Pistons Starting Lineup: Locks, fringe, potential break-ins

Pistons Starting Lineup: Who are on the fringes?

Isaiah Stewart

Isaiah Stewart could find himself starting plenty of games this season, or he could be the first big off the bench. He can play the four or the five as needed, but Olynyk’s presence provides a scoring punch that Stewart can’t yet replicate. On the other hand, Stewart has a defensive and rebounding edge that Olynyk can’t provide. The Pistons have optionality between these two, but it doesn’t harken towards any guarantee that Stewart is a de facto starting big.

Kelly Olynyk

Kelly Olynyk had his first season as a full-time starter in his age-29 season for the Miami Heat and Houston Rockets in 2020-21. He was fairly mediocre in Miami before lighting the world on fire in Houston on a team playing for nothing but lottery balls. Time will tell if Troy Weaver brought him to Detroit to start or to be the first big off the bench as a scoring dynamo.

Hamidou Diallo

Hamidou Diallo has not yet been re-signed as of this writing, but it’s a foregone conclusion that the Pistons will retain him. He was acquired before the NBA trade deadline in a deal for Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk ostensibly for the purposes of holding is restricted free agency rights, which means that things are going according to plan in spite of the radio silence surrounding him. He’s probably going to come off the bench, but there may be a world where he slips into the starting lineup in place of Saddiq Bey.