Gores and SVG

[theBigLip]

I've seen a lot of mixed opinions about Gores and SVG, but I'm happy to have both of them owning and running the Pistons. Here's how I look at the history:

Gores
- buys the Pistons
- has a GM in place that has built a Championship team.
- not surprisingly, listens to the plan of the GM, okays signing Smith and Jennings
- after one year, it is obvious this was a mistake, and fires the GM
- hires probably the best available coach with a strong offer and let's him be GM too
- when the new GM says it is time to jettison a huge, expensive mistake that is holding back the team, he okays it

What's not to like about this?


SVG
- gets hired as coach and GM
- fills out roster with reasonably priced players with good character and history of good shooting
- negotiates with Monroe all summer, but Monroe's plan was always to become unrestricted
- attempts to get hugely overpaid player of previous GM to play better to enhance trade value
- when said player doesn't perform, sends a clear message and waives him

I'm good with this. We don't know for real what the trade offers were for Smith, or what went down in negotiations for Monroe. But we didn't pick up mediocre players or overpay anyone or give away any draft choices. So I'm fine with SVG's track record so far, although I had hoped his coaching impact would reflect better on our record.

At least now we can say we have a direction. We are doing a rebuild. It never was going to be a single season turn around (even though posters like me thought it was possible). I'm good with our owner, and good with our coach. Can't wait for the trade deadline and the 2015 draft. We are heading in the right direction.

[MotownMadness]

Gores had his flaws with not knowing the game enough. He had the right intentions with wanting to win and all but hopefully he fully understands now this league doesnt work that way. You have to bottom out and collect assets in a rebuilding small market.

Stan has shown that he knows what this team needs so far. Its just unfortunate that all of his signings and basically whole roster is underperforming. Hopefully this move will wake everyone the hell up and start performing now.

So far im very happy about what ive seen. They just have to get the culture to take a turn before we can really move forward and I think this was a great first step towards that.

[whitehops]

personally I don't like to think of this as a rebuild, i like to think of it simply as building. SVG came to Gores with a five year plan and now he is executing his plan, smith just happened to be delaying this plan.

I don't think we're going to do any substantial trades before the deadline this year, but then I didn't think we'd be cutting smith lol.

i'm just glad that Gores has so much faith in SVG (who I also have a ton of faith in) that he is willing to let him build the team despite some unconventional methods. cutting smith and the commitment management/ownership have showed to this plan leave me very excited for the future.

[ElectricMayhem]

Gores has had the "cheap owner" label for too long, and it was never really fair. People point to the Gordon contract, but I think Gores just simply bought into Dumars' talk of turning the team around and being in the playoffs by the time they had to give that pick away. This past year, he has shown how much he is willing to spend by redefining the coaching market with the contract he gave to SVG and this move - something that 90%+ of the other owners wouldn't even consider doing. Anyone who tries to continue to propogate the "Gores is a cheapskate" narrative after this move needs to get slapped in the face with a porcupine hide.

[Pharaoh]

Gores trusted Joe and got burned...so he removed him and hired the best coach possible and that meant SVG became President as well - small price to pay for the best coach we've had here since Larry Brown!

And now SVG has pulled off a miracle! He got rid of Josh Smith and didn't have to give up draft picks or young players to do it!

The cap hit each year is basically a guy like Butler - a decent vet but hardly someone you're looking at for a major contribution on the floor.

The fact SVG signed guys like Butler, Martin & Gray should have shown he was intent on changing the culture of this franchise!

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[princeofpalace]

Gores is learning from his mistakes. It was Gores and not Joe D that wanted to move Gordon with a pick attached, Dumars tried to talk him out of it- according to the FreePress. Gores wanted a quick turn around, i think now he' seeing that its not possible.

[Joe Berry]

There are worse owners in the league. Finally on the right path with SVG.

[The Penguin]

I wouldn't be surprised if Gores was a bit cash poor right when he took over the team, which likely lead to attaching the 1st to Gordon and allowing CV31 to play out the string at the end of the bench over using the amnesty. Not amnestying CV31 meant we did not have enough cap room to sign Jennings outright, which lead to a trade that even at the time looked like Joe helping Hammond out by giving a severe overpay in the S&T.

It's tough to pin the blame on Gores or Joe, but the bottom line is we basically traded the #9 pick, Brandon Knight & Kris Middleton for the right to sign Smith & Jennings. Regardless of who exactly is at fault, that's a disastrously bad string of decisions.

It's a challenge to shape the narrative any way other than: Gores took over the team and wanted to see some ROI, gave Joe the playoffs or bust edict, Joe thought he was acquiring the two most talented options and did not worry as much about fit in hopes things would work to make the playoffs, Gores realized his mistakes and canned Joe, he brought in Stan with the hope Stan's coaching could make a difference, the talent drain became apparent and they admitted it was time to end hope of a quick rebuild and do it right and no one would take Smith's contract without an asset attached.

[Billl]

Gores gets a ton of credit for just paying for Smith to go. That's a lot of cash.

At the least, that proves he's interested in more than just money and wants to win. That's an obvious plus. Now, comes the hard part. It's one thing to say you want to win. It's an entirely different matter to actually build a winning team.

[ImHeisenberg]

Gores is still learning about being an owner in the NBA. Most every new owner wants to win right away and generally set their team back with bad contracts. Add Dumars to that equation and we saw how it unfolded.

SVG seems to have Gores' ear in a way that Dumars never did. Different goals, I suppose. Dumars just wanted to keep his job as long as he could once Gores bought the team. SVG is more concerned with building a team that can finally deliver him a championship.

The team needs an infusion of talent across the board, and no amount of coaching can make that happen. They need to make sure they avoid any landmines over the next two or three off-seasons and only bring in the players that will improve the team. No more bad contracts, and guys making 7+ million just to sit on the bench, or chuck bricks.

[MrBigShot]

He does indeed seem to be learning from his mistakes. Allowing SVG to just cut Smith and spread his salary over 5 seasons so the cap hit is minimal (especially with the cap rising within the next few years) is a great move. Much better than the alternative of giving up assets to deal Smith or taking on bad contracts in return in a trade.

From here on out Gores just has to continue to trust SVG and continue to let him run things without getting too concerned over the short-term results, because this rebuild is going to be a while.

[dVs33]

Gores has had the "cheap owner" label for too long, and it was never really fair. People point to the Gordon contract, but I think Gores just simply bought into Dumars' talk of turning the team around and being in the playoffs by the time they had to give that pick away. This past year, he has shown how much he is willing to spend by redefining the coaching market with the contract he gave to SVG and this move - something that 90%+ of the other owners wouldn't even consider doing. Anyone who tries to continue to propogate the "Gores is a cheapskate" narrative after this move needs to get slapped in the face with a porcupine hide.

QFT

Gores came in not knowing how to build a basketball team. Joe D was supposed to be able to do that and Gores trusted in him. Joe D made mistakes and Gores did the right thing by not only letting Joe go, but he ponied up the money to get the best possible Coach in SVG.
Gores has spent a lot of money in renovating the palace and the fan experience, and hopefully his investment in SVG will improve the on court product.
I've never understood how people could think Gores is cheap based on a poorly made transaction by joe Dumars.

[epheisey]

Gores definitely deserves blame for not using the amnesty. However, I'm not going to hammer him for making a mistake, when I believed just as much as he probably did that we wouldn't be giving up a lottery pick.

I also don't quite understand why people are acting like he's paying Smith out of his own pocket. This isn't the amnesty, the numbers still count against the cap, and he would have been paying the contract whether he was on the roster or not. If SVG was able to convince Gores that removing Smith would improve the team, and improve the product on the court (possibly increasing ticket sales), Gores would likely be on board. That wouldn't be that hard of a sell IMO.

I don't have a problem with Gores. I don't think he's hurting the team's success, but he's also not bringing a lot to the table. He's clearly not a basketball minded guy, and I think he's finally figuring that out and putting the keys into the hands of the right people.

As for SVG, he gets the blame for not dealing Smith during the offseason. And that one move could spell a serious setback in this team's progress if Monroe leaves, and it in any way hinged on Smith being in Detroit. There is no way to spin us waiving Smith as the better option to taking any of those initial trade offers with Sacramento.

But, SVG deserves some serious credit for waiving Smith. And the way the players reacted, no one knew about it. To me that was Stan's way of telling everyone he's done playing their games, and that players need to get their stuff squared away or they're in for a rude awakening.

SVG has proved his worth to me. I have no qualms with Stan.
Gores has proved he's trending in the right direction by hiring Stan, but I'm not giving him credit for something that doesn't hurt his bottom line, and could actually help him business-wise. So IMO, the Smith waiving has no impact on my view of Gores.

[ImHeisenberg]

There are worse owners in the league. Finally on the right path with SVG.

Vivek waves hello!