Best move of SVG era

[Laimbeer]

Poll aboard.

[ImHeisenberg]

Banishing Josh Smith.

[Manocad]

Yep

[coordinator0]

I'm torn between releasing Smith and acquiring Jackson. Reggie is the engine that makes the team go but Van Gundy wouldn't have been able to do a lot of what he's done without getting rid of Josh. There was talk of why the Pistons should have just kept and benched him instead of having his cap hits extended so far in the future but getting those smaller charges have proven to be pretty huge the last couple of summers to get the team where it is now. I think I might have to go with that, but it's close.

[Chillymo]

Morris for a 2nd round pick

[DBC10]

What SVG did with that scrub Smith has been the best thing by FAR. Everything happened rapidly after doing that.

We'd still be stuck with his atrocious contract while he's a vet min player at his best form.

[theBigLip]

Dumping Smith totally changed the attitude. It was clear SVG was in charge and things were going to be different. It made everything else on the list easier to do.

[Todd3]

Reggie, easily. Biggest issue with this team since trading Chauncey was PG play. Reggie finally solidified that position and led us to the playoffs in his first year.

Then 2nd best would have to be recognizing Monroe and Reggie didn't fit and not resigning him, as Reggie never would've succeeded here otherwise.

Waving Smith is costing us 5m/yr for the next 4 yrs. So it's hard to call that a good move when they could've just benched him or limited his minutes if they didn't want him to play, like Doc did, and his contract would've been expiring this year. Also could've traded him to the Kings.

[engelbert321]

Buying out Smith opened up a lot for us. As well as Moose leaving (I know it wasn't the FO's decision)

[Todd3]

Buying out Smith opened up a lot for us. As well as Moose leaving (I know it wasn't the FO's decision)

Salary-wise we didn't really sign anyone significant with the 9m we saved though. So we didn't even really need that extra money at the time, and now we're maxed and that 5m could prevent us from adding players we need over the next few years.

Right now I think we're set to have like 4-5m at most to spend next FA. If we had benched/traded him, we'd have more like 10m to spend, which would've afforded us a significant addition instead of a vet min guy.

[coordinator0]

Buying out Smith opened up a lot for us. As well as Moose leaving (I know it wasn't the FO's decision)

Salary-wise we didn't really sign anyone significant with the 9m we saved though. So we didn't even really need that extra money at the time, and now we're maxed and that 5m could prevent us from adding players we need over the next few years.

But the team was able to absorb a good chunk of Ilyasova's contract in the trade that brought him in. He's important because of the later trade that brought Harris and his contract in. It also allowed Detroit to absorb all of the salary of Morris, Bullock, and Granger for a future second round pick. So the cap room opened up from stretching Smith's contract was very well-managed by the front office and pretty important to the team they have now.

[Todd3]

Buying out Smith opened up a lot for us. As well as Moose leaving (I know it wasn't the FO's decision)

Salary-wise we didn't really sign anyone significant with the 9m we saved though. So we didn't even really need that extra money at the time, and now we're maxed and that 5m could prevent us from adding players we need over the next few years.

But the team was able to absorb a good chunk of Ilyasova's contract in the trade that brought him in. He's important because of the later trade that brought Harris and his contract in. It also allowed Detroit to absorb all of the salary of Morris, Bullock, and Granger for a future second round pick. So the cap room opened up from stretching Smith's contract was very well-managed by the front office and pretty important to the team they have now.

The Harris deal was a salary dump though. Any exp contracts would've worked, so I'm not sure I agree with the premise that we needed to waive Smith in order to acquire Harris. (I'm not sold yet that acquiring him and his large contract was a good move anyways).

We would've had enough to do the Morris/Bullock deal either way. We had 20-25m to spend last year, so even if Smith and his extra 9m was still on the team, we'd still have had enough for that deal and Baynes too. That 9m essentially went to Ersan who was only on the team 50 games.

[Snakebites]

In terms of direct impact on the team the clear answer is waiving Josh Smith, but I didn't vote that way.

In terms of a master stroke in which we got a ton of value without giving much up, the answer's gotta be the Reggie trade, which was a more impressive feat IMO than deciding to eat the rest of JSmoove's contract. I think just about any incoming President could have and would have made that move, but its totally possible that someone other than Stanbower wouldn't have been able to pull off that caper of a trade.

I don't think not extending Monroe should even be an option since its not even clear that we could have done that even if we'd wanted to.

[MrBigShot]

Getting a legit starting caliber PG for practically nothing. Waiving Josh Smith was a close 2nd and marked the dawn of a new era & team culture for us.

[Pharaoh]

The Smith move started the waive (see what I did there)

It was the move that set the message from Van Bower to the players & the rest of the league that things were gonna be different in Detroit from that point forward...

The Morris trade wasn't much in the way of proof things were different until his actual play revealed the truth: our FO was different! Our scouts were on top of ****.

The Reggie Jackson trade IMO was the best move. It was known around the league he was better than a back up PG, but some doubted just how much better.

RJs acquisition and his play to end that season showed that Morris wasn't a fluke, that not only was our FO aggressive but they were adding key parts in a long term build.

Without the RJ trade optimism isn't anywhere near what it is now so I'll roll with that move

[Redeemed]

The Josh Smith-ectomy was the move that sent ripples through the franchise making it clear that we were in a new era. I love everything about the move. SVG reached out to Smith trying to sell him on being a playmaker getting into the heart of the defense distributing the ball to open players. That dude (Smith) just opted to keep chucking threes. With open lanes, he chucked threes. With the game on the line and down 1, he chucked threes. It was clear he had checked out on us and SVG wasn't about those problems.

SVG made the necessary move to turn around the franchise and put us on the path to contention.

[Todd3]

The Pistons culture was a mess since 2009 though. The common theme for the majority of those years was bad coaching, bad PG play, and soft/laziness led by guys like Stuckey, Monroe, and Villanueva. Smith was only part of 1.5 of those years. So it would be revisionist history to say that waiving him was what changed the culture.

Adding Stan and Reggie and replacing all the soft and lazy players with tough/hard working professionals like Joel, Tolliver, Butler, Morris, Baynes, Blake etc was what changed it imo.

[coordinator0]

The Harris deal was a salary dump though. Any exp contracts would've worked, so I'm not sure I agree with the premise that we needed to waive Smith in order to acquire Harris. (I'm not sold yet that acquiring him and his large contract was a good move anyways).

We would've had enough to do the Morris/Bullock deal either way. We had 20-25m to spend last year, so even if Smith and his extra 9m was still on the team, we'd still have had enough for that deal and Baynes too. That 9m essentially went to Ersan who was only on the team 50 games.

We don't know it was a salary dump on Orlando's end. They seemed to have genuinely valued Jennings (since Payton is/was struggling) and Ilyasova (needed more shooting badly).

Detroit was over the cap by a little bit last season. Every dollar they opened up counted for the moves, especially the trades, made last summer. Waiving and stretching Smith gave them about $8 million more in cap room. The Ilyasova trade added about $2.2 million to their cap and absorbing Morris, Bullock, and Granger added around $8.4 million. Sure the Pistons could have not done the deal but that would have barred them from signing Baynes, who was also important to the team last season.

And then there's the who $13.5 million that would have been on the books this summer if Josh Smith wasn't waived. Then you're talking about not getting some combination of Leuer, Marjanovic, and Ish Smith. That's a no-no. The trade with Sacramento wasn't going to happen because they wanted assets to go with him and Van Gundy/Bower rightfully refused.

There's just no way Detroit could have kept Josh around and still been in the same position they are today. And like I said before I still think the Reggie trade was close to the same overall impact given how important he is (and how cheaply he was acquired).

[dVs33]

I voted for the Morris trade simply because the value was amazing.
Phoenix gambled on getting Aldridge and SVG was able to snag a starter on one of the best contracts in the league,
Releasing smith is definitely my 1b choice. That started everything. It showed that SVG was for real. I love that move.

[DBC10]

We went on a blistering 5-23 with Smith manning the helm. Something had to be done since the team never came out that terribly in their lifespan.

Clearly dumping Smith did more things intangibly than not. It's pretty clear even if the cognitive dissonance says otherwise.

Getting Reggie was a great move, but time will tell if that was the best move as waiving Smith fell a lot of dominoes for different moves to be made. The so called butterfly effect matters here the most.