There has not been much for fans of the Detroit Pistons to get excited about this season, as with injuries to starters like Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard and Blake Griffin and the lack of a reliable second unit, the team sits in eleventh place in the Eastern Conference, 3.5 games out of the playoffs.
For most of the holiday season, every Pistons game was the same: the team would look encouraging at the start of the game before ultimately getting outscored by double-digits in either the second or third quarter, leading to lopsided losses that have happened more often than not.
Watching Pistons games was rather boring for the majority of the 2019-20 NBA season, but Detroit diehards finally received something to root for over the last couple days, as the most interesting wrinkle was rookie Sekou Doumbouya starting in three contests.
The Pistons did essentially throw their rookie in the fire in these three starts, as his first three match-ups as an NBA starter where against reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, three-time NBA champion Draymond Green, and some kid from Akron who sane people think is the best player to ever play the game of basketball.
Having to guard those three out of four nights is a tough task for any NBA forward, much less a 19-year-old rookie who was playing with the Grand Rapids Drive less than a month ago. He was such an unknown that none of the Clippers knew he even was when he went out to do opening handshakes seconds before the tip.
Some color from Sekou’s debut last night (wish I worked in story but forgot) that I found funny: When NBA players walk out onto the court, they usually dap up opposing team, people they know. Sekou wandered around at center court, sort of looking to donit, but no one knew him.
— James Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) January 3, 2020
But the French rookie held his own in these three match-ups, truly making his mark in that first game against Leonard. Even though he had picked a few silly fouls and missed five of his first six shots, the fact that he wasn't afraid to get shots up is encouraging.
Sekou Doumbouya didn't hesitate to create his own scoring opportunities and shoot from downtown. Even though he missed all four of his three-point attempts in that opening game, he proved in his 15 G-League games that he has a reliable three-point shot that goes in nearly 40 percent of the time.
Based on the film study that Prava88 of SB Nation's Detroit Bad Boys, Doumbouya proved that he belonged on the NBA floor by playing with awareness on offense, not forcing shots, scoring off basket cuts and ultimately earning a double-double. Even though the Pistons lost that game by double digits, Detroit have to have been encouraged by the rookie's performance.
Sekou's best NBA performance came two nights later, when the Pistons got the win over another injury-ravaged team in the Golden State Warriors. Doumbouya led the team in points (19) and minutes (38:14) while posting an impressive plus/minus of +19 in the win, and with 10 rebounds, he became the first Pistons rookie since Andre Drummond to record double-doubles in consecutive starts.
Last night's match-up with the Western-Conference leading Los Angeles Lakers, as even though the Pistons got historically dominated in the paint, Sekou still finished with 11 points, played with energy, drew a few key fouls and even blocked perennial All-Star Anthony Davis in the fourth quarter. The quality play of him and Christian Wood helped make it a close game the entire time, and they were even up in the fourth quarter.
With the solid play of Doumbouya and other players like Wood and Bruce Brown, many are calling for the Pistons to embrace the youth movement, trade All-Star center Andre Drummond and shut down Blake Griffin as he has knee surgery.
As fun as the years with Drummond have been, it may be time to move on from the bearded big man and build for the future.
The Pistons can build around a core of Sekou Doumbouya, Wood and Kennard, and even though Brown, Svi Mykhailiuk and Thon Maker have been tough to watch at some points this year, the increased reps they have gotten can only lead to improvement.
Brown has proven to be a shut-down defender in a pinch, Maker continues to gradually improve in the pick-and-roll game, and Mykhailiuk is an offensive firecracker who continues to gain more confidence and can navigate opposing defenses expertly and capable of being a top-ten shooter from deep.
No matter what happens with the Piston's future, one thing is for certain: this season is pretty much over from a playoffs standpoint, but Sekou Doumbouya and the youth movement have made Detroit basketball fun to watch for the first time in a long time.
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