Bickerstaff had an All-Star duo in Mitchell and Garland, two point guards who were the best with the ball in their hands. They led the Cavaliers to back-to-back playoff appearances, and Bickerstaff had to find ways to make sure both players were used to their best ability.
Cunningham and Jaden Ivey haven’t reached that level of success yet, but they’re considered the Pistons’ future backcourts. Bickerstaff will take what he learned in Cleveland with him to figure out how to help Cunningham and Ivey thrive together.
“Anytime you get a chance to work with elite basketball players, you have to take something and learn from them,” he said. “Find different ways to use them together, find different ways to rotate them so they have an opportunity to play to their strengths. We’ve always tried to keep one of those guys on the floor. We let them finish games together, start games together, but you build your rotation so you always have one of those dynamic players on the floor.”
“I want to take notes and get a couple of these guys together before I make a decision or make a statement about how we’re going to use them and what we’re going to do with them. But believing in their talent and their skill set, we’re going to have a lot of ways to use them to make them tough for our opponents to match.”