#29 - Pistons@Suns - 9pm ET

[Neptune]

Just like I said yesterday after we played the Jazz, if Ivey was available we would have won. Ivey made our team look totally different tonight.

Please don't jump on the Ivey bandwagon. And please keep trade ideas and lineup ideas involving Sasser starting at the 2 active!

How much do you pay Ivey? Do you give him Beal money because he played well against Beal?

Don't get mad at me cause your one of the posters making dumb trade ideas and ridiculous lineup ideas involving a player that actually helps our team compete. I'm encouraging the buffoonery.

[Uncle Mxy]

Just like I said yesterday after we played the Jazz, if Ivey was available we would have won. Ivey made our team look totally different tonight.

Please don't jump on the Ivey bandwagon. And please keep trade ideas and lineup ideas involving Sasser starting at the 2 active!

How much do you pay Ivey? Do you give him Beal money because he played well against Beal?

Don't get mad at me cause your one of the posters making dumb trade ideas and ridiculous lineup ideas involving a player that actually helps our team compete. I'm encouraging the buffoonery.

I'm happy to have players that help our team compete. I just want to have enough players that help us compete so we're not stuck in suck. I doubt we should pay another player Beal or Cade bucks if we're not getting All-NBA performance from said player. We've got Ivey and Duren decisions coming up pretty soon. Do we lock in, or risk losing them in free agency? I doubt we'll get another free agent who really wants to be here quite like Grant did, and we're doing some fine cap space gymnastics of late, so I'm expecting SOME sort of trade action soon.

[Kalamazoo317]

Ivey’s a bit trick or treat. If he played like he did last night with any consistency, we’d have a winning record and he’d be in all-star consideration. Problem is he disappears for games at a time and is a defensive liability for games at a time.
Consistency is tough though and usually one of the last things a player gets, so maybe he will still

[NYPiston]

The Pistons are confusing. They've looked like trash at home often times getting beat by teams they should beat, and getting beaten soundly, then they soundly beat the Pacers, Knicks and Suns on the road. Don't get me wrong, they've been mostly bad over the last 15 games but they show flashes of being a competent team.

One thing that's indisputable, although he still has his struggles with closing out games and holding on to the ball, Cade has taken a pretty significant step forward at both ends of the court, he's a legit All Star now. Giving him even one merely above average NBA starter alongside him and the team will take a sizeable step forward. Unfortunately none of Ivey (due to inconsistency), THJ, Harris or Duren are above average or even average NBA starters, the latter three are well below average. Get this made some help Trajan. You keep Ivey but the Pistons are grossly outmanned at the 3-5 spots compared to playoff teams.

[NYPiston]

Props to Ivey and Duren - they look great and the team looks great when they play like that.
Cade should be an all-star.

He's an All Star lock, there's no argument against it.

[DetroitSho]

Props to Ivey and Duren - they look great and the team looks great when they play like that.
Cade should be an all-star.

He's an All Star lock, there's no argument against it.

A gut of guards on much better teams would actually be the argument against it. Although I do feel he should make it.

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[bstein14]

Props to Ivey and Duren - they look great and the team looks great when they play like that.
Cade should be an all-star.

He's an All Star lock, there's no argument against it.

A gut of guards on much better teams would actually be the argument against it. Although I do feel he should make it.

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Yes, I literally put a scenario (where LaMelo Ball gets voted in by fans) earlier in this post that paints a pretty likely picture. Brunson also getting voted in and Mitchell is more of a lock as the lead guard on the #1 team. Then you have to compete against Dame and Jaylen Brown.

[GreekAlex]

Ivey’s a bit trick or treat. If he played like he did last night with any consistency, we’d have a winning record and he’d be in all-star consideration. Problem is he disappears for games at a time and is a defensive liability for games at a time.
Consistency is tough though and usually one of the last things a player gets, so maybe he will still

I’d definitely give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to increasing his consistency.

He’s shown 1000 times more potential than Killian Kayes but it seems like there was still a larger contingent in year 4 of the Killian Hayes Experiment that had faith in him despite him looking like a g-leaguer.

[Kalamazoo317]

Ivey has yet to play as well on defense as Killian did in an average game.

[GreekAlex]

Ivey has yet to play as well on defense as Killian did in an average game.

It’s a shame that Killian had to participate on offense.

Maybe he should play cornerback so he can utilize his strengths

[MortSahlfan]

We knocked out Phoenix into 11th place in the west

[Mr Peanut]

There's a few posters in the GB who can't accept that Cade should be an All-Star, despite him putting up video game-like stats recently. I think at least a couple of them hitched their carts to the "Cade is not that good" horse early in his career and are now too proud to admit that they were mistaken.

We've got about 24 more games until the coaches vote for reserves, and at lot for me will be on where we stand as a team. If we're 14-10 over our next 24 games and sitting inside the top 8 at just 1 game under .500 I for sure think Cade deserves to be an all-star. If we're 10-14 over our next 24 games and sitting 9 games below .500 and out of the top 10 in the conference I'm not going to be upset if they put other guards in the game that have better records than us.

Obviously the fans vote for starters, but then the coaches have historically rewarded one player on winning teams or top 8 teams its rare for players on losing teams or bad teams to get into all-star games especially as first timers (not perrenial all-stars that the league coaches recognize a larger body of work, etc).

One curveball in the equation will be LaMelo Ball who's scoring 30+ PPG and he's the first player at the top of the list when you go to vote... he also has a fanbase outside of just Charlotte. If Brunson + LaMelo get voted in as starters you then have Donavan Mitchell as a lock with the Cavs having the best record in the league. You could have a situation where only 3 of Dame, Brown (coming off Finals MVP and Championship), Garland, Herro, Cade, Maxey, LaVine, and Trae Young make it.

5 Starters get voted in (if its LaMelo and Brunson)
Coaches VOTE
Frontcourt:
Frontcourt:
Frontcourt:
Guard: Mitchell (Lock)
Guard:Dame (likely)
WildCard:
WildCard:

Definitely LaMelo making it as a starter would make Cade's path harder. Which is ironic because a common criticism of Cade has been "putting up numbers on a bad team" and yet LaMelo is on a worse team and despite the scoring outbursts he has been a chucker this year (shooting 34% from three on 13.1 three pointers a game!). But the average fan will vote as they see fit.

I can't see a good argument for Maxey, LaVine and Trae making it over him. Herro, Brown Garland are up for debate - all have had good seasons and their teams have better records.

[breezypeezy]

Im not yet ruling out Cade making the AS game this year.

The competition pool for that last AS guard slot might become an easier path for Cade if a few ones ahead of him are injury scratches.

Every season the coach has to name a few injury substitutes.

[bstein14]

I actually just took another look and Jaylen Brown is listed as a "frontcourt" player and I think that makes it much more likely that Cade gets the nod. It'll certainly be interesting to see where the first returns come in at for all-star starters which should give us a better idea on Cade's chances. Best case for Cade is that Brunson and Mitchell are voted as the starting guards because they are making it for sure. Worse case for Cade would be if two of Dame, Haliburton, LaMelo or Trae Young were voted in as starters.

Last year Haliburton and Dame were the starting backcourt but Trae Young actually gote voted in by the fans but the Media votes gave the edge to Dame to start over Trae.

[Cowology]

I actually just took another look and Jaylen Brown is listed as a "frontcourt" player and I think that makes it much more likely that Cade gets the nod. It'll certainly be interesting to see where the first returns come in at for all-star starters which should give us a better idea on Cade's chances. Best case for Cade is that Brunson and Mitchell are voted as the starting guards because they are making it for sure. Worse case for Cade would be if two of Dame, Haliburton, LaMelo or Trae Young were voted in as starters.

Last year Haliburton and Dame were the starting backcourt but Trae Young actually gote voted in by the fans but the Media votes gave the edge to Dame to start over Trae.

I would put Brown as a lock over Dame anyway. No way the coaches don't recognize him. Think about the Pistons bringing 4 **** All-Stars in 2005. No way were those the 4 best players, but as has been pointed out - winning matters in this scenario. Brown being in the frontcourt sorta matters, but I feel like when they do pick injury substitutes that it doesn't matter again. They just pick whoever the next most deserving player is, regardless of position. That can work for or against you, depending on the situation.

Maybe I'm remembering this wrong, so correct me if somebody knows better.

Anyway, I'd personally have Cade ahead of Dame, Trae, Hali & Maxey this year. I've not been a huge Cade stan or anything, but he's putting together a damn good all around season and the team is drastically improved in the W/L column. LaMelo I'd have behind Cade as well, but it's a fan game so if the fans vote him in I'm not going to be too upset over it. Garland is interesting, but I think Mobley's ascension may hurt him here. As a team that hasn't actually accomplished anything yet, I'd be hard pressed to award them 3 All-Stars, but I do think they will have 2 representatives. The coaches may wind up sorta splitting votes between Garland/Mobley and I could see them favoring Mitchell/Mobley here. Ironically, Garland may actually be having a better season than Mitchell... but Mitchell still has that 28ppg aura around him where it sorta feels like he's accepted a lesser role for the benefit of the team, but he can still go get you 30 anytime you need it. I dunno. Cavs are on fire this year, maybe they do get 3. I haven't looked that closely at who crowds Mobley up front. Maybe Brown being a fwd hurts him here. Soooo many factors.....

Anyway...plenty of time left for Cade to be injured before then. We'll see.

[bstein14]