A 6’5 guard with 6’11 wingspan and 49inch vertical who is also a good 3 point shooter? Even without playing recently somebody in the top-4 is taking him.
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Keegan would be a good complimentary role player as a 3 and D wing, but Pistons needs star. Murray wouldn’t help them in that department. He’s a safe pick but with low upside. He’ll turn 22 by the time the season starts which means he’s old for his class.
Is anybody else concerned that Banchero becomes a guy who falls out of the top 3, and the Pistons feel forced to pick him at 5 if he’s still there? Would definitely be the guy I’m least excited about for a number of reasons already articulated better by others here and elsewhere.
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Yeah. Much more a central part of the conversation at 7 than at 5. I was curious how you saw Capela holding up against those others.
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Thanks for the month of sleepness nights. You hate me, I guess?
(Srsly, at 5, you could do worse. I stll think you go into it wanting to trade him when people are still impressed with the box scores he’ll fill up.)
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If Banchero falls to 5, I’d take him in a heartbeat. Even with the concerns, his upside is immense IMO. This should take pressure off Cade from having to do it all as a creator.
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Don’t threaten me with a good time. 
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That’s who I was talking about
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My take on the Pistons is they shouldn’t be tanking for '23 season. It’s time for them to make the next step with the young core and I think they can. Play in game should be the expectation.
If that’s the expectation, I think Ayton is in play for S&T. Jerami, Olynyk would match salaries plus a future protected 1st round pick. Would it seal the deal for the S&T? Ayton is 23 and is getting better. I think there’s more potential to unlock his offensive ability as a perimeter scorer.
Man Ayton at the max (basically what a S&T is going to require) is, uh……a decision.
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I dk I think an Ayton max has a pretty good chance of paying out pretty nicely. He’s still got a little MVP upside left and he’s pretty likely to be a top 20 player
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He only blocked .7 shots a game. That’s embarrassing for a young, athletic, 6’11"/7’0" guy. Cade had the same BPG. I don’t understand paying the max to a fairly traditional C who doesn’t protect the rim and may have quit on his team.
I really don’t understand the love for him. Maybe he’s getting better, and I had hoped to get a real look at him against golden state. The series against Dallas was full of blowouts so I just never tuned in
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I didn’t like Ayton as a prospect much because of his defensive shortcomings… But Phoenix’s defense has been pretty good. Is that despite of Ayton? Or is he a good-defender now sans shot blocking? If he’s an average defender, I’d be all in on giving him the max, tbh
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Especially with Williams measuring out so strong, I’d be interested in a second pick to get him or during or even kessler. Someone like that on a rookie deal might be preferable to Ayton on the max. But I admittedly just haven’t seen him enough to say for sure.
My thing with the max is this: the Pistons aren’t going to be able to actually sign any true superstar max free agents probably ever. So I’m okay with overpaying a little bit to get good players that are attainable. Otherwise, who exactly is the money being saved for? Pistons need to hit on their draft picks and/or make trades to build their roster. They can’t just do what the major market teams do by clearing a bunch of cap space to sign Lebron or KD. So you overpay for someone like Ayton to pair with your promising draft picks and hope for the best
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Well he refused to go into games, sulked about not getting the ball, and got used. If he leaves Phoenix it will be because they decided he’s not worth it. Not the guy to give $200 million to!
He was transformed from bad to somewhat above average.
They refused to pay him in the offseason after leading the team to a Finals and made it very public. He refused to go into the the game because an injury would have ruined his career.
What? He’s always been a very solid defender, certainly become a good one with the Suns. People love throwing out attacks on players they don’t like with things you can’t easily refute with empirical data ie they’re lazy, bad defenders, and floppers, NBA discourse has gotten really toxic.
I’m opposed to giving him a max contract not because I don’t think he particularly deserves but it is not the time for the Pistons to build a team right now. They need to keep tanking and picking up assets. People who think Pistons are ready to push for the playoffs are part of the reason they were relegated to purgatory for all of the past 10 years.
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It seems like we keep having these arguments about defense, but Ayton was quantifiably awful defensively as a rookie, somewhat poor as a sophomore, someone good last year, and good this year.
Again, this trend is consistent across any metric you wish to find.