Duncan Robinson goes into the season opener with a simple challenge attached to a bigger role: keep his shooting on the floor without getting exposed on defense. He is pegged as the starting shooting guard for the Pistons, but his minutes could shrink if opponents keep finding him in isolation the way they did in the playoffs last season.
That is why Thursday matters for him now. The Pistons open against the Celtics, a team that lives on drives and threes and hunts weak links on the perimeter. Robinson brings value as a three-point shooter and secondary playmaker, but the first real test of whether that package holds up comes immediately, before the season has even settled into rhythm.
Robinson had an excellent shooting campaign in his first year with the Pistons last season, and that production is a big reason he is still being trusted in the starting group. But his defense eventually became the problem. In last season's playoffs, Paolo Banchero, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden all went at him, and the result was the same: his defense was a liability when the game tightened.
This season, the demand is narrower and more specific. Robinson needs to be better in isolation defense, especially in the biggest games, because he cannot keep functioning as a cone that forces teammates to help every time a good player gets him on an island. If that remains the case, the minutes that came with his shooting may not stay as stable as they were a year ago. That is the tradeoff Detroit has to manage with him.
The good news for him is that Detroit may be the best possible environment for that flaw. The Pistons have some of the most active help defense in the league, especially when Ausar Thompson is on the court, and Thompson and other wings can cover for Robinson in isolation without losing the speed to rotate back to their own man. That helps explain why Robinson still fits the lineup on paper, even if the playoff tape shows how quickly elite teams can turn his weakness into their game plan.
So the first night will not just be about whether Robinson keeps hitting shots. It will show whether the Pistons can protect him against a Celtics attack built to expose him, and whether his role is sturdy enough to survive once opponents decide to test him the same way again.
