CLEVELAND – When one door closes, another … well, another gets flung open with the force of a Sekou Doumbouya dunk.
If you like your symbolism delivered unsubtly, Doumbouya’s dunk in Cleveland – thoughts and prayers to Tristan Thompson – on the day the Pistons announced Blake Griffin underwent surgery and would be out for the foreseeable future was positively biblical in scope.
When the Pistons drafted Doumbouya last June – the youngest player drafted to the NBA since eligibility rules were changed following the 2005 draft – they never expected he’d be a starter by mid-season or a rotation staple at any point of his rookie season.
But Griffin’s injury – and, subsequently, Markieff Morris’ absence – changed the calculus for this season, at minimum.
How much it changes it for next season and beyond, stay tuned.
But this much is clear: The Pistons are in the midst of their most significant shift since the Goin’ to Work group aged and phased out. In the pipeline now is the most populated cohort of young players the Pistons have fielded in a generation.
Doumbouya is the headliner, of course. The Pistons regarded him as a slam-dunk lottery pick, perhaps a top-five pick last June, and they got him at 15. They took him even with the understanding that there were others available who offered more certain immediate help, but nobody with Doumbouya’s upside.
That dunk over Thompson underscored that upside. There just aren’t many humans on the planet with the size, grace and explosive athleticism to look at a shot-blocker of Thompson’s proven ability standing in your way and not have your brain send the message to your limbs that this is a no-go mission.
Doumbouya’s brain transmitted the all-systems-go impulse because, well, it knows what his loose, long, limber limbs are capable of achieving.
There was a moment in the second half of Tuesday’s comeback win against the Cavaliers where the lineup was Derrick Rose and four kids: Doumbouya, Bruce Brown, Svi Mykhailiuk and Christian Wood.
Casey talked before the game about Luke Kennard, who’s missed two weeks with knee tendinitis, and his status for return.
“This would be a good time for him, if he’s available, to come back to be a part of the youth movement, so to speak.”
Kennard would be the senior citizen of that youth movement from an experience standpoint with 164 NBA games under his belt. He’s 23.
The Pistons also like their two-way players, Jordan Bone and Louis King. It’s conceivable that later this season with most of their 45 days of service in the NBA still available that Casey will give them a little run ahead of what will become a very busy and important off-season for all those young players and the development coaches who’ll oversee their progress. Stashed overseas is the No. 35 pick last June, 19-year-old Deividas Sirvydis, who of late has been showing off his elite 3-point range in Lithuania.
“It’s really exciting,” Casey said about the stable of young players. “You know going in there are going to be a lot of mistakes, but the growth of a kid like Sekou, the growth of a kid like Christian Wood with extended minutes, is encouraging, big time for our team and our program and what we’re trying to build.”
Casey left a 60-win Toronto team and found the job Pistons owner Tom Gores sold him on attractive because of the presence at the top of the roster: Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson.
But he’s been on all sides of the coaching equation, pulling a Toronto team up by its bootstraps to the precipice of title contention by doing an exemplary job of the task that now confronts him – developing young players.
The Pistons never wished for the way this season has unfolded. They never for a second fielded their expected starting lineup. They never got to finish a game with Griffin, Drummond, Jackson, Rose and Kennard forming a powerful offensive force.
The payoff comes down the road when however they reconfigure the roster for next season is bolstered by the unexpected experience all those kids - starting with the NBA’s youngest player, Doumbouya – are picking up ahead of schedule.
As Dwane Casey would say, it’s really exciting.