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*All Eyez On Trajan Thread*

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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#21 » by tmorgan » Wed May 7, 2025 9:21 pm

GreekAlex wrote:
tmorgan wrote:I’m actually an excellent public speaker — it’s been a big part of my job for decades, lots of practice, and I enjoy it. Trajan’s good, not great, but so much better than Weaver that it feels great. Too many distracting gestures and umms, but still good.

And the reason he’s still good is something I’m very jealous of — he exudes calmness, especially in his voice. The things he says are naturally believable because he says them in a reassuring way. And when he doesn’t want to answer a question (like ‘what are your targets going to be in free agency?’), he deftly deflects without rejecting the questioner. Good stuff.

As for the team, he didn’t give much away, which I’m good with. Let’s see how it proceeds.


Who was more calm today, Langdon or Jerome Powell? :lol:


Easier to be calm as you age. I’m (mostly) living proof.

Twenty years ago, my speaking engagements could best be characterized as “energetic”. I thought it was a positive, as I was super-enthusiastic to convey information. I found out quickly, though, that it was hard to follow my points because I often talked too fast and didn’t read the room well in terms of gauging comprehension. Now, in my 50’s, I have to be wary of going too far the other way and putting people to sleep. :)
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#22 » by Snakebites » Fri May 9, 2025 11:24 pm

No evidence, but I’m more and more getting the feeling we’re going to run it back with marginal roster changes.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#23 » by MortSahlfan » Fri May 23, 2025 11:10 pm

Cade made 3rd team. Less money now cap-wise.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#24 » by tmorgan » Sat May 24, 2025 12:10 am

MortSahlfan wrote:Cade made 3rd team. Less money now cap-wise.


Rather bizarrely, too. Six first team votes, more than three of the guys on 2nd team, but got beat on total points. He was 11th by a clear margin.

It was Brunson right ahead of him, though, and I can’t really disagree with that.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#25 » by bstein14 » Sat May 24, 2025 12:16 am

tmorgan wrote:
MortSahlfan wrote:Cade made 3rd team. Less money now cap-wise.


Rather bizarrely, too. Six first team votes, more than three of the guys on 2nd team, but got beat on total points. He was 11th by a clear margin.

It was Brunson right ahead of him, though, and I can’t really disagree with that.


If we would have beat NY, then I'd probably feel like Cade got slighted but I tend to agree you can make a strong case for Brunson.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#26 » by Kalamazoo317 » Sat May 24, 2025 3:16 am

Cade had a better regular season than Brunson, which should matter for a regular season award, but Brunson is a better player overall (I believe Cade will surpass him eventually, though).
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#27 » by Snakebites » Sat May 24, 2025 3:53 am

MortSahlfan wrote:Cade made 3rd team. Less money now cap-wise.

Yeah, that’s been baked into my expectations for a while now.

And it’s okay. Better that Cade has proved himself worthy of that honor than not.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#28 » by Canadafan » Sat May 24, 2025 2:52 pm

Sooooo? We have $19mil capspace?
Do we think $15 is the number Beasley will get?
A 10yr vet gets minimum roughly just under 4million. So we could give THJr a little more than that with our remaining cap.
The room exception is just under $9mil. Can sign for up to 3yrs with 5%raises. Do we think Shröder gets all that? Or is that even enough for him?
Unless Reed takes vet minimum or we get rid of Fonteccio for cap space, it appears we might lose him
Duren Stew
Tobias Fontecchio Klintman
Ausar Holland
Ivey Beasley Sasser
Cade Shröder
#37pick
Not bad
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#29 » by Canadafan » Sat May 24, 2025 5:21 pm

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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#30 » by bstein14 » Sat May 24, 2025 11:20 pm

It seems like a no brainer to simply keep our players bird and early bird rights and then just have the $14.1 Million MLE plus the BAE if we want/need it.

Offer Beasley, Schroeder and THJ all 1 year deals at $7.2 million or slightly less for THJ and Schroeder and then go out and get a rotation player with the MLE. Gives us a ton of depth.

C: Duren / Stew / #37
F: Tobias / MLE$ / Klintman
F: Ausar / Holland / Font
G: Ivey / Beasley($7.2m) / THJ($5.5m)
G: Cade / Schroeder($5.5m) / Sasser

Run it back with one upgrade at backup forward who can potentially start once Tobias is done the following year... gives us a ton of depth to rest guys as well and incase of injuries.

Of course this plan only works if Beasley is willing to accept the $7.2 million we can give him for 1 year, or something like 2 years $15 million. If he wants more then this scenario doesn't play out like that and we'd need cap space and/or to use the MLE on him.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#31 » by Canadafan » Sun May 25, 2025 1:19 am

I dunno. I would hope but I don't see us keeping Beasley at $7mil
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#32 » by SuperBad » Sun May 25, 2025 2:03 am

I think we keep Beasley and Schroeder but we’d be extremely lucky to get Paul Reed back at a cheap enough cost to keep him, but we’d definitely need a third competent center on the roster.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#33 » by Crymson » Sun May 25, 2025 3:49 am

Canadafan wrote:I dunno. I would hope but I don't see us keeping Beasley at $7mil


Or Schroder at $5.5 million. It would be nice, but that scenario is a pipe dream.

I also don't see a good player being drawn with the MLE to play 10th man. These scenarios chronically ignore the fact that if Beasley and Schroder are back, the Pistons will be going nine deep already.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#34 » by Crymson » Sun May 25, 2025 4:48 am

Canadafan wrote:Sooooo? We have $19mil capspace?
Do we think $15 is the number Beasley will get?
A 10yr vet gets minimum roughly just under 4million. So we could give THJr a little more than that with our remaining cap.
The room exception is just under $9mil. Can sign for up to 3yrs with 5%raises. Do we think Shröder gets all that? Or is that even enough for him?
Unless Reed takes vet minimum or we get rid of Fonteccio for cap space, it appears we might lose him


The Pistons will most likely operate as an above-the-cap team by re-signing Schroder and some combination of THJ, Reed, and Waters over their cap holds, then use the NTP-MLE (about $14 million) on Beasley. That will leave them with only the BAE ($5 million) and minimum contracts remaining. If THJ were to remain on the team, he'd very likely be 10th man in a nine-man rotation.

The one-year veteran minimum for a player with three or more years of experience next season will be about $2.3 million. The NBA pays the remainder of the player's salary, so it doesn't count against the cap.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#35 » by Laimbeer » Tue Jun 10, 2025 11:20 am

bstein14 wrote:It seems like a no brainer to simply keep our players bird and early bird rights and then just have the $14.1 Million MLE plus the BAE if we want/need it.

Offer Beasley, Schroeder and THJ all 1 year deals at $7.2 million or slightly less for THJ and Schroeder and then go out and get a rotation player with the MLE. Gives us a ton of depth.

C: Duren / Stew / #37
F: Tobias / MLE$ / Klintman
F: Ausar / Holland / Font
G: Ivey / Beasley($7.2m) / THJ($5.5m)
G: Cade / Schroeder($5.5m) / Sasser

Run it back with one upgrade at backup forward who can potentially start once Tobias is done the following year... gives us a ton of depth to rest guys as well and incase of injuries.

Of course this plan only works if Beasley is willing to accept the $7.2 million we can give him for 1 year, or something like 2 years $15 million. If he wants more then this scenario doesn't play out like that and we'd need cap space and/or to use the MLE on him.
No reason to bring THJ back and have six guards. He really wasn't very good.

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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#36 » by Laimbeer » Tue Jun 10, 2025 11:22 am

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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#37 » by Cowology » Tue Jun 10, 2025 1:59 pm

With Ivey's return I expect us to prioritize re-signing Beasley for 10M+. Not really sure how high that will go, but maybe above the 14M non-taxpayer MLE. Not really in tune to what position other teams are in, so kinda hard to judge the market but he's got a marquee skillset that every team should want.

I don't think we'll be able to keep Schroeder too, which is unfortunate, but I think you want to primarily toggle between Cade/Ivey as your primary ball-handler and then have Beasley/Ausar/Ron taking the majority of the minutes on the wings.

IF we decided to make some type of move for a Big then bringing back Dennis gets a lot easier because we'll likely have cleared out some of our logjam in the process. Like we're probably parting with at least 1 of Ivey/Ausar/Ron if we are trying to package for an upgrade at the 4 or 5. Now you have a little more room on your roster for Dennis (which is a good thing). But it's kind of a domino thing; if we don't do the first part then trying to make the 2nd part work is extremely difficult both in terms of cap management and minutes. You can do it, but it imbalances the roster in the process.

THj is a vet min contract if he wants to mentor the youth, but he shouldn't be in the rotation or eating valuable cap space.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#38 » by Invictus88 » Tue Jun 10, 2025 2:20 pm

bstein14 wrote:It seems like a no brainer to simply keep our players bird and early bird rights and then just have the $14.1 Million MLE plus the BAE if we want/need it.

Offer Beasley, Schroeder and THJ all 1 year deals at $7.2 million or slightly less for THJ and Schroeder and then go out and get a rotation player with the MLE. Gives us a ton of depth.

C: Duren / Stew / #37
F: Tobias / MLE$ / Klintman
F: Ausar / Holland / Font
G: Ivey / Beasley($7.2m) / THJ($5.5m)
G: Cade / Schroeder($5.5m) / Sasser

Run it back with one upgrade at backup forward who can potentially start once Tobias is done the following year... gives us a ton of depth to rest guys as well and incase of injuries.

Of course this plan only works if Beasley is willing to accept the $7.2 million we can give him for 1 year, or something like 2 years $15 million. If he wants more then this scenario doesn't play out like that and we'd need cap space and/or to use the MLE on him.

Late to the party but you are dreaming if you expect to sign the runner up to 6MOY to a 7.2 million dollar deal. He’s going to get the MLE. There are too many teams with it that need shooting.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#39 » by Snakebites » Tue Jun 10, 2025 6:20 pm

As others have said, it wouldn't be that hard to make up the cap space we lost when Cade made all-league. Fontecchio is expiring and you can probably attach a second rounder and a bit of cash to offload him.

I personally doubt we choose to act as a team with cap space at all though. None of the stretch bigs we've been linked to feel like particularly realistic targets.

Schroder is cool and was a big help in the playoffs but I don't really think keeping him makes a lot of sense- he can likely find a more consistent role elsewhere. Of course I'd prefer it if we could bring him back at a reasonable contract for a relatively small role, but the reality is he'll likely have better options, either financially, playing time wise, or both.
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Re: *All Eyez On Trajan Thread* 

Post#40 » by theBigLip » Tue Jun 10, 2025 7:46 pm

Invictus88 wrote:
bstein14 wrote:It seems like a no brainer to simply keep our players bird and early bird rights and then just have the $14.1 Million MLE plus the BAE if we want/need it.

Offer Beasley, Schroeder and THJ all 1 year deals at $7.2 million or slightly less for THJ and Schroeder and then go out and get a rotation player with the MLE. Gives us a ton of depth.

C: Duren / Stew / #37
F: Tobias / MLE$ / Klintman
F: Ausar / Holland / Font
G: Ivey / Beasley($7.2m) / THJ($5.5m)
G: Cade / Schroeder($5.5m) / Sasser

Run it back with one upgrade at backup forward who can potentially start once Tobias is done the following year... gives us a ton of depth to rest guys as well and incase of injuries.

Of course this plan only works if Beasley is willing to accept the $7.2 million we can give him for 1 year, or something like 2 years $15 million. If he wants more then this scenario doesn't play out like that and we'd need cap space and/or to use the MLE on him.

Late to the party but you are dreaming if you expect to sign the runner up to 6MOY to a 7.2 million dollar deal. He’s going to get the MLE. There are too many teams with it that need shooting.


The cap and exceptions can be confusing, but I think our situation is really simple and we act as an over the cap team.

1. Sign Beasley to the MLE at around $14M. If we don’t do it, most teams over the cap can do the same and some other team will.

2. Use Schroder’s Early Bird rights to give him a new deal. Give him around the $13 million he played for last season.

3. Look for possible trades and maybe sign THJ to a minimum contract or use him in a sign and trade. Other trade assets would be Fontecchio, Sassar and draft picks.

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