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Alot of us had dreams of what Mr. Stan Van Gundy could do coming in and his "5 year plan" and some of us had wild, outlandish hopes of a proud franchises return to glory in some form or fashion. We knew we were getting a damn fine coach and one with a legacy of winning.

I don't think anyone here on realgm, or any fan anywhere could have ever imagined that in under two years Stan Van Gundy the GM could have turned this;

DETROIT PISTONS 2014-2015 ROSTER

K. Singler
NAME NOT FOUND
A. Drummond
K. Caldwell-Pope
B. Jennings
C. Butler
S. Dinwiddie
J. Anthony
D. Augustin
J. Jerebko
G. Monroe
L. Datome
J. Lucas
C. Martin
S. Williams
J. Meeks
T. Prince
Q. Miller

Into

2015-2016 CURRENT DETROIT PISTON ROSTER

R. Jackson
S. Blake
S. Dinwiddie
K. Pope
J. Meeks
R. Bullock
D. Hillard
M. Morris
S. Johnson
T. Harris
A. Tolliver
J. Anthony
A. Baynes
A. Drummond

Starting lineup and primary bench VS

2014-2015

Jennings
Pope
INVALID ENTRY
Monroe
Drummond

+ Singler, Augustin, and Anthony

2015-2016

Jackson
Pope
Morris
Harris
Drummond

+ Johnson, Baynes, Tolliver

I can't think of a bigger and more talent rich turn around ever and when you figure in how he got these players, I am convinced he is a jedi and the force is indeed strong with him. (Mind tricks and all)

IN STAN WE TRUST

zeebneeb wrote:2014-2015

Jennings
Pope
INVALID ENTRY
Monroe
Drummond

Easily our best player that season.

On a serious note, it's amazing what Stan/Bower have been able to do to acquire great pieces for so little.

Its even more impressive when you look at the 2013-2014 team he actually took over. I thought it would take him 4-5 years to make a dent in the team, but year 2 and we have a solid young core and playoff hopes. IN STAN WE TRUST!!

Going from bad to mediocre is fairly easy and teams do it all the time... the real question will be if he can take us from a 40-45 win first round exit team to a 50+ win team that can get past the first round. I like the body of work so far, but he still has a lot to do and his offensive schemes are below average when compared to the other coaches in the league. So far he's got a B from me.

I didn't see it coming

I don't really understand how he did it but it makes sense if you think about it. Jackson wasn't wanted on OKC and they got Augustin and Singler. Augustin was playing pretty well for us and he's cheap so that made sense for OKC. The Morris trade didn't make sense at all if you look at what they gave us. Then you think oh they wanted Aldridge to pair next to Chandler and needed cap space. It's a cap space move AGAIN. Then the next big trades are Ilyasova and that's yet another cap space move that we gave nothing for. Lastly, you got Harris...A salary dump.

Seems to me every team SVG has traded with has needed salary cap space and we've taken advantage by taking players already on contracts for a few years. I would laugh really hard if SVG gets Markieff for an expiring like Tolliver.

I've also been thinking recently, "what would this roster look like is Joe Dumars was still in charge?".

Here's what I think would have happened...

-Resign Moose for the max in 2014 offseason
-Kyle Singler would still be a Piston, RJ trade would not have happened
-Smoove would have been traded with a draft pick this past offseason and we would have taken back some dead weight contract
-No Morris or Ersan
-Drummond would already have a max extension (if he was willing to sign)
-Winslow drafted over SJ
-Sign Rondo to a long term deal last offseason
-Instead of trading Brandon, we probably would have kept him and given him a loyalty contract in the offseason for too much money and too many years

So we'd have flashy names on the roster, but no spacing and a lot of money allocated to players who probably don't belong on this team. Essentially a repeat of the 5 years that preceded it.

Roster
Rondo
KCP
Winslow
Moose
Drummond

Jennings
???
Singler
???
???
???