Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Detroit Pistons

[tmorgan]

Only argument I’d make is that Diallo did work out reasonably well. He’s a useful player. Plays way bigger than he is… worked as a small ball 4 for stretches pre-Bagley. As has been said about hundreds of players before… “if he had a reliable jumper, he’d be starter quality”.

[dc]

Any chance Pistons make a QO to Bagley? It would be something like 14.7M. Now way he deserves that but if they don't he's probably out.

Good lord I hope not.

Bagley is a pretty good offensive player and rebounder. His defensive instincts are pitiful. He is a 4, despite his size, because playing him at the 5 would only work for an elite perimeter defense team, which we are definitely not. If he’ll resign on a reasonable deal (like 3/30), he’s a useful 6th or 7th man for bench offense. I bet he wants more, and if I were Weaver I wouldn’t pay it.

Yeah Bagley's problem is that, in the modern game, he's a 4 that has to play the 5 in order to make his team's offense function efficiently. But he's just too poor defensively to make that work in big minutes.

He can be a decent rotation player at the right price.

[ElectricMayhem]

I had the Pistons as a darkhorse playoff team but man did nothing go right for them. Cade was hurt to start the season, and when he joined the rotation, he also joined the team-wide cold shooting spell. Saddiq Bey in particular started outrageously cold and struggled with consistency all season (the shot still looks fine btw). They vets (Olynyk and Jerami) got hurt and deprived the Pistons of functional lineup options. I believe in Cade/Bey/Jerami with a shooter (Olynyk?) and a rim runner (Bagley...?) (obviously that frontcourt would not work defensively!). Some of their pet projects (Josh Jackson, Hamidou Diallo) didn't pan out. I like Beef Stew, but Cade needs a pick & roll parter who can jump. The number of lob opportunities that Beef just wasn't there for really hurt the offense imo.

I was high on Killian Hayes in the draft. I looked at him and Haliburton and thought they both had similar games, but Haliburton would be too skinny/weak to pull it off in the NBA. Who would have thought that Hayes would be the one to struggle physically! The man's biggest nightmare is making any contact with his defender. He plays offense like the defenders are made of lava. Unless that's fixable, he'll never be a useful NBA player. I like the passing and defense though.

Troy Weaver has made plenty of good calls with this roster. I see no reason to move away from Casey at this stage in the game. Detroit sounds like it has a healthy culture. This year deserves a mulligan. I saw nothing that is stopping me from predicting a dark horse playoff team again next year.

I'm always surprised at how much you seem to know about all the teams in the league. There was a time when I could do that but these days I barely have enough time to know what's happening on the Pistons. You seem to have a really good understanding of this Detroit team - the one thing I would rebut is Hami Diallo not working out. He's been fire off the bench and has really come on strong recently. He brings great energy. He leads the team in WAR and is the only one with a positive RAPTOR.

[tmorgan]

You slllllow, EM.

[cupcakesnake]

Only argument I’d make is that Diallo did work out reasonably well. He’s a useful player. Plays way bigger than he is… worked as a small ball 4 for stretches pre-Bagley. As has been said about hundreds of players before… “if he had a reliable jumper, he’d be starter quality”.

I just find Diallo so maddeningly inconsistent. The kind of player that often feels on the verge of busting out as a sort of stronger, less skilled Zach Lavine. Sometimes he looks unstoppable, but his shooting holds him back. He's either on fire or invisible. He kind of improved on his strengths this year but regressed on his weaknesses. He did look a lot less erratic this year. I'm glad Detroit fans are still holding their stock. He's a standout athlete at the NBA level.

I'm always surprised at how much you seem to know about all the teams in the league. There was a time when I could do that but these days I barely have enough time to know what's happening on the Pistons. You seem to have a really good understanding of this Detroit team - the one thing I would rebut is Hami Diallo not working out. He's been fire off the bench and has really come on strong recently. He brings great energy. He leads the team in WAR and is the only one with a positive RAPTOR.

Thanks! I'm more of an NBA basketball fan than a team-specific person. I usually pick 10 teams each season I find interesting. Detroit was one of those this year... but that experience was a bit more punishing than I expected! Not giving up on them though, I think the potential of this roster is very high. Some cold shooting and injuries don't change that. I'm glad that Diallo is still seen as part of the plan. Thank you both for the Diallo perspective.

[Roger Murdock]

I voted
Keep
Keep
As Expected
Treadmill

Caseyis fine for a developing coach, not who you want when this teams going to be fighting in the playoffs but you want stability for the young core and Cade and firing people makes things toxic. They have a reasonable core, if they took Hali instead of Hayes for instance that teams extremely interesting.

I thought they'd be the worst team in the NBA and they were so they performed as expected to me. Cade was a little better as a rookie than I thought, the supporting cast a little worse (expected more improvement from Bey and Stew).

I think pretty much anyone in the lotto can help them. They have a flexible core as you can play Bey or Cunningham with about anyone.

I voted treadmill because they will be really bad next year and probably in 2 years but its clearly a team that will be better in the long term.

[KIRAG]

Keep the coach. Get some more good vet role players to add to Olynyk and Grant

I predict they make the playin next season

[slicedbread2]

1. Keep
2. Keep
3. As expected
4. Rising(they are rock bottom so it can't get any worse I hope)

Honestly the best thing for Detroit right now is to develop consistency where they build a solid team culture that allows young players to grow and develop whether it be on/off the court. Bringing in some good vets to help the young guys adjust to the league is very important because having a team full of just a bunch of young guys with no vets is a recipe for disaster and bad habits can be developed if not kept in check.

Josh Jackson was a good low risk/medium reward player who didn't pan out and was flipped for Bagley III. I like Marvin, but his game is more of a 4 than a 5 and if he can be brought back on a reasonable deal(say 3/36M with last year being a T/O) I say do it because maybe his health can come around and he develops into something decent. Worse case scenario he doesn't pan out and you move on. Injuries have hindered his development. If he had any form of playmaking ability whatsoever he could've played the wing as a point forward but sadly he doesn't.

Cunningham has been nice even though he missed some time to begin the year and started off really bad, but he's turned it around. Bey had a Sophomore slump but we'll see what he can do to bounce back. I like Isaiah Stewart, but I think they may need a bigger centre that can fit with Cade in the long run.

Best thing to do is continue the process. Use your cap space to take advantage of teams looking to get cap relief and get compensated handsomely with draft capital. They'll have enough space to help take advantage of teams looking to lighten up their tax bill so it doesn't hurt.