The Tank

[Spider156]

What I’m really fascinated about our record is if we look at it from a talent perspective, asset, and cap space, we are in a perfect storm race to win another top 5 pick. I hate to say it but it’s clear to me we don’t have enough cornerstone pieces on the team. I believe in Cade, Ausar, and Duren and nobody else for the future. Two of those 3 cornerstone pieces can’t shoot at all, one I’m sure will be fine long term. We have assets and we have a high FRP next year that I recommend we should draft best forward available. Personally I gave the team 2 more games before the season is over for us because nobody comes back from 2-12. I personally am already on team Tank and the top 3 prospects are Holland, Sarr, and Buzelis. I wouldn’t throw this season away at all, I believe we are destined to be a bottom 3 team in the league because of a disastrous free agency. We should NOT shoot for the worst record in the league and that in of itself would be the minimal improvement compared to last year.

Why do I say all this? If we win one game, how many other teams have 3 wins only? I can count 6 teams that only have 2-3 wins and if we win one we’re tied for 24th in the league? Seriously? That means we get the 6th spot in the lottery! That’s improvement technically compared to the worst last year. I’m not an optimist of our situation I’m looking at this factually.

What did the first two weeks tell me about this past year? It was wasted, we tanked unnecessarily hard keeping guys out like Bojan Stewart Burks extended period of time and wasting minutes on Wiseman to get the worst record in the league. Just to fall to the fifth spot? HORRIBLE, I’m gonna vomit from that mismanagement.

Free agency, blown, one of the worst free agency I’ve seen. It’s practically a CV/BG for ONE year, what a waste. Mismanagement.
The Harris trade is one of the worst timed trades I’ve ever seen a GM make. Weaver traded for Harris and blew 20M of our cap space that we waited 1 YEAR to enjoy flaunting around in free agency ONE hour before free agency opened. Are you SERIOUS man? What an idiot. THAT move is literally the reason we suck. He didn’t go for Strus or Bruce Brown or Grant Williams Jerami Grant or John or PJ Washington, no no, he got an injury prone 20m dead contract. It took him 2 months after that to realize he needs to sign Knox? Are you serious man?

What do we get with all of this? What’s my point?
We need to truly look at the team and ask if they fit, the answer is not they don’t. Will they grow into shooters? I think some yes, some not. I actually think Ivey is a shooter but he’s being mismanaged by Monty. Killian should’ve been traded already, same with Wiseman. It’s complete asinine mismanagement of the team and as a result we will either
1. Continue to suffer until the players get themselves out of this hole
2. Forced trade and risk of losing guys like Sasser Ivey Stewart Livers Bojan for low assets
3. Weaver getting fired

What do we want to do now that we know we are a bottom 3 team?
1. Tank for top pick?
2. Do our best to win any game and hope to improve throughout the year?
3. Force a trade to change the direction of the season?

The difference is next summer we would have a high lottery pick, all our young guys, cheap contracts, lots of cap space.

My solution?
Do nothing. Let Weaver draft best available and fire him before free agency.

[MrBigShot]

There doesn't look like theres any generational player in next year's draft.

[Spider156]

There doesn't look like theres any generational player in next year's draft.

We don’t really need generational talent. We need a cohesive team. We need to improve our assets which means whoever we have drafted. Guys like Ivey Stewart Sasser need to become available in trade talks in order to get good players back. I don’t believe we are there yet to be giving up on those guys. But guys like Killian Livers Bagley Wiseman Burks Harris Bojan those guys without question need to be on the trade block and that’s where I would go in order to force the appropriate change. It’s late but not too late. Too late is by the trade deadline and certainly by next summer.

[7r5ur]

I'd lean toward trying to package some young player (I guess Ivey makes sense if we're stuck with Monty) and the 2024 pick on draft night for a quality starter that compliments Cade, Ausar, and Duren. AKA someone that can shoot, defend ok, and hopefully create a bit at the forward spot between Ausar and Duren. Then go after someone like OG in free agency.

I don't really think this team can take on more 19-21 year olds. Seems like it's time to consolidate a bit with the poor draft coming up.

Then lock Ausar in the gym to work on his shot and handle and just pray that some magic happens for him on offense lol

[kierkegaard]

As bad as we've looked this year, and it's been downright putrid at times based on the eye test, our point differential (-4.9) is still respectable and considerably better than 7-8 teams. It's even within spitting distance of the Pelicans who are 6-6. That's with all the missing players and over reliance on Cade to create team offense. The season being yet so young, I'd say it's still too early to project where the season is headed.

I do agree that we need to add and develop coherence more than add generational players.

[Absolutia]

As bad as we've looked this year, and it's been downright putrid at times based on the eye test, our point differential (-4.9) is still respectable and considerably better than 7-8 teams. It's even within spitting distance of the Pelicans who are 6-6. That's with all the missing players and over reliance on Cade to create team offense. The season being yet so young, I'd say it's still too early to project where the season is headed.

I do agree that we need to add and develop coherence more than add generational players.

This is the bizarre truth of this situation that we are in. Despite our record we just aren't that bad.

[Spider156]

Based on what you guys are saying is you wanna see us continue with our current roster for another 8 games. That’s fine with me because many players are returning. I don’t believe we should be in panic mode given 6-7 other teams are sucking just as much as we are. We still have a whole season to become the 7th worst team in the league which is still pretty bad and yes as bad as we are now. I guess the league is that hard to win. Eventually these kids will grow, all other orgs have right? Only makes sense.

[Kalamazoo317]

Probably too soon to write the full book on the season, yeah. Lets see where we're at after 20 games and then assess again another 20 after that. It's a long season.

I wouldn't say that we absolutely don't need a generational talent, though. How many teams go all the way without one?

[bstein14]

The East is looking good enough that its going to likely take 40 wins to get that 10th seed and the play-in games. So much talk this season about playing more meaninful basketball later into the season and we're already 2-11 worst team in the league and pretty much dug ourselves in a hole we can't get out of. I actually think we will play close to .500 ball at some point this season for several weeks but I feel like a new system, rookies in the rotation, and all the injuries was enough of a bad situation for us to pretty much fall to the bottom like we have.

It was going to take a ton of things going our way for us to be even talking about the play-in games still in March/April let alone making them.

[Snakebites]

I’ve lost all interest in tanking.

This was the year I wanted to compete.

[Cowology]

I am no where near ready to embrace the tank. We need to play to win. The result doesn't really matter from a W/L standpoint, but we need to see player & team development.

Losing sucks. This start sucks. It's demoralizing. But stick to the plan. We just paid Monty a LOT of money to develop our roster. Let him cook.

This is a conversation that should be revisited after the All-Star break.

[GreekAlex]

I am no where near ready to embrace the tank. We need to play to win. The result doesn't really matter from a W/L standpoint, but we need to see player & team development.

Losing sucks. This start sucks. It's demoralizing. But stick to the plan. We just paid Monty a LOT of money to develop our roster. Let him cook.

This is a conversation that should be revisited after the All-Star break.

I understand that the morale is down with the losing streak but the team’s been decimated by injuries plus there’s no real healthy veterans period.

I want to at least give Cade and co a few weeks with Morris & Bojan before I get frantic.

[Kalamazoo317]

Yeah, I don't think we are or should try to lose. We just aren't that good and the league is really talented right now. We should absolutely be trying to win every single game.

[DetroitDon15]

I’ve lost all interest in tanking.

This was the year I wanted to compete.

It’s sucks to rank for sure. I saw nothing this offseason to tell me they weren’t taking. If I’m a season ticket holder, I woulda cancelled my tickets. This team clear isn’t trying to take a step forward. They are relying on winning the draft lotto.

I agree if the Pistons want to step off tanking. The only way would be a trade but is a team giving up a star for Ivey? They only impactful players that I see potentially being available are Lavine and Siakam. Is that the way we need to go? I just dunno what to do at this point.

[payton2kemp]

Pistons need to do what the rockets did, add some vets like FVV and Brooks. Maybe try to get OG and Siakam from the Raptors as free agents. How much cap space to the pistons have in 2024?

[djsunyc]

As bad as we've looked this year, and it's been downright putrid at times based on the eye test, our point differential (-4.9) is still respectable and considerably better than 7-8 teams. It's even within spitting distance of the Pelicans who are 6-6. That's with all the missing players and over reliance on Cade to create team offense. The season being yet so young, I'd say it's still too early to project where the season is headed.

I do agree that we need to add and develop coherence more than add generational players.

This is the bizarre truth of this situation that we are in. Despite our record we just aren't that bad.

if the pistons went .500 this season, that would be viewed as a huge improvement.

what sucks is that even if everyone comes back and the pistons play .500 basketball the rest of the season, they'd still be 36-46 b/c of the bad start. that's not good enough for a play-in. and if that's what's tracking, most likely the team will shift to tanking after the trade deadline so while it's still early, barring a 20-10 type run in the next 30 games, it's not looking like this season will be much different than the past few.

[Kalamazoo317]

A 36 win season would feel like a huge improvement and like we were trending in the right direction. But it’s also not going to happen and we’re not.

How bad can this get before Weaver has to go?

[edmunder_prc]

I’ve lost all interest in tanking.

This was the year I wanted to compete.

Pistons aren't winning a lot games for the foreseeable future.

It might not even be next year that they compete.

[Kalamazoo317]

Until today we had actually been competitive in most games despite failing to win them. Today was just gross

[joedumars1]

Definitely sucks how they’re playing, but I just can’t put much into it. Duren needs to get back and hopefully monte Morris and bojan dominate. Who knows if we will ever get full strength