The most anticipated NBA playoff series in years outperformed expectations in Game 1. It was the most watched beginning of a conference finals game – ever.
That’ll happen when something is new. Victor Wembanyama is certainly that.
And yet all those who tuned in to see the not-of-this-earth Frenchman emphatically announce the NBA will soon be his, also saw this: Two of the deepest, most athletic teams in league history.
Trajan Langdon can’t do anything to replicate Wembanyama. Or directly counter him.
But the Detroit Pistons’ president of basketball operations has a chance at simulating the skill and speed on the floor that surrounds him, so that his Pistons wouldn’t look foreign if they ever found themselves on a Finals court with Oklahoma City or San Antonio.
And once you get to a Finals, well, who knows, right? Didn’t the Pistons beat the Shaq-Kobe Lakers?
Yeah, they did, which partly explained Langdon’s recent answer on how to build a roster in the time of a potential dynasty – or dynasties.
“Put together the best team that we feel we can [and] compete at the highest level,” he said Tuesday, May 19, at the Pistons’ practice facility in midtown. “[Because] you never know what’s gonna happen. Just do the best we can putting together that roster, developing it into the best team that we can, let the chips fall where they may.”
So, yes, the Western Conference finals look like a different sport. But, no, Langdon isn’t going to fret over what that level looks like. Nor is he going to duck the smoke, like some executives did when Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
The key?
Shooting, obviously. Spacing, more obviously. (Hint: they go hand in hand). And, most critically, ball-handling.
Yes, ball-handling.
Anyone who watched the Pistons this season saw it, especially in the playoffs, when Daniss Jenkins, a former two-way contract guard and a very nice story, slipped into the starting backcourt next to Cade Cunningham when Duncan Robinson went down with a back injury, and stayed in that role because the team was desperate for someone else to handle the ball.
It’s critical. And that wasn’t just obvious watching Detroit, but it’s obvious watching the Thunder and the Spurs.
The superpower
There is no better example of the dribbling revolution than the revolutionary Wembanyama who, while listed at 7 feet 4 without shoes, can’t just shoot, and can’t just pass, and can’t just protect the rim better than any player ever (duh); he can dribble. Like a guard.
That is what makes Wembanyama … Wembanyama (other than his height, of course).
It’s what Langdon noted when asked what his team needed most headed into next season:
“The more ball-handling you can have on the floor, the better. I think you see these teams that are successful have a lot of people that can … whether it’s initiate [offense], bringing the ball up, or actually execute in the halfcourt in terms of getting paint touches and making decisions. I think the more guys like that you have, the more difficult it is to guard.”
Langdon mentioned shooting and floor spacing, too. Both would help Cunningham. But there’s a reason he mentioned ball-handling first. It’s a superpower, the difference between Steph Curry and Seth Curry. When a player can get to where they need to be with the ball in tow, it changes not just their capability, but the possibilities of everyone around them.
Moving with the ball is what allows for shot creation and what separates good players – even very good players – from great ones. Take any great player in the league, and you’ll see an incredible handle, despite that not always being what’s noticed first.
Nikola Jokić? Check. LeBron James? Double check. Giannis Antetokounmpo? Luka Dončić? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?
Check, check and check.
All their games are built on the way they control the ball, the way they feel the ball, the way they manipulate the ball, which frees them to manipulate other parts of the game and court.
Wembanyama may be becoming a cultural phenomenon because of his size and ability to pull up from 30 feet, but it’s because he can pull up that we notice: Even his scoring around the rim begins with a dribble – or two or three – first. He isn’t just a back-to-the-basket player. He drives from beyond the 3-point line. His dunks aren’t just alley-oops, they’re self-created.
Get dribbling or get left behind
His handle is essential. Without it, Wemby would be a skinny Yao Ming who can shoot 3s. No slouch, obviously, but not a warper of time and space.
The handle is why it’s important the Pistons don’t give up on Jalen Duren. He has one, and it has gotten better every season. It’s also why he got so much better offensively this season.
Dribbling is also crucial to Ausar Thompson. See: his brother, Amen, who averaged 18.3 points a game – nearly doubling Ausar’s 9.9 average – with the Houston Rockets this season because his handle is much tighter, and therefore isn’t afraid to consistently attack the paint.
These two have the quickness and explosiveness to assault the rim routinely, even without reliable jump shots; they are that gifted physically. Yet only one of them does and it’s because he can dribble.
If Ausar develops his dribbling skills further, everything else will open.
Just as the floor parts for Cunningham, who is admittedly worlds better offensively than either Thompson twin despite not being near the athlete. Yet even Cunningham had work to do after his 2024-25 season ended with the first-round loss to New York.
The Pistons’ budding superstar rightly pointed to his conditioning and strength when asked a year ago what he needed to work on in the summer. He also mentioned ball-handling. Then he worked on it, and by the time this season’s playoffs began, he had the ball on a string.
That tick up in skill helped push him to a first-team, All-NBA level, and helped him take over games more frequently. He gets to where he wants to go on an NBA court for several reasons, including his size, his strength, his vision.
But his ball skill is what makes it possible, and it’s the ball skill that is making the West finals so riveting … so far.
Langdon is counting on Cunningham continuing to get better. He is hoping Thompson and Duren will as well. Young players carry long to-do lists into the offseason, but for these two, the handle is the thing.
Just as it is for the Pistons.
If this team wants a chance at a deeper playoff run in the next few years, and to have any shot at all against the skilled and speed monsters out West, they’ll need their core players to improve their ball-handling.
They’ll need to add more players who can handle the ball, and handle ball pressure, too. It has never mattered more.
Turn on the playoffs and you’ll see.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Spurs vs Thunder may be sci-fi, but Pistons must take clues to join them
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
