I’m confused why everyone keeps saying the 2027 pick is the 28th pick?
Giannis is 29 now. Jrue is 33; Middleton a year younger. I would have taken an unprotected pick 4 years from now. If you hit with it, you have a rookie-scale guy just as you need to give more cap room to Cade/Ivey/Duren. And it would be great to have Portis here.
Is he 29 in Greek years? I thought he just turned 28. When Middleton and Jrue go over the hill, that’s just cap space to bring in someone else good to play with Giannis. I don’t think Giannis will fall off too far when he is 32 years old. I’d guess his fall comes in the mid-30s after the 2027 draft. So I’d imagine 2027 Bucks are still a good team.
You make a good point about the rookie scale in 2027 though. Plus obviously the future first could be used in other future trades that are presented. I’d hope for better than a 2027 bucks pick, but if that’s all they got, I’d probably take it.
It’s just my exaggeration that the Bucks will be good still in 4 years so it’s not going to be a lottery pick. They could decline, but I just think they’ll be a solid playoff team at worst.
Perhaps the most likely outcome is that the Bucks are still really good in 2027, but the range of possible outcomes four years out is just massive. The amount of uncertainty is what makes that first-round pick intriguing and why you can’t just assume that’s going to be a good or bad pick. I think the only defensible argument for holding onto Bojan is that you think you can get a better, nearer-term pick in the offseason or next year–I don’t know if that’s true or not–but I suspect the real reason for standing pat is Weaver thinking about his own job security (as someone alluded to above).
1 Like
Rip and Tay for Boozer? So their lineup was going to be like this?
1 - Chauncey
2 - Lindsey Hunter?
3 - Boozer
4 - Sheed
5 - Ben Wallace
Yeah, probably a good thing that didn’t happen.
No, Ben and Chauncey were gone by then. And boozer was at his peak. Would have been a trade of two aging talents for a much younger one. I don’t know that would have turned them into contenders again, but that sure would have been better than signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva.
2 Likes
OK, that makes more sense.
1 Like
From the 15-year-out view, the beginning of the Great Decline of the Detroit Pistons imo.
2 Likes
Re job security — the mandate of a GM on a bad team is really difficult. Like, yeah, eventually you need to win. But picking when to win is really hard.
I assume these guys sign employment contracts w their severance worked out in advance.
1 Like
To me, Flip Saunders was the wrong guy at the wrong time. That’s what started it.
1 Like
Meh, I don’t care about the Bey trade. A lot of fans are overrating him bc he scored 51 pts and had a few 30 pts games. Overall, he was an inefficient shooter with below average defense. That’s not exactly the guy worth keeping long term.
Wiseman has been a disappointment but he’s only 21 and played very little games due to injuries and suspension. It’s basically a one look at him to see if he can develop. Getting Wiseman shouldn’t interfere with Duren and Beef minutes since Beef will play more at the 4 and Duren getting more run at the 5.
Trading away Bojan or Burks wouldn’t have benefit the franchise because they need vets who can contribute and help them win games.
Next year Pistons depth chart:
PG: Cade/Killian
SG: Ivey/Burks
SF: Bojan/Livers
PF: Beef/Livers
C: Duren/Beef/Bagley/Wiseman
Depending on where they’ll fall in the lottery:
Wemby would slot in at PF and can play with either Beef or Duren.
Scoot would slot in at PG and move Cade to the wing.
Miller would be an easy 1:1 fit in the line up at SF/PF.
I do not want Amen Thompson bc he’s older than OTE players and the competition is subpar. Plus his shooting split is scary bad especially at the rim where he should be thriving considering his size and athleticism.
2 Likes
Well, it’s not as if he relies much on athleticism and he’s not likely to get any worse on defense. The drop-off night not be that drastic.
I remember it as only Rip for Boozer.
Could have been just rip. Maybe I’m commingling in the Kobe for Rip and Tay story too.
1 Like
Granted, you don’t know beyond the shadow of a doubt what the offers were. I do know that numerous teams wanted Bojan, and a solid number wanted Burks (but fewer, and willing to pay less). The Pistons are awful, and won’t be non-awful next year. Assembling vets around a young core that hasn’t a single guy that I’d write “future perennial all-star” in stone about at the moment (I know people will argue with me about Cade, that’s fine, I don’t think he’s sure-fire at that level, he very well may be in the end) seems premature, and a wasted of some pretty good assets that could be converted to things that could actually matter.
I think Weaver has shown a pretty good eye for scouting and a good job maneuvering the draft, but his roster construction, trading, and free agency has left me more perplexed that nearly any GM in existence. It’s very weird to consistently acquire vets, hold onto them for a LONG time, lose billions of games anyway, and STILL have a horrifically fitting roster. The Bey trade (as I said above, I realize some bloom was coming off that rose) really leaves me cold and I can’t think of a single reason to do it, unless you think the teenager you just drafted (who seems pretty good!) and the guy you just spend $14 mil/year on in FA can’t play, not to mention the extremely young 3rd year guy who you swear is in your long term plan. I know I’m the leader of the “Killian stinks” fanclub (I will admit that he doesn’t stink as bad as he did, but I tihnk he still tops out as an average backup pg) but why are we playing Burks over him?
I don’t follow the NBA close enough to have an opinion. They weren’t going to win with Bey and they aren’t going to win with Wiseman so that trade doesn’t move the needle for me either way…just a shrug.
The other guys will still be tradable in the off season, right? I wonder how much the market got blown up because of the complex trades for the superstars.
In the end, I think the whole plan is to see what happens with the ping pong balls this lottery. If you don’t get the #1 pick or maybe #2…you have to rethink the entire path to being competitive. At that point I’d you didn’t get those guys you are probably throwing everything on the table because you will be fired if you still stink in two years.
1 Like
Bey was obviously never going to be the definitve piece in winning and losing, but a rotation quality wing is always going to have way more value than a non-rotation quality center, so the simple asset play (when you have 2 rotation quality centers on the roster and a third you insist upon deluding yourself into thinking is) is pretty bad.
Bojan and Burks are tradeable in the off-season. I’d argue that the age, particularly of Bojan, makes every day that passes diminish his value more. Furthermore, the sort of team that should want him (clearly hte Pistons do to, to my confusion) is a contending one, and I think that teams have more clarity surrounding whether they are contending NOW than they do in August (as the season is like 2/3 done), and more clarity surrounding what they need. Maybe I’m wrong and they’ll get great pre-draft value from him. But this is the same team that retained Grant for way too long (everyone here is insisting the Bucks 2027 pick is useless, how do we feel about the 2025 one they got for Grant?)
1 Like
He sure didn’t extract a whole lot of value from this either. I was ready to see Bey traded, but this wasn’t it. I’m starting to ask some of the same questions you are.
I think Pistons fans think way more highly of Bey than others do. He’s a turnstile on defense, doesn’t create offense and is just an ok shooter. You can find Bey-like players in every draft or free agency period. It’d be one thing if he was a true 3 and D guy. That would have a ton of value. But he’s a 34% 3 and zero D guy.
But he occasionally puts up empty stats on a bad team so Pistons fans think he’s some great piece that should generate a lot of trade value. Most contenders probably aren’t looking for a backup wing who can’t play defense and only shoots ok. And bad teams like the pistons aren’t going to build around Bey. He’s just a guy.