Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***
I agree that they came into a bad situation, and for the first 2 years, I think they mostly did the right things. They inherited a mess, no doubt. But after they finally rid themselves of the massive mistakes of the end of the Dumars era, they then took that newfound freedom to operate and proceeded to make almost all of the same mistakes all over again, except with longer-term implications. I won't rehash my 20 prior posts on the subject, but being a near-luxury tax team with this product on the floor is laughable.
I think 3/5 is a pretty generous grading. And I would say the jury is still out on Kennard.
Draft picks and free agency signings were terrible. Those are arguably the 2 most important aspects of team building (actually, maybe inarguably). I suppose I have to give them credit for some of their trades, but saying we turned a second rounder into Blake Griffin is a stretch, and it still remains to be seen whether we get more than 1 good season out of Griffin.
I think in the end, SVG's primary shortcoming was failing to see the sea change in the way the game is played in the 21st century. He was still trying to build a pick-n-roll high-low post squad, when the league has long ago gone to a Nelly-ball spray-and-pray volume distance shooting league. He may not have liked it, but failing to bow to the central fact that the way the game is played now is fundamentally different was always going to result in failure.
I appreciate your thoughtful counterpoints about the Pistons; it's really rare to see true 'Stones fans these days (pretty much all of them are in this thread
). I would say that calling SVG incompetent is maybe a bit harsh, but at the end of the day, you are what your record says you are. And his record says he was a coach with a losing record (152-176) and zero playoff victories. Given his unprecedented control over the personnel decisions with the franchise (at least by Detroit Pistons historical standards), I would place the lions' share of the blame for that directly at his feet.
I agree that they came into a bad situation, and for the first 2 years, I think they mostly did the right things. They inherited a mess, no doubt. But after they finally rid themselves of the massive mistakes of the end of the Dumars era, they then took that newfound freedom to operate and proceeded to make almost all of the same mistakes all over again, except with longer-term implications. I won't rehash my 20 prior posts on the subject, but being a near-luxury tax team with this product on the floor is laughable.
I think 3/5 is a pretty generous grading. And I would say the jury is still out on Kennard.
Draft picks and free agency signings were terrible. Those are arguably the 2 most important aspects of team building (actually, maybe inarguably). I suppose I have to give them credit for some of their trades, but saying we turned a second rounder into Blake Griffin is a stretch, and it still remains to be seen whether we get more than 1 good season out of Griffin.
I think in the end, SVG's primary shortcoming was failing to see the sea change in the way the game is played in the 21st century. He was still trying to build a pick-n-roll high-low post squad, when the league has long ago gone to a Nelly-ball spray-and-pray volume distance shooting league. He may not have liked it, but failing to bow to the central fact that the way the game is played now is fundamentally different was always going to result in failure.
I appreciate your thoughtful counterpoints about the Pistons; it's really rare to see true 'Stones fans these days (pretty much all of them are in this thread
). I would say that calling SVG incompetent is maybe a bit harsh, but at the end of the day, you are what your record says you are. And his record says he was a coach with a losing record (152-176) and zero playoff victories. Given his unprecedented control over the personnel decisions with the franchise (at least by Detroit Pistons historical standards), I would place the lions' share of the blame for that directly at his feet.
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