Sheeeeed wrote:HeroicKennedy wrote:Sheeeeed wrote:
You got to have the right group, not one player to have a chance at success.
Right, you build the right group around your best player. Andre Drummond is already our best player at 20. He hasn't even enter is prime yet and he's one of the top producers in the league.
Yes hes the Pistons best player on a team struggling in a bad eastern conference. I care more about wins than the numbers. Dumars and company have put too much faith in young players before, and look where its got them. I honestly don't see how its unreasonable not wanting to build around Drummond just yet. I need to see more.
And here's the problem: 20 year old players don't instantly lead the team to more wins. Once again, this is not an individual game. That's why when you observe the team as currently constructed, who is the player you build around? The one that's already exceptionally good at the age of 20. Who's already your best player. The problem with Dumars putting "too much faith" in young players is that no one (not even Monroe) produced at this high of a level through their first two seasons.
If you're not going to build around Drummond, then you are intentionally stunting his growth by build a team that clashes with his abilities, as we are doing right now. Drummond is succeeding DESPITE the players put around him, not because of it, and that's the bigger problem here. You cannot wait until year 4-5 of him in the league and go "OK, I guess it's time to build around him." You build NOW. You take advantage of the fact that you have him under team control for possibly 7 more seasons after this year. And if he doesn't pan out, then you cross that bridge down the road because if you wait and he does pan out, and you're still putting together 35-40 win teams, he's going to bolt quickly out of Detroit.
Basically, I don't want a team built around Josh Smith, Greg Monroe, Brandon Jennings, Kyle Singler, Rodney Stuckey, Charlie Villanueva, Luigi Datome, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, etc. We have one player worth building around, and that's Drummond. You want to make every possible move to help him succeed first, because that is your best ticket to becoming not only a playoff team, but a championship contender. And if he truly doesn't work out, then just hit the reset button. But at this rate, Drummond isn't going to fail unless we sabotage his development by not building around him. He's already a top center in the league and a top player in terms of wins produced. That alone shows he's worthy of building around even with some small flaws.
