Casey hopes Pistons rookies will make the Rising Stars game roster
The Pistons, in coach Dwane Casey’s estimation, have a few players worthy of named one of the NBA’s Rising Stars — despite the annual All-Star break showcase being canceled this season.
Casey lobbied for Pistons rookies Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey to be included on the league’s Rising Stars rosters, which will be announced Wednesday.
“I would love to have Isaiah in, he’s deserving,” Casey said Tuesday. “But Saddiq is definitely one of the top rookies in shooting and all that stuff, all the metrics they look at. Just hopefully our rebuilding situation and our record doesn’t hurt him. But Saddiq, I’d put him in the top, and also Isaiah, in the top of all those rookies that are in the league, for what they bring to the table, what they’re going to be.”
The Rising Stars Challenge won’t take place this year because of the NBA’s abbreviated AllStar format. Rather than over the course of an entire weekend, this year’s Skills Challenge, 3Point Contest, Slam Dunk Contest and AllStar Game will all happen March 7.
There wasn’t enough room for the annual showcase for the league’s young players, but the league’s best rookies and sophomores will still be recognized.The teams will follow the same format the league has used since 2015, with one roster consisting of players born in the United States (Team USA), and the other being international players (Team World).
Each roster will have just 10 players, so the Pistons will have some stiff competition to get a player in. But Bey and Stewart, who have been stalwarts in Casey’s rotation this season, appear to have the strongest odds.
Bey, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week from Feb. 8-14, has been one of the best scorers of the 2020 rookie class.
Through Monday’s slate of games, he was second among rookies in 3-point makes (69) and in 3-point percentage (40.6%) among those with at least 100 3-point attempts. He’s also top-10 in scoring (315 points, seventh overall) and rebounding (126, tied for eighth overall).
Stewart has been one of the best rebounders in the class, leading all rookies in offensive rebounds (78) by a wide margin. Jae’Sean Tate is second with 58 offensive rebounds. Stewart is second overall in total rebounds (186), behind LaMelo Ball, and first overall in blocks (32).
And it may not be a stat that matters when it comes to candidacy for being named a Rising Star, but Stewart is a plus-33 (fourth overall) through 32 games.
“Their potential is right up there with any rookie in this league,” Casey said. “And I challenge anybody to say otherwise.”
Casey said it’s unfortunate that
Killian
Hayes, who played just seven games and is rehabbing aftersuffering a hip injury, won’t be in the mix for a roster spot. But he made a case for Saben Lee, who’s coming off of a strong week. In his last five games, Lee is averaging 12.6 points, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals on 60% overall shooting.
“I’ll tell you what — another rising young man is Saben Lee,” Casey said. “Saben is a two-way contract, but his contract status doesn’t tell his potential and who he is.”
Sekou Doumbouya, who is averaging 3.8 points and 2.4 rebounds through 30 games this season, is also a candidate for Team World.
Svi Mykhailiuk made the Rising Stars Challenge last season, and was the first representative for the Pistons since Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2015.
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarisankofa. The Free Press has started a new digital subscription model. Here’s how you can gain access to our most exclusive Pistons content. Read more on the Detroit Pistons and sign up for our Pistons newsletter.
Michigan is just over a week into spring practices, and players just began practicing with pads Friday.
Yet a few of the Wolverines have already noticed a difference within the program, aside from the new defense being installed.
“Everyone in this building, every single coach is kind of ecstatic and you can kind of feel that high energy in practice,” defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said Tuesday. “In practice, I’ve seen some energy, some things I’ve never seen these past three years being on this team. Just those little things — you can tell that guys just want to play ball.
“Guys are fired up, whether that be the new coaches, whether that be they just love football, but you can just tell in practice that there’s a different type of energy around Schembechler (Hall).”
Hutchinson and his teammates are coming off a 2-4 finish in 2020, their worst season yet under coach Jim Harbaugh. The poor performance led to an offseason filled with changes — especially on the defensive side of the ball. After the unit finished No. 89 in total defense and No. 95 in scoring defense, Harbaugh fired
defensive coordinator Don Brown.
Brown’s replacement, Mike Macdonald, has already made a positive early impression upon the players, as have the five other new coaches (three on defense, two on offense).
“Every single day you come out to practice, it’s just joy, fun, everybody’s laughing with each other, everybody’s having a good time,” safety Brad Hawkins said. “Bring a lot of energy to practices, to meeting rooms. Things like that. Everybody’s willing to learn, everybody’s willing to teach. Just learning different things from NFL guys, from guys that came from different programs, just learning different things. That definitely brings a lot of enthusiasm to the program, to practice, things like that.”
Collectively, Michigan’s assistant coaches are an average of 35.3 years old, with all 10 coaches under the age of 40. Yet Hutchinson told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “this is probably the smartest staff I’ve been around.”
“Just in these few weeks that I’ve had with this staff, I have learned so much more about the game of football, so much more about defenses, all that stuff, just because of the coaches we’ve brought in,” Hutchinson continued. “The age doesn’t really affect your knowledge of the game to an extent. Obviously, if you’ve been around the game for 40 years, you’re going to know a lot about football. Although we got these young guys, they know a lot.”
The biggest difference in experience is at defensive coordinator. Brown led multiple defenses to top-10 finishes during his tenure at Michigan with almost four decades as a defensive play-caller. Macdonald, meanwhile, has never been a coordinator before.
Hutchinson was impressed from the first time he met Macdonald.
“He’s very precise with his words,” Hutchinson said, “and he’s just very articulate.”
Of course, even with the positive first impressions of the new staff, Michigan’s defense still has a long road back to respectability.
The Wolverines lost several key contributors, including star pass-rusher Kwity Paye, linebacker Cameron McGrone and defensive lineman Carlo Kemp. The new scheme, meanwhile, will take time to learn (Hawkins said he believes the defense is on its fourth period of install, with new chunks coming every other day).
Every successful rebuild requires buy-in from the players. And it seems like Michigan’s are all-in right now — which only bodes well for Macdonald and the other new assistants.
“Coach (Macdonald) came in here with a lot of energy and it’s kind of a different type of focus,” Hutchinson said. “You can tell he’s been in the league for the past eight years, he’s kinda got that way about him. I like what we’re doing with the defense, I like the culture that he is instilling in us, I think he’s doing a really good job and I’m just fired up to have him as my coach.”
Free Press sports writer Carlos Monarrez answers three questions from Lions general manager Brad Holmes’ and coach Dan Campbell’s news conferences Tuesday heading into free agency and the NFL draft.
What do you think about Brad Holmes praising the quarterback draft class?
The Lions general manager knows what he’s doing, I’ll give him that. Holmes tried to drive up interest and the potential asking price for his No. 7 overall pick by praising quarterbacks who will be available in the NFL draft.
“I think the quarterback class is good this year,” he said. “I like the crop of quarterbacks that are coming out in this year’s draft.” Holmes didn’t mention any player by name, but he described quarterbacks “in all different flavors” with various attributes that could describe any of this year’s elite arm talent like Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, BYU’s Zach Wilson,
Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance.
It’s important to note that Holmes’ answer was in response to a question about ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. saying the Lions shouldn’t draft a QB seventh overall. Holmes must keep his options open, and creating the impression that he might be happy keeping the No. 7 pick and taking a QB with it can only serve to drive up interest among other teams starved for a quarterback.
What kind of player will the Lions draft?
Here’s my favorite part of every NFL draft cycle, which is like “Groundhog Day.” Draft gurus say a team has a need at a certain position, so it should draft for that position. Teams say they don’t draft for need and just want “good football players” — and then they draft for need, at least in the first two days of the draft.
Teams are essentially trying to stay away from reaching for a player by ignoring concerns because he fits a need. I get that, even though I still think the Lions should emphasize defense in this year’s draft. But it certainly sounds like Campbell wants to stay away from need after he said: “I sure don’t want Brad feeling like he’s got to chase positions in the draft. I want him to be able to say, ‘Man, this is the guy. These are our guys that we love.’ And let’s feel like this is an outstanding player that we all love and let’s not feel like we have to, ‘Well, we don’t really love this guy, but man, we need a linebacker. We don’t really love this guy, but we sure do need an inside defensive lineman.’”
We’ll see how much the Lions hold true to that ideal because the art of compromise is at the core of any team’s draft plans. And as we all know, the NFL draft itself is much more of an art than it is a science.
Can the Lions afford to pass on a quarterback?
This was the first time Holmes spoke about quarterback Jared Goff, whom the Lions acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Rams that won’t be official until the new league year starts March 17. Holmes was asked how having a veteran QB affects roster-building and his answer indicated he’s very comfortable with Goff being the Lions’ quarterback. “But having a veteran quarterback, obviously, it can shape some decisions in terms of my familiarity with him,” he said, “knowing kind of what works best for him, what he kind of likes, what he kind of strives for. It does help shape things from a teambuilding standpoint in terms of adding tools, adding pieces that will fit his skill set.”
My takeaway from this is that the Lions will, and must, plan the offense around Goff this year. That doesn’t mean they won’t draft a QB with their top pick. But Goff is a certainty while taking a passer with the No. 7 pick, even for the Lions, is not a certainty.