***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

It's too early...we beat the Warriors 2 years ago when they went 73-9 or whatever, so I'm not getting too pumped yet.

Having said that....should I start making plans for the finals?

I remember that game because I was at my buddy's to have some mock celebration for Ben Wallace's jersey retirement... just an excuse to drink beer, like an excuse was needed haha, and we kicked *** that night

come to think of it, it's my same buddy that hates Draymond (and KD) and GSW now... weird

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

I still think this is a mirage and small-sample size/early season anomaly thing going on. The worst is if we do just barely well enough to retain SVG, and then we're just stuck in mediocrity forever. It's better to just out-and-out suck during the next 2-3 years, until the Warriors are done with their run, because building to be good before that time just seems pointless.

And I still think SVG needs to go. I don't see anything changing my mind on that in the long-run. Just look at our financial situation - it's total crap and handcuffs us for the next 3 years. And that's largely SVG's doing. I mean, what's the end-game with this squad? There's no longer term future with this core group. It's not a championship-caliber team, and I can't see SVG ever getting them anywhere beyond a first-round playoff exit.

[rdnk]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Am I crazy or is it possible we might finally be respectable this year?

I know it's early as **** and all that fun argumentative stuff, but... do we actually not suck?

Depends on the meaning of respectable. Based on how bad the east is, it is pretty reasonable for them to make the playoffs, and depending on seeding, win a round. I want to believe that 15-16 is what the team actually is, and not 16-17.

If that means competing for a title, then nope. Unless Drummond/Jackson/Harris all become superstars, this group is not going beyond a round or two in the playoffs.

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Depends on the meaning of respectable. Based on how bad the east is, it is pretty reasonable for them to make the playoffs, and depending on seeding, win a round. I want to believe that 15-16 is what the team actually is, and not 16-17.

If that means competing for a title, then nope. Unless Drummond/Jackson/Harris all become superstars, this group is not going beyond a round or two in the playoffs.

I will say one thing, it's very encouraging to see Drum making FTs so far

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

I think this explains some of the early-success:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2017/11/07/motion-offense-gives-pistons-new-pitch/107448504/

Short version: Associate head coach Bob Beyer has finally gotten SVG to start listening to him a little bit and install some motion offense, instead of Van Gundy's slavish devotion to the archaic pick-and-roll offense.

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

I think this explains some of the early-success:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2017/11/07/motion-offense-gives-pistons-new-pitch/107448504/

Short version: Associate head coach Bob Beyer has finally gotten SVG to start listening to him a little bit and install some motion offense, instead of Van Gundy's slavish devotion to the archaic pick-and-roll offense.

Now if only we can get to the FT line!

[wco81]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Good to see the Pistons playing well.

Hope that they fill up that new arena more, because they deserve to get better fan support.

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Well, we've won games @ LAC, @GSW, @OKC, @BOS.....I mean, I suppose at this point, it's hard to keep being negative about the team. They need to keep it up over 82 games, but through the first quarter of the season (crazy that we're that far in already), we've been arguably the best team in the east...

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

oh no! we suck again!

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

oh no! we suck again!

Totally beat me to it. I'm not even gonna hunt around for the Rob Schneider Waterboy gif.

Shoulda known it was too good to be true. On the plus side, my continued skepticism of Stan Van Gundy has proven to be accurate much sooner than I expected.

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Totally beat me to it. I'm not even gonna hunt around for the Rob Schneider Waterboy gif.

Shoulda known it was too good to be true. On the plus side, my continued skepticism of Stan Van Gundy has proven to be accurate much sooner than I expected.

Haha my original post was the youtube clip but I had some embedding fail

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Well, it's that time of year again: time to consider the start of a tanking campaign for the 'Stones?

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

Well, it's that time of year again: time to consider the start of a tanking campaign for the 'Stones?

I don't know what to do with this team

also I went pun centric with the 'Stones' comment and went right to Sparty thinking there was someone in mind with gap Bridging potential and felt pun failure without coming up with the right verbiage

Go Tigers!

(****)

[pietasterp]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

At what point do we just pull the plug on this thing and start over sans SVG?

The problem, as I've heard (mostly through hearsay and innuendo, but hey - those are kinds of evidence!), the current Pistons ownership does not really care about fielding a winning team. Of course, given the option, you'd rather win than not, but there's a private equity guy who owns the team and thinks of it as basically an avenue to leverage for revenue as part of his larger portfolio, as opposed to Bill Davidson (RIP) who didn't care about profitability and just wanted to do whatever it took to win titles. Which, perhaps not coincidentally, made his Pistons teams the most profitable teams in franchise history.

This franchise is bordering on dead. There's nothing we're building towards, and there's no legitimate reason to be optimistic about where we're headed. We've got too much money tied up in a handful of guys that will never be the core of any kind of competitive team, and no one from the owner to the GM to the team president/coach has any idea how to build a winning team in today's NBA. The team has never been less relevant in the NBA landscape than it is right now.

It's time to clean house, but to what end? It's gonna be more of the same for the foreseeable future.

[l3ulvl]

Re: ***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

But, but, injuries!

I got nothin, SVG went all in with Reggie as his man, and it kinda made sense considering the pairing of a PnR maestro in a PnR offense, but we had to pay him as if he was a star PG and not just a star in the role envisioned for him.

Drummond had to get paid, and I'm not knocking it, but if the game has transitioned away from the dominant rebounding center, what are you supposed to do with him? But again, if you feel your high PnR style with three kickers is the way to go, he fits that mold. The bummer is that we're paying Drum and RJ as if they're Stockton and Malone.

We moved on from Moose and KCP, didn't get much in return, if anything, I suppose Bradley is the result, but he's another guy that can't stay on the court and it's starting to feel like that wasn't the lopsided move it looked like initially.

So now what? Ish did not work in the starter role to cover for RJ, so we tried to insert Galloway, another overpaid acquisition, into the starter spot. Yeah, that went well...

What the hell can be done with this team? I really thought we were either in good position to make a quantity for quality trade (I'm a broken record on that front), or use the youth movement to be in position to contend when the current stud teams age.

I'm glad I'm not in charge, I don't have the answers, when healthy to start the season we looked like a top 3 team in the east, I want to recapture that, especially with age on our side for the long term. But if we're gonna keep cap strapping ourselves with bizarre contracts, how can we build?

Don't forget when we were Leured in by that guy, who knew ankle injuries were a career issue for him, who could've thunk?