NYLion

Well, they did already in Detroit so now it's the Pistons turn to rest guys. This is what the NBA is now, the regular season is virtually meaningless because you never see full rosters. The most meaningless regular seasons of any major sport and I don't think it's close.

Huerter has been really good in limited minutes and now with more opportunity recently. I like him quite a bit more than Levert even though Levert provides a bigger need with shot creation. Hopefully this trend continues of more Huerter and less Levert.

Jenkins seems to play better when he gets more minutes, it makes me wonder how he'd look alongside Cade in clutch moments. Hate him all you want and it seems like some folks are looking for reasons to not like him but he's probably the second best shot creator on this team believe it or not so Cade having another guy like that in crunch time could be beneficial. Just a thought

They won 9 in a row with some of those wins against good teams and you literally said it was a rough matchup earlier in the thread. Sure they're probably overrated but I don't know why the Pistons don't get credit for beating them without two of their best players, nobody was saying that the Pistons "should" have won this game. In fact, a lot of people were writing the Pistons obituary the moment the Cade injury news came out and they're showing that they're a lot more than just Cade.

They should have beat a healthy Lakers team? Lets give them some credit

It's not an easy schedule by any means but these are the Celtics playoff/play opponents... Minny, OKC, Atlanta, Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, Charlotte, Knicks and Orlando. Of their final 12, they play 9 of 12 against play in or playoff teams and the play in teams in the east this season are pretty strong. If the Pistons go, lets say, 7-7, the Celtics would have to go 10-2 as I believe the Pistons win the tiebreaker. That's a tall task for the Celtics even with the Pistons not having Cade and it's not like the Pistons have been junk without Cade this season.

The Pistons have played reasonably well without Cade, the schedule doesn't look that daunting. 3.5 games is a lot of ground to make up with only 12-13 games left. I don't think this is a death blow to the season. Assuming that this is a 4-6 week thing for Cade to get fully up to speed, they'll likely have to navigate Round 1 without a fully functional Cade. It'll be tough but it's doable.

Too early to tell obviously and Ratledge was a nice pick but they only have one surefire starter from that draft and ideally you want 2-3 starters. Tyliek was more of a rotational guy which is fine for a 1st season so we'll see on him, they traded an extra 3rd rounder for a #3 WR who I like but for a team that was going to lose guys due to cap restraints wasting an extra 3rd on a luxury pick looks like a mistake IMO. The rest of the guys are projects which is fine for lower round guys, Frazier could turn out to be something. There's some guys with upside there, I'm a big Teslaa fan, but the returns are modest thus far one season in which is all we can really judge now. Time will tell...

Have to say that I agree. Two questionable drafts in a row although early to give a final judgment, no FA acquisitions of note and what looks like it could be a dud in Reed, no trades of note outside of Carlton Davis who they let go to sign what looks to be a worse player in Reed. I will say in his defense that the catastrophic amount of injuries and Ragnow's retirement late in the offseason kind of started this spiral downwards which was out of his control but he hasn't done a great job of plugging the holes partly due to poor draft decisions with the trade ups for project players.

You would think that Holmes sees all the holes on the roster and doesn't think that the draft can fix even most of them. I didn't expect any big splashes but at least some guys that can plug in as a starter or at least a high quality backup. We're talking about a downgrade at RB, no starting tackle opposite of Sewell, no edge rushers to speak of, thinned out depth in the interior of the defensive line, lost quality depth at linebacker, less depth at CB and one healthy safety currently in Izien. They improved at center but downgraded in a lot of other areas. We'll see what happens the rest of free agency and at the draft but this is the worst roster the Lions have had in quite some time. The core guys are mostly still here but the depth has been decimated.

The Ravens probably dodged a bullet, nearing 30 and the injuries are piling up, just had surgery. The Raiders are probably pissed that they lost those 1st round picks and now are pretty much forced to trade him for a lesser return because they already went on their FA spending spree and can't keep the contract now.

Holmes is unpredictable. I wouldn't be overly shocked if he took Jeremiah Love for instance if he dropped to 17. He's never cared about need or position and he'll go into the season with these tackles if he doesn't see a tackle he likes in the draft.

I'm not so crazy about it. I loved him like 3 years ago then he had a serious injury and hasn't been the same since. I think this is a significant downgrade if we're getting the Pacheco of the last two seasons.

Agreed, Lopez was the main guy I wanted back of the UFAs. The Lions have a lot of holes to fill and are pretty much depending on the draft to fill a lot of them. Gone are Decker, Anzalone, Montgomery, Robertson, Lopez, not to mention that Branch is gone and Kerby who knows, LaPorta who knows, they have no edge opposite of Hutch either with AQM still a free agent. They've upgraded at center but haven't replaced any of the above mentioned names and don't really have anybody internally to fill those roles, lots of question marks all throughout the roster. This is where Holmes not drafting as well in the last two drafts is starting to hurt them, especially taking those swings in the middle rounds on guys like Manu, Vaki and Teslaa.

The Jalaen Phillips and Jordan Davis contracts are terrible regardless of cap inflation. 4 years $120m for Phillips is absolutely insane, I almost couldn't believe that when I saw it. I haven't even touched on the Pearce contract being nearly $30m/yr for a guy with a career high of 47 catches although he is a good player.