Yeah it’s fair to question them - as problematic as Simmons and Embiid are together, Simmons always carried them pretty well when Embiid missed his 20-odd games (it’s interesting how the Sixers could always miss one of the two of them and still play pretty well, and be no better with both), so I think they will be worse obviously.
But Embiid is exponentially better than anyone on the Detroit roster, and Harris may be (at least this season) too.
I think they’re a .500+ team even if Simmons doesn’t step on the court and they fail to trade him for anything.
I’d probably take Grant over Harris because he’s much better defensively but it’s close overall. Tobias is a better shooter and rebounder. Dollar for dollar, you certainly take Jerami.
Milwaukee and New Jersey overwhelming faves. I think Philly Atlanta Miami and Boston are a tier, and I’m not sure it matters how Simmons is resolved. I guess Philly has upside versus the others w a good outcome.
Everything after that is a mess. I guess Chicago and Cleveland are still in their own tier, but Detroit managed to finish below both last year!
Chicago should be a playoff team now. They got Derozan and Lonzo. I’m not convinced they’ll be better than like a 7 seed but they should be decent. A lot of the East teams are gunning for the play in games as well
You’re right about Chicago. I forgot, but big off season for them. Agree w QD that I’m not sure it leaves them in the “host a playoff series” hunt. Seems like they are in a group w Wizards, Hornets. Anybody else in that group, the play-in crowd?
I’m sorry, I know the Pistons fanbase loathes any suggestion that Kylian Hayes might not be an All Star and that every mediocre collection of Pistons players is not the second coming of the Going to Work squad, but if Kylian really takes half of Cades touches away and thus hampers Cade’s development as a large, primary ballhandler the entire franchise needs to be nuked into orbit.
Come on these guys are still teenagers who are going to take some lumps for a few years. I’m just looking forward to their journey. Everyone wants to call a kid a bust after one season but they forget how Kobe Bryant looked his first year or Trae Young for Atlanta looked terrible his first year. Both have the opportunity to grow together and if Detroit is lucky you might get another Isaiah/Dumars interchangeable combination. Just bigger versions.
Trae was 10 points under league average true shooting on a 29% usage, a 45% assist rate to an 11% turnover rate as a rookie. IE, pretty good.
Kobe’s shooting was similar. Both were roughly neutral on BPM.
Hayes was 130 points under league average shooting, a 25% assist rate to a 21% turnover, and a BPM south of -7 (even negatively defensively). His usage was 17%.
Maybe he will be fine, but Young and Bryant as rookies were pretty close to neutral impact players as teens.
Before the Killian Krew comes out - I know he has the tools to be a good defender, and I know he’s young for his draft class, and I’m not saying he will absolutely not become a a decent player. But being an All-Star, at this stage, seems unlikely.
I’m as bullish on Cade an anyone, Bey could not grow 1 iota as a player and be worth $20 mil now, and I’m at least optimistic on Stew’s ability to turn into a respectable starting center (at worst he will be a fun as hell backup). Hell I even think hunk Saben Lee will be a solid rotation player! This isn’t latent anti Pistons-ism.
My phone put “hunk” in there, and I’m leaving it just to show how much I like the group.
I just don’t see Cade as a point guard. I think there’s sometimes where you want him initiating the offense and sometimes you want him getting the ball on the move. His value as a player is that he’s above average at everything.
That being said, if the pairing doesn’t work, you have Cory Joseph right there.
If Cade can’t be an on-ball player, I’m not sure what we’re doing here - otherwise they got Khris Middleton, who is a good player, sure, but not a franchise mover.
FWIW I think he can, and I think it would be malpractice not to try and find out.
