Post-Mortem: 2022-23 Detroit Pistons

[ElectricMayhem]

The Detroit Pistons are the 3rd team to bid farewell to their dreams of a 2023 championship.

Here is the data from previous years' Post-Mortems:
2020-21:

Spoiler:

Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

2021-22:
2021-22 Post Mortem Final Summary

Team Name: Detroit Pistons
Record at Time of Death: 15-51 (.227)
Head of Front Office: Troy Weaver (2020-)
Coach: Dwane Casey (2018-)

Offensive Rating: 27th
Defensive Rating: 28th
Rebound %: 21st
Turnover %: 24th

Front Office: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Bojan Bogdanovic ($20m)
Marvin Bagley ($13m)
James Wiseman ($12m)
Cade Cunningham ($11m)
Jaden Ivey ($8m)
Killian Hayes ($7m)
Isaiah Stewart ($5m)
Jalen Duren ($4m)


Team Options:
Alec Burks ($10m)
Isaiah Livers ($2m)

Player Options:

Free Agents:
Hamidou Diallo
Cory Joseph
Rodney McGruder
R.J. Hampton
Eugene Omoruyi
Buddy Boeheim
Jared Rhoden

Dead Money:
Dewayne Dedmon ($3m)

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Houston Rockets
29. San Antonio Spurs
28. Detroit Pistons

[flranger]

This team is like drinking a bottle of room temperature bottled water from you local discount store....meh

[ElectricMayhem]

At the beginning of the season, there were hopes/expectations that Detroit could at least be within punching distance of the play-in. However, those were soon dashed with Cade starting off slow then missing the rest of the season with an injury.

I'm for giving Casey one more year, especially if we get a top 2 pick. I think he is good enough as a developmental coach and keeping things positive and proactive through the slog of losing. I think either Wemby or Scoot could benefit from working with him. However, if there is a better option on the market, I wouldn't be opposed to a switch.

I don't know what Detroit is doing with centers. They overpaid Bagley then traded Bey for Wiseman. The trade is kind of understandable given the type of contract Bey wanted, but he would've been a restricted free agent. Now Detroit has those two centers plus Duren and Stewart.

I'm generally pleased with Killian Hayes' progression. His RAPTOR in his first three years has gone from league worst -8.2, to still very bad -4.1, to approaching average -1.1. Would I prefer the Pistons have drafted Haliburton? Certainly. Although his talent might have gotten in the way of future talent acquisition via the draft.

Despite all the centers, Wemby would be a better fit than Scoot. Henderson is a great talent, but Detroit already has three young guards (Of course, you still take Scoot at 2 if you are Detroit). I'm worried that someone like Brandon Miller is actually the best fit. The Pistons desperately need some forwards, they desperately need Cade to come back healthy, and they desperately need players who are high level at multiple things.

As far as the team options go:
Isaiah Livers: Absolutely sign. I don't think he's starter material, but he's definitely worth his $1.8m contract.
James Wiseman: I'm not high on him, but we traded away our right to keep Bey through restricted free agency for him. He'll be signed.
Alec Burks: The best of the bunch right now but resigning may be dependent on our draft pick.

[ElectricMayhem]

I also want to add that overall, I'm happy with Weaver's job. I do, however, question the Bey asset management, giving away Bruce Brown for free (unless it was simply for the sake of tanking), and giving up assets to offload Plumlee who he just signed the year before (and who Charlotte then offloaded for Reggie Jackson and a 2nd). I'm confused by his pattern of trading for people just to buy them out (we're still paying Dedmon for the next two years after this one).

[eyeatoma]

Isn't he destroying Duren's development?

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[Mr Peanut]

This is the mathematical post-mortem but the season died the day Cade went down.

I think otherwise it's been a mixed bag. Ivey has shown flashes that he could develop into a star guard, but plays too out of control at times. Duren looks like he could be a stud and the C of the future. Stewart's outside shot has made some development but he still looks like he's a bench big in the long run. Hayes had a couple of months of good play but seems to have regressed again and at best could be a decent bench PG but seems even too inconsistent for that role at the moment. Bey was underwhelming and has been traded in for lottery ticket Wiseman who may become something but equally could spectacularly fail.

Overall:

Front office - Keep (with the caveat that another underwhelming season leads to the seat becoming much hotter)
Coach - Change (this is the only path to us getting any better)
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year? - Worse, but obviously affected by the Cade injury
Rising, falling or treadmill? - Rising
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason? - This question is so heavily dependent on where we land in the lottery. I can't see anyone out of the top 3 guys making a real impact for us in their rookie seasons though. Otherwise I would throw a wad of cash at either Jerami Grant or Cam Johnson, and then use whatever cap space remains to fill out the roster with shooters. Would also clear the glut of big men and trade one (probably Bagley). For argument's sake, let's say we end up with Brandon Miller (not bold enough to predict Wemby).

Duren/Wiseman
Grant or Johnson/Stewart
Bojan/Miller
Ivey/Burks
Cade/Hayes

I think with good health that's a 30-35 win team and best case scenario could really push for the play in but that might be expecting too much.

[165bows]

Iirc there was a lot of “push for a play-in” discussion in the off-season. This team just isn’t good and that was overly optimistic. I know injuries and whatnot but they were on a 20 win pace with Cade and barely better than that last year so I don’t think it would have made much difference.

[Mr Peanut]

Iirc there was a lot of “push for a play-in” discussion in the off-season. This team just isn’t good and that was overly optimistic. I know injuries and whatnot but they were on a 20 win pace with Cade and barely better than that last year so I don’t think it would have made much difference.

I think most realistic Pistons fans thought the play-in was a long shot. Cade would've made a bit of difference though, he was averaging 20/6/6 when he went down and that was playing through his shin injury that was already giving him trouble. If he's healthy this season (which means significantly less minutes for tank commanders Cory Joseph and Killian Hayes) then we're definitely closer to the 25-30 win mark. Which would've been a step in the right direction from the past two seasons at least.

[chilluminati]

ElectricMayhem summed it up perfectly imo, completely agree with everything he said (especially on the center logjam). I'd only differ slightly in opinion over the coaching situation. While I like Casey, I think we need someone who is going to put more stock in the rebuild. Casey's penchant for playing veterans isn't quite thibsian, but in the end doesn't make sense outside of boosting vet value for more FRP trade ins. Also his sets suck, and teaches these young players a very baseline version of what high level teams do. I think he has to go this summer. The only part I'm slightly nervous about is the fact that Cade is very close to coach Casey. I'm sure he'd adjust with a new coach just fine, but I'd hate to ruin any positive chemistry while Cade is still as raw as he's gonna ever be.

Our model of having one veteran leader alongside our young leader in Cade works well, especially when Cade misses as much time as he has been. Once he's back it'll be nice to see Bogey and Cade play off of eachother. I'm still optimistic for the future, but Cades injuries have been slightly concerning, as well as his consistency in being inconsistent. Jaden Ivey on the other hand has a good look on the court, and once he cleans his game up some more he'll be a real weapon for us. It was still way too early for us to be thinking about the play-in. We need more cohesion and time played together. The Cade injury could be a blessing in disguise as we may end up with yama or Scoot. Which in that case, idc what bigs we have, we'd have Wemby.

In the end, if we don't end up drafting Victor, what I want to see us do is put all of our eggs into the Jalen Duren basket, and stop being enticed by these failed bigman projects. I want to see Isaiah Livers resigned to a nice and long deal to be our backup 3-4. Omoruyi/Hampton looked sorta solid, I'd be willing to give them another shot. But every other Free Agent can go, including Diallo. I'm sick of watching his crappy drives to the basket. He has a nice finishing touch, but his shot creation leaves a ton to be desired. Also we can be rid of McGruder and Joseph, two players who take up far too much rotational real estate.

[Billl]

meh - the season basically ended for the pistons when Cade showed up to training camp with a stress issue in his shin and then got shut down for the year.

Front office - keep. Tanking for top picks was the plan and they executed so far.
Coach - Casey needs to go. He's a great human being, but this "switch every screen" nonsense is just brutal to watch in the NBA. It's like he's never heard of the concept of mismatches.
Underperformed - cade showed up to camp with a stress injury and then needed to be shut down.
outlook - one the rise. Lots of young talent , but very little experience. Add a health cade and another top5 pick and the team is bound to be much improved over the next few seasons.

[Kingdibs19]

If they get Wemby then they become the 2000s Spurs.

[slicedbread2]

It sucks that their season died when Cade went down but what can you do.

I like Jalen Duren and think he can be a good C going forward. I'm doubtful that they'll land Wemby/Scoot but Miller wouldn't be so bad considering they need a legit 3. I'm a bit perplexed at why they're loading up on big men like Wiseman and Bagley III. Sure they're massive failures for where they were drafted, but it seems like they're impeding the progress of Duren not to mention you got Stewart and Livers on the roster who could be solid rotation pieces.

Dwayne Casey isn't bad for a few seasons, but it may be time to go for a fresh voice in there. It wouldn't hurt to roll the dice on a rising star in the coaching ranks. There sadly tends to be a retread problem when it comes to hiring head coaches(not exclusive to the NBA BTW).

They can easily opt into Burks deal and possibly flip him to a contender if they're willing to eat an expiring/bad deal with some draft capital as Alec can still contribute in some way.

They're practically rock bottom and there's nowhere to go but up. I'd give Weaver some time before the seat becomes warm. It sucks that Bey didn't work out but oh well.

[Capn'O]

Not much to say that hasn't been said but...

Likely an unpopular opinion but they might want to see what they can get for Cade. I'm not hugely high on him and there's been an incredible market for "out of sight out of mind" players lately. Not that I think he's of Simmons' ilk but he might fetch a superstar sort of package in return.

[Clav]

Bojan Bogdanovic was a solid piece for DET even though he has a leg injury right now and probably won't play much or at all the rest of the season. He was scoring really well and seemed to me to be the best offensive player for the Pistons this year.
BB might be traded this offseason, or sweeten a draft day deal.

I had a lot of high hopes that the Cunningham and Ivey pairing would work, and I think it does if they can actually share the court. Ivey was burdened with running an NBA offense as a rookie, so it was going to be a rocky time. Hayes can't dribble right as well as left so there's some issues with him running the offense. Hayes DID improve this year thankfully.

I like Ivey also, he did his best with Cade out and had big moments, seems like a staple as a PG for the future. Wild at times, some bad decision moments, but it was nothing unexpected to me, kid's got a future.

I'm unsure of all the bigs on the roster (except Duren and Livers) so there's some shuffling to do on the DET side, picking who they will be rolling with.

Getting Wemby or Scoot makes it easier to shuffle some of the messy areas on the roster, but there are solid wing players in this draft, which is also a priority for the Pistons, so this has the looks to be a promising offseason if Weaver and Co. can manage it, or have a little lottery luck.

[tarantism]

Just a quick note, the Warriors had picked up Wiseman's option so I'm pretty sure he already has a contract through next season. I might be wrong though.

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[whatisacenter]

Just a quick note, the Warriors had picked up Wiseman's option so I'm pretty sure he already has a contract through next season. I might be wrong though.

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he does. $12M club option was picked up by GS.

[ElectricMayhem]

Just a quick note, the Warriors had picked up Wiseman's option so I'm pretty sure he already has a contract through next season. I might be wrong though.

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he does. $12M club option was picked up by GS.

Thanks you two. For some reason, Basketball Reference only mentions the 2022-23 team option being picked up.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/DET.html

[cupcakesnake]

I'm trying to hold neutral on this team in an injury to their anointed franchise player. We didn't get a good look at the concept here so I'm trying not to lose faith.

But I'm not happy about what will likely be Detroit's worst season since 1980.

The center re-draft experiment will be worth it only if one of those centers pops and becomes a piece for them. But right now it's pretty wretched watching the Bust Bros (Bagley and Wiseman) play big minutes over Jalen Duren, who is actually kind of... good at basketball. I bought into the Bagley trade a little bit because it was painfully clear that Cade needed a lob threat and the roster didn't have that (Beef Stew is as below the rim as it gets). Then they moved heaven and earth to acquire Jalen Duren and he's been a vastly superior lob threat. Wiseman is also a monstrous lob threat and is definitely worth a look... but losing Saddiq Bey - the only wing that was part of this young core - feels like an ouchie booboo. I'm aware of the contract talk but rough to lose a young 6'8" guy with a near 7 foot wingspan. He really wasn't getting better in Detroit but it still feels like there's a starting level player in there. Maybe people watching Saddiq Bey every game are happy he's gone? He's absolutely on fire over his first 10 games in Atlanta.

I think the elephant in the room is also Cade looking only so-so at the beginning of the season before he got hurt. We simply still don't know what Cade is. A tall very good passer who has struggled to shoot the ball in a small sample size of 76 games across 2 seasons. There's very little point in over-evaluating Cade right now, but that's a bit discouraging 2 seasons in. I still squint at tape and see a less athletic Grant Hill-Jayson Tatum hybrid.

Ivey put up counting stats and had some electrifying moments, but I think this was a bad rookie season. Tons of dumb mistakes, really putrid defense, good at putting pressure on a defense, but bad at figuring out what to do with that pressure. I think he's worth keeping an eye on but I don't think it's guaranteed that Ivey is going to be really good. I look forward to watching him next year (why am I always saying that about Detroit!)

Hayes has stabilized a bit and is now a jump shot away from being a really good NBA player. Beef Stew finally upped that 3-point volume but didn't burst out as a shooter. His defense also did not look great at times this year.

[NyKnicks1714]

I don't want to sound mean, but the Pistons might be the most depressing/hopeless franchise. Cade (when he gets healthy) and Ivey are promising enough, but most teams have a pair of players on that level or better. No offense to Detroit but it's one of the least desirable NBA destinations: medium-market, cold weather, poor reputation, no recent success to speak of. If there's any team that needs Wemby, it's Detroit.

[maverick_41]

I watch way too much Pistons basketball thanks to early Sunday games.
For the last few years the product on the court is totally unwatchable. Without Plumlee and Grant it fell well below lowest possible NBA level.

I had high hopes on Ivey. Let’s just wish he will thrive in better surroundings.

The league needs a strong Pistons team.