The changes in the CBA since those OKC teams have made it easier to keep teams together.
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My bias aside, I donāt see Livers in the rotation with the roster as is.
The Pistons can keep Cade for 5 more years, Ivey and Duren for 6, and Ausar for 7, with nothing stopping them other than their desire to do so and those players being content enough to demand a trade
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Itāll be interesting to see if Thompson is made to come off the bench and force his way into the starting lineup. I donāt know if Monty is that kind of guy or not.
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Iām good with a return of Jerami Grant, but only at a certain price. If he got 8+ rebounds a game, Iād say throw the bag at him. However, heās more of a 4-5 rebounds a game guy.
Heās definitely going to have to fight for minutes. I think the previous coaching staff liked him and I believe Weaver did compliment his defense recently. Still, if they keep Bojan and sign another forward, itās going to be tough. Isaiah had a pretty good opportunity to make an impression last season and he didnāt do anything all that eye-catching. If heād shot the 3 like his rookie year, that wouldāve helped. 37% is still nice but 42% wouldāve really solidified a future.
I think there is more on this roster at Thompsonās possible spots than Cade, Ivey, or Duren faced
My assumption is that the starting 5 is Case, Ivey, Bogie, Stewart, Duren (at least thatās what Iād do)
Ausar makes sense at 1, 2, or 3 so Iād think youāll see him start getting 20-25 minutes off the bench
At least right now I think offensively he makes more sense to next to either Cade or Ivey than next to both, Iād like him with one of them and Burks and Bogie
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I donāt see Ausar as the 1. Heās strictly a 2/3 to me. He makes a lot of sense coming off the bench as opposed to starting with this current group.
Ideal starting lineup:
PG: Cade
SG: Jaden
SF: Bogey
PF: Beef Stew
C: Duren
Ausar can slide in whenever Cade or Jaden is out. I can see Cade/Jaden/Ausar lineup but the spacing is gonna be bad especially when they have a big there.
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Thatās exactly what I said outside of nomenclature
Call Ausar whatever you want but heās going to have the ball a fair amount
When a team wins 17 games, they donāt draft somebody at 5 overall with the plan heās a bench player. Ausar might come off the bench as a rookie while he adjusts, but the long term vision for him had to be starting with Cade and Ivey or they wouldnāt have drafted him.
I think āheāll come off the bench this yearā is whatās being said
Regardless of the scout on any of the young guys on this roster, the odds of Duren, Cade, Ivey, and Thompson all becoming serious plus players is really low, just from an odds standpoint
Having three young guys you like the idea of being on ball today make it way more likely that in a few years you actually have 2 you like
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Donāt want to start a new thread for this but happy John Collins Day to @kturnup and anyone else who celebrates
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Anytime you can hold on to a player long enough that you give him a long term deal while also tanking his value you simply have to do it
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Wouldnāt each player have an extra 2 years added? For example, Cade has two more years on his rookie deal and then could sign a 5 year extension. So, they could have him for another 7 years.
For some reason I had 4 years in my head, but youāre right.
Ausar was a 20 year old playing against high schoolers, I think heās just incredibly raw right now and I doubt heāll be able to make any sort of meaningful contribution immediately. Team needs to win more games and show itās on an upward trajectory.
We won, like, 24 games with Jeramy Grant, Bey, healthy Cade, and Olynyk all on the same team. Pistons fans need to wake up.
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As a casual, is there anything I can do to awaken myself from whatever slumber you are accusing us of taking?
No idea what YOUR expectations are but this is at an absolute MAX a 30 win team, even if the rotation is managed to win and not develop (which it shouldnāt - Ausar will be a negative player but they need to play him, etc)
And I think 22-25 is a more realistic band of results
I know itās been said here that Cade would have gotten them 15 more wins but thatās larger than a Lebron impact
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I think I 15-win improvement if Cade had been healthy last year was possible. Not all due to Cade making winning plays on the court but a healthy Cunningham likely changes the approach the team took. They wouldnāt have played as many young players as many minutes that early in the season. And they likely wouldnāt have shut down guys like Stew and Bojan for the last 2-3 months. And Saddiq probably helps the team a lot more than he did, which was hardly at all.
Itās more likely that they win in the high-20ās than the low-30ās but a healthy Cade changes the domino-effect.
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reminds me of when you look at baseball manager quotes from the 70s and theyāre like āthere is no doubt in my mind we wouldāve lost 35 more games without [insert pretty good reliever]ā and now we know that peak barry bonds was only worth ~12 wins
edit: i do agree that cade getting injured probably changed the strategy to some degree where they realized they should actively try not to win games, so maybe it does come closer to checking out with that in mind