That makes me sick 
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Pistons got named the Pod That Shall Not Be Namedās 2nd worst organization in the league (Nate had Chicago as the worst, John Hollinger had Portland worst, they each had Detroit 2nd worst).
Obviously lots of the Weaver area is baked in, Goresā tendency to interfere, also were lukewarm on this offseason (lots of money on Harris, Harris and Hardaway older than a team like this should be shooting for), and with all their relatively high picks, Cade the only major asset they have to show for it.
A large thing to note here is that ownership plays a large role for them in these - Portland being in like year 7 of āwill Joan Allen sellā has hamstrung lots of direction setting in Portland, Nate (rightfully) loathes Reinsdorf. I think Charlotte got a bump from their sale. Washington deserves to be in the bottom group to me but somehow scooted by.
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Pretty obviously has to be Chicago and, yeah, prob Portland. Everybody else has at least had some kind of front office shake up to be reasonably optimistic about.
Bulls IIRC were also bottom 3 last year with the Hornets and Pistons in some order.
Pretty wild that the Bulls, Bears, and White Sox are arguably the worst run teams in their leaguesā¦
I donāt get this. Both will be off the books in a year and the Pistons still have 14mil in cap space so they donāt hurt you in the short term either. Plus both have skills that complement the younger players so you can see what you have in them.
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It āhelpsā that Reinsdorf owns 2 out of the 3. But yeah, itās not fun being a Chicago sports fan rn.
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Oh man, I did the wrong thread on this.
FWIW, Orlando scored pretty high, and Franz was like 1/3 of the reason
The argument is that if you could have signed either to a good contract theyād be tradeable to a contender and in turn you could have gotten something in return for signing a good contract, when you sign bad contracts, even if it doesnāt prohibit further spending, you canāt do that.
In an ideal world, sure. But I think there are a couple possible roadblocks for that scenario:
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Werenāt the Pistons barely meeting the salary cap floor as is? Lesser deals would have put the Pistons below the floor. And do we know that these players would have signed in Detroit for less money as opposed to signing somewhere else?
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It is really hard to get players to sign in Detroit without overpaying a little. It isnāt a major market and the Pistons have been irrelevant bottom feeders for 15 years.
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Pivoting to different, cheaper, worse players would just continue the trend of the Pistons not having a functional team around Cade. It was time to start seeing what they had to work with. And the deals arenāt prohibitive for future plans.
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fwiw, if you donāt hit the floor, the $ figure necessary to get to the floor just gets dispersed to rostered players evenly, so itās not really a requirement. Happened in OKC during the heart of their rebuild.
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thereās a very strong incentive to hit the salary floor in the new CBA
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Unfortunately, lots of injuries to deal with here.
Kobe Bufkin did not play since the last update, and has been shelved for the season due to āshoulder instabilityā - he had dislocated his shoulder in summer league, and the team clearly decided to see if he could get through the year without surgeryā¦and the answer to that, clearly, is āno, he cannotā.
Iām going to go out of order here, as the situation on the Wagnerās sort of colors Jett and Caleb. Franz is clearly still out with his oblique tear. Heās due for a "re-evaluation on 1/4 - two days from today. Mo played one game prior to blowing his ACL out in his second minute - scoring 10 points in 19 minutes. That ACL injury has him out for the year. This is an odd thing for the brothers, who have been remarkably durable so far - Mo played in 80 of the teamās 82 games last year, and going into this season, Franz had played in 231 of 246 possible games. Compounding their injuries, Suggs is now out out with a wrist sprain, and Anthony Black is out with back spasms. Suddenly, the Magic are down to a bunch of tall guys andā¦Trevelin Queen?..andā¦our two young wings!. So:
Jett Howard played in 6 of the Magicās 7 games, averaging nearly 10 minutes per game. He averaged 3.7 points per game, shooting 38.1% from the floor and 27.8% from three. He had 6 boards and 1 assist in these six games (four of those boards game in 1 game). This is still a struggle, his shooting has fallen to 37%/30% on the season.
Caleb Houston played in 4 of the 7 games, getting about 14.5 minutes per game (all in all their minute count was pretty similar), but also struggled - scoring 15 points in the 4 games (3.75 per), almost entirely coming on a 12 point performance vs. Brooklyn on 12/29. He shot 33% from the floor, and from 3, not attempting a shot inside the arc. Like Jett, there is little to discuss in other statistical measures. Lots of minutes have been going to vets like KCP, Garry Harris, and even Corey Joseph over these two, in addition to G League legend Trevelin Queen.
With Mark Williams back on ice, Moussa Diabate is getting backup minutes consistently in Charlotte, playing all six games and averaging 12.4 mpg. In that time, he scored 4 ppg and grabbed 4.7 rebounds, 9 of his 28 boards were offensive. He did put up a 14/5 in 16 minutes in a 13 point loss to Houston.
There isnāt much to say about Jordan Poole. He continues to play pretty solid if completely irrelevant (itās the Wizards) basketball with a complete absence of any help. He did miss two games with a hip contusion. The stats: 34 mpg, 27.8 ppg, 43.6% from the floor, 46% from three, 3.8 assists, 3.8 turnovers. So - really good three point shooting (massive volumes too - he averaged 12.6 attempts in the past 5 games), poor two-point shooting continuing the seasons trend of struggling to match his performace from Golden State, and questionable assists/turnover ratio - Iād tend to ascribe the lack of assists to both his team context and his own shot volume, and the poor two-point shooting mostly a teammate thing. The Wizards are 3-4 in their last 7, which is remarkably good for them!
Caris Levert was the sixth man in all six of the Cavsā games since their last update, playing nearly 22 mpg. He scored 9.2 ppg, alongside 2 assists and 2 boards, shooting 42.5% from the floor and 41.6% from three, continuing his absolutely molten three point shooting on the year - heās shooting 47% thus far in the year. His overall shot attempts are trending down this year, but the Cavs are on an 8 game win streak and have the best record and net margin in the NBAā¦so heās best positioned for relevant post-season basketball of all our guys.
Tim Hardaway Jr. had something of a return to form, scoring 10.8 ppg in 26 minutes, shooting 43.1% from the floor and 34% from 3. Itās not awesome, but his work rate jumped a bunch from the prior 4 weeks, taking about 3 more shots per game than he had been. Most importantly, the Pistons have been playing pretty well (4-2 in this span), so his contributions are at least pointing towards a positive result.
Duncan Robinson played in 6 of the Heatās 7 games scoring 12.2 ppg despite putting up a bagel in 19 minutes in a one-point win over the Magic. He shot 41.9% from the floor and 36% from three and 69% from 2. He also handed out 22 assists (nearly 4 per game) to 4 turnovers. With Jimmy Butler out withā¦reasonsā¦Robinsonās on-ball game is again being tapped into. Itās hard to tell what Robinsonās future is in Miami, as itās hard to see them keeping his contract around if Butler were to go. To his credit, his play the past two years has at leas justified his deal, after seeming initially like a major over-pay.
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Thanks for continuing to do these. I look forward to a 5 min read on the past week or two of NBA. I watch very few games but chase stats occasionally, but never to the extent that I can get from you in a quick summary read!
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Is it the other way around? I remember Suggs leaving the game holding his back.
Caleb started the other night.
I think he started against the Pistons and made his first 3. Iām not sure if he scored the rest of the day. Jett had a couple of decent moments, too.
āPretty much the muscle is not the issue at this point. Itās more of getting back in shape, making sure that I check all of the boxes before I go play a game,ā Wagner told Orlando media via Orlando Sentinel.
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With the Hornets trading away Richards to the Suns. It should open up minutes for Diabate.
The Hornets said no thanks to Nurkic (as they should) and I think they got the better deal by a decent margin. Okogie is in a decent contract plus 3 future 2nds for Richards and a '25 2nd.
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yeah, heās now primary backup to a constantly injured starter