Hypothetical OT: How good would a team of active former Pistons be?

ComboGuardCity · Post #1 » by **ComboGuardCity** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 5:46 am

Reggie Jackson
Spencer Dinwiddie
Khris Middleton
Jerami Grant
Christian Wood

Bench:
Bruce Brown
KCP
Reggie Bullock
Tobias Harris
Andre Drummond

Contender? Playoffs? Lotto?

Post #2 » by **Snakebites** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 7:10 am

Lottery.

Mediocre defense with Wood at center. Best player (Middleton) hurt most of the year.

Those guys all work well in better systems than the one we have and all are finding success playing off of better players than the ones we would have them playing with.

Post #3 » by **theBigLip** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 7:17 am

They would score points and make the play-in. But once the playoffs start and they have to play serious D? They get bounced in the first round

Uncle Mxy · Post #4 » by **Uncle Mxy** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 1:16 pm

Would Luke the Puke from Duke make the rotation? Does Dedmon count as a former Piston if he never played for us and we're still paying him, or will Garza finally get some meaningful minutes? Can Olynyk recover from being a stoner? How will starvin' Darvin Ham keep this ragtag fugitive fleet of ballers together? These and other questions can be answer on -- Pick And Roll With The Ex-Pistons! (available wherever bogus fantasyland soap operas are viewed, like a crackhouse)

bstein14 · Post #5 » by **bstein14** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 1:56 pm

That's a better team than Indiana.... best bench in the league. Assuming Middleton was healthy they are for sure a playoff team.

KCP is shooting 48% from deep and still playing good D and 31 MPG. Kennard is shooting 46% from deep. Harris is still a very good offensive 16 and 6 guy. Drummond is actually ok as a low MPG backup center. Heck, even Bruce Brown is playing nearly 30 MPG for Denver and is a great role player scoring 11 a game and shooting 40% from deep. Jerami Grant would be much better as a #2 guy to Middleton than a #1 guy for us.

Brown - KCP - Middleton - Grant as your starting 1-4 is great defense you can afford to have a weaker defensive center in Wood who can still do a ton on offense and rebound.

Then with guys like Dinwiddie, Kennard, Harris off the bench you've got by far the best bench in the league.

bstein14 · Post #6 » by **bstein14** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 1:57 pm

theBigLip wrote:They would score points and make the play-in. But once the playoffs start and they have to play serious D? They get bounced in the first round

Disagree

Brown - KCP - Middleton - Grant would be very solid D from the 1-4 spots they would really only be weaker against a team with a good scoring 5 like Embiid or Jokic.

flow · Post #7 » by **flow** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 2:04 pm

ComboGuardCity wrote:Reggie Jackson
Spencer Dinwiddie
Khris Middleton
Jerami Grant
Christian Wood

Bench:
Bruce Brown
KCP
Reggie Bullock
Tobias Harris
Andre Drummond

Contender? Playoffs? Lotto?

* Kennard, too.

Not a good team.

bstein14 · Post #8 » by **bstein14** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 2:05 pm

If healthy that team is for sure better than teams like Indy or NY.... I would have to imagine their floor would be 6th seed in the East even with SVG coaching them. They'd also easily be the best 3 point shooting team in the league KCP, Grant, and Kennard all over 46% from deep and a bunch of other good shooters as well from deep.

Post #9 » by **theBigLip** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 2:29 pm

bstein14 wrote:
theBigLip wrote:They would score points and make the play-in. But once the playoffs start and they have to play serious D? They get bounced in the first round

Disagree

Brown - KCP - Middleton - Grant would be very solid D from the 1-4 spots they would really only be weaker against a team with a good scoring 5 like Embiid or Jokic.

Agree w you. I think I overreacted to Jackson being on top of the list. :lol:

Post #10 » by **Cowology** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 4:04 pm

We can debate lineups, but I think the league is in this weird spot right now where despite having some talent this actually isn't good enough. They still need a true #1. Grant is proving to be a great 2nd/3rd option in POR and we know the same is true of Khris. Maybe you find a way to make that work with a Rondo or a Billups to stear the ship, but I'm not sure either Reggie or Dinwiddie have that sorta gravitas. This very much feels like a late lottery team that took their shot at the play-in and missed, especially once you consider things like age and injuries.

I'd probably be lamenting the fact my organization was locked into some wierd purgatory where we weren't good enough to win, but not bad enough to tank. When you consider that most of these guys were drafted by us during our purgatory years, that sorta tracks. :lol:

bstein14 · Post #11 » by **bstein14** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 4:23 pm

Cowology wrote:We can debate lineups, but I think the league is in this weird spot right now where despite having some talent this actually isn't good enough. They still need a true #1. Grant is proving to be a great 2nd/3rd option in POR and we know the same is true of Khris. Maybe you find a way to make that work with a Rondo or a Billups to stear the ship, but I'm not sure either Reggie or Dinwiddie have that sorta gravitas. This very much feels like a late lottery team that took their shot at the play-in and missed, especially once you consider things like age and injuries.

I'd probably be lamenting the fact my organization was locked into some wierd purgatory where we weren't good enough to win, but not bad enough to tank. When you consider that most of these guys were drafted by us during our purgatory years, that sorta tracks.

For sure that team would have no upside and not good enough to make the finals but either a first round or 2nd round exit. You are right they don't have the top end star even though Middleton has been an all-star multiple years he isn't really the franchise player carry your team on your back type player. We'd be a team that would likely need to trade a bunch of our picks for an all-in player like Donavan Mitchell or we'd need to sell off our vets and get picks like Indy did last year so we could try to draft that franchise player.

I still think we'd for sure be in the playoffs if healthy, but we also wouldn't beat a healthy Bucks or Celtics team in the playoffs either because we just wouldn't have the top end talent to get there.

chrbal · Post #12 » by **chrbal** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 4:35 pm

Masters of the play in. Solid group of players with no alpha. Obviously not everyone gets the exact role they currently have. Too much stat padding I would think.

kellmellus50 · Post #13 » by **kellmellus50** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 5:56 pm

The Pistons would win the NBA Championship.

Post #14 » by **Cowology** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 6:51 pm

kellmellus50 wrote:The Pistons would win the NBA Championship.

I think they need another big.

Kalamazoo317 · Post #15 » by **Kalamazoo317** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 10:08 pm

Wouldn't be better than the Bulls or Raptors or Wizards on paper.

tmorgan · Post #16 » by **tmorgan** » Sat Jan 14, 2023 4:34 am

Yeah, that team mostly sucks. Better than our current injured squad, for sure, but not good.

mattao313 · Post #17 » by **mattao313** » Sat Jan 14, 2023 9:05 am

Team is trash but has a lot of good role players

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flow · Post #18 » by **flow** » Fri Jan 27, 2023 7:52 pm

Mason Plumlee needs on the roster. With starter minutes. He's been tearing it up.

Manocad · Post #19 » by **Manocad** » Sat Jan 28, 2023 11:01 am

How good? Not good.

DBC10 · Post #20 » by **DBC10** » Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:39 pm

Probably as good as the 2018 Clippers that gave the Steph-KD Warriors 6 games to close out the series?

That's probably the absolute best case scenario. Scrappy role players and number 2/3 guys is enough to get you to a play-in at least in this day and age