Betrayer

Rockets and Blazers both choked away leads tonight.

As far as how much to pay him. I think I heard recently that the average starter makes 22M. Duren is better than the average starter. I think 25M is a good floor. I'd be willing to go as high 30M. You could maybe convince me to swallow 35M. Maybe. I'm not touch anything near 40M or more. He's an RFA. If the Pistons are smart, they'll wait and see what offers he gets on the market. I doubt he'll get many because the rules are really stacked against RFA's and nobody wants to tie up their cap space when we can match anything they offer. The Pistons hold all the cards, so why bid against yourself?

Exactly. Duren is a better version of Dre. He's just as bad at defense and just as bad at any offense outside of put-backs and lobs. I'm thankful he doesn't miss shots intentionally to pad his stats like Drummond did and that he spends some time in the gym, but he's still pretty replaceable in this era of the NBA. People talk about his passing, but making a good pass occasionally doesn't make you a "good passer". When you average 2 Assists and 1.9 Turnovers, you aren't a good passer. Duren is a high level role player. But he's also a traditional Center who's a poor defender that can't space the floor. We can talk about his age and all that, but players don't suddenly become elite paint defenders. Maybe he could learn to hit the corner three one day but I'm going to need to see him take a couple a game before we start to project that. You don't pay that archetype max money. The worst thing you can have in the NBA is a fringe All-Star making max money. It cripples you, especially with the new rules. That said, I'm not paying Ausar max money either, because I think the max should be reserved for All NBA first team candidates. However, if you put a gun to my head and made me choose to give one or the other a max, it's Ausar and I don't even have to think hard about it. Why? We don't have to talk about projections with Ausar's defense. He's literally the best perimeter defender in the league right now and was a top 3 finalist for DPOY. Both the numbers and the eye test will easily show you that he warps the game (on both ends) when he's on the court. It's no coincidence that this team suddenly got good when Ausar came back from his blood clot. If we had a spacing big man and a better coach we could run Ausar in the Draymond role as the DHO hub instead of using Duren as we do now. He's a way better passer (2 to 1 Ast/TO) and putting the ball in his hands solves the spacing issues. Imagine prime Draymond with Ausar's athleticism if you want to do some projections of what he could be in years to come. That's much closer to a max player than a big man who can't defend or shoot, not matter how good he is at layups and dunks when teams don't box him out during the regular season.

100%. Cleveland can shut down the paint pretty well and you can't hide Duncan with both Mitchell and Harden out there. Nightmare matchup for us. We really got the worst matchups with Orlando, then Cleveland, then Boston (if we get that far).

Pretty sure we're all doubtful about Joel Embiid at this point.

Great response in the third to put it away early. Ausar showed why you need to play him as many minutes as he can handle. Even the 28 he played tonight wasn't enough and hopefully he gets 30+ next game if he can stay out of foul trouble. He changes the game and was a +24 on the court. Next game you have to cut down the turnovers (22). Cade had 7 alone. Without that this would have been an absolute pummeling. They also shot 58% from the free throw line and 23% from three which is terrible. There's a lot of room for improvement on the offensive end in a game they won by 15 because of their defense which held Orlando to a season low 83.

He has Bell’s Palsy.

Why leave Jenkins in if you’re bringing Cade back?

Stew! What’s block. Definitely challenge that. He really has outplayed Duren in this series.

Jenkins has been bad. There’s no other way to say it. I’d actually just let Lavert or Huerter play backup PG at this point. Scratch that, just let Ausar do it.

Green and Stew as the first two subs in the 3rd. Thank you JB.

I’ll take it but that’s not a flagrant.

Beautiful. Defense to offense.

Couldn’t ask for a better way to start the half. Ausar everywhere on defense. Harris smart enough to dribble into the shots he can actually make. Cade getting to the lane and not settling.

Great start to the third.