It is going to be the primary playoff expertise for everybody else in J.B. Bickerstaff’s regular rotation – Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson, Ron Holland II, Isaiah Stewart and Simone Fontecchio. The Pistons privately talked about attending to the playoffs lengthy earlier than anybody thought it doable and so they’ve adopted a one-day-at-a-time focus with the long-term purpose of getting it repay in a playoff berth. However Bickerstaff is aware of sufficient about playoff basketball to know that irrespective of how lengthy and laborious his younger gamers have thought in regards to the expertise, they received’t really admire the essence till wading into the waters. “It’s a completely different basketball game,” he said. “And until you’re in it, it’s hard to understand it. We’ve been through this before. At some point in time, we were all kids and didn’t listen to our parents, either, and didn’t figure it out until we experienced it on our own. That’s what the playoffs are. We can tell guys what to expect, but until we experience it you don’t understand just how different it is from an intensity standpoint, from the execution of schemes, the importance of possession-by-possession basketball.” -via NBA.com / April 16, 2025
