Pistons Notes: Depth, Cunningham, Jenkins, Sasser, More

Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has used an extended rotation for much of the season, with 11 players currently on the roster averaging at least 16.8 minutes per game. As Hunter Patterson of The Athletic details, that depth will be tested in the short term, with two of the team’s most important players – Cade Cunningham (collapsed lung) and Isaiah Stewart (calf strain) – currently unavailable.

“We’re so comfortable with the depth and the guys that we have, and they’ve proven they can help us,” Bickerstaff said earlier in March. “Typically, in the past, nine is a great number (for a playoff rotation). But, s–t, we’re struggling to get away from 12. Because there are so many guys that have played for us this year that have helped us win. So, there’s going to be some situational decisions.”

In those comments to the media a couple weeks ago, Bickerstaff went on to single out Paul Reed, Marcus Sasser, and Daniss Jenkins as reserves who have made the most of opportunities to play rotation roles. As Patterson points out, all three of those three players – along with Kevin Huerter – have received DNP-CDs at times when Detroit is closer to full health, but they’ll likely be relied upon for regular minutes with Cunningham and Stewart out.

In addition to looking to help the Pistons maintain their spot atop the Eastern Conference, players like Reed, Sasser, Jenkins, and Huerter could also be making their cases for places in the team’s playoff rotation based on how they perform in the next couple weeks, Patterson adds.

Here’s more on the Pistons:

• When they confirmed today that Cunningham is dealing with a collapsed lung, the Pistons ruled out the star guard for two weeks. How much more time might he miss beyond that initial timeline? That remains to be seen, but Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press spoke on Thursday to Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos – a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins – about what causes a collapsed lung, what the recovery process looks like, and what needs to happen before Cunningham returns. “The big thing I would make the case of is recognizing a collapsed lung is serious and what’s frustrating for an athlete is they’re going to feel good the second it re-inflates and they’re going to want to go back out there,”Galiatsatos said. “What we need to be mindful of is the lung is going to still take a few weeks to fully heal, because it is an injury because the tissue got torn. You want it to not just heal over, you want it to be fully secure.”
• Patterson, Jay King, and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic take a look at how Cunningham’s health condition will impact the Eastern Conference playoff race, with all three reporters predicting that Detroit will hang onto the No. 1 seed for the rest of the regular season — the Pistons currently have a 3.5-game lead over second-place Boston. Cunningham’s ability to return before or during the first round of the postseason could be crucial, The Athletic’s trio notes, since there are some dangerous teams near the bottom of the East’s playoff picture.
• In a separate story for The Detroit Free Press (subscription required), Sankofa looks at three areas of concern for the Pistons to shore up in the final 14 games of the regular season. In addition to outside shooting and finding the right balance between shooting and defense, one of those areas Sankofa highlights is “non-Cunningham ball-handling.” In the wake of the star guard’s diagnosis, there should be plenty of opportunities to go around for players like Jenkins, Sasser, Huerter, Ausar Thompson, and Caris LeVert.