a potential play-in? The Detroit Pistons.

Detroit Pistons 2021-22 Recap

Record: 23-59 (14th in Eastern Conference)

vs Bulls: 0-4

Memorable moment: Isaiah Stewart vs the Lakers.

Detroit Pistons 2022 Off-Season

Traded Jerami Grant to the Portland Trailblazers in exchange for a future first-round pick.

Drafted Guard Jaden Ivey 5th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, traded up to draft Center-Forward Jalen Duren 13th overall.

Acquired Forward Bojan Bogdanovich from the Utah Jazz.

2022 Preview

The Detroit Pistons have made the playoffs twice in 13 years. They haven’t won a playoff GAME since 2008. Long gone are the glory days of the Bad Boy Pistons or the mid-2000s teams who went to the Eastern Conference Finals six years in a row.

However, after much gloom and doom, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel for a franchise that’s been stuck in the mud. They have a young back-court duo of Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey that the franchise can build around for the next ten years. By acquiring Bojan Bogdanovich in a trade in September, barring any major injury, all signs point to them pushing to be competitive and trying to make a play-in tournament spot.

Cade Cunningham Leap?

The first overall pick of the 2021 NBA draft, Cade Cunningham certainly didn’t disappoint Piston fans and NBA junkies. He averaged 17.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game last season, finishing third in rookie of the year voting. While not having jump-out-the-gym athleticism, his overall knack for the game and creativity scoring and playmaking showed how special of a player he can be for a franchise that was desperate for a franchise-type player. With more shooting and playmaking now surrounding him, I expect his 41.6 FG% to rise and the efficiency to follow.

Jaden Ivey

I’m so high on Jaden Ivey that he gets his own section. Comparisons to Ja Morant are deserved because of how quick and fast he is, as well as he attacks the rim, but right now they are different players. Ivey is a menace on defense, and he’s not going to bring the ball up every time being paired with Cunningham.

As the season progresses, I expect Ivey to work with the second unit more and more, where he and Cunningham can have their minutes staggered but be on the court together during end-of-game situations. The Pistons being able to get him fifth felt like the biggest steal of the draft and also addressed their biggest need, a perimeter presence on defense.

The Rest of the Roster

This roster is no slouch. While their key players are very young, players like Guard Cory Joseph, Forward Rodney McGruder, and Center Nerlens Noel all bring a sense of professionalism to this team and will help those young guys through the growing pains of an 82-game season. I’ve mentioned Bojan Bogdanovich, who’s going to be a key shooter off the bench and will most likely finish games for them, he will also bring veteran leadership to Detroit.

Prediction

The only thing going against Detroit possibly making the play-in tournament is that almost every single team in the Eastern Conference thinks they have a shot to get in this season. While I like this roster, they are still a couple of years away from playoff contention. Watching the growth of Cunningham and Ivey should be fun this season and that alone makes them a watchable league-pass team.

 

 

 

 

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