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Our options are pretty limited. Most teams aren't going to trade us their good bench players for our crappy ones.

The only thing I can think of is trying to sign a vet min guy. Boozer would be a great fit on that 2nd unit if we could get him. Nate Robinson maybe. Or calling up Boatright from the d league and see if he can provide some scoring. Heck, Will Bynum might even be a positive addition at this point. We are that devoid of offense on that unit.

Anyone that can come in and give us a little 5 min spurt of scoring would help right now.

Beasley?

Kinda sounds like Gortat would like to be here:

(On battling with the Pistons for possible playoff positioning): “Definitely. Always, especially since I know the whole staff. I know the whole organization pretty much. Everybody that works for Detroit right now is an ex-player or staff members from the Orlando Magic. Stan (Van Gundy) put up an outstanding crew and he’s doing a tremendous job. From the players he has he’s doing an amazing job. He’s a great leader and a great mentor. It’s always tough to play him.”

we should be looking at glen davis, dorell wright, carlos boozer, ekpe udoh, will the thrill bynum, even ben gordon to upgrade the bench a little

Honestly think with Jennings & Meeks out we're just gonna have to take our lumps

Unless we're willing to deal a future first (& I wouldn't do that if I was SVG)

I never thought losing Meeks for the season was this big of a deal.

Danny Granger? lol

We need to upgrade our starting 2-4 IMO- those guys are bench players. Fournier and Batum will be free agents next offseason. I think if we can add reliable players to the 2-4 combined with Jackson/Drummond we will be an upper echelon team in the east

We ARE an upper echelon team in the east..........in every first quarter. Then our bench comes in and we're the worst team in the NBA. Adding Fournier or Batum, guys who are having their "contract year" type seasons, will do nothing to change what's going on with this team.

As much as I hated the guy on the Celtics, I'd be all over signing Big Baby lol. He's a hustler and would probably help out. And once Jennings comes back (hurry!) we'll be solid.
It really hurts seeing our bench keep screwing things up for us

DetroitSho wrote:We ARE an upper echelon team in the east..........in every first quarter. Then our bench comes in and we're the worst team in the NBA. Adding Fournier or Batum, guys who are having their "contract year" type seasons, will do nothing to change what's going on with this team.

Upper echelon teams play at an elite level for a full 48 minutes. Neither KCP, nor Morris nor Ilyasova have been producing at an even average level. By adding solid and reliable 2 way players (both Fournier and Batum have a history of being that prior to this season) to the starting lineup means that we put KCP, Morris and Ilyasova on the bench- thus making us a much better and deeper team. Its not complicated.

Unfortunately I think we're stuck until Jennings comes back. We just don't have the trade assets and shouldn't trade a 1st round pick.
You hope Jennings looks decent then decide on if he's good enough to stay or should be dealt at the deadline.

Meeks is out a lot longer then I thought he would be so we need to move on. Definitely need to go out and get a backup 2. With Lakers struggling maybe we can take Lou Williams off their hands. That would be a nice boost to the bench.

I would love to have Fournier on this team. He can play both positions pretty well and I can see Magic not keeping him in favor of grooming Hezonja. Batum may stay since they revived his career there so far.

To get you have to give. Right now the Pistons don't have an abundance of anything, and that's what you need to make a trade that improves the team overall, i.e. improves one area without detracting from another.

dorell wright is a solid player who can hit threes

jennings
johnson
wright
tolliver
baynes

I don't really see any way to really upgrade our bench that doesn't set the team back in the long run. Might just have to wait this out. There's a reason all these guys are out of the league.

Jennings at 80% is better than Dinwiddie and Blake. Get him back already. We can closely monitor his minutes and as a back-up we're only needing him to play 12 minutes a game so it's not like he needs to be back in starter shape.

I'd be open to trading a lotto protected first rounder - we NEED to make the play-offs this year. Stan is going into year three of five next season and we have enough youth with Dre, Stanley, KCP and have our PG. Getting a 20 yr old in the 15-20 range added to the team isn't going to be an instant impact player but more of a back-up for a couple years. We make the play-offs, we're seen as up and coming team and free agents will look to us a helluva lot more. Dre put off signing this season so we have more money next off-season - if we want to be a destination team, we need to show we've made the next step and that is making the playoffs in the very least.

Now moving our pick - we also have to move salary, which becomes trickier. Can we trade Meeks even if he's injured? If not we're really looking at Tolliver's $3M, Anthony's $2.5M, Bullock's $1M, Blake's $2M - that's $8M and we can take back 1.5 that amount I believe so we could bring in a $12M player, but Tolly and Joel are probably less likely to be moved, so more looking at Blake, Bullock and our first for a $5M range player.

So what players are available that could be had for our top 14 protected first and Blake and Bullock contracts?

Ben Gordon?? lol

We need to find the next Fournier - the young kid wallowing away on a bench somewhere that our advanced scouts and analytics guru's believe could be ready to break out in our system. Orlando front office loved Fournier and correctly figured he was being underutilized in Denver and stole him.

I wonder who Detroit scouts feel about Ben McLemore. Sacto is a trainwreck, could the kid still break out in a different situation?

It's a problem most teams in the league have - there's very few backups who can draw a double team. SVG's solution has been to put Morris with them because Morris can get his shot off against just about anybody (not a great thing, but a thing).

If Jennings is anywhere near 100%, he'll have the potential to at least shake up a defense because he can get by people. Blake and Dinwiddie can not, so that group is easy to defend at the moment. Schroeder on Atlanta is a good example - he's quick enough to draw extra attention, so he makes the Hawks second unit look good.

I think Jennings is going to help this team big time, and trading for someone as a one month stopgap really doesn't make sense.