Off-Season

[Rodya]

I know we've had this thread several times already throughout the season. But I'm still left intrigued by the possibilities through free-agency and the draft.

The Draft
Like many of you, I'll be happy picking up Dorsey or Hardin at 29.

Free-Agency
Our most glaring weaknesses are obviously back-up SF and to a lesser degree back-up center.

Josh Childress is obviously a popular candidate. Considering he's a restricted, the Hawks may have leverage in a sign and trade. Plus, he looks like he could get more than the mid-level else where. He'll be tough to get regardless.

Walter Hermann is someone we all like to see come back and given a chance to get into the rotation. But I don't think he'll be anymore of an upgrade over Hayes now.

Kelenna Azubuike is an amazing talent and ready to contribute right away. He's also a restricted free agent and I think he could be had for a considerable portion of the mid-level. Which personally I think he's worth. He's got some serious potential.

Bonzi Wells can be had within the 12-14 million range in a 3 year deal(team option on the third). Is he worth the risk with his lack of work ethic and attitude problems? I think he is, he brings toughness, inside scoring, and rebounding every single night. With the character already on this team, I don't think his will be a problem.

Ryan Gomes is a unique player that can play both the 3 and the 4. Good mid range jumper, rebounder, and tough player as well. He can be had for relatively cheap.

Trade
Trade wise I think Maxx needs to be dealt in order to make room for larger roles for both Amir and Samb. I'd be looking to trade him for a first rounder to a team in need of some size and/or athleticism. Sacramento, Golden State, Clippers (etc).


I dont know, these were just some random ideas about player I'd to see in a Pistons Uni. Dissect it and destroy it.

[rewill17]

blow it up joe

build around maxiell and amir.

sign and trade rip and chauncy for arenas.

sign and trade sheed and mcdyess for marion.

sign and trade prince for a top 5 draft pick.

sign mihm and jj.

C - Amir /Chris Mihm
F - Maxiell / Marion/
F- Marion / James Jones/Hayes
G- Arenas / Eric Gordon
G- Rodney Stuckey

Ship Matrixeed

Edited by your friendly local mod. For future reference, just click "font color".

[Snakebites]

Ill be a lot more keen to discuss this after the season is over.

Only lotto teams start talking offseason in February.















Alright, fine, Ill bite. Childress has been thought of as a guy who may be odd man out on the Hawks and could be had for MLE type money. Im not sure either of those things is neccesarily true, but especially not the second. Its a tough sell.

I think For some reason I still wouldnt mind seeing Bonzi in a Pistons uniform, I see him as a guy who can do a number of things and needs the right environment to do well. Maybe thats just me being stupid, but there it is.

As for deals, I do think this might finally be the season we see some deals if we flop in the postseason. Its impossible to speculate what would happen, but it likely wouldnt involve Billups, Stuckey, or Amir.

I dont really believe Samb is a player who will be anything more than a marginal role player, and Im not sure if he has ANY real impact on our future plans.

I would be willing to trade Max, but not just to free minutes. It would have to be part of a larger package to actually improve our team. Maxiell isnt the sort of guy you deal for a first rounder just to temporarily clean house. Its not like we could get a high pick for the guy, anyway.

Too much free time on my hands, this is all largely hypothetical, and what happens in the next few months will (or at least should) largely determine what happens in the offseason. Hence, its largely pointless to really discuss this now.

[nasty daddy]

Ill be a lot more keen to discuss this after the season is over.

Only lotto teams start talking offseason in February.















Alright, fine, Ill bite. Childress has been thought of as a guy who may be odd man out on the Hawks and could be had for MLE type money. Im not sure either of those things is neccesarily true, but especially not the second. Its a tough sell.

I think For some reason I still wouldnt mind seeing Bonzi in a Pistons uniform, I see him as a guy who can do a number of things and needs the right environment to do well. Maybe thats just me being stupid, but there it is.

As for deals, I do think this might finally be the season we see some deals if we flop in the postseason. Its impossible to speculate what would happen, but it likely wouldnt involve Billups, Stuckey, or Amir.

I dont really believe Samb is a player who will be anything more than a marginal role player, and Im not sure if he has ANY real impact on our future plans.

I would be willing to trade Max, but not just to free minutes. It would have to be part of a larger package to actually improve our team. Maxiell isnt the sort of guy you deal for a first rounder just to temporarily clean house. Its not like we could get a high pick for the guy, anyway.

Too much free time on my hands, this is all largely hypothetical, and what happens in the next few months will (or at least should) largely determine what happens in the offseason. Hence, its largely pointless to really discuss this now.

Exactly, at least wait till the season is over or around the draft to start discussing this.

[Liqourish]

IMO, it's never too soon to talk about it.

Whether the Pistons win or lose in the playoffs, they will still have glaring holes. Back up center, back up small forward and a 5th gaurd for insurance.

Hunter, Dixon, Hayes, Herrmann and maybe Dale Davis (whenever he gets signed and to what kind of deal) are all going to be free agents.

Dumars has said that he wants to retain Fabio's rights in the offseason, but if something better pops up, I could see him gone.

C. Billups/R. Stuckey
R. Hamilton/A. Afflalo
T. Prince/W. Herrmann??
A. McDyess/J. Maxiell/A. Johnson
R. Wallace/????/C. Samb

Detroit will be over the cap, but can use the MLE. What free agents will be availble? Which free agents would sign here for the MLE?

The draft is coming up, never too soon to get familiar with the prospects around your draft pick area. Should Joe stay where he is in the draft or try and move up? If he should move up, who for? And what could we give up, to move up?

[LanierFan]

Whether the Pistons win or lose in the playoffs, they will still have glaring holes. Back up center, back up small forward and a 5th gaurd for insurance.

Our definitions of "glaring holes" must be a little different. I sleep just fine without knowing who our fifth guard will be next year.

[Rodya]

Whether the Pistons win or lose in the playoffs, they will still have glaring holes. Back up center, back up small forward and a 5th gaurd for insurance.

Our definitions of "glaring holes" must be a little different. I sleep just fine without knowing who our fifth guard will be next year.

That was definitely an overstatement. But when your competing for ships everything seems to be magnified.

[princeofpalace]

This is my ideal scenario (only likely to happen in my dreams)

1. Maxiel is traded in addition with the Twolves early 2nd rounder for a draft pick (Golden State or Orlando in the early 20s). I agree that Max is expendable with the emergence of Johnson and the fact that Detroit has a hole at the C position and a glut at PF
Following this move Detroit has now acquired 2 firsts. They get a legit C who can block shots, score in the post, rebound and defend (DeVon Hardin, Jason Thompson, Trent Plaisted, JaVele McGee). With the 2nd first rounder they acquire a swingman that can shoot but also defend so that they can still be useful if their shot is off (Brandon Rush, Mbah a Moute or if somehow either Tyler Smith or CDR fall)

2. Detroit signs a swingman. Ideally Id love to get my hands on Trevor Ariza if he opts out of LA. Id also like Bonzi Wells he was looking very good for Houston. Worst Case scenario Detroit ends up resigning one of Hayes or Hermann but the swing position becomes of less importance with Detroit drafting one.

3. Detroit also signs a veteran guard for the bench. Lindsey Hunter finally takes his front office guard opening up the spot for another high character vet guard capable of playing a few minutes. I think Dixon will be just fine in this role and wouldnt mind resigning him or finding another player suitable for the role.

Detroit continues its transition into a much much younger team with additions of two new draft picks that fill a void and Cheick Samb entereing the rotation. They also have a lot of versatility at each position, get more size and shotblocking at the bigman positions (Amir will have a bigger role thus more oppourtunties to block shots, Samb is a good shotblocker in addition to Hardin being a quality shotblocker). The defense gets better with the additions of Ariza, Rush and Hardin. Also, Detroit will still have roster space to add more veteran presence if they fill the team is too young and not getting it done.

My Ideal roster for the 08 season

Billups/Stuckey/Dixon
Rip/Afflalo/Stuckey
Tay/Ariza/Rush
Dice/Amir/Sheed
Sheed/Hardin/Samb

[Rodya]

^^^ Why Ariza? We already have Amir, they seem kind of redundant. Besides, Ariza wouldn't stand a chance slowing down players like Pierce, Lebron, Carter, Jefferson, Giniboli, Josh Howard, Marion, or Iguodala. All players we could potentially face over the next couple of years in the playoffs. I was looking for a athletic Sg/Sf hybrid with a shooting touch. Azuibike is my pick.

[princeofpalace]

I really dont see any similarities between Amir and Ariza. One is a superathletic 4/5 with instinctive shotblocking and rebounding skills but somewhat neglible defense. The other is an athletic 2/3 who is a lockdown defender, can rebound well for his position, get to the rim and has a solid midrange shot.

Azubuike is a SG not a SF- Gstate is the only team in which I envision him playing SF and Nellie ball inflates his stats. Azubuike has no better chance of stopping those bignamed SF you named than Ariza but atleast Ariza is already a proven defender, something that Azubuike is not.

I prefer the qualites Ariza brings to the table of Azubuike but I doubt that Detroit has a legit shot at attaining either player.

[srt4b]

If we get bounced by Cleveland or Boston in the 2nd round or the ECF then Flip or Rasheed will be gone.
There is no point in going another season with the same team when you can't get over the hump 3 straight years.

If we win a ring, then keep everyone.

[theBigLip]

^^^

Exactly. It all depends on the playoffs. If we win it all, or at least get to the Finals, we will probably have a very similar roster next year, with maybe Hayes or Fabio leaving. Hunter would probably be done as well. And our draft pick (fill in random name) will spend all his time in the D league and not be a factor, ever.

The way this conversation gets interesting is if we lose in the 2nd round or ECF. Then its blowup time. We would have to take a look at why we lost which would warrant the moves. But if we just look at getting younger, then we have to move Dice for sure. I think he has one more year with a team option the following year, so he is essentially an expiring deal. Sheed will have a big expiring deal. Even though he will be productive for several more years, his trade value will never be higher and we would seriously have to consider moving him.

Who is trying to save money next year? Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Portland, Knicks are already overspent, although things will change with the offseason. Not sure if any of them are ideal trade partners for Dice and Sheed.

Clippers always want to save money - maybe Sheed for Kamen and scraps? Especially if Brand takes off. Or maybe Sheed to Charlotte in a sign/trade for Okafor? Sheed and RIP for JO and Indiana's #1 pick?

It seems like RIP would be vulnerable to a trade as well. THere are lots of guys in this league that can score, so if we can trade his 10mil salary and get younger, that would be good in the long run.

Billups just signed that big contract, hard to think that we would turn around and trade him, but I guess anything is possible.

Okay, now I'm going to wake up and realize that we have the second best record in the league and that we have a pretty damn good team, and that we will probably keep our team intact nect year, and maybe even keep Hayes and/or Herrman at backup SF, and not even bother with the MLE next year.

[roc]

Even if we were to go younger I would like to keep Sheed. He seems to be a good mentor for the youngsters and I don't envision a problem with him eventually coming off the bench for less money.

IMO Amir, Stuckey, and Samb are the guys that could be impact players down the road. Maxiell and Afflalo are fine for now but may be good trade bait when/if that time comes.

Hayes should be gone, Hunter will be retired, Herrmann may be retained.

I like the rebounding Dice has been giving us lately but I could see him coming off the pine next season and Amir starting. I don't see Joe D dealing Dice unless we blow the team up. I don't really see that happening either. If we fail again Flip is the most likely to see the door.

Would be nice if we could send Maxiell to LA for Thornton or to Philly for Young... not gonna happen but hey I can dream...

[theBigLip]

Even if we were to go younger I would like to keep Sheed. He seems to be a good mentor for the youngsters and I don't envision a problem with him eventually coming off the bench for less money.

IMO Amir, Stuckey, and Samb are the guys that could be impact players down the road. Maxiell and Afflalo are fine for now but may be good trade bait when/if that time comes.

Hayes should be gone, Hunter will be retired, Herrmann may be retained.

I like the rebounding Dice has been giving us lately but I could see him coming off the pine next season and Amir starting. I don't see Joe D dealing Dice unless we blow the team up. I don't really see that happening either. If we fail again Flip is the most likely to see the door.

Would be nice if we could send Maxiell to LA for Thornton or to Philly for Young... not gonna happen but hey I can dream...

I'd like to see that.

Also, if we trade Max we would need another big. And to get someone like Thorton to back up Tay is a bit of a luxury. I'd trade Tay if we got Thorton.

[Warspite]

1. The cap space for teams is very limited.
2. 10 mil per players will sign MLEs
3. The draft looks very deep with "Dumars" type players.


A. I think Amir is going to move Dyse to the bench
B. I believe a player who wants to win will take the MLE

Im still not sure it will be enough.

The Lakers, Celts, Cavs and Hornets will all be much imporved next yr.

[GJense4181]

What's our luxury tax wiggle-room looking like for next season?
We'll have Chauncey, Rip, Tay, Dice, Sheed, Stuckey, Afflalo, Maxiell, and Amir (and Samb?) under contract.
Hunter, Hermann, Dixon, and Hayes (and Dale Davis?) will have expired.

Simply put, I would like to find a SF to push Tayshaun for a starting role, and it doesn't matter when. We could use the MLE for this, or the draft (Brandon Rush with Minnesota's 2nd?)
Also, I would like to acquire a solid center prospect. I figure that several bigmen will be available near the end of the first-round and that Joe simply needs to scout well to identify our gem. If we could procure a C via free-agency I could see Rasheed moving back to PF. We would have to trade one of Maxiell or McDyess, though.
I'd like to see Hermann be given a chance, but at what position?