Snakebites wrote:Doing nothing is a risk too. How much deeper does our hole get if Ivey/Duren both hit their floors as players?
It doesn't get deeper. If that happens, then then you rebuild the rebuild. The alternative is almost certain long-term mediocrity
at best. It sucks, but it's what it is.
We’ve got ill fitting pieces, most of which have a very good chance of amounting to little to nothing.
At least here we’d be taking a chance on pieces that fit.
It's sort of a moot point, because the very same qualities that make Duren and Ivey expendable (that they're raw and uncertain as prospects) depress their value on the trade market. The Pistons are unlikely to see a return that would justify punting on their potential.
We aren’t in a good position. We won 14 games in year 4 of a rebuild. Even if Cade pans out on his max contract we’re currently on a trajectory that leads to him asking out.
I still don't understand the "this is a 14 win roster" mentality. This was a poorly-built roster that was slashed to pieces by the most egregiously destructive coaching the NBA has seen in a very long time. Monty Williams was an absolute wrecking ball to the performance of a roster that would have almost undoubtedly failed at the goal of competing for the play-in but could have won 25-30 games under a good coach and would have come nowhere near the depths it achieved -- depths that have almost exclusively been the realm of rosters that were built to lose. This one was inadequate, not terrible. Its coach took that inadequate roster and made it terrible. Casey was himself a bad on-court coach, but he won more games the season before with a very substantially worse roster and managed to keep the players engaged throughout (Monty lost his after five games).
Replace the NBA coaching equivalent of the grim reaper with a capable leader and add some veteran help, and I think you'll see the Pistons be a decent team next season. A play-in team? Doubtful, unless the roster sees significant development from the youth -- and there's the catch in trading them away. A desirable long-term ceiling depends upon development.
And if the Pistons pivot to long-term mediocrity instead, you're very likely looking at Cade asking out down the line if he becomes the player we hope he will.