2023 NBA Playoffs

[Deleterious]

34 minutes ago, buddha said:

toronto doing their best minnesota impression.  

is nick nurse supposed to be a good coach?  they cant run an offensive possession.  and no one on that team is acting like they care.  its pathetic.

We all thought he was after he took over for Casey and instantly won a title.  Most forgot they sort of added Kawhi at the same time.

[Betrayer]

Being a better coach than Casey doesn’t necessarily make you a good coach. 

[Betrayer]

These have been some good, close play-in games. 

[buddha]

lol at new orleans.

zion looked real nice on the bench.

[Betrayer]

1) This is the postseason. These stats should count as playoff stats

2) Teams in the play-in shouldn’t get lottery balls. Again, this is the postseason, this opportunity to get to the next step is what you won. 

[RandyMarsh]

Atleast with the Bulls win I don't have to worry about them defying the odds again and ending up with Wembenyana.

Edited April 13, 2023 by RandyMarsh

[Deleterious]

Hell of a game from Giddy. That guy is younger than Brandon Miller.

[Deleterious]

Regarding OKC.

They get Chet back next year. Possibly another lottery pick if they lose Friday. $30M in cap space this summer, and four first round picks next year.

[RandyMarsh]

5 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Regarding OKC.

They get Chet back next year. Possibly another lottery pick if they lose Friday. $30M in cap space this summer, and four first round picks next year.

If we don't get a top 2 pick(assuming we have Wemby and Scoot in their own tier) OKC may be a good team to target in regards to a trade down.

I mean you would think they'd want to consolidate some of their picks and from what I am reading there isnt a ton of drop off from say 5 to 15 so we could still get a similarly talented player along with getting another swing or 2 at 1st round picks. 

The downside is I don't know if I trust Weaver to identify that mid to late 1st round talent. 

[buddha]

50 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

Atleast with the Bulls win I don't have to worry about them defying the odds again and ending up with Wembenyana.

they can still get a lottery pick if they lose on friday.

[Betrayer]

7 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Regarding OKC.

They get Chet back next year. Possibly another lottery pick if they lose Friday. $30M in cap space this summer, and four first round picks next year.

Really sucks that all SVG left Weaver to start the rebuild was Drummond and a broken Griffin that nobody wanted. Would've been nice to have a Superstar or two to build some draft capital.

The basketball Gods should grant us the #1 this year to make up for it.

[NYLion]

17 minutes ago, Betrayer said:

Really sucks that all SVG left Weaver to start the rebuild was Drummond and a broken Griffin that nobody wanted. Would've been nice to have a Superstar or two to build some draft capital.

The basketball Gods should grant us the #1 this year to make up for it.

Yeah, people talk about OKC and Houston with their war chest of picks (throw Utah in there now too, Orlando as well) while the Pistons don't but the reality is that Weaver didn't have multiple stars to trade for a wealth of picks while those franchises did.

Regardless, quality matters much more than quantity in the NBA so the Pistons just need to hit with a few of their prospects and they'll be off to the races. They need some lottery luck too.

Edited April 13, 2023 by NYLion

[Deleterious]

Or you just suck if you cant even win 20 games after 6 first round picks.

[buddha]

say what you want about okc - and i hate how they've tanked - but they havr found a lot of diamonds in the rough, and have found guys like sga and josh giddey with picks that werent #1.

meanwhile troy took killian, traded for saddiq and stewart, and hasnt found anyone worth a damn in round 2.

we'll see if cade works out.  ivey and duren look promising, but dude....20(ish) games for 3 straight years?  that's awful.

[Deleterious]

Don't forget Dort.  He wasn't even drafted, just a guy OKC signed to a two way contract a few years ago.  Now he scores 12-14 a night and plays very good defense.  He wont be a star but can absolutely be a solid contributor on a competitive team.

[RandyMarsh]

A couple sources confirmed it but still don't know if it was 100% true but just imagine how different things would've been if OKC and Detroit did go through with that 6 and SGA for #1 overall trade prior to the 2021 draft? 

I was against that trade at the time cause I was of the belief that SGA while being talented was putting up empty stats on a bad team and I questioned whether he would be the type of player that would excel on good teams or make the guys around him better. Also of course thought so highly of Cade and thought he had the potential to be the type of superstar that we weren't going to have the chance to acquire any time soon. 

From our perspective I question if SGA would've continued to develop here like he has and I definitely question whether Weaver would've taken Giddey at 6, to me I think Kuminga probably would've been the guy so for our sake I'm not sure how much better we would look as a franchise but OKC would look drastically different. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by RandyMarsh

[Deleterious]

Nobody is better at the draft than Sam Presti.  I think it says a lot about Cade if Presti was willing to give all that up for him.

[Betrayer]

I'm as cynical as the next person, but I'll be the devil's advocate here and remind everyone that this is SGA's 5th year in the league and he's 24. Ivey and Cade have each played one year and they're 21 and 20. Oh, and Duren is 19. What will the Pistons look like when those guys are in their 5th year? Can we say they won't be a play-in team? Because that's all OKC is right now.

Certainly Presti has made some nice moves but he's also had way more capital to work with and I'm not sure the story has been written on this Pistons rebuild yet.

[Deleterious]

Wasn't a good look for sure.

 

[buddha]

5 hours ago, Betrayer said:

I'm as cynical as the next person, but I'll be the devil's advocate here and remind everyone that this is SGA's 5th year in the league and he's 24. Ivey and Cade have each played one year and they're 21 and 20. Oh, and Duren is 19. What will the Pistons look like when those guys are in their 5th year? Can we say they won't be a play-in team? Because that's all OKC is right now.

Certainly Presti has made some nice moves but he's also had way more capital to work with and I'm not sure the story has been written on this Pistons rebuild yet.

he's acquired and used his capital well.  we used our capital on saddiq bey, isaiah stewart and james wiseman.

[RandyMarsh]

Luke Kennard, a heavily protected 1st and an extension due Saddiq Bey isn't exactly the type of capital you're going to get studs with. 

[Betrayer]

4 hours ago, buddha said:

he's acquired and used his capital well.  we used our capital on saddiq bey, isaiah stewart and james wiseman.

Role players are what most GMs hope they manage to draft with late teens draft picks and that's what those guys are.  Also, you're conveniently leaving out the 3 potential studs in Cade, Ivey, and Duren that we used our capital on. Oh, and a 2nd round pick in Livers who also looks like a solid rotation player in a league where most 2nd rounders don't even make a squad. Sure, we can all agree that Killian is a bust, but overall Weaver has done a nice job in the draft without the luxury of All-Stars to trade for assets.

Like I said, let's see where this team is when their best player is SGA's age (24 with 5 years in the league) - that'll be 3 seasons from now in the 2026 playoffs. The way people are anointing OKC as the second coming here, it sounds like making the 9th seed is the high bar being set for that season.

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Betrayer said:

Role players are what most GMs hope they manage to draft with late teens draft picks and that's what those guys are.  Also, you're conveniently leaving out the 3 potential studs in Cade, Ivey, and Duren that we used our capital on. Oh, and a 2nd round pick in Livers who also looks like a solid rotation player in a league where most 2nd rounders don't even make a squad. Sure, we can all agree that Killian is a bust, but overall Weaver has done a nice job in the draft without the luxury of All-Stars to trade for assets.

Like I said, let's see where this team is when their best player is SGA's age (24 with 5 years in the league) - that'll be 3 seasons from now in the 2026 playoffs. The way people are anointing OKC as the second coming here, it sounds like making the 9th seed is the high bar being set for that season.

i dont consider cade and ivey to be an example of him using capital.  duren was an example of using capital to acquire something.  cade and ivey were draft picks, we did not have to trade assets to acquire those picks like we did with duren, bey, and stewart.

he went out and specifically traded assets for bey, stewart, wiseman, bagley.  he spent money on bogey and then didnt trade him.  he spent money on jerami grant and got a much smaller return than anyone figured and then turned that small return into duren, who looks positive.

[NYLion]

22 hours ago, buddha said:

say what you want about okc - and i hate how they've tanked - but they havr found a lot of diamonds in the rough, and have found guys like sga and josh giddey with picks that werent #1.

meanwhile troy took killian, traded for saddiq and stewart, and hasnt found anyone worth a damn in round 2.

we'll see if cade works out.  ivey and duren look promising, but dude....20(ish) games for 3 straight years?  that's awful.

OKC has a phenomenal development program, one of the best in the league, but I was referencing their "war chest" of picks. They've been able to accumulate them because they've had star/superstar assets to use to acquire them. Same with Houston, Utah, San Antonio and Orlando to a lesser extent. Weaver's best assets were broken Blake and Rose.

[NYLion]

21 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

A couple sources confirmed it but still don't know if it was 100% true but just imagine how different things would've been if OKC and Detroit did go through with that 6 and SGA for #1 overall trade prior to the 2021 draft? 

I was against that trade at the time cause I was of the belief that SGA while being talented was putting up empty stats on a bad team and I questioned whether he would be the type of player that would excel on good teams or make the guys around him better. Also of course thought so highly of Cade and thought he had the potential to be the type of superstar that we weren't going to have the chance to acquire any time soon. 

From our perspective I question if SGA would've continued to develop here like he has and I definitely question whether Weaver would've taken Giddey at 6, to me I think Kuminga probably would've been the guy so for our sake I'm not sure how much better we would look as a franchise but OKC would look drastically different. 

There was no reputable source that validated that #6+SGA for #1 rumor.