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Alternative Title: The Quest for the Eighth Seed Continues

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2020/09/18/detroit-pistons-retooling-dwane-casey/3487108001/

After being hired as general manager in June, Troy Weaver rejected the term “rebuild,” instead referring to it as a “restoring.” Last month, Blake Griffin said his conversations with head coach Dwane Casey gave him the impression that the Pistons want to compete next season. Casey said something similar a day before the draft lottery, noting that the Pistons will “compete to win” in 2020-21.

On Wednesday, Casey gave a bigger hint as to what the Pistons are planning. “We’re not really rebuilding here in Detroit,” Casey told reporters. “I think our basketball fans deserve a lot. We like to use the word ‘retooling,’ ‘restoring’ as much as 'rebuilding.' It doesn't have to take a long time because if our young guys are making the progress we expect them to make, it shouldn’t be a long-term restoring. How the Pistons will go about "retooling" the roster remains to be seen. The organization hasn’t had much luck with the “rebuild-on-the-fly” strategy this past decade, producing just two playoff berths and zero playoff wins despite multiple lottery picks and big contracts. ”

As for free agency, Casey said that the Pistons want to be smart and aggressive. They’re one of just six teams projected to have cap space, positioning them as players in free agency and the trade market. It’s not a marquee free agent class, but players such as VanVleet and 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrel would certainly boost the Pistons' overall talent.

Meh. Not only has the topic been beaten into the ground but obviously no one is going to announce to the media "Hey media and our fans, don't expect s**t for 2-3 years; we're gonna lose a LOT of games while we draft, develop and play our young guys." Now, to a lot of us that makes perfect sense. But to the casual fan fewer wins = lousy team = not going to go to/watch the games, buy the merchandise, etc. "Want to compete" can very easily be translated to "Hope Blake, Rose and Kennard play 70 games." Because if that happens will this team make the playoffs? Very likely. Is that "competing"? To some fans, sure. To the rest who know that no 8th seed has ever made the NBA finals and only one has made the conference finals, eh--not really.

And let's be real. Try to take a step back, pretend you're not a Pistons fan, and look at this team. A couple/few promising young players, Blake and his knees, Rose and his knees. That's it in a nutshell. A team that competes on talent alone if its not injured, and loses due to lack of talent if its injured. Kinda like a boat with a pretty decent engine that runs half the time but has no rudder. As long as the engine is running and the boat happens to be pointed in the right direction, the boat makes it to port. Sometimes the engine doesn't run and the ship goes nowhere, and sometimes the engine is running but the rudderless boat runs amok. The Pistons right now are not a TEAM--they're a collection of players and nothing more. There is nothing realistically possible that will make them a true contender this upcoming season.

Good. People act like total tanking is the only way to develop players.

Yeah I think they're just parsing words. Not really saying anything.

Kilo wrote:Good. People act like total tanking is the only way to develop players.

Not a single poster I’ve seen has suggested tanking, which is intentionally trying to lose by putting the worst lineup possible on the floor.

Manocad wrote:

Kilo wrote:Good. People act like total tanking is the only way to develop players.

Not a single poster I’ve seen has suggested tanking, which is intentionally trying to lose by putting the worst lineup possible on the floor.

It's more of "let's not be dumb and sacrifice our future for the sake of winning 10 more games next year and a possible quick playoff exit"

People act like the only way to manage a team is to spend all of your available resources on the current flavor of the month; instead of steadily obtaining, developing and flipping prospects for better pieces.

Them being interested in Vanvleet makes this believable.

As long as they don't trade picks, but the biggest thing is, this just sounds like marketing speech. Since rightfully so, they can't announce to the world that they're pulling off the Sixers outright and going for the lottery each year while gaining a bunch of picks in the process.

If they stealth tank, by all means that is totally fine. This team needs it

They've given no indication they'd go full rebuild, so I don't know why this would surprise anyone.

We've heard rumors that they're going for Vanvleet. I doubt we actually get him, but that's the direction we're headed in.

As long as they don't start trading away draft picks for veterans I can live with it at this point. I'd like a better draft pick, but what's really killed us in recent years is failure to do anything of substance with the draft picks we DO have.

Signing FVV or Harrell would be the worst thing they could do. Winning ten games would be much better

Being competitive is subjective though.

You can lose 60 games by 2 points! Doesn't that mean you are competitive?

I refuse to believe that the brain trust in charge of this franchise or the names they always use (Gores, Ed, Arn, Casey and now Weaver) look at this roster and believe we can actually be competitive as currently constructed.

We're so far away from that it's not even worth thinking about!

Keeping Wood + a quality free agent + #7 isn't going to change much.

It's going to be Sekou, Luke, Svi & Brown that determine what kind of team we have next season

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Pharaoh wrote:Being competitive is subjective though.

You can lose 60 games by 2 points! Doesn't that mean you are competitive?

I refuse to believe that the brain trust in charge of this franchise or the names they always use (Gores, Ed, Arn, Casey and now Weaver) look at this roster and believe we can actually be competitive as currently constructed.

We're so far away from that it's not even worth thinking about!

Keeping Wood + a quality free agent + #7 isn't going to change much.

It's going to be Sekou, Luke, Svi & Brown that determine what kind of team we have next season

Sent from my SM-A520F using RealGM mobile app

I disagree if Griffin is heathly they can make the playoffs as a crappy 8th seed

mattao313 wrote:Them being interested in Vanvleet makes this believable.

Who from the organization said they were interested?

Manocad wrote:

mattao313 wrote:Them being interested in Vanvleet makes this believable.

Who from the organization said they were interested?

It was reported by James Edwards from the athletic. So no one from the organization actually said it.

mattao313 wrote:

Manocad wrote:

mattao313 wrote:Them being interested in Vanvleet makes this believable.

Who from the organization said they were interested?

It was reported by James Edwards from the athletic. So no one from the organization actually said it.

In January, with no source.

This looks like another example of how an article written as "The Pistons are one of four teams best-positioned with the new salary cap to steal Van Vleet from the Raptors" becomes "It's rumored that the Pistons are interested in Van Vleet" then "The Pistons are interested in Van Vleet" after it gets quoted/passed along ad nauseum. Not to say that it's not true, but there has been no other indication I've seen that the Pistons are going to make a run at him.

In any case, the Pistons' actions thus far don't indicate that they're pushing for a win now retool.

ByeByeDre wrote:Signing FVV or Harrell would be the worst thing they could do. Winning ten games would be much better

Pistons have the tendency to overspend on average/slightly above average talents in FA. Then, they end up overusing them as if they were superstar players.... which ends up affecting their productivity.

mattao313 wrote:I disagree if Griffin is heathly they can make the playoffs as a crappy 8th seed

The rebuild will only begin after Griffin and his contract are gone from this team.

ElectricMayhem wrote:Alternative Title: The Quest for the Eighth Seed Continues

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2020/09/18/detroit-pistons-retooling-dwane-casey/3487108001/

As for free agency, Casey said that the Pistons want to be smart and aggressive. They’re one of just six teams projected to have cap space, positioning them as players in free agency and the trade market. It’s not a marquee free agent class, but players such as VanVleet and 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrel would certainly boost the Pistons' overall talent.

If Casey can't give more than enough playing time to young players on this team, I think it may be time to look for other options. Watching players that get bounced around the league get more playing time with the Pistons than their own young players is not just annoying... it is also hurting the team's future.

Actions speak louder than words. So far, the actions have been to dump veteran starters. They have been shopping rose for a pick. I think we are stuck with blake due to his contract and injuries, but the rest of the roster is going really young. I don't think they are going to purposely tank, but if they win games, it's going to be through our young players developing.

Manocad wrote:

mattao313 wrote:

Manocad wrote:Who from the organization said they were interested?

It was reported by James Edwards from the athletic. So no one from the organization actually said it.

In January, with no source.

This looks like another example of how an article written as "The Pistons are one of four teams best-positioned with the new salary cap to steal Van Vleet from the Raptors" becomes "It's rumored that the Pistons are interested in Van Vleet" then "The Pistons are interested in Van Vleet" after it gets quoted/passed along ad nauseum. Not to say that it's not true, but there has been no other indication I've seen that the Pistons are going to make a run at him.

In any case, the Pistons' actions thus far don't indicate that they're pushing for a win now retool.

They possibly traded Drummond to clear cap to sign him.