I’m a bit less assured on EJ’s defense. Not that he was not a good defensive player in college (he was good!) but his pro defensive role is going to be pretty different from what he needed to do at OSU. I think the gap between the two may have a lot to do with Murray getting to play a role positionally that is pretty similar to what he’ll be asked to do in the NBA, while Liddell, due to roster construction, was asked to play a decent amount as a big…and while that could still happen some, he’ll need to cut it as a wing.
I would strongly prefer that the Pistons work out a trade involving Grant and the Portland #7 pick. So Murray makes sense as a Grant replacement. Then one of Ivey or Mathurin can be that #7.
I know the argument, I just think Detroit spent the entire deadline asking for a high 1st rounder for Grant, and we see what happened.
Less about Olynyk specifically than team composition generally, but:
While I agree with you that Detroit should not be invested in spending money on needle-moving veterans under a desire to win more games, I would like to see them assemble more of a coherent roster in terms of how player-types fit together. I think we all knew last year this would be one of the absolute worst shooting teams in the NBA, and we really saw the needle move when Olynyk (one of the few guys who could shoot) played. The priority should be to create an ecosystem where guys like Cade and the #5 pick (who I think will be a 2) can succeed. As it stands right now, the best shooter in their theoretical starting 5 outside of Cade is Bey at 34.6% last year.
I think Murray is “fine”. He’s a high floor, low ceiling guy who will hang around the league forever because he can score at all three levels and play multiple positions. I just think he’s always going to be a valuable rotation player and not a star. I was hoping the Pistons could draft another star in this draft. I think Ivey is a lot more high risk, but there’s potential that he’s a star.
It’s unclear exactly although it sounded like they were atleast willing to trade that NO pick if it was around 12. But it didn’t convey. I’d be willing to take a bad contract or throw in a sweetener to make it work. It sounds like they really want Grant though
My issue is that we were an awful team this year, one of the three worst, and we didn’t even intentionally tank for most of the year, so getting Keegan Murray as a consolation prize is…disappointing. There’s no guarantee Murray is a better player than Grant, and Grant isn’t really the caliber of player that will get us anywhere without a second star.
It sounds like they and Portland had basically agreed to a deal to trade the New Orleans first rounder for Grant mostly straight up. But Detroit backed off because it was unclear whether it would convey this year (and it ended up not when they made the playoffs).
If they draft Keegan, trade Grant, and play everybody, whether explicit or not it is another tank job. Which is widely viewed as appropriate, regardless of who they draft this year. I guess I don’t see the issue. I mean, it stinks they got passed by two teams, but what ya gonna do?
The “issue” with Grant is that there is an open question about how his priorities overlap with a team. Bad teams probably aren’t tripping over themselves to deal draft assets to pay him $20 million a year for 1 year, and likely don’t want him after that.
Good teams really want him…but they want him in a role he came to Detroit in order to explicitly avoid. He had the choice to be a cog on a good team or THE GUY on a bad one, and chose the latter. Portland won’t be shoveling him a 27% usage, and he’s a FA after this next year.