Yes, beating the Bucks is a tall order, but they’ve also let several other 4th quarter leads evaporate this season. Hopefully, the young guys can learn how to close some games out over the rest of this year. It seems like they’re playing a little better this month but don’t have a lot to show for it.
Their next two games are against Charlotte (who apparently just traded Rozier to Miami for Lowry) and the Wiz. If they’ve improved, they should win at least one of them, Cade or no Cade.
I know the Bucks are 30-13, so the firing is super weird, but we’ve had Giannis and Dame making weird somewhat insulting comments about team preparedness in pressers all year in a way that suggests they don’t think he’s doing a good job, and if you’re going to choose between Giannis and Dame or Adrian Griffin, well, we see how that is going to go (for what its worth, lots of analysts have been shocked at how suboptimally the Bucks have used their stars together, etc.)
So it’s weird, but I get that.
What I DO NOT get is the rumor they are hiring Doc Rivers. If you are the VP of Basketball Ops or whatever, and you think you have a roster with a shot at a title (they absolutely do), and your coach doesn’t have the juice to win late round playoff series, you turn to…Doc f’ing Rivers???
Considering Stotts quit before the preseason finale after an argument with Griffin, it sounds like it’s not on-court performance that was an issue. Throw in Giannis not sure about Griffin before reluctantly endorsing him doesn’t help either.
The Pistons are 1-0 since Harbaugh went back to the NFL.
exactly how many basketball teams was he holding back?!
We’ll never know…
This is the kind of move that a GM with a job on the line would make:
I have confidence in the Bulls’ ability to Stockholm Syndrome themselves into standing pat on a .500 club and not doing this.
i am glad they said they won’t touch any of the four players with a chance of being good? hope that holds!
They’re getting zero interest on LaVine in the trade market yet they’re asking a lot for him lol.
Weaver: You can include one of our young core to the trade. You can pick either Wiseman or Hayes or both!
LaVine’s contract is still too much to take on. Why burn your cap-space on a guy who’s not going to get any better and hasn’t proven to be able to elevate a team?
BTW- I would’ve been on board to add him maybe as recently as 2 years ago. That ship has sailed.
Dealing for LaVine reminds me of the moves Isiah made with the Knicks. Zeke was good at drafting, but he also added a lot of “names” who either were past their prime or just couldn’t mesh with other guys. Marbury, Steve Francis, Penny Hardaway, Tim Thomas, Jalen Rose, etc.
I agree that LaVine isn’t making the Pistons into a contender. However, the problem I see is:
Pistons aren’t going to be able to sign a big time free agent - it’s just not a destination like that and this year’s free agent class is weak.
That means in order to fill the cap space, they need to make a trade. The problem there is that no team is going to trade a player that is great and has no baggage. So Pistons likely need to trade for a player who is overpaid that another franchise is looking to unload to save cap space and go in a different direction. There probably isn’t a big list of players that are better than LaVine that fit that mold.
The third option is to continue down the path of having cap space, but not using it and signing more Joe Harris and Monte Morris types, which obviously is not productive for progressing toward fielding a winning team.
I don’t really know what the answer is. The only real way out of this hole is for some of their draft picks to turn into bona fide stars.
The argument for taking Lavine really has nothing to do with on-court production and more that in order to trade for an expensive good player you kind of need an expensive player to trade, and Lavine is that.
As a fringe NBA follower…do we like this or not? I’m leery of trading two of our young pieces in general, but I don’t know much about Murray’s situation.
I would definitely not trade those two for Murray…and thankfully sounds like the Pistons agree.
The Pistons only path is to take on useful players from teams that want to shed their contracts.
Problem is that some of these teams like Portland are more interested in getting draft picks back and the Pistons have no draft capital.
So they have to go to teams like Atlanta or Sacramento that want to shed salary for more cap flexibility.
So they’ll have to do something like trade Bojan, Burks and Monte for players like DeAndre Hunter, Clint Capela, Harrison Barnes, Kevin Huerter and get some picks for the trouble.
They would then have to use those picks to send to the Portlands and Wizards of the world for Jerami Grants and Kyle Kuzmas.
The future of the franchise will still depend on the development of Cade, Audra, Ivey and Duran. The level of players listed above will only raise the floor.
I think people go too dar on disliking Murray - he shouldn’t be cast next to a ball dominant guard but I think he’d do well in a place like Miami.
This is sort of what I don’t get about the “cap space” people - who better than Murray do you think they’ll get? If you value Iey this much why didn’t you PLAY him?
I’m not saying they should do this but I’m just struggling to see a cohesive plan.