Detroit Pistons: 3 reasons to be excited about this team

1. Improvements will happen

Griffin is 29 years old, and he just had the best season of his career. It wasn’t particularly close either. Andre Drummond didn’t have his best rebounding season, but he was close, and he did score the most points in his career without greatly sacrificing his efficiency. These guys are either in their primes or coming into their primes. The rest of the players on the roster that are long-term pieces are much much younger than either of those guys.

Luke Kennard came into the NBA primed to be the next great gunner from 3-point range. When he’s on, he’s one of the best shooters in the league. The major issue that he has had is his consistency. When he’s struggling, even mildly, Casey has no trouble pulling him off the floor. That’s going to change as he gets older, but he has to continue to work and develop himself. Seeing him pair with Griffin can be a nightmare for opposing teams when they’re both on.

The two major question marks to watch will be the rookies, Bruce Brown Jr. and Khyri Thomas. Both have to work on getting into the deep end that is the NBA. Brown may not be a dominant shooter, but he can work on his slashing. He’s also going to get even better on defense. Thomas is another developmental piece that has spent this year learning with the G League’s Grand Rapids Drive. He’ll get better with time to be a major force for this team in the future.