featured-image

No clues from SVG on Pistons starters for LCA opener – but here’s a guess, anyway

AUBURN HILLS – And the Pistons starting lineup for their first game at Little Caesars Arena is …

Well, not so fast.

Stan Van Gundy didn’t give any hints after Wednesday’s morning walk through at the team’s practice facility. He probably wouldn’t have under any circumstances, but especially given Charlotte’s vagueness given the unknown status of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who’s been away from the team for a week and missed three preseason games due to an excused absence for personal reasons.

Even if Kidd-Gilchrist rejoins the team in time for the 7 p.m. tipoff, Hornets coach Steve Clifford was skeptical on Tuesday that he’d be able to play.

Clifford said Wednesday, according to Hornets beat writer Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, that he’d start Kemba Walker, Dwight Howard, Marvin Williams and Jeremy Lamb, who stepped in for Nic Batum when he was injured – and lost for several weeks – during the first minute of the Pistons-Hornets preseason game Oct. 4 at LCA. The fifth starter, Clifford said, was up in the air and depended on the preferred matchup with Tobias Harris.

“Part of the problem, quite honestly, with them tonight, we don’t know who they’re starting,” Van Gundy said. “We know Andre (Drummond) will start on Howard. Other than that, we don’t really know, matchup wise, who’s starting on who.”

A best guess Pistons starting lineup: Avery Bradley, Drummond – the two players Van Gundy said last week he was sure would start – Harris, Stanley Johnson and Reggie Jackson. The biggest uncertainty is at point guard, where Ish Smith outplayed Jackson in preseason as the latter worked his way back from a knee injury that kept him out of live basketball until late September after training camp had begun.

The bigger question marks come after that. Van Gundy has decisions to make on backups at center, power forward and both wing positions. While the identity of the starting point guard might be the biggest wild card in the starting lineup, as a whole the 48 minutes at that position encompass the least mystery. If it’s not Jackson on the floor, it’ll be Smith; if not Smith, Jackson.

Here’s a best-guess blueprint for Van Gundy’s rotation tonight: