Betrayer

Oh, and my other favorite part was when Trajan went on and on about being "on time" and "punctual". Y'know, after they were an hour late to start the presser.

For what it's worth, the one semi-useful nugget of info from today's press conference was that Trajan wants to use the trade market (and therefore the cap space) to acquire players that can help now but also come with future assets. Sounds like he wants to do what Weaver should've done years ago. Get ready for this rebuild to drag on a bit as they try to do it the right way this time. Also, get ready for Lavine or a similar sin contract that comes with some draft capital.

Livestream press conference was set for 3:30. It's now 4:12 and it hasn't started yet. Is it too much to ask for just a little effort to make this franchise seem like they're competent? At this point I feel like they should just continue cleaning house. Maybe some people in Marketing and IT need to go as well, who knows. If it was my company, after being the laughing stock of the league for over a decade, I'd want to make sure we were doing everything to show we're turning the corner. That includes at least being prompt for our press conference that's already 3 weeks too late.

I’m taking Grant at 30M on a shorter contract over BI or George at 50M on longer contracts all day. As I’ve mentioned before, Omari was talking about a pick swap plus one secondary young guy (Grimes, Sasser) as possibly being enough. That means you’re only eating about 20M of that, leaving you with 40M+ available to go after someone like Claxton and another 3 and D vet like KCP or Trent Jr. You can then re-sign Tek since he’s a restricted And you still have Ivey and Duren as tradeable assets for the right deal. This would create a competent roster that can help Cade develop. It’s not the championship move, but you have to take steps forward and make the move before the move.

Bickerstaff doesn't excite me for all the reasons already mentioned. I'm sure he'd be better than Monty, but probably on par with Casey. Sweeney also doesn't excite me. He was here with Casey the whole time and was reportedly the defensive guy - yep, that same defense that we all complained about non-stop. Unless he was jumping up and down trying to get Casey to try something more innovative on offense and defense and Casey just ignored him, why would we want this guy back? Because Giannis likes him? Are we really still talking about that?

Exactly my thoughts when I saw the news this morning. Glad he's off the table for us.

Great trade for OKC. If Caruso can stay healthy, he helps a playoff team. Giddy never impressed me. Always just felt like a rich man's Killian Hayes.

Unfortunately, it's really hard to predict when it comes to an assistant. How much is he really responsible for? How much has he learned? Same questions we had with Weaver working under Presti or Landgon working under Griffin. You never truly know. What we do know is that he is very highly regarded around the league and most reports say that he will be a head coach at some point soon. He's been learning under the guy that most people consider to the best coach in the NBA right now. Also, "Heat culture" is something that many teams wish they had, especially in Detroit where the fans would love a return to something that feels like the "Going to Work" era. He'd be a gamble, just like any assistant without a proven record as a head coach. You're hoping that the apple doesn't fall from the tree. It's not a guarantee, but the alternative is to go get a re-tread who failed and got fired at least once before.

Stein is absolute garbage every time. I have no idea why people keep acting like he's a respected source of information.

He was an absolute train wreck this season. Nobody is saying it was a good roster, but Williams was called out by everyone from the Piston's beat writers (notorious for not saying anything bad) to the national media, including well respected guys like Vecenie and Windhorst. He coached like he was actively trying to get fired. Everything from starting a non-NBA player (Killian), benching Ivey, mishandling Ausar, 11 man lineups with all bench units, terrible game management, and outright lies to the media. Speaking as someone who watched all 82 games, this was an absolutely criminal display of coaching. He should've been fired mid-season and the fact that it took them this long to do it was simply because of the money and pride Gores had to swallow after he publicly bragged about overruling his GM to throw bag loads of money to bring in a big name. I'm glad that in the end they did the right thing even though it took way too long. Now they need to rush to bring in a coach because it would be nice to know who your guy is and what he wants to implement before you go into the draft and free agency. Edited to add: Let's not forget that Casey had a similarly terrible roster - and didn't even have Cade - the previous year and won more games. Casey is an average coach at best. What does that make Monty?

Give me Quinn from that list. Too bad Atkinson isn't on there.

YES!!!!! Langdon has earned a lot of trust with this one.

Maybe a better term is "front-bench". Those guys are the ones who the head coach hand picks as part of his crew. Usually they're tied to the coach and are cleared out when the coach leaves. Then there's the developmental and health guys that sit in the back row (or don't even appear on the bench) and work with the players. Those guys are often independent of the coach and are more likely to stay with the team regardless of the current coaching staff. Vinson falls into the latter category and was clearly a Langdon hire which is why I question the "joining William's staff" wording.

Good, maybe we can unload some of these players to the Wiz in exchange for draft picks.

Exactly. Getting this guy was a huge win. One of the most respected and desired shooting coaches in the league. I know we said the same thing about Dan Burke as a defensive guy last year and that dude looked at this train wreck and decided not to show up to work for "personal reasons", but seriously this is a great hire. He's credited with making shooters out of a lot of poor-shooters (Lonzo, Herb Jones, etc). And like you said, it's a Langdon hire. I'm just curious why it's being reported as "Vinson being added to William's coaching staff". He's a behind the scenes guy, not an on-the-bench guy. I wonder if that wording is officially from the Pistons and they're just trying to pretend that the whole "Monty decision" isn't a thing, or is it just JEIII trolling the fans again.

I guess we should keep refreshing his bio on X to see if he gets the job.

They've made it a lot farther than I thought they would, but the heliocentric offense just isn't it. Watch Boston move the ball, find the open man, and consistently get good looks while Dallas dribbles the air out of the ball with everyone else just watching Luka (or Kyrie). Sure, it's fun to see them make a lot of tough shots, but they call them "tough" shots for a reason - it's a bad offense plan to rely on those shots possession after possession.

You're definitely right. I consume all the Piston's podcast/youtube content out there and there isn't much hype at all. And with the team keeping everyone in a holding pattern for so long on a press conference or any news about Monty, there really isn't much to talk about on any front.

Wait , they’re not just going to keep throwing more money at him until he reluctantly says “yes”?

Everyone is out there talking but nobody has any real info on this. Before the end of the season JEIII said Monty was probably gone and Weaver stays. Now he's saying 50/50 because he has no idea. The part of me that questions this organization's seriousness and ability to do anything right thinks they'll bring Monty back because of Gores ego and pocketbook. It's the wrong move, so the pessimist in me says that's what they'll do because they're a clown organization. But if you look at the pattern of events, all signs would point to him being gone and us getting another Friday afternoon press release followed by a press conference announcement (finally). I can't really think of any other reason they wouldn't have had the press conference announced by now. They're trying to make certain they can come to the table with all the answers and if they were keeping him then what's the hold up?

Thinking more about all the smaller guards we kept getting linked to (Monk, Harris, etc), I'd prefer if we don't add a guy who's shorter than Cade. Instead we should lean into the advantage of having a big PG and add a bunch of 6'6" to 6'9" guys around him to fill out the 2-4 spots. Find a fringe All Star at one of the Forward spots to pair with Cade (have to be a trade since there are none in FA). And then you have Ausar who's 6'6" and can play 2-4. Fontecchio is 6' 7" and he can play either forward spot. Stew is 6'8" and very switchable. Grab one more 3 and D guy in FA like Derrick Jones Jr or Naji Marshall - if I strike out on those guys I might drop down to 6'5" for a versatile wing defender like KCP or Trent Jr, but no shorter than that in the starting lineup. Then you need a starting Center who can defend the paint like Claxton. Stew is my backup Center who can space the floor a bit, making lineups with Ausar work better until he learns to hit that corner three. For a third string Center Jalen Smith or Precious Achiuwa could be cheap options. Obviously, in this scenario Duren, Ivey, and the pick are all on the trade block to bring in that fringe All-Star forward (Let's say KAT, Ingram, Mikal, or Grant because I can't think of anyone else right now that could be on the block). At least two of those assets would get moved in the trade, possibly all three. The rest (Claxton, 3&D wing, and backup Center) is done with the remaining cap space (some of it will be eaten in the trade). Of course, none of this matters if we don't get a new coach. Someone smart enough to know the Killian Hayes isn't an NBA player, teams need spacing, lineups don't have to include 12 players every night, if you only have 2 ball-handlers you have to stagger them, and Ausar Thompson's most used play type at the end of the season shouldn't be "spot up 3". That's not asking much, is it?

Monk doesn't inspire me. He's basically what I would project Ivey to become in a few years. An athletic bench sparkplug with no defense. I don't want to spend 30M on that guy to be my starting #2 next to Cade when what I really need is a wing or forward. Would he improve the team? Yes. But that's not saying much and I'd prefer to spend the money elsewhere. Claxton would improve the frontline defense but I wonder what his price point will be. You could have Duren come off the bench and develop, which might also make him cheaper come extension time. Then again, you don't have a lot of assets and you need a good wing/forward, so you'd probably have to move him anyway. There are better role players than Harris to pursue: KCP, Trent Jr, Brown, Oubre, Martin, Jones Jr, Marshall, etc.

I hear ya, but I'll take a 3 and D guard that can handle all the secondary ball handling duties and be staggered to run the bench when Cade sits. Especially if he's got that Heat culture mentality as most people are saying. Feels like the perfect fit to me. Everything we wanted Ivey to be but now know he won't be because he doesn't do the 3 or the D and his turnover rate is higher than Cade's.

100% you're right. They want to have answers to all the questions before they get in front of the media. Problem is that most of these questions could have and should have been answered weeks ago, if not months ago during the losing streak.

Well, MIchael Blackstone updated his Twitter bio to "Executive VP of Basketball Operations DetroitPistons", so I guess that means he's hired. We should all just refresh Twitter to find out what this organization is up to. I wonder what Monty's says?