#69 - Pistons@Pelicans - 8pm ET

[Collymore]

Fontie is a beast in disguise.

[bstein14]

Nice victory over a cupcake team.
Maybe we're so good that most teams seem like cupcakes? Hmmm

I've said it a few times, other than Washington there's been a long time since we lost to a team we had no business losing to. They pretty much win every game they're supposed to.

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And we also lose the vast majority of games we’re supposed to as well.

We’re currently VERY firmly entrenched in B-level basketball, which is obviously an absolutely huge improvement over the last few years. Teams that reach this level slowly, with established veterans and a payroll above the tax line, are known as treadmill teams — no good draft picks, not a real threat.

So now it’s up to Langdon, Bickerstaff and the players to keep improving next year as our payroll continues to rise. We aren’t a treadmill team because we’re mostly young, have a lot of guys still improving, and still have payroll flexibility. But this next step is just as hard, if not harder, than the first one that we took in a single season.

Gonna be fun to watch.

Yes, we outplay most teams each night the past few months.... but we're clearly a step below the best of the best like OKC, Denver, Cleveland and Boston. We have less talent than many of the next tier of teams as well but we're close to them since we play harder and play together.


We're a mid tier talent wise team that's playing like a tier 2 team with our heart/hustle/energy but we don't have enough talent/experience to make it to the Conference Finals IMO..... its likely a first round win at least less than a 1-2% chance of getting past the 2nd round.

Make the playoffs = 100% chance
Win in Round one 45% chance
Win in Round Two 1-2% chance
Make it to the Finals 1 in 1,000 or a .1% chance.

[tmorgan]

I think 45% is hella optimistic, even against the Knicks, who I expect to be a medical disaster come playoff time.

Doesn’t mean I won’t be watching, tho.

[JNewton]

Winning a singular playoff GAME for the first time since George W. Bush was still in the White House would be a wildly successful season IMO.

[bstein14]

Pistons game against Miami on Wednesday night is on ESPN. Going to be a chance to show casual fans what the Pistons are all about.

[DetroitSho]

Pistons game against Miami on Wednesday night is on ESPN. Going to be a chance to show casual fans what the Pistons are all about.

Until Tyler Herro scores 30 in the last 6 minutes of the 4th.

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[Invictus88]

Pistons game against Miami on Wednesday night is on ESPN. Going to be a chance to show casual fans what the Pistons are all about.

Until Tyler Herro scores 30 in the last 6 minutes of the 4th.

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He literally can't miss against us late in games.

[Cowology]

Pistons game against Miami on Wednesday night is on ESPN. Going to be a chance to show casual fans what the Pistons are all about.

Until Tyler Herro scores 30 in the last 6 minutes of the 4th.

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He literally can't miss against us late in games.

While that may be true... we don't need to be putting that kinda juju out there before a game. I treat it the same way I treat all my problems; ignore it and hope it goes away.

[Spider156]

Pistons game against Miami on Wednesday night is on ESPN. Going to be a chance to show casual fans what the Pistons are all about.

Until Tyler Herro scores 30 in the last 6 minutes of the 4th.

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Was Ausar guarding him that time?

[jars]

What tf was their identity before the Gobert trade? They were a play-in team before the trade and literally made the WCF last year. Ownership financial issues and that whole mess with the sale forced KAT out, not Gobert's contract.

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They were an up and coming, balanced team. They had better spacing, but worse defense. Gobert made them objectively better, but also capped them due to his deficiencies.

It wasn't purely owner finances that led to the KAT trade. A huge part of it was to do with this second apron. Gobert's contract on the books meant that they needed to move one of Gobert, Ant or KAT to be able to afford the rest of their roster.

Except they gave Gobert a 3 year extension. They literally could've just not done THAT. It's not like they saved a ton of money this year in that trade, which means their apron issues were really in the future. Ask yourself why they chose to extend the older, "limited" player and instead traded their 2nd best player who was younger.

And at this present time the Pistons are young and balanced. But in no way are you going to keep bringing back the same roster every year. At some point, you consolidate your pieces into a high end asset that's going to push you to the next level. That literally happened for them just last year. Them following that up by trading KAT is beyond stupid.

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I think we are making the same kind of point. Minny decided to cash in their assets and bring in Gobert. This handcuffed their future (and current) flexibility. Ultimately they decided Goibert was a better player to build their team around than KAT which led to the trade, but some of this was surely saving face. Whilst cashing in to get a proven 'star' is great, I think the Gobert trade and the subsequent KAT trade might be some of the worst trades of all time.

[DetroitSho]

Pistons game against Miami on Wednesday night is on ESPN. Going to be a chance to show casual fans what the Pistons are all about.

Until Tyler Herro scores 30 in the last 6 minutes of the 4th.

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Was Ausar guarding him that time?

I mean, I'm not exactly from the future or anything.

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[DetroitSho]

Until Tyler Herro scores 30 in the last 6 minutes of the 4th.

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He literally can't miss against us late in games.

While that may be true... we don't need to be putting that kinda juju out there before a game. I treat it the same way I treat all my problems; ignore it and hope it goes away.

Yeah, so nothing we post here has any bearing on what happens on the court.

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[NYPiston]

I've said it a few times, other than Washington there's been a long time since we lost to a team we had no business losing to. They pretty much win every game they're supposed to.

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Not only win but the Pistons crush these teams or at least win comfortably outside of the one Wizards blip

Pelicans - won by 46
Wizards - 20
Blazers - 7
Jazz - 28
Nets - 21
Spurs - 15
Bulls - 18
Bulls - 40
Hornets - 10
Sixers with Embiid and George - 13
Mavs - 15

etc.

Pretty amazing

The one issue is 0-4 against the last 4 playoff teams they played although all outside of Denver came down to the wire. It's been a pretty surreal season all in all.