Official Pistons Thread: Offseason

[detfan782004]

Duren has so much potential 

[catcheryea]

i caved last night and watched overtime. i couldn't believe monty was playing sasser, ivey, cade, ausar, and duren to close the game. and i can't believe he was letting sasser and ivey handle the ball. it wasn't always great, and it was more than a little sloppy and unorganized, but at least they were getting different looks. it helped that portland's only offensive gameplan was get grant the ball at the elbow and thybulle was their second option, but they were also getting stops and letting sasser, ivey, and ausar get out and run, something they should've tried to do from day one

do i expect that to continue once the full roster is together and especially when stew is healthy again? absolutely not. it's kind of incredible that monty's best coaching seems to happen when he's hamstrung and his only option is putting out lineups with players that make sense together. but as soon as they're close to healthy, it's straight back to stew at the 4 and ivey in the corner

also ivey got asked after the game to give his thoughts on the trade deadline and how he felt about seeing some of his teammates leaving. i'm sure they thought he was going to offer some touching words on the guys they lost but i think this is the second happiest i've ever seen him. first he pretty much said he was glad that he didn't get traded and then he seemed like he was really happy that certain guys (one guy, really, i'm pretty sure) were off the team

[General Tso]

40 minutes ago, catcheryea said:

i caved last night and watched overtime. i couldn't believe monty was playing sasser, ivey, cade, ausar, and duren to close the game. and i can't believe he was letting sasser and ivey handle the ball. it wasn't always great, and it was more than a little sloppy and unorganized, but at least they were getting different looks. it helped that portland's only offensive gameplan was get grant the ball at the elbow and thybulle was their second option, but they were also getting stops and letting sasser, ivey, and ausar get out and run, something they should've tried to do from day one

do i expect that to continue once the full roster is together and especially when stew is healthy again? absolutely not. it's kind of incredible that monty's best coaching seems to happen when he's hamstrung and his only option is putting out lineups with players that make sense together. but as soon as they're close to healthy, it's straight back to stew at the 4 and ivey in the corner

also ivey got asked after the game to give his thoughts on the trade deadline and how he felt about seeing some of his teammates leaving. i'm sure they thought he was going to offer some touching words on the guys they lost but i think this is the second happiest i've ever seen him. first he pretty much said he was glad that he didn't get traded and then he seemed like he was really happy that certain guys (one guy, really, i'm pretty sure) were off the team

You absolute sicko

 

So did I.

I do not miss Beef Stew on this team. I suppose he can take Muscala/Wiseman's minutes when he comes back.

[catcheryea]

29 minutes ago, General Tso said:

I do not miss Beef Stew on this team. I suppose he can take Muscala/Wiseman's minutes when he comes back.

he'll take wiseman's minutes, muscala's minutes, duren's minutes, ausar's minutes, fontecchio's minutes, ivey's minutes, everybody's minutes. if he wanted to play the point, monty would let him

they should start cade, ivey, two of grimes/ausar/fontecchio, duren

with cade/ivey, sasser, the other of grimes/ausar/fontecchio, muscala, stew off the bench

they won't come close to either of those

also if they're not going to sign a veteran center (idk who's even out there or if that's muscala job, which is fine, i guess) stanley umude should get a deal for the rest of the year

[MOSteelers56]

Having Grimes and Ausar playing together is going to be fun defensively. That's some stifling wing defense. Could be a Lindsey Hunter/Mike James clamps unit. Fontecchio looks like he can add to that too. We're definitely a more cohesive looking roster now. 

[catcheryea]

acquiring all of these wings to only play one at a time because stewart and duren must, must, must play together is going to kill the offense. then when the bench comes in, playing sasser and three wings with a big is going to kill the offense because there isn't a real point guard on the floor

[catcheryea]

if weaver had been allowed to hire ollie for like $2 million and he made the exact same decisions at every stage of the season that monty has made, and the season went exactly like this, they both would've been fired in mid december

[nagahide13]

2 hours ago, catcheryea said:

if weaver had been allowed to hire ollie for like $2 million and he made the exact same decisions at every stage of the season that monty has made, and the season went exactly like this, they both would've been fired in mid december

The thing is to get all of the information. For me to come here and make a statement would be a bit irresponsible. I think that is irresponsible for sure. You really don't know. That did not need to happen. There is a time for the information to be gathered, and then you can make a statement.

😉

[catcheryea]

hey look the front office is fed up with monty again

 

[MOSteelers56]

2 hours ago, catcheryea said:

hey look the front office is fed up with monty again

 

Join the club, FO

[Sllim Pickens]

Oddly enough the Fontecchio move seems to be working out.  Seems like a solid fit off the bench for us and probably a good candidate to be resigned if reasonable.  

Should be on a two game win streak if the refs called the tackle in NY.  Monty actually seems to be playing the guys who should play the last couple of games with the starters all playing 30+ mins with Fontecchio, Sasser, Grimes and Wiseman being the only real impacts off the bench.  I liked Muscala more than Wiseman but now with him too being bought out, Wiseman is all thats left to backup C although they could split Duren and Stewart's minutes instead of playing them together as much.  But finally showing what it is like to build around the guys we drafted and not just force bad players into the rotation for fun. 

Speaking of Muscala, the trade I am sure was intended to get Bagley off our books for next year which costs us 2 2nd round picks.  Just another failed move by Weaver (Bagley and the trade to get off him).  I sure hope they don't let him do the same thing this offseason.  We now have $47M in dead cap this season which is such a great way to spend all that cap space we had last offseason.  Still not sure how Weaver has a job.  Oddly enough Bagley has now been playing well in DC.  If only we never got Wiseman to steal his minutes.  

[catcheryea]

2 hours ago, Sllim Pickens said:

although they could split Duren and Stewart's minutes instead of playing them together as much

i promise this thought has literally (literally) never crossed monty's mind

[MOSteelers56]

2 hours ago, Sllim Pickens said:

Oddly enough the Fontecchio move seems to be working out.  Seems like a solid fit off the bench for us and probably a good candidate to be resigned if reasonable.  

He's an RFA too, so it should be reasonable. He's definitely been fun.

[Sllim Pickens]

So what would an ideal offseason look like to you guys?  I am assuming nothing changes in management or it would have already been done and been on the lookout for a new GM.  Monty is too expensive for Gores to allow firing him so he will be back too. But player wise, how would you like to see the offseason go?

With Weaver here, it sounds like he is all in on Tobias Harris.  Although Harris fits what we need pretty well, he is old and will likely be expensive.  If they can get him on a short term deal (2 or 3 year) I wouldn't hate it, but it would be a sad primary move. Instead I would rather sign the younger version of Harris in Miles Bridges.  As much as I hate who he is and what he did, sign him to a deal with outs if something happens again off the court.  Bridges is a relative local kid who fits what we need at the 4 to a tee.  Athletic, outside shooting, playmaking if needed, rebounding and defensive switchability.  I know the Hornets want to keep him but if we can lure him away, he would fit great with the rest of our youth.  Not sure what his deal would look like because of the off court issues but guessing it would be significantly less than Harris.   

I would like to resign Fontecchio since I think he is a solid backup SF who can score.  As long as his deal isn't too much, he would make sense to retain.  I am guessing something in the 8-12M range is what it will take however his emergence in Detroit may make that jump a little bit.  

Jalen Smith is a guy I think we should target for the backup C job.  His outside shooting and solid defense would be a great improvement off the bench behind Duren.  I do believe he could play the 4 better than Stewart if we wanted to run both big men out at the same time but thats where the draft comes in too.  

Another route we could go is making a trade for a star or two.  We likely don't have the picks for two and would have to send some of our young talent but it may make sense.  Karl-Anthony Towns likely will be moved because the T-Wolves will be well over the luxury cap and will be filling out their roster with minimum contracts.  Plus they have Naz Reid who seems to be ready to step into a bigger role.  Towns contract is tough but who knows what the cap does in the next four years.  Plus its nearly impossible to get a star like that to Detroit.  We could send them Stewart, Fontecchio, and probably Ausar Thompson along with some picks.  That would improve their depth and give them some younger talent to help grow with Edwards.  The pistons have $56M in contracts on the books for next season so they could easily manage KAT's contract for the next couple of years until others are needing extensions.  At that point we will either salary dump him or we will have moved Ivey or Duren before then.  Brandon Ingram is another guy who could be on the market due to tax reasons that would fit pretty well at the 4 for us.  Can also play the three if we also sign Bridges (although Bridges can play the 3 as well).  Ingram doesn't have the contract of KAT but his next extension likely will get there and will go a year longer than KAT.  

As far as the draft goes, I am guessing the pick would be in a deal if we make a move for KAT or BI.  This draft is a crap shoot of solid prospects with flaws and no super star jumping out. 

I do like Zaccharie Risacher as a stretch 4 that can play the 3.  His length, shooting, and defense make him an intriguing prospect. 

Alexander Sarr seems like a high risk high reward type.  Might end up being a Nick Claxton type defensive big which would help us but that isn't usually what you want in the first few picks of a draft.  Has upside with an outside shot but I heard that with Stewart too and nothing has changed. 

Cody Williams seems like the best college player coming out and the only one I would like to take in the top 3/4 picks.  His length is insane on the wing and he has shown a great shot.  Would make Ausar a bench player which is likely better for our team but sucks using a top 5 pick on a bench player.  Cody can handle the ball when needed and probably has the most or second most (behind Risacher) upside to be a star player.  

I would probably prefer to move down in the draft and gain future draft capital or an established player and if moving down I think guys like Kyle Filipowski, Tidjane Salun, Kel'el Ware, Trevone Brazil, PJ Hall and Ron Holland would be solid picks.  Looking for depth at that point in the draft with upside so don't need the instant impact guy but all are bigs that can defend and shoot.  Seems like the late lotto to the end of the first will be the spot to target guys like this.  If we can move Stewart and something to get into that range of the draft or trade down from our top 5 pick, these guys would be solid targets.  

 

[catcheryea]

On 3/5/2024 at 12:37 PM, Sllim Pickens said:

Miles Bridges

we're absolutely not doing this. he shouldn't be in the nba and this front office especially can't afford and probably doesn't want the blowback that would come with signing him after the **** the put rob murphy's assistant through and the way they handled that situation from start to finish. also there's no way i would trust him to not do some other terrible thing being back in michigan around his friends

the ideal offseason doesn't exist if they don't fire both weaver and monty. it's almost a waste of time to go into it again, but the fourth highest paid head coach in the nba spent almost half a season starting killian hayes. there were multiple games where ivey was the 11th man to get in. it took an intervention with the cokehead owner to convince him to put the ball in ivey's hands. i saw a tweet this week that he's playing both of his lead guards in a lineup without any shooters and he's playing all the shooters in a lineup without someone to get them the ball. he's spent all year lamenting about how bad of job he's doing and then continuing to do the exact same things the next night. i'm sincerely not exaggerating when i say there are several people on here that would have a better record coaching this team this year than monty does and all it would take is playing the players on the team who are better than the three worst players in the league. he's probably responsible for 10 losses just by giving hayes, livers, and wiseman a combined 60+ minutes. i genuinely think i could have 20 wins right now

going position by position, i think they're set on guards. maybe they can sign a vet with absolutely no intention of playing (not that we can trust monty to not give that guy 27 minutes a game), but if they're confident in the four young guards they have now, they should be the only ones playing consistently next year. and make sure someone tells tom gores that they should stagger cade-ivey, sasser-cade, ivey-grimes so he can pass it down

obviously finding wings that can play has been the issue since weaver was hired. they should re-sign fontecchio just because he can play both ways and can play both spots a little. he doesn't need big minutes, but he's a good fourth wing. i wish there was a better option (i would pay jaden mcdaniels at least $32 million) but they should offer tobias $100 million for three years. i don't care if it's an overpay or whatever else the general consensus would be, they need to put out lineups with real nba players next year, and more importantly, they need to put players around cade that not only help him, but stop actively hurting him. if they show up to training camp and the first scrimmage has stewart and duren on the same team as cade, he should walk out and demand a trade

which brings me to the next point, if they're not going to be realistic with themselves about who stewart is and is ever going to be as a player, they need to trade him (which they won't ever do because they'll never be realistic about who he is or could become). it's the exact same thing as livers and hayes where monty won't stop playing him more than he should so he needs to have the toy taken away. we know there have been multiple playoff teams interested and if you can get an early 20s pick for him, i'm taking it and running

regardless of what they do with stew, they need a center who can play defense and isn't totally washed up (finding the most washed player in the league is something weaver excels at). someone who can teach duren some things and even take some minutes from when he's been particularly awful. i said this last year and i still don't know who that guy could be, but even muscala helped on that end. plumlee or theis seem like they could fit that mold. of course, knowing weaver, the most likely thing at this point is probably a wiseman extension

the only two guys i'm really interested in at all in the draft are risacher and sarr. obviously risacher fits a positional need, and i like his size and defense, although i'm a little concerned the shooting could be a little fluky since he's not really shooting what you'd expect from the line considering his 3pt%. he'll never be a top line #1 option but we're past the point of caring about that and if they don't have that guy on the roster already, none of it really matters

i think sarr pretty clearly has the highest upside of anybody, and if he ever shoots it, he could be great next to duren, but i don't really believe in his shot. but if they're in a spot to draft him, do it and use him as insurance. if duren still looks completely lost on defense by the end of next year, see what you can get for him and maybe another young piece and make sarr the full time 5

if both of those guys are gone, i would really try to trade the pick. maybe package it with stewart for somebody. i think towns is pretty far out of our price range regardless, and they're ready to compete now around ant so i don't see why they would want ausar or even ivey because they're set at those spots and towns is just much better than both of them even with his contract. i'm sure utah will get better offers for lauri but he's probably my top target for something like this pick, stewart, and any other picks we can legally trade. hell, i'd trade stewart and the pick for taylor hendricks