First part of the schedule is brutal, BUT

[Pistonrings]

I kind of like that because it was brutal last season and it was like the Pistons got used to facing the best and they became competitive and played teams tough. They came an overtime away from sweeping the Lakers, beat the Sun's once and the Celtics too, Nets as well as I recall.

I think this tough early schedule will be like putting weights on Cades legs and he will think that playing against the Bucks, Nets and Bulls is just how normal NBA play is.

I think they will emerge from that miserable stretch having lost most all of them, but I also think they will be really hard-nosed after it and will be a tough out on many a night when they get good stretches of the schedule.

I love our depth. This bench should be the best scoring bench in the league. I think we win 33 to 35 games this year. Heck, I could see them winning 40 actually. To do that though, Cade will have to come along very nicely, Killian will have to come into his own, and especially Beef Stew will need to consistently be a big force in that painted area like he was last night. 17 and 12 against Drum last night was great and that's what we will have to see from him pretty much the entire season.

We make the playoffs, that's what I think. Asking everyone else, do we make the playoffs?

[The Moose]

Personally, I don't think we will be a playoff team, I think we are more likely to finish as a bottom 5 team in the league. I think we will be similar to last season where we compete hard every night, but just don't have the roster to win games consistently.
As long as Cade is playing though, and the young guys are developing, this season will still be intriguing

[bstein14]

We're more likely to finish 13th or 14th and 9th or 10th.... BUT we always could get a bump if a treadmill team decides to tear it down like Orlando did last year.

I think to finish 9th or 10th we need Cade to have a ROY type season and to have Bey, Lee, Stewart and Josh Jackson all take a decent step forward this year.

[zeebneeb]

It's going to be even more brutal if Cade isn't going to be in uniform to start the season.

As of right now, that's my stance.

[Pistonrings]

It's going to be even more brutal if Cade isn't going to be in uniform to start the season.

As of right now, that's my stance.

God Zeeb, I hope you are wrong. If this ends up making him miss the start of the regular season then I will kind of feel like Casey could have been more upfront. He had to know his ankle was worse than he was telling us.

Why wouldn't Casey just tell us now if he thinks Cade is not going to play? If he doesn't play that will just eat at us Pistons fans. Not out of anger toward Cade at all. I and others would want him to just be fully ready when he first plays. The pain would be because we are just excited to see him start his NBA life. I just wish Casey and Weaver would tell the fans what they know so that we don't wait the next 5 days wondering.

[zeebneeb]

It's going to be even more brutal if Cade isn't going to be in uniform to start the season.

As of right now, that's my stance.

God Zeeb, I hope you are wrong. If this ends up making him miss the start of the regular season then I will kind of feel like Casey could have been more upfront. He had to know his ankle was worse than he was telling us.

Why wouldn't Casey just tell us now if he thinks Cade is not going to play? If he doesn't play that will just eat at us Pistons fans. Not out of anger toward Cade at all. I and others would want him to just be fully ready when he first plays. The pain would be because we are just excited to see him start his NBA life. I just wish Casey and Weaver would tell the fans what they know so that we don't wait the next 5 days wondering.

I really hope, and fully expect to be wrong, but the front office knows that fans are talking about this, so their silence is a little strange for sure.

If Cade misses opening night, the biggest opening night since maybe 2005, then his ankle(i mean it could be anything to be honest)his far, far worse then they let on. Gores wants a "relaunch" of the Pistons, and not having the #1 pick, first in 50 years, on the court, ready to go, means somethings up.

If people want to make jokes at my expense, I get it, and ill laugh along, but you gotta admit, the silence surrounding the biggest thing to hit Detroit sports as a whole in a long ass time, is just a touch strange.

That's all im saying.

[Manocad]

It's going to be even more brutal if Cade isn't going to be in uniform to start the season.

As of right now, that's my stance.

God Zeeb, I hope you are wrong. If this ends up making him miss the start of the regular season then I will kind of feel like Casey could have been more upfront. He had to know his ankle was worse than he was telling us.

Why wouldn't Casey just tell us now if he thinks Cade is not going to play? If he doesn't play that will just eat at us Pistons fans. Not out of anger toward Cade at all. I and others would want him to just be fully ready when he first plays. The pain would be because we are just excited to see him start his NBA life. I just wish Casey and Weaver would tell the fans what they know so that we don't wait the next 5 days wondering.

I really hope, and fully expect to be wrong, but the front office knows that fans are talking about this, so their silence is a little strange for sure.

If Cade misses opening night, the biggest opening night since maybe 2005, then his ankle(i mean it could be anything to be honest)his far, far worse then they let on. Gores wants a "relaunch" of the Pistons, and not having the #1 pick, first in 50 years, on the court, ready to go, means somethings up.

If people want to make jokes at my expense, I get it, and ill laugh along, but you gotta admit, the silence surrounding the biggest thing to hit Detroit sports as a whole in a long ass time, is just a touch strange.

That's all im saying.

You guys are reading waaaaaaaay too much into this. Ankle injuries are generally day to day things. If there's any pain AT ALL, doing ANYTHING, Cade isn't going to play. And that's the right thing to do in this circumstance. That in no way, shape or form indicates a serious injury, and certainly not that something "far worse" is going on. Roll your ankle good one time then get back to me. Nothing will be broken, nothing will need surgery, and it sure as s**t can be three weeks or even longer before it's 100% back to normal/no pain.

I don't get why some of you can't take this at face value and just say "If the ankle isn't 100% right, be safe and keep Cade out until it is right." So yeah, I'm going to continue to say that some of you guys come off like a bunch of Veruca Salts. Except that since you don't have the stones to just admit that your consternation is simply due to your "I want it now!" attitude, you concoct some conspiracy to blame it on.

Man up and just say, "Yeah, I'm pissed because I think Cade should play on Opening Night period because I want him to" and I won't give any of you a hard time. I can at least respect the honesty.

[Manocad]

For Pete's sake, you've got Cade saying everything is fine, you've got the team saying that it's nothing serious but they're going to be cautious, and you've got video of Cade participating in practices/workouts/bouncing around on the floor. Yet you're going to continue to push this narrative that the team is covering up from something serious because they won't jump out and yell "CADE WILL BE PLAYING WEDNESDAY, NO MATTER WHAT!!!" in order to placate you?

[Sort]

I digress from Cade's non-serious, serious injury. There's nothing wrong with a developing team facing stiff competition out of the gate save for the fact that Hayes struggles with confidence. I don't think it will matter this season as that the Pistons at best make the play-in tournament, but more likely are just five games better than last year.

It will be a developmental year whether the schedule starts hard or not. Playoffs with such a young team seems such a stretch. Cade will need to play beyond his years and the "core four" will need to give us a lot of glimpses of their final, most developed version to make that happen.

And really, Pistons have some tragic flaws right now regardless of age: defensive rebounding and inability to defend quick ones. That means the margin of error will be so slim....

[Manocad]

I digress from Cade's non-serious, serious injury. There's nothing wrong with a developing team facing stiff competition out of the gate save for the fact that Hayes struggles with confidence. I don't think it will matter this season as that the Pistons at best make the play-in tournament, but more likely are just five games better than last year.

It will be a developmental year whether the schedule starts hard or not. Playoffs with such a young team seems such a stretch. Cade will need to play beyond his years and the "core four" will need to give us a lot of glimpses of their final, most developed version to make that happen.

And really, Pistons have some tragic flaws right now regardless of age: defensive rebounding and inability to defend quick ones. That means the margin of error will be so slim....

"Tragic" flaws? Apparently you didn't digress from the hyperbole.

[Sort]

I digress from Cade's non-serious, serious injury. There's nothing wrong with a developing team facing stiff competition out of the gate save for the fact that Hayes struggles with confidence. I don't think it will matter this season as that the Pistons at best make the play-in tournament, but more likely are just five games better than last year.

It will be a developmental year whether the schedule starts hard or not. Playoffs with such a young team seems such a stretch. Cade will need to play beyond his years and the "core four" will need to give us a lot of glimpses of their final, most developed version to make that happen.

And really, Pistons have some tragic flaws right now regardless of age: defensive rebounding and inability to defend quick ones. That means the margin of error will be so slim....

"Tragic" flaws? Apparently you didn't digress from the hyperbole.

Picking a fight for using hyperbole on a message board is hyperbolic.

But to respond to the point, if the goal is to win, not being able to get defensive rebounds or stop quick ones will make you lose - tragically.

[Manocad]

I digress from Cade's non-serious, serious injury. There's nothing wrong with a developing team facing stiff competition out of the gate save for the fact that Hayes struggles with confidence. I don't think it will matter this season as that the Pistons at best make the play-in tournament, but more likely are just five games better than last year.

It will be a developmental year whether the schedule starts hard or not. Playoffs with such a young team seems such a stretch. Cade will need to play beyond his years and the "core four" will need to give us a lot of glimpses of their final, most developed version to make that happen.

And really, Pistons have some tragic flaws right now regardless of age: defensive rebounding and inability to defend quick ones. That means the margin of error will be so slim....

"Tragic" flaws? Apparently you didn't digress from the hyperbole.

Picking a fight for using hyperbole on a message board is hyperbolic.

But to respond to the point, if the goal is to win, not being able to get defensive rebounds or stop quick ones will make you lose - tragically.

Uh, no. Describing my post as "picking a fight" is hyperbolic though.

My point was simply that a young team having poor rebounding and defending skills during a rebuilding year hardly qualifies as tragic. It neither spells the "death" so to speak of the team at this point nor are those flaws irreparable. Tragic would involve both of those.

[DBC10]

Personally, I don't think we will be a playoff team, I think we are more likely to finish as a bottom 5 team in the league. I think we will be similar to last season where we compete hard every night, but just don't have the roster to win games consistently.
As long as Cade is playing though, and the young guys are developing, this season will still be intriguing

Pretty much where I arrived at. There's just not enough scoring output nor the talent to put away good teams on a regular basis. We got 3 to 4 plus shooters, and they're all starting or floating around from the bench. It'll be a rough offense depending on inconsistent hot hands

But to answer the thread more bluntly. I don't see 35 to 40 wins likely at all. Vegas has it at 25.5 and that honestly seems right with how our team is currently constructed. We got a lot of flaws, inconsistencies, but we play hard so that'll be the factor for the over on some nights

[zeebneeb]

I digress from Cade's non-serious, serious injury. There's nothing wrong with a developing team facing stiff competition out of the gate save for the fact that Hayes struggles with confidence. I don't think it will matter this season as that the Pistons at best make the play-in tournament, but more likely are just five games better than last year.

It will be a developmental year whether the schedule starts hard or not. Playoffs with such a young team seems such a stretch. Cade will need to play beyond his years and the "core four" will need to give us a lot of glimpses of their final, most developed version to make that happen.

And really, Pistons have some tragic flaws right now regardless of age: defensive rebounding and inability to defend quick ones. That means the margin of error will be so slim....

How do you know if the team has tragic flaws?

No one has seen the starting 5 yet!