Pistons: Predicting statistical leaders in all the major categories

With a couple of notable exceptions, the Detroit Pistons have mostly the same key cast of characters from a season ago.

Sekou Doumbouya, Wayne Ellington, Deividas Sirvydis, Dennis Smith Jr., Jahlil Okafor and Tyler Cook are gone, while Cade Cunningham, Kelly Olynyk and Trey Lyles are new to town. The established core that remains includes Jerami Grant, Isaiah Stewart, Killian Hayes and Saddiq Bey.

With this turnover on the fringes of the roster and the additions of a couple of key contributors, who will be this team’s statistical leaders next season?

Pistons statistical leaders – Scoring: Jerami Grant
Predicted average: 23.5

Jerami Grant was the Pistons’ leading scorer a season ago, averaging 22.3 points per game. In the first third of the season or so, however, his scoring was one of the most astonishing storylines in the early NBA campaign with a glittering 24.3 point per game average through the first 24 games.

As the season wore on and he wore down as the first and second scoring option after Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose departed town, his scoring fell off. The injuries mounted up as he was a man alone on the offensive end and still had to carry the load on defense as well.

This season, he’s going to have some help in the form of No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham. While rookies are generally not good or helpful, Cunningham appears to be a different sort. His maturity and leadership are beyond his years, and he’s both a skilled playmaker and scorer.

Cunningham will be able to make Grant’s life easier and as a result, Grant should have a significantly more efficient scoring season. An uptick of at least a full point should be easy to forecast for him.