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Looks like Stewart and Duren are the bigs. Wiseman and Bags are competing for the backup spot.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/pistons-james-wiseman-competing-for-backup-minutes/

Monty making sound decisions.

The interesting thing here is that he implies that Bagley and Wiseman will be competing to be Duren's backup.

C: Duren / (Bagley or Wiseman)
F: Stew / Ausar
F: Bojan / Harris
G: Ivey / Burks
G: Cade / Morris

Feels like with Livers injured that the lineup is pretty much set unless somehow Hayes beats out Harris for backup a wing spot. If Livers was healthy, from the sounds of it that other backup F spot could have been his over Harris.

It does suck a bit to have a bunch of money tied up in out of rotation guys (one of Bagley or Wiseman and Hayes) but I've been beating that dead horse for a while now. At least it appears that Williams isn't foolish enough to try the Bagley/Wiseman combo together as our backup bigs.

I'm curious about Harris. He could either be a key rotation guy or completely out of the rotation. What's he got left? Can he stay healthy?

Stew/Duren was predictable. As was one of Wiseman/Bagley needing to go. Both have been frequent points of conversation around here, so shouldn't really surprise anybody that our 80 million dollar coach could also figure that out.

I don't think we'll have a particularly tough time finding a trade partner, but makes sense to be patient and evaluate.

Let's be honest, both Bagley and Wiseman aren't going to be healthy for the full 82 games, so a lot of nights the backup is going to be whoever isn't injured out of the two at the time.

So one of Bagley or Wiseman won’t be playing?

I’m still not sold on Stewart as a power forward but I’ll take this news if true. I’d prefer them both not playing but that seems improbable given our roster construction.

Wiseman and Bagley are both pet projects of ours- and it never really made sense to have both of them.

Snakebites wrote:So one of Bagley or Wiseman won’t be playing?

I’m still not sold on Stewart as a power forward but I’ll take this news if true. I’d prefer them both not playing but that seems improbable given our roster construction.

Wiseman and Bagley are both pet projects of ours- and it never really made sense to have both of them.

Yeah I'd so much rather Stewart came off the bench as that change of pace stretch 5 so our guards could play downhill in a 5 out line up... but I guess that wouldn't happen until maybe later in the season.

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mattao313 wrote:

Snakebites wrote:So one of Bagley or Wiseman won’t be playing?

I’m still not sold on Stewart as a power forward but I’ll take this news if true. I’d prefer them both not playing but that seems improbable given our roster construction.

Wiseman and Bagley are both pet projects of ours- and it never really made sense to have both of them.

Yeah I'd so much rather Stewart came off the bench as that change of pace stretch 5 so our guards could play downhill in a 5 out line up... but I guess that wouldn't happen until maybe later in the season.

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It's certainly possible that once we get rolling, Monty feels that neither Wiseman or Bagley are worthy of being in our 10 man rotation. Especially if its Livers trying to push in once he gets healthy. Most people here I think feel like Livers has a better IQ and makes more winning basketball plays than Wiseman or Bagley.

Start at what position?

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2023/10/03/williams-preaches-importance-of-defense-as-pistons-start-training-camp/71044422007/

"Jalen is a guy that's gonna be able to play the (center) spot and the (power-forward) spot," Williams started.

Snakebites wrote:So one of Bagley or Wiseman won’t be playing?

I’m still not sold on Stewart as a power forward but I’ll take this news if true. I’d prefer them both not playing but that seems improbable given our roster construction.

Wiseman and Bagley are both pet projects of ours- and it never really made sense to have both of them.

I don't think Stewart will ever be a good power forward. His athletic limitations (most notably his poor footspeed on the run) are fundamentally damaging there in a way that they aren't at center, and they're insurmountable.

I hate that the Pistons ponied up assets for both Wiseman and Bagley.

I hope theres a fairly quick transition to Thompson and Stewart switching places as I feel Stewart is much more suited to be a reserve than Auser who brings so many diversified abilities to the team. Hes athletic with speed to shut down passing lanes, hes able to block and deflect shots, get steals and start transitions.
Just a far more valuable and talented player than the ground bound slowfoot Stew who should be coming off the bench.
I hope this switch is accomplished quick.

breezypeezy wrote:I hope theres a fairly quick transition to Thompson and Stewart switching places as I feel Stewart is much more suited to be a reserve than Auser who brings so many diversified abilities to the team. Hes athletic with speed to shut down passing lanes, hes able to block and deflect shots, get steals and start transitions.
Just a far more valuable and talented player than the ground bound slowfoot Stew who should be coming off the bench.
I hope this switch is accomplished quick.

That would be a similarly sized lineup to Miami with Jimmy at the 4.

It can work but the Heat’s lack of size was a problem.

Snakebites wrote:That would be a similarly sized lineup to Miami with Jimmy at the 4.

It can work but the Heat’s lack of size was a problem.

they also had a pretty aggressive, complex defense and ran a ton of zone. even in man defense they would load up the strong side which puts a lot of pressure on the back to make rotations right. not exactly the type of scheme optimal for a team with a lot of young players.

there were also times when they would play zone and have bam as the one guarding the perimeter which i definitely don't think our players are ready for.

whitehops wrote:

Snakebites wrote:That would be a similarly sized lineup to Miami with Jimmy at the 4.

It can work but the Heat’s lack of size was a problem.

they also had a pretty aggressive, complex defense and ran a ton of zone. even in man defense they would load up the strong side which puts a lot of pressure on the back to make rotations right. not exactly the type of scheme optimal for a team with a lot of young players.

there were also times when they would play zone and have bam as the one guarding the perimeter which i definitely don't think our players are ready for.

Yeah, you watched a lot more Heat games than me clearly.

But yeah, going small works only when you’ve got the right guys, both offensively and defensively. I don’t think we do.

We might in the future, though. Seems like Cade-Ivey-Ausar-(someone else Ausar’s size)-Duren could have potential if guys develop. When Cade’s the slowest guy on the floor, you can do some interesting things.

tmorgan wrote:We might in the future, though. Seems like Cade-Ivey-Ausar-(someone else Ausar’s size)-Duren could have potential if guys develop. When Cade’s the slowest guy on the floor, you can do some interesting things.

Sure, all we need is a Paul George/Kawhi type.

Personally, I still think Stew might be the guy, but I've always been quite a bit higher on him than ... pretty much the rest of the universe. I still think I'm right. We'll see, this is really the year I need him to show he can be a consistent threat from deep. He's going to get good looks. I want 38%.

Maybe somethings changed, but last I checked BKN still had like a half-dozen of those guys just laying around. Any chance we could get one of them? Cam? DFS? They probably need a big.

Cowology wrote:

tmorgan wrote:We might in the future, though. Seems like Cade-Ivey-Ausar-(someone else Ausar’s size)-Duren could have potential if guys develop. When Cade’s the slowest guy on the floor, you can do some interesting things.

Sure, all we need is a Paul George/Kawhi type.

Personally, I still think Stew might be the guy, but I've always been quite a bit higher on him than ... pretty much the rest of the universe. I still think I'm right. We'll see, this is really the year I need him to show he can be a consistent threat from deep. He's going to get good looks. I want 38%.

Maybe somethings changed, but last I checked BKN still had like a half-dozen of those guys just laying around. Any chance we could get one of them? Cam? DFS? They probably need a big.

If we wanted Cam we should have just signed him over the offseason instead of enabling Brooklyn to sign him by taking Harris.

Invictus88 wrote:

Cowology wrote:

tmorgan wrote:We might in the future, though. Seems like Cade-Ivey-Ausar-(someone else Ausar’s size)-Duren could have potential if guys develop. When Cade’s the slowest guy on the floor, you can do some interesting things.

Sure, all we need is a Paul George/Kawhi type.

Personally, I still think Stew might be the guy, but I've always been quite a bit higher on him than ... pretty much the rest of the universe. I still think I'm right. We'll see, this is really the year I need him to show he can be a consistent threat from deep. He's going to get good looks. I want 38%.

Maybe somethings changed, but last I checked BKN still had like a half-dozen of those guys just laying around. Any chance we could get one of them? Cam? DFS? They probably need a big.

If we wanted Cam we should have just signed him over the offseason instead of enabling Brooklyn to sign him by taking Harris.

I think I blocked that from my memory. I'd thank you for reminding me... but I wish you hadn't.

I don’t think Stewart’s defense will be the problem. We never saw the full transition where 3s became 4s. It’s even starting to reverse a bit. His make or break will be shooting.

Cowology wrote:

tmorgan wrote:We might in the future, though. Seems like Cade-Ivey-Ausar-(someone else Ausar’s size)-Duren could have potential if guys develop. When Cade’s the slowest guy on the floor, you can do some interesting things.

Sure, all we need is a Paul George/Kawhi type.

Personally, I still think Stew might be the guy, but I've always been quite a bit higher on him than ... pretty much the rest of the universe. I still think I'm right. We'll see, this is really the year I need him to show he can be a consistent threat from deep. He's going to get good looks. I want 38%.

Maybe somethings changed, but last I checked BKN still had like a half-dozen of those guys just laying around. Any chance we could get one of them? Cam? DFS? They probably need a big.

I would think their starting 5 would be
Claxton Bridges Cam Simmons Spencer
Or go big and have DFS start with Spencer off the bench.
I guess they're not as stacked at forward position as I thought to where they have to move someone.
Maybe in order to not upset the diva that is Dimwiddie, then they would keep him starting and move one of these guys to us

Dorian Finney-Smith-$13,932,008
Royce O'Neale-$9,500,000

It's settled. We trade them Bagels for DFS

breezypeezy wrote:I hope theres a fairly quick transition to Thompson and Stewart switching places as I feel Stewart is much more suited to be a reserve than Auser who brings so many diversified abilities to the team. Hes athletic with speed to shut down passing lanes, hes able to block and deflect shots, get steals and start transitions.
Just a far more valuable and talented player than the ground bound slowfoot Stew who should be coming off the bench.
I hope this switch is accomplished quick.

Ausar is unlikely to be a starter or a practicable offensive contributor of any sort until he becomes a reliable shooter.

ComboGuardCity wrote:I don’t think Stewart’s defense will be the problem. We never saw the full transition where 3s became 4s. It’s even starting to reverse a bit. His make or break will be shooting.

He's a very strong defender at center and a decidedly meh defender at power forward. Is he a liability? No. Is he a good defender? Also no.

His length, work ethic and defensive IQ help to compensate for his very poor footspeed at the position, but only just. He's slow to be chasing guys around the perimeter and through the interior, and he's got to go under every screen. Needless to say, he also can't play a lick of helpside defense; he's not explosive at all and he's a bad leaper.

The athletic limitations hurt on offense as well; pretty much all he's capable there is wide-open standstill threes when he's left open.

It annoys me to see the FO attempt to shoehorn him in as a power forward when he's got athletic limitations there that he cannot surmount and is much better at center.