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Poll aboard.

Love all the signings but my vote goes to Ish. Backup pg was our biggest need and Ish will arguably be the best backup in the league. And that price tag is a huge bargain.

Dellavedova and Lin were better options and I'm sure our team and others offer him similar contracts in terms of money, but be an starter PG got so much weight in a player decision (something some people can't understand). So yeah, Ish was the best true backup PG available.

Gonna be exciting watching Ish push the pace and playmake to Bullock and Stanley on the wings. Kickoffs to Leuer for 3. Baynes doing his thing.
Gonna be so much more enjoyable than last year with the Blake show

Just getting Steve Blake off the team is the best move IMO.

Best value signing is Ish Smith. Whether or not he lives up to his deal, other PG's with similar talent were getting deals almost twice his size or more.

How Boban and Leuer play and how the cap looks in a couple years will greatly impact the value of their deals.

Ish is a legit backup PG that can actually be a fringe starter in this league. So I think he's easily the choice.

Plus we don't have Blake's corpse running around and trying to play defense anymore is a massive difference too.

Best value: easily Ish
Best player: probably Leuer
Best dude to watch: easily Boban
Biggest upgrade: likely Ish

I like 'em all. Boban is just a luxury for year one, although I'm super excited to see him play. Leuer is a perfect fit for our needs and the direction of the league, but Tolliver did some good stuff at times. Blake sucked ass, and Ish won't, so he wins.

This is a tough one, and just a reminder for those bringing up Delly, or Lin, they were not going to sign here if they wanted to start. This is just how it is so bringing them up in any way shape or form should not influence your opinion. I voted Leuer.

I think he adds a brand new dynamic that the bench did not have last year;

A good three point shooter combined with driving ability, and post up ability. He is a hell of alot more athletic then Tolliver who could ONLY shoot, or pass. No drives, no post ups, nothing dynamic with the basketball. I can see him playing a ton of minuets with Andre.

I love the idea of Ish and his push it mentality, but Jon is going to have the biggest impact in my mind.

The clear answer securing Drummond for a minimum 4 more years.

In terms of new signings, its tough. Not to say these guys won't be able to help us, but none of them are particularly outstanding in terms of value. Leuer was an overpay for a Tolliver upgrade. Ish Smith is decent at running the point and a clear improvement over Blake, but he doesn't shoot or defend well. Boban would have the strongest case.....if we didn't already have a significant chunk of money devoted to a backup center.

We upgraded the 2 weakest parts of our rotation (Blake and Tolliver). Neither of those guys were even NBA level players last year. It just cost us a pretty penny to do it.

Yet to be determined.

Simply by the face of the contract? Ish, easily.

I went with Ish, but am pretty happy with all the signings. Not because I think any of them are "great" but because they fit needs with the Pistons. If our bench is even reasonably effective we have a pretty good team.

Of those choices, Ish. The Pistons desperately needed a backup PG who could actually play PG.

tmorgan wrote:Best value: easily Ish
Best player: probably Leuer
Best dude to watch: easily Boban
Biggest upgrade: likely Ish

I like 'em all. Boban is just a luxury for year one, although I'm super excited to see him play. Leuer is a perfect fit for our needs and the direction of the league, but Tolliver did some good stuff at times. Blake sucked ass, and Ish won't, so he wins.

This pretty much. I think Leuer might have more of an impact than what most expect. But I have to admit, the player I'm most excited to see - Boban

Snakebites wrote:The clear answer securing Drummond for a minimum 4 more years.

In terms of new signings, its tough. Not to say these guys won't be able to help us, but none of them are particularly outstanding in terms of value. Leuer was an overpay for a Tolliver upgrade. Ish Smith is decent at running the point and a clear improvement over Blake, but he doesn't shoot or defend well. Boban would have the strongest case.....if we didn't already have a significant chunk of money devoted to a backup center.

We upgraded the 2 weakest parts of our rotation (Blake and Tolliver). Neither of those guys were even NBA level players last year. It just cost us a pretty penny to do it.

Completely agree with this take.

We spent a lot of money and sacrificed any future flexibility for guys who may not be much better than what we could have gotten for the minimum. I know it's all Kool Aide drinking and kumbaya about this offseason, but I don't count any of these signings to be among Stan's shrewder moves.

The Penguin wrote:

Snakebites wrote:The clear answer securing Drummond for a minimum 4 more years.

In terms of new signings, its tough. Not to say these guys won't be able to help us, but none of them are particularly outstanding in terms of value. Leuer was an overpay for a Tolliver upgrade. Ish Smith is decent at running the point and a clear improvement over Blake, but he doesn't shoot or defend well. Boban would have the strongest case.....if we didn't already have a significant chunk of money devoted to a backup center.

We upgraded the 2 weakest parts of our rotation (Blake and Tolliver). Neither of those guys were even NBA level players last year. It just cost us a pretty penny to do it.

Completely agree with this take.

We spent a lot of money and sacrificed any future flexibility for guys who may not be much better than what we could have gotten for the minimum. I know it's all Kool Aide drinking and kumbaya about this offseason, but I don't count any of these signings to be among Stan's shrewder moves.

You know I pretty much agree with that take too, but I don't find anything in it that accuses those who have a generally favorable opinion of "Kool Aide drinking and kumbaya." That seems about as fair as suggesting those less enthused are hand-wringing hysterics. SVG rolled the dice on his dough. Having to sign Drummond kind of forced their hands. They can still make trades? I liked Leuer before he became a Piston, so am going to withhold judgement as to whether he was an overpay.

The Penguin wrote:

Snakebites wrote:The clear answer securing Drummond for a minimum 4 more years.

In terms of new signings, its tough. Not to say these guys won't be able to help us, but none of them are particularly outstanding in terms of value. Leuer was an overpay for a Tolliver upgrade. Ish Smith is decent at running the point and a clear improvement over Blake, but he doesn't shoot or defend well. Boban would have the strongest case.....if we didn't already have a significant chunk of money devoted to a backup center.

We upgraded the 2 weakest parts of our rotation (Blake and Tolliver). Neither of those guys were even NBA level players last year. It just cost us a pretty penny to do it.

Completely agree with this take.

We spent a lot of money and sacrificed any future flexibility for guys who may not be much better than what we could have gotten for the minimum. I know it's all Kool Aide drinking and kumbaya about this offseason, but I don't count any of these signings to be among Stan's shrewder moves.

I'm not completely sure but signing Drummond sacrificed flexibility the time to spend money was this offseason.

The Penguin wrote:

Snakebites wrote:The clear answer securing Drummond for a minimum 4 more years.

In terms of new signings, its tough. Not to say these guys won't be able to help us, but none of them are particularly outstanding in terms of value. Leuer was an overpay for a Tolliver upgrade. Ish Smith is decent at running the point and a clear improvement over Blake, but he doesn't shoot or defend well. Boban would have the strongest case.....if we didn't already have a significant chunk of money devoted to a backup center.

We upgraded the 2 weakest parts of our rotation (Blake and Tolliver). Neither of those guys were even NBA level players last year. It just cost us a pretty penny to do it.

Completely agree with this take.

We spent a lot of money and sacrificed any future flexibility for guys who may not be much better than what we could have gotten for the minimum. I know it's all Kool Aide drinking and kumbaya about this offseason, but I don't count any of these signings to be among Stan's shrewder moves.

Did I say all of that? I feel like I just said they were marginal overpay.

I really like Leuer as a player. He's not just an upgrade over Tolliver but a big one. Of course I was never a big fan of Anthony but Jon is still much better and gives the Pistons a legitimate stretch five to match up on defenses or create mismatches on offense. He gets my vote for the best free agent signing even though his contract is the biggest. Marjanovic is up there too but he's more of a specialist that will split backup minutes at center even after Baynes is gone. But should be a really nice specialist nonetheless. Nobody should be saying that either of those guys may not be much better than what Detroit could have gotten for the minimum. That's ridiculous.

On the other hand I can see the argument for Smith not being much better than a guy who could have been had for the minimum. His contract looks good compared to most of the others handed out to point guards but that doesn't mean he's a quality player. I don't trust the stats Ish put up with the 76ers and he wasn't good with New Orleans last season either. It's hard to envision him not being an upgrade over Blake, but at the same time that bar isn't set very high.

Snakebites wrote:

The Penguin wrote:

Snakebites wrote:The clear answer securing Drummond for a minimum 4 more years.

In terms of new signings, its tough. Not to say these guys won't be able to help us, but none of them are particularly outstanding in terms of value. Leuer was an overpay for a Tolliver upgrade. Ish Smith is decent at running the point and a clear improvement over Blake, but he doesn't shoot or defend well. Boban would have the strongest case.....if we didn't already have a significant chunk of money devoted to a backup center.

We upgraded the 2 weakest parts of our rotation (Blake and Tolliver). Neither of those guys were even NBA level players last year. It just cost us a pretty penny to do it.

Completely agree with this take.

We spent a lot of money and sacrificed any future flexibility for guys who may not be much better than what we could have gotten for the minimum. I know it's all Kool Aide drinking and kumbaya about this offseason, but I don't count any of these signings to be among Stan's shrewder moves.

Did I say all of that? I feel like I just said they were marginal overpay.

Fair enough, I just took it a step further. I haven't been around as much the last month, it's the slow cycle for news and football is gearing up, but the signings reaction threads from every move read as though several were popping bottles over dropping $23 mil AAV on our ~7th to 10th best guys.

The Ish Smith signing was good value considering the time it was signed, but missing out on Horford and Lin & Delly signing for just slightly more make it look worse in hindsight (and I completely understand Lin & Delly getting chances at starting roles). The Leuer signing felt like a reactionary panic move to missing out on Horford. The Boban move felt like "Welp, we've got $7 mil spend and backup backup center is the only possible open spot".

I get the window to spend because of the Drummond cap hold-extension, but that's not license to just throw cash at guys who've bounced through a few teams already. We (hopefully) solidified our bench, but we certainly did not do anything that approached value.