I’m not trying to be hot take artist here but it’s my opinion that the days of letting a young core develop for 4-5 seasons are dead. You need to swing eventually. I’m not saying the pistons should swing now/this offseason but it will eventually need to happen unless AT or RH become way better than expected.
I’m looking at the Bucks and Knicks as examples here. Both will crash very hard (Bucks might need to pay that bill this offseason). Knicks probably have this year and next.
Celtics are allegedly trading Brown this offseason or else they owe like $300m in tax. This is the new NBA.
I think this is where we disagree on Ivey. I think Ivey is good enough to be a #2 option for a playoff team but we don’t know because of his injury. His athleticism and shooting would be plenty to threaten the defense and help out Cade. Ivey would absolutely pressure defense to punish the defense on doubling Cade
If they’re smart about their extensions for Ivey and Duren, you can let Ausar and Holland develop on their rookie contracts. Then you can make decisions down the line. But the key is signing those two to contracts that aren’t overvalued in 2-3 years.
IMO, the good thing with Ivey and Duren is they won’t be signing the rookie max. Ivey with his injury that cost him half of the season plus Monty being a BT last season. Duren improved this season on defense and effort level but he has durability issues as well. The timeline with the contract is plenty for Langdon to figure out how to improve the team.
I don’t see a lot of options for the Pistons to significantly upgrade in FA or even with a trade. Maybe you could cobble together a bunch of pieces to trade for someone, but I’m not sure it is obvious that would be an improvement. I tend to prefer building the young pieces and seeing how much further this core can go with a real coach and playoff experience.
Sign Ivey & Duren to reasonable extensions
Get Ivey & Stew healthy
Hope for incremental improvement with Cade’s shot and Duren’s defense.
Resign Beasley
Offer contracts to THJ and Schroeder…but don’t overpay
I’m not sure Ivey is a true #2, but I think he would have had an impact in this series.
Said this in the other thread, but Franz and Paolo were AWESOME in that Celtics series. If Franz could have managed over 18% from three, even moreso but every other part of his game really shined, and Paolo was really good. Suggs is a good player overall, but obviously what they need most is literally anyone who can put the ball in the basket outside of Franz and Paolo, and Suggs doesn’t really address that.
As far as keeping Schroeder, I think he’s been great for us and if we do keep him that’s great. However I haven’t seen a lot of talk about Sasser and future expectations for him. I feel like he did well enough with his limited time on the court and if we see a little jump in growth from him he could easily fill that back up point/spark of the bench Schroeder was providing.
These two will be really interesting to watch unfold. Detroit probably has less money to offer them and both would be in line for a diminished role if Ivey returns healthy. Ivey would start instead of THJR and would then come in as the backup PG most likely too, ahead of Schroder. They would be great pieces to have to allow for a deeper rotation, but will they be cool with those roles and whatever salary Detroit has available?
Ivey was a starter and does a lot of things with his speed and athleticism that Schröder doesn’t (and Dennis does some things that Ivey isn’t as good at, like on ball defense). They certainly can be a 3-man rotation.
I wouldn’t touch any of those deals, especially for Zion. Booker is starting to age out (and only shot 33% from 3) but he’d be the only one of those that has some intrigue for that price.
