NBA Talk & Open Thread

If Cleveland loses and If the Pistons have a GM at that time I’d love to have him on the phone figuring out what it would take to work out something featuring Blake to CLe (with parts) for Love (with parts). Even if it means we REALLY have to sweeten the pot. Since most of what’s out there says James leaves, at least CLE would have Blake to sell tickets and the youngsters floating around him.

We have no assets to sweeten a pot aside from draft picks. We don’t even really have parts (proven ones anyways) to put with him. And I don’t think Love makes us any better, just trades a bad contract for a better bad contract for fewer years. But if we trade away draft picks, we delay our rebuilding effort.

I think we are better with healthy Blake. Trouble is, you only get healthy Blake for 50-60% of a season. Surprised that the owners let SVG make that trade when they knew they were on the fence about bringing him back. It’s a crippling deal unless he stays healthy for a majority of it.

You can sweeten a pot by taking on more “assets” the other team would like to move. That’s better for a team in the Pistons position than giving up more draft picks.

Except we have very limited cap space. Love for Griffin still only frees up 8-9 million. And I’m not sure wha players at that salary range they would like to move.

I have always viewed the Blake trade as a Gores mandate. To me, it’s 100% on him. He needs to own it figuratively and literally. Too many empty seats in a new arena. The owner wanted a name on the roster. It’s that simple.

To me, at the end of the season Gores took his time firing SVG because he actually likes him (or drinks Stan’s Kool-Aid) but the empty seats and lack of any playoff revenues is killing the team financially. It’s bad management, a lack of direction. The call came from inside the house.

Gores needs to hope that Arn Tellem knows what he’s doing so he can get back to his regular role of helicoptering in and catching a game once in a while and challenging the dancing usher and random kids to Dance-Offs.

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That’s the way I’ve viewed it as well. Look at the other trades SVG made and this one doesn’t line up as his decision. He had come out as the clear winner in every other trade he had made up to that point. He and Bowers mismanaged the cap like crazy, and his reluctance to play young players was annoying but he’d been pretty good trading up until that point.

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There best move now is to make trades for shorter contracts almost no matter the price tag as it will shorten the time frame in which they can make significant moves.

This comes down to trading Blake, Reggie, and/or Andre, right? Anyone else? I can’t imagine that the Pistons would be able to acquire any expiring contracts. Those are too valuable to any team, not just mediocre cap strapped teams like the Pistons. So we are looking for teams with really bad multi year contracts that are shorter in duration than those for Blake, Reggie, Andre. That can’t be a huge list of teams.

Teams that are on the rise aren’t going to want big money on the books for a long time, since they will have to pay their own young stars soon. Teams that are contending aren’t going to want long term deals for role players (since they already have their stars). I just don’t know the kind of team that would see value in adding any of those Pistons albatross contracts.

Plus I imagine that Gores will want to try to fill more seats next year…somehow. He wouldn’t be the first boss to set unrealistic expectations for his employees.

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I don’t know. Hill isn’t doing anything for them and is under contract at $20m per year for 3. Maybe they’d do a Love/Hill for Blake and Reggie with a sweetener (Stanley or if we had to Bullock maybe) thrown in? I think Love makes us way better offensively with his shot. Defensively I think he’d be a lateral move.

Pick a PG in the second and run out a lineup of
Hill
Luke
Stanley/Bullock (whichever doesn’t go)
Love
Dre

with a bench of Ish, Leuer, Henry, buycks and some spare parts via the MLE. Probably in the mix anywhere from the 6 - 8 seed with regular development from Luke and better spacing because of Love.

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Question for my fellow pistons fans in here, any names you’d like them to target with their pick in the 2nd round?

My dream is Tony Carr. I honestly can’t believe he’s not in late lottery pick range discussion. 20 years old, 6’5” 205, averaged 20/5/5 with 43% shooting from three on 5.5 attempts per game.

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I still like Devonte Graham if he’s there. My interest was growing in the Wichita State PG but after watching him a bit more I don’t think he’s going to be a point (plus it seems he might be going higher than I’d think).

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Yeah I want a guard for sure. Either PG or SG. Carr, Shamet, Graham, Divinchenzo.

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Guard that can play point and shoot would be great for the Pistons. I think Carr would be perfect as that player.

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Include me on the “guard with a shot and a handle” bandwagon. Someone who can bridge the gaps when Reggie is injured and possible take the reigns once he’s either traded or Josh Smith’ed.

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Tony Carr is where I have such a hard time with the NBA Draft. He wouldn’t have been a guy I wanted running my team at the college level, but he checks a lot of boxes numerically. Personally, I don’t really like how he plays and the sub-40% 2-point shooting is a red flag.

OTOH, guys who play for crappy offensive coaches in college sometimes are prepared to break out at the NBA level.

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I like the idea of Divenchenzo but he’d better end up decent to make up for the championship game.

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I like Divenchenzo and Carr’s potential as pros but I don’t see them there when the Pistons pick comes up in the 2nd round.

Jerry West said there are only 5 or 6 superstars in NBA. Who are they?
LeBron
Durant
Westbrook
Curry
Harden
Anthony Davis

Giannis would up there for sure

Yeah that’d be the 6 I would say with Kawhi and Giannis a small notch below