2022 Pistons Offseason

[Motown Bombers]

11 hours ago, buddha said:

cade is luka doncic.  grant hill was a much better athlete than cade.  which doesnt mean cade will be worse than grant hill, but hill is a much different player than cade.

My comparison to Hill was more that I think Hill was the last true star the Pistons have had. With the way the NBA is these days, I expect him to leave as soon as possible for the next super team. The Pistons will put in all the work developing him and another team will sign him or give us a bunch of useless draft picks when we are forced to trade him. 

[casimir]

3 hours ago, Deleterious said:

I'm excited that we have a player we can compare to Luka.

That's where I am.  Cunningham is justifiably in the discussion for ROY, that's good enough for me.

[casimir]

20 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

My comparison to Hill was more that I think Hill was the last true star the Pistons have had. With the way the NBA is these days, I expect him to leave as soon as possible for the next super team. The Pistons will put in all the work developing him and another team will sign him or give us a bunch of useless draft picks when we are forced to trade him. 

I don't know.  At this point, they just have to surround him with the right talent to make him consider leaving a risky choice if his priority is to win championships.

[Betrayer]

13 hours ago, NYLion said:

On another note, I'll pose a question for you guys. Do you prefer that Weaver stick with the slow build or for him to dip into free agency for a higher caliber player than Plumlee/Olynyk? Brunson, Bridges, Mitchell Robinson (if you consider him as a bigger ticket FA).  I'm a bit torn, they have a big need for a PG (Brunson) and paint protecting center (Robinson) but I don't want Weaver overspending either. I'm sure the draft will dictate how they approach free agency somewhat but I also think this team can take a sizeable jump forward next season if they fill both of those holes in the offseason, draft and free agency or trade.

If by "slow building" you mean to continue to be bad and get high lottery picks in order gain young talent, I think that's off the table and this is going to be the last time we have a high lottery pick for a while. We were a .500 team since Feb 16 if you remove the last 3 tank games where played all G-League guys. I doubt we see this team in the bottom 5 next year and being in the mix for a play-in game isn't out of the question.

This is a huge offseason for Weaver. It could very easily be THE defining offseason for what this team becomes and the most important of Weaver's tenure in Detroit. A lot of key decisions such as Grant's contract/trade, high lottery pick, dollars to spend on a weak FA class, Bagley's contract, etc.

The dream outcome for me would be to get lucky enough to draft Jabari Smith Jr (PF), trade Grant for Portland's higher pick and grab an athletic guard next to Cade (Ivey, Mathurin, or Sharpe). Now you've got your young core with Cade, [Rookie Guard], Bey, and Jabari. You still have a decent amount of FA money that could be used to address your starting Center and/or add bench talent.

That's a team that won't skyrocket to the top because they'll take time to mature, but it's "slowness" is based upon player development of a young core with a very high ceiling, not GM development of a bad team still searching for their core.

 

 

 

[RandyMarsh]

Barring a major setback to Cade or us getting extremely lucky in the lottery and jumping like 10 spots I think this will be the last year we pick in the top 5 range for awhile so Im hoping we hit a home run here.

The guy doesn't have to be a superstar but I feel he needs to atleast be an All Star caliber guy if we're going to eventually want to take that next step in a couple years. 

[RandyMarsh]

7 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

My comparison to Hill was more that I think Hill was the last true star the Pistons have had. With the way the NBA is these days, I expect him to leave as soon as possible for the next super team. The Pistons will put in all the work developing him and another team will sign him or give us a bunch of useless draft picks when we are forced to trade him. 

Yeah I think Hill was definitely are last superstar atleast in a national sense. Locals say Ben or Chauncey but they were never viewed that way on a national sense. 

At one point you could make a case that Grant was the most famous non Bulls player in the NBA outside of maybe Shaq. Iirc Grant actually was the top vote better in the ASG a couple times. 

[Motown Bombers]

1 hour ago, RandyMarsh said:

Yeah I think Hill was definitely are last superstar atleast in a national sense. Locals say Ben or Chauncey but they were never viewed that way on a national sense. 

At one point you could make a case that Grant was the most famous non Bulls player in the NBA outside of maybe Shaq. Iirc Grant actually was the top vote better in the ASG a couple times. 

Hill even led the All Star voting when he played like 4 games his first year in Orlando. I remember Grant Hill being highly endorsed in Detroit. I remember his Sprite and McDonalds commercials. The league was searching for it's next superstar since Michael Jordan was on the way out and Grant Hill's name was thrown in that mix. Wallace and Billups were good players who made all star teams but were never the star that Grant Hill was. 

[Deleterious]

The Athletic NBA staff wrote an article where they each revealed their post season award votes.  Everyone voted for Mobley or Barnes to win ROY.

[RandyMarsh]

BTW as expected Cade was named a finalist for the ROY along with Barnes and Mobley. I'm sure it's going to go just like the Athletic article with Mobley and Barnes ahead of him and honestly I have no issue with that.

While I personally think Cade is going to be a more valuable player and I'm glad we took him I think it's fair to say that them two may have been better this season, atleast it you want to buy into most of the advanced stats.  

[Deleterious]

I love seeing two perimeter guys as finalists for DPOY.

 

[Deleterious]

Love to see a perimeter guy getting it.  Rim protection is so over rated in the NBA.

 

[Betrayer]

Marcus Smart is the guy I tend to think of when I imagine where Killian could take his career with the tools I've seen him display. You can see the defensive potential and I think Killian is already a better passer than Marcus, but can he take his defense to the next level and also get his three point shot to a respectable point? That's going to be the question for the 20 year old over the next season or two. If so, then he can become a highly valuable bench PG that might close games due to his defense.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Betrayer

[Deleterious]

From a podcast on ESPN.

Quote

“So now you’ve got this dynamic in which Morey’s being attacked , Tsai is responding in the way he’s responding, and the league is trying to find some middle ground here or figure out how it can exist even as two exhibition games are about to be played in China. And part of our reporting finds out that behind the scenes - though Tsai and the NBA deny this vehemently - behind the scenes, Tsai was seeking to get Morey fired.”

Another teams owner trying to get a teams GM fired is pretty amazing.  

And how Lebron reacted.

Quote

”I don’t think people knew this at the time. There were these games that were about to be played in Shanghai, one of the teams that’s there to play is the Lakers, with LeBron of course. There’s an international incident happening in real time in front of these guys, and there are meetings that happen between the players and the commissioner as well as the players themselves.”

”LeBron has got his new movie Space Jam that’s about to open, it’s in production. The hope - at the time at least - was that it was going to open in China. So behind closed doors, the players are meeting and asking how are they going to deal with this, what are they going to do. LeBron was quite vocal in raging about Morey, and how something needed to happen to Morey.”

The podcast if you want to listen.

[Deleterious]

They really make him look bad 

Jerry West demands retraction, apology over portrayal in HBO series 'Winning Time'

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

They really make him look bad 

Jerry West demands retraction, apology over portrayal in HBO series 'Winning Time'

that show is ridiculous and totally false on so many levels.  i still watch it though.

its a real slander to jerry west, but that lawsuit is going nowhere and probably was filed only to get west's story front and center.

i love the idea that the LAKERS were some loser franchise that never won anything and had to be dragged out of the gutter by jerry freaking buss and his grand idea to draft magic johnson.  the team won 50 games the year before and had freaking kareem abdul jabbar on it.  and buss didnt eve draft magic!  cooke did.

i mean, jerry west drafted magic and everyone on the planet knew that the lakers were drafting magic.

they make the story out like they were going to fire everyone if they didnt beat boston and that they just lost to detroit and indy.  that never happened (they did beat boston but they also beat detroit and indy), they were one of the top teams all year long and favorites in the west.

sheesh.  i laugh at this show with my wife and she asks me why.  i say, "they make the LOS ANGELES LAKERS out to be some underdog story and jerry west (the guy who helped make them such a winning team as a player and an executive) as some loser who was dragging them down."  

the greatest or second best franchise in nba history as an underdog loser. its amazing.

but it's something to watch.  poor cookie, she's really in for a surprise in a few seasons...

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

that show is ridiculous and totally false on so many levels.  i still watch it though.

its a real slander to jerry west, but that lawsuit is going nowhere and probably was filed only to get west's story front and center.

i love the idea that the LAKERS were some loser franchise that never won anything and had to be dragged out of the gutter by jerry freaking buss and his grand idea to draft magic johnson.  the team won 50 games the year before and had freaking kareem abdul jabbar on it.  and buss didnt eve draft magic!  cooke did.

i mean, jerry west drafted magic and everyone on the planet knew that the lakers were drafting magic.

they make the story out like they were going to fire everyone if they didnt beat boston and that they just lost to detroit and indy.  that never happened (they did beat boston but they also beat detroit and indy), they were one of the top teams all year long and favorites in the west.

sheesh.  i laugh at this show with my wife and she asks me why.  i say, "they make the LOS ANGELES LAKERS out to be some underdog story and jerry west (the guy who helped make them such a winning team as a player and an executive) as some loser who was dragging them down."  

the greatest or second best franchise in nba history as an underdog loser. its amazing.

but it's something to watch.  poor cookie, she's really in for a surprise in a few seasons...

yeah - from 1961 to when West took over as coach the Lakers had only 2 losing seasons - with a 69 win championship in '71/2. I would take that team as in the conversation as greatest of all time. Real sorry franchise!

[Deleterious]

The Athletic did an article going over every lottery teams offseason.

Where NBA Draft Lottery teams stand heading into offseason: What went wrong, what to fix, pick situations

Quote

Main things to fix: The Pistons are on a good path, but they need a big-time playmaker to join Cunningham. Maybe they end up keeping Jerami Grant for another contract with an extension this summer. While the internet tried to get Grant traded before the deadline, he genuinely seems to love playing for Dwane Casey and Troy Weaver. If Weaver gets another top-four pick, a secondary blue-chipper next to Cunningham should be expected to join the roster. The Pistons also have to figure out how much they want to invest in Marvin Bagley III, whom they acquired at the deadline. Not sure how big of a market is out there for him, but he’s someone they could definitely develop once they de-program the Sacramento Kings out of him.

Nothing else is that pressing for the Pistons. They’re on a good path. They finished the season really well. They established their top pick as the future of this franchise. Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart took steps forward. They just need to find a dynamic guard to help break down the opposing defense.

 

[Deleterious]

 

[buddha]

they killed cade's chances by tanking and benching him late in the season.

[Deleterious]

He didn't deserve it. His numbers make Westbrook look efficient.

[Betrayer]

On 4/23/2022 at 10:16 AM, Deleterious said:

They just need to find a dynamic guard to help break down the opposing defense.

This. I know we need a big man as well, particularly if we trade Grant, but we've got to find a way to add one of the dynamic guards in this draft to the team (Ivey, Mathurin, Sharpe). My dream draft gets us Jalen Smith with our pick and then Mathurin or Sharpe with Portland's pick.

[Betrayer]

On 4/23/2022 at 8:00 PM, Deleterious said:

 

I'm actually glad it was Scottie, because it just makes it more comical and obvious what this was about. There's no real need to try to argue about stats with this result. It's clear this year's award was a Narrative War and the Raptors recent success put Scottie at the top of the narrative.

[buddha]

jay wright leaves the door open to coaching in the nba.  would you take a chance on him?

im not sure i would hire any college coach to coach in the nba, but he was pretty successful.

[Motown Bombers]

6 hours ago, buddha said:

jay wright leaves the door open to coaching in the nba.  would you take a chance on him?

im not sure i would hire any college coach to coach in the nba, but he was pretty successful.

Depends on who Cade wants. In the NBA, the star players determine who the head coach is. Weaver just works out the contract details.

[RandyMarsh]

I do think this coming year Casey needs to be under a microscope and management has to determine whether they want him being their coach for a roster that they expect to compete with.

The past couple years and probably next he is fine in the "Ron Gardenhire role" of being sorta a mentor for the young guys but the Pistons will have to see if they want to get their AJ Hinch to coach them when they expect to compete or are fine with the old coach.