kodo wrote:MikeDC wrote:
But this is only looking at an isolated result from OKC and Detroit, not the actual actions that let do that result. Or all the other results and actions.
When you look at the bigger picture, Detroit very obviously didn't follow OKC's model.
1. OKC in 20-21 parted ways with an experienced coach and started a rebuild. When they went on that huge losing streak, it's because they had started the season playing relatively well. So they made up phantom injuries for SGA and Horford. They showed they could be respectable, and then purposely tanked to lose all those games. This was in the first season of their rebuild.
2. Detroit is in season 5 of their rebuild! Season 4 under Weaver. While Presti collected draft picks and cheap guys, Weaver in year 1 did all kinds of weird trades. Acquired Jerami Grant, traded Bruce Brown, Luke Kennard and 4 seconds (23-26) for... Sadiq Bey and a 21 2nd. He was trading the future for the present even then, and doing a bad job of it, since the best player by far in those deals is Bruce Brown, whom he gave away.
3. The seasons that followed have brought just as much muddled thinking and poor drafting.
Detroit is not in their 5th year of a rebuild. As recently as 2021 they were trying to win games with
- Derrick Rose
- Blake Griffin
- Jerami Grant
- Mason Plumlee
They basically decided to hit the reset button at the trade deadline of 21.
Weaver started in June 2020. Just a couple months after AK. Took over a 20-46 Pistons team that was obvious trash. From the beginning, Weaver started making "sell the future to improve the present" kind of moves while also, conflictingly, rebuilding.
1. The already mentioned trade of Bruce Brown, Kennard, and 4 (23-26 seconds) for the rights to pick #19 (which became Sadiq Bey and a 21 2nd. This was just a ghastly trade, and it was conflicting. On one hand, you're getting a 1st, but giving up a net of 3 seconds to do it, plus two players. Just a bad trade.
2. Gave cash to get Grant.
3. Acquired pick #16 with whom they picked Stewart by trading Traded Christian Wood a '21 second, and a future 1st (which ironically still hasn't conveyed and will end up being a better pick than #16).
4. Drafted Killian Hayes #7
5. Signed Plumlee, Okafor, and Josh Jackson as FAs
They knew Rose and Griffin were done as players. They were trying to rebuild, adding 3 very raw FRPs plus the youngish Grant and Jackson. It was just
1. Poorly executed because they made mediocre picks and
2. Misevaluated their current players (giving away a guy like Brown for nothing)
3. They actually robbed their future to get those picks. Bulls fans, take note!
That last part is crazy, because now, years later, they're still the worst team in the league, and they're still encumbered by those moves. Like, they're going to end up giving up a pick that's like #10 in 2026 so they could get Isaiah Stewart in 2020. And I'm higher on him than most guys who are centers with a career PER of 13.something, but that's just a bad deal.