WOJ: Burks and Noel traded to Pistons

[Piston Pete]

Still not too late to switch gears and get Jalen Smith instead…..just sayin’

[Cowology]

I've been a Bagley advocate since his arrival. He's only 23 years old, which is the same age as Bey, Diallo, Garza, Lee & Livers. He's still got some upside here. I'm OK paying him $10-12 mil per year. I'm OK with him getting a shot at the starting 4-spot.

By all accounts the guy exceeded expectations for us last season. It's reasonable to think training camp & some continuity will yield positive results. That doesn't mean I'm locked into him as my guy long-term and he probably is ultimately best suited to a 6th man role. So what? High efficiency big off the bench is a decent thing to have. And he already has solid chemistry with Cade. So start the season with him and see what happens. *shrug*

Defensively Bagley was trying. That's not to say it was good, but as long as the effort is there I can sorta live with it and hope it improves. And while his team defense was terrible (again, no training camp), his man D was OKish. We learned he can't play C when he filled in for the injured Stewart. That's not his game and will never be his game. You can maybe run him as a small-ball 5 with like Cade/Ivey/Burks/Bey/Bagley and just pretend like defense isn't a thing, but I'd save that for some really saucy moments. Don't wanna over do it when we could probably just keep him at the 4 spot.

He's better than a lot of people wanna give him credit for.

[MotownMadness]

I've been a Bagley advocate since his arrival. He's only 23 years old, which is the same age as Bey, Diallo, Garza, Lee & Livers. He's still got some upside here. I'm OK paying him $10-12 mil per year. I'm OK with him getting a shot at the starting 4-spot.

By all accounts the guy exceeded expectations for us last season. It's reasonable to think training camp & some continuity will yield positive results. That doesn't mean I'm locked into him as my guy long-term and he probably is ultimately best suited to a 6th man role. So what? High efficiency big off the bench is a decent thing to have. And he already has solid chemistry with Cade. So start with the season with him and see what happens. *shrug*

Defensively Bagley was trying. That's not to say it was good, but as long as the effort is there I can sorta live with it and hope it improves. And while his team defense was terrible (again, no training camp), his man D was OKish. We learned he can't play C when he filled in for the injured Stewart. That's not his game and will never be his game. You can maybe run him as a small-ball 5 with like Cade/Ivey/Burks/Bey/Bagley and just pretend like defense isn't a thing, but I'd save that for some really saucy moments. Don't wanna over do it when we could probably just keep him at the 4 spot.

He's better than a lot of people wanna give him credit for.

I like Bagley but i don't really like his fit with our type of centers we have.

[Cowology]

I've been a Bagley advocate since his arrival. He's only 23 years old, which is the same age as Bey, Diallo, Garza, Lee & Livers. He's still got some upside here. I'm OK paying him $10-12 mil per year. I'm OK with him getting a shot at the starting 4-spot.

By all accounts the guy exceeded expectations for us last season. It's reasonable to think training camp & some continuity will yield positive results. That doesn't mean I'm locked into him as my guy long-term and he probably is ultimately best suited to a 6th man role. So what? High efficiency big off the bench is a decent thing to have. And he already has solid chemistry with Cade. So start with the season with him and see what happens. *shrug*

Defensively Bagley was trying. That's not to say it was good, but as long as the effort is there I can sorta live with it and hope it improves. And while his team defense was terrible (again, no training camp), his man D was OKish. We learned he can't play C when he filled in for the injured Stewart. That's not his game and will never be his game. You can maybe run him as a small-ball 5 with like Cade/Ivey/Burks/Bey/Bagley and just pretend like defense isn't a thing, but I'd save that for some really saucy moments. Don't wanna over do it when we could probably just keep him at the 4 spot.

He's better than a lot of people wanna give him credit for.

I like Bagley but i don't really like his fit with our type of centers we have.

I actually think his fit with Stewart is damn near perfect. But I'm also on record predicting Stew will take 4+ 3pa this season and will shoot 38+% from deep. I think it's legit and so what you'll see is Bagley/Stewart playing as a 4/5 defensively and as 5/4 offensively. This is a much bigger deal than most people realize, but Stew is bout to break out this season as a stretch big.

The Bagley/Duren pairing is a bit more questionable, but it's not like we're forced to play them together and it's not the worst thing ever as long as we have shooters at the other positions. If you run out Hayes & Diallo then of course you're going to have issues. But it's really not that hard to stagger most of their minutes.

And again - not married to him forever. We just don't need to fix everything at once. Be patient.