babyjax13 wrote:It's interesting to see the same people saying that Detroit needs veterans to stabilize its young rotation complain about giving up a second in what looks like a bad draft for a two-way small forward. Simone can start, or he can be excellent off the bench, he's a good player worth that pick in isolation. Should Detroit be going this direction? I don't think so, they should be selling off the veterans they have for assets.
Detroit needs to become competitive. By looking at a spreadsheet one may very well come to the conclusion ‘Detroit is bad, bad teams are supposed to collect assets, hence trading and not adding veteran rotation players is in order’ – but I don't think this line of thinking applies to the Pistons at this point in time.
The Pistons have been rebuilding since 2019 and they still suck, even progressively so. They have won 20 games on average over the past four seasons and this year that number is likely to go further down. They need a competitive product on the court for so many reasons. Fan interest, revenue, player development – none of that will work without assembling a competitive team at some point.
What's the early SRP to them? They are going to add another top 5 pick to a team that already has Ivey, Sasser, Ausar and Duren on their Rookie deals as key parts of their rotation, plus Cade and Stewart who will be in their first year after their Rookie contracts and play extensive minutes. An early SRP doesn't help them from a team-building perspective. What they need are players that add to the young core and help them play competitive basketball.
Fontecchio has the potential to do just that. I'm particular befuddled by those Pistons fans who constantly complain about how much the team sucks or how the roster that was built does not help the young players to perform well and develop, and at the same time seem unwilling to even spend a SRP to try to upgrade the roster and fill it with players that can help the young players without impeding their development. It doesn't make sense to me.
It seems to me that the GM – admittedly through a lot of fault of his own – is currently in a no-win situation with fans (and observers) short of pulling off some miracle trade. I, for one, however welcome any reasonable effort to improve the team over the next couple seasons. Detroit blindly collecting or protecting every asset is not the path for success if you ask me, but I understand that this line of thinking has become somewhat dogmatic among fans and observers of bad teams.
