***Official Detroit Pistons Thread***

[l3ulvl]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I was thinking about this more last night while trying to get some shut-eye (because apparently that's what pops into my head when I can't sleep....weird), and it occurred to me: wouldn't we have been better off with Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova on our roster during that Cleveland series than Tobias Harris? Don't get me wrong, I think Harris is a better long-term answer if he continues to grow and get better on both ends of the floor, but having Jennings and Ilyasova would have addressed 2 things that absolutely cost us that series: having an extra scorer from the outside (in Ilyasova) and having a legitimate scoring option off the bench (Jennings). I still trust SVG, but we might be thinking about a game 6 and 7 right now if we had 1-2 more 3-pointers per game and 8-9 more points off the bench per contest. In fact, we'd likely be up 3-1 right now...

Yeah for that series I agree, Jennings over Blake would've made a huge difference, and Ersan doing the only two things he can do (flopping and shooting deep) would've been better than what we got out of Tobias. But yeah I understand making the trade since Jennings was basically gone for nothing after the year and we came away with a promising young locked up player for Ilyasova basically. With those two in this series though I could see it being 2-2 after 4 games, but who knows

[pietasterp]

Thoughts on the 'Stones off-season (draft/FA) thus far?

Personally, I think it's really hard to evaluate, but I think we learned that a) Detroit is still not (and never will be) a 'hot' free agency destination, and b) Stan has a plan and he's sticking to it. In a league that is increasingly about the haves and have-nots, our strategy seems to be as good as any. I mean, until LeBron starts to decline precipitously, the East isn't really up for grabs. But that day is coming...and maybe soon.

[pietasterp]

No one has posted here in 6 months. And I know there are a handful of solid Pistons fans on this forum.

I point this out purely as a criticism of the NBA. It's clearly a 2-3 team league, and everyone else is basically wasting their time. I mean, I know we're all Pistons fans here and I don't question anyone's fan credentials, but logically, realistically - why waste your time? It's unreasonable - especially in this day and age of virtually limitless entertainment options - to expect people to bother following a team that has 0% chance of being competitive in the league in a meaningful way. And frankly, even if they were competitive, how many December-January-Feb-March games do you even care to watch? Other than Cavs-Warriors, there are essentially no rivalries in the league any more. The players are all essentially interchangeable (with notable exceptions on a mere handful of teams), and no one really hates each other that much. And even if they did, they'd probably be on the same team in the near future anyway, so why hold a grudge?

Basically, if you're not a Cavs, Warriors, or maybe Spurs or Clips fan, why even bother with the NBA? Not only is it the least competitive league, it's the least compelling by a wide margin. It's also the least credible by a wide margin, but that's a different rant....

So, now that I got that off my chest....the 'Stones. I like SVG (as a coach), but to me it seems the league may have passed him by. He's always been a winner, but his philosophy of outside-in play and rangy and free 3-point shooting, while novel 7-8 years ago, has been adopted and subsequently lapped many times over by the rest of the league. I don't get the feeling we're improving this year, and I get the distinct feeling we've plateau'd at this point (or are rapidly approaching it). Tying up a ton of money in Drummond and Jackson seems to look increasingly like a big mistake, and I'm not even sure where we go from here. We're good enough to basically finish around 0.500 and get swept out of the first round of the playoffs. But that looks to me to be the ceiling for the team.

I'm not in any way advocating firing SVG at this point, but if our progress looks flat at the end of this season, I wonder if it might not be time to re-evaluate the overall direction of the team?

[l3ulvl]

I still feel like the current roster construction is designed to pull a quantity for quality trade eventually.

Also I disagree with the outside-inside philosophy, we're high PnR over and over, or weave or whatever. If we had better bombers the drive n kick game would work better, but our shooters are so unreliable, we're stuck until some team bites on a crop of KCP/Harris/picks/picks/picks deal, which will probably never happen

I don't think coaching has passed him by, but player acquisitions may be an issue, we have some good value guys, but they don't really fit what Stan seemingly wants to do, so unless we get that awesome/unlikely trade, we're kinda ****ed

[pietasterp]

Quote: Originally Posted by l3ulvl

I still feel like the current roster construction is designed to pull a quantity for quality trade eventually. Also I disagree with the outside-inside philosophy, we're high PnR over and over, or weave or whatever. If we had better bombers the drive n kick game would work better, but our shooters are so unreliable, we're stuck until some team bites on a crop of KCP/Harris/picks/picks/picks deal, which will probably never happen I don't think coaching has passed him by, but player acquisitions may be an issue, we have some good value guys, but they don't really fit what Stan seemingly wants to do, so unless we get that awesome/unlikely trade, we're kinda ****ed

Yeah, that's the other issue with the team. Being a GM is a full-time job, and being a head coach is a full-time job, and SVG having so much player personnel input just never seemed like a good idea to me. I can't think of too many examples where that's worked well, and probably for good reason.

And as you point out (correctly), we're sorta stuck with our current roster which is going nowhere. Detroit is just not a free agent destination, we all know that. Pulling a trade will be tough, especially with the salary structures of our guys. The endgame at this point just seems....murky. And not particularly bright.

Best case scenario is 8-seed in the East and swept out of the 1st round of the playoffs again. Worst place to be in the NBA: mediocre.

[pietasterp]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1...e-jackson-swap

Reggie Jackson was a mistake from day 1 that they compounded with that ridiculous contract. Stan Van is on thin ice, in my opinion.

[l3ulvl]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1...e-jackson-swap Reggie Jackson was a mistake from day 1 that they compounded with that ridiculous contract. Stan Van is on thin ice, in my opinion.

Ugh, unless we get a 1st that trade makes no sense, and giving up a 1st makes no sense for them. Can't imagine that actually goes down

[pietasterp]

Well, it doesn't look like it will go down now. I wouldn't have minded, if only because Rubio has 1 fewer year on his contract (if I recall correctly) and he might actually fit the team better in that he's a pass-first PG.

Anyway, this team is going absolutely nowhere. The upward trajectory has clearly leveled out at this point, and given how much money we have tied up in so few guys - who aren't even clearly guys to build around - this is pretty much 100% on the GM/team president. The on-court play is pretty much crap as well. 2 of those positions are the same guy, so....