Detroit Pistons & NBA Talk

Probably, yeah. And that’s fine, wouldn’t be shocked if the Heat were the ones to get the most value out of that kind of move, right? It’s very them, the whole org is built on that kind of identity.

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yeah, it’s pretty much their whole thing

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I look at the Hardaway/Tobias additions as a slight upgrade to Burks/Bojan.

I like the Sticks signing much better than the Williams resigning.

is Tobias better than Bojan?

I’m not foreclosing the possibility, but it’s not a slam dunk

Maybe not as talented a scorer/shooter but it’s reasonably close. Tobias is a superior rebounder, much more efficient passer, and less of a turnstile on defense, though probably still below average. Teams targeted Bojan when they had the ball. I don’t think Tobias has that kind of bullseye on him.

I guess my concern is the level of broken Tobias displayed in the playoffs

Now, admittedly, playoff basketball is not a proximate concern for Detroit, but we’ve seen guy who spat the bit as severely as he did in the playoffs (he attempted 8 shots a game! he attempted TWO in their series loss!) have it linger. For a guy who is, in theory, the third option on offense to just…stop shooting…speaks to some sort of confidence break

Perhaps, and THJr. had a rough playoffs too (despite his “record-tying” performance in the finals) but I think these guys have been around long enough to be able to battle through a short slump. Plus, I think being in a familiar spot will help Tobias. He had a lot of fans here in his first go-around. From what I’ve seen on message boards and Twitter, it seems like people are happy to see him back (regardless of how people feel about the contract).

I’m fine with the Tobias signing. Detroit isn’t a free agent destination so their options were really limited. Hartenstein would’ve been nice, but OKC is a legit title contender so Detroit wasn’t competing with them unless they gave him $40M+/year. Paul George isn’t talking to Detroit. Tobias is a fine player on a contract that isn’t absurdly bad. It’s fine. I also prefer signing Harris for 2 years to taking on completely busted players with high salaries via trade and getting more 2nd round picks. Harris will at least be expected to contribute.

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to be clear, my concern on Harris is less the money and more that he’s not good and maybe worse than existing options

Ahhh… yes. The 14 win Pistons team has a ton of great options on the roster. You’re becoming more of a Pistons fan by the minute!

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I think Simone Fontecchio is probably flat out better, yeah, especially for this roster and it’s weaknesses.

and I said, I don’t know what problem Stewart created that Harris solves. Cade/Ivey/Ausar/Harris/Duren is still comically cramped.

Fontecchio shoots literally twice as many threes as Harris at a better percentage, and is no worse a defender.

Are we assuming that they can’t/won’t play Fontecchio and Harris together? I know we want to develop Ausar and Holland, but feels like playing Fontecchio and Harris together might be the most functional offensive lineup and should be used at times.

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I feel like I’m back where I was last summer for the Pistons where I think I like these vets and that they have options to make sure their worst shooting young guys can have spacing around them to develop. So that makes me worried. But this version of that idea seems likely to be a better result. They’re certainly spending more $$ to do it.

Think they really could use, like, the 25th-30th best point guard in the league to tie things together on O and make sure everybody can just be an off ball player when needed.

On D, I dk, they’ll be bad. That’s fine. You’d hope that with all the young guys they have tho that they play hard and that goes a long way toward being not so bad.

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I think letting Cade play w THJr, Fontecchio, and Harris like 10 min a game would be wise. A lot of reps where he can go to work and feel reasonably comfortable he’s got decent spacing around him.

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Yes, I think those two will play together at times. I’m saying that if they’re going to start Ausar (I don’t know this), I’d rather play Fontecchio than Harris.

I would start Stewart at the five. And Ausar at the three. It’s tough to play Thompson and Duran together, and Thompson’s defense on the other team’s best wing would be needed to start the game.

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agree with this

BTW, I like the Tobias Harris signing. I was hoping for 3 years/60 mil so 2years/53mil isn’t bad. Basically you just want to buy some time for Ausar and Ron Holland to develop. He’s the exact KIND of player that would have made lineups more coherent last year even if he’s not great.

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Rip Lakers fans :rofl: