Detroit Pistons preseason grades: The good, the bad and the ugly

Detroit Pistons tier 4 players

Derrick Rose: D

Derrick Rose has an MVP award and multiple deep playoff runs on his resume, so what does he care about the preseason? Rose didn’t have a great four-game stretch, shooting just 42.5 percent from the floor and racking up and average of 3.3 turnovers per game, but in these early days of the 2020-21 season, his most important role on this team is as a mentor to Killian Hayes and the rest of the Piston youngsters. By all accounts, he’s been nothing short of fantastic at it. Still, we’re grading preseason, not intangibles, so D-Rose gets a D.

Jerami Grant: D

The marquee free agent signing for the Pistons, Jerami Grant had a few rough moments throughout the preseason. Early on he demonstrated some shaky decision-making from a shot-selection perspective, and in the Pistons’ second game against the New York Knicks, he had multiple third-quarter sequences where Elfrid Payton completely owned his soul, but Grant is adjusting to a brand new situation with a greatly expanded role. Give him some time to figure it out, but the preseason was at least marginally concerning.

Wayne Ellington: F

There wasn’t much to redeem Wayne Ellington’s preseason. He played 13.8 minutes per game, shot 22.2 percent from the floor with all of his field goal attempts coming from 3-point range. Other than playing a few minutes and missing most of his shots, Ellington didn’t really do much in the four preseason games. We’ll soon see if he ends up getting a starting spot at shooting guard thanks to his veteran pedigree in spite of his poor performance thus far.