Really fun season. First in a long time. Now the hard work starts.
What a crappy way to lose. Knicks stars hit a lot of clutch shots in this series and Pistons made too many mistakes. I do think the refs overall benefitted the Knicks, but you canāt give up turnovers and OREB in key situations. And your whole team canāt go cold from three.
Great effort by these guys but just not enough. Strong season to build on.
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Each loss in this series happened in about as annoying fashion as possible as a Pistons fan and Brunson/KAT hater
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Oof. Pistons this series were the opposite of this yearās Michigan team with regard to winning close games.
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Painful, painful,painful finish but a great season. Letās build on it!
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The Pistons were way under-talented here
To play to basically a series draw first time out is a strong showing
Obviously understand it hurts, but a great kick at the end to take the lead from ten down
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Jamal Murray from the regular season to post season is like the Willy Wonka bit where he comes out limping on a cane, āfallsā into a somersault and stands up with a flourish
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Was reading Twitter and, give me a moment here. Ben Simmons is on the Clippers???
Concerned that the lack of Ivey and Stewart might lead to unwarranted passivity this offseason. Now, moving Hardaway and Reed down the rotation would be huge. But they are still probably one more player away. Presumably a three or a four. But wow. What an encouraging season. Young team got a great taste.
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I donāt think thereās much choice but to mostly stand-pat this offseason. No first round pick, still need to know what you have in Ausar/Ivey. No first rounder. You have some cap space but not enough to sign a star. Feels like they should mostly run it back with some small tweaks and maintain cap space for the summer of 26
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Tonight was one of the worst playoff games Iāve seen jokic play, just dreadful decision making
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20 points at half. 5 in the second half. He was terrible
Yeah you should be counting on basically every part of your core to get at least a little bit better.
They do need to make sure they donāt lose their depth completely tho. Schroeder and Beasley arenāt irreplaceable but you do need to bring in equivalents even if they walk.
Def let THJ go.
But just, in general, donāt do what teams sometimes do in this circumstance and overrate what you are and give the vets raises bc theyāre just so important to the culture or whatever. Support the core and figure out if theyāll be good enough to get to the Finals 3-4 years from now.
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Itās just insane how difficult it is to go from where the pistons are now to a real contender, especially in a market like Detroit. They most likely will have to luck into something.
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They unfortunately arenāt building like Houston with that trove of picks let alone OKC but I think theyāve got a pretty decent shot of growing into a conference final type team with an outside shot at the Finals if everything breaks right.
Cadeāabout whom Iāve been pretty wrongāI think will max out at like 10th best in the league? Ausar (and Amen) I think could plausibly hit that level too but maybe itās more like 30th?
Holland itās way too early but the returns so far are positive. Ivey, still fairly early. Duren prob doesnāt have THAT much growth left but still some.
Thatās a core that can go a ways if they add one big piece w their picks. Think the Booker Suns is the comp here.
Thatās also why they really need to not burn their picks on talent that is not top 50 at a minimum. Ideally top 10 but thatās a tall order.
Yeah, I agree. Their top need is a backup 4, but really they need to find a long term starting 4 to eventually replace Tobias. We still havenāt seen Cade, Ausar and Ivey play together at all.
At minimum, re-sign Beasley and maybe Schroeder if youāre letting THJ go. Canāt bring all 3 back because the G rotation will be super crowded. Beasley is the #1 priority to bring back. The hard job for Langdon begins to get from a playoff team to a championship contender. At least, the Pistons arenāt handicapped by not being able to trade their FRP since this yearās pick will be conveyed to the Wolves.
Schroeder or a similar guard is not irreplaceable for the Lakers but nearly so for Pistons. Maybe Cade / playoffs has enough gravity to change that but not yet.
I donāt really know who youāre bidding against for Hardaway at this point so maybe can keep both him and Beasley.
Really have to hope for development from Ausar and Holland but their offensive limits were profound this year. Yes playoff minutes but I was dying for an offense-defense substitution pattern late in the game last night.
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I think the Pistons have the ability to replace Hardaway with a younger, better player this off-season. I donāt know that the team in possession of the guy Iām thinking about wants to deal him or not, but I donāt see it as a non-starter.
For the most part, stars arenāt hitting FA these days, and havenāt for yeeeaaarrrrs. Itās going to take a trade.
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I donāt think replacing Hardaway is a problem presented by not being able to retain him, I think they need to upgrade that spot.
The good news is that I think a version of this team with Ivey and Stewart probably wins this series?
I guess Iām a little more down on Cadeās performance this series - he definitely was not bad, but he definitely struggled shooting. I guess I agree that heās a ātop out around top 10ā guy, which is obviously great
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