Post Mortem #20 - Detroit Pistons

[cupcakesnake]

The Pistons have to be careful and keep building this team. This franchise badly needs a sustained run of success. Pistons fans deserve a quality era.

The team currently relies on a lot of vets (Tobi, Beasley, THJ, Shroder) that aren't part of the long term plan. The young core of Cade, Duren, Ausar, Ivey, Beef Stew, and Ron Holland is still unproven as a concept to me. Those guys getting good around Cade is ultimately more important than having the right vets. They still need to keep those vets in place, especially just for shooting since Duren/Ausar/Holland/Stew are all varying degrees of bad a shooting.

They should further explore the potential of their young guys, while continuing to maintain the vet support system as much as needed.

[EmpireFalls]

Huge kudos to them for the turnaround obviously. That said… there’s a lot of sneaky doubts on what this team does to take the next step.

This roster oddly may be subject to a lot of change next year. Beasley’s a UFA and Ivey’s returning, plus they have to get serious with the realities of a max Cade contract. Pick this year is worse than expected. I don’t see a great path to improving their team to the next level, aside from just young player development.

Cade is so good but still so maddening, I genuinely think he has MVP candidate upside but his touch and scoring just doesnt feel natural. He gets looks but it just doesn’t feel right. Ivey too is a weird one. One of Ausar or Holland popping would really help but neither can shoot worth a lick.

I am bullish on them but confused what they should do.

[facothomas22]

The Pistons have greatly overachieved compared to expectations and even give the Knicks a legit fight in the playoffs. Disappointing with how it ended, but I feel the Pistons are in good shape going forward. There's many ways the Pistons can go with this. They trade some of young talent and draft picks to get star to pair with Cade Cunningham. They could lean strongly towards internal growth like the Cavaliers did and continue to heavily invest in the development of guys like Jalen Duren, Asur Thompson and Ron Hollard. They could do go in between where they don't trade for a star, but use Jaden Ivery and or picks to bring in someone like Cam Johnson. Plenty of options.

[tmorgan]

My guesses —
We bring back Schroder and Beasley, but not Hardaway. Ivey and Holland need his minutes.
We trade Sasser somewhere he can play. He’s not a starting guard (too small, not a good passer), but he deserves minutes. Small positive return.
We trade Fontecchio. He looked good when we sucked, but not this year. No playoff minutes. Small negative return.

That opens up three roster spots. One goes to the TOR 2nd guy if he’s ready to sit the bench on the big club. The other two need to include a playable big, a PF, that can shoot. Likely a bench guy behind Tobias for another year, so needs to be developmental and ok with limited minutes. Could be Klintman, but I doubt it.

Consider an extension for Ivey and/or Duren, but it needs to be team-friendly or they can just play out their fourth years.

That’s the conservative route, which seems more likely based on what we’ve seen from POBO Langdon so far.

The less conservative route is going out and trying to trade for a #2 scorer. One of Ivey/Holland/Ausar can be dealt, and that’s my order of preference. We have all our future firsts after this draft but no extras. The really obvious target is Markkanen, but the price may be too high. Durant is too old, our contention window isn’t open yet, and I don’t think he gets us there.

Obviously keep JBB and Langdon, good work this year.

[sp6r=underrated]

Pistons had a good year but they need a coach who has experience coaching teams deep into the playoffs:

Spoiler:

[SportsGuru08]

Put simply, the team is just too young. But they're improving.

[Capn'O]

We bring back Schroder and Beasley, but not Hardaway.

Man, I'd go the other way with Hardaway/Beasley. Beasley has more talent but you need good heads around Ivey and Cade and Hardaway is a consummate pro. Beasley... he was talking reckless and playing reckless this series and you don't need that when you're trying to build something real.

I like the idea of you going for Lauri and the calculus changes if that's in play. Beware of Ainge though.

[tmorgan]

We bring back Schroder and Beasley, but not Hardaway.

Man, I'd go the other way with Hardaway/Beasley. Beasley has more talent but you need good heads around Ivey and Cade and Hardaway is a consummate pro. Beasley... he was talking reckless and playing reckless this series and you don't need that when you're trying to build something real.

I like the idea of you going for Lauri and the calculus changes if that's in play. Beware of Ainge though.

Pretty sure you have no idea what Beasley meant to Detroit this year. Good vibes, relaxed approach, really fit in perfectly.

Anyone that wants to erase all that because of a mostly bad series (which Hardaway also had) is myopic.

Yea, you need stable vet leadership. Tobias and Hardaway were that. But you also need guys to cut off the pressure and make it enjoyable. And you don’t need “good heads around Cade”. Cade IS the good head.

I’m 95% sure Beasley will be back.

[Mavrelous]

I'd keep Schroeder if he doesn't get too greedy, and keep a shooter, Beasly, THJ or a new one...

[yellowknifer]

A rising team but I don’t like duren for their team. They need a true rim protector, anchor and defender. He’s young but the instincts aren’t there (yet); Isiah Stewart’s too small and better suited as a backup. Also, I think if Ivey were healthy, then they’d play a game 7 in New York. Lastly, they need a backup and future starting power forward desperately; however, Tobias Harris played very well defensively on KAT compared to everyone else. Finally, if Ausur can improve his free throw shooting and mid-range, then he raises the ceiling of their team.

Duren would be an elite backup. They need another reliable scoring wing, beyond Ivey assuming he comes back healthy. Ausar hopefully can take a big step next year. Cade is a beast and Dennis Schroeder just balls. They gotta bring back Dennis and I hope Dennis doesn’t get greedy.

[cgf]

I’d be patient if the right move isn’t there. Getting Ivey & Stew healthy could get them to round two next season even without a major pick up.

[Astaluego]

The most obvious problem I see is that their young core doesn't quite fit together. ...Cade and the team in general are starting to improve with Ivey's injury... coincidence or causality? Holland and Thompson can't play together (it gets worse with Duren at 5). I think they'd have to make a move this summer. They'll still have financial flexibility once their prospects' extensions start coming in. If they retain their veterans, impressed by their exceeding expectations, they'll be stuck. Would I let THJ go, pay a couple of SRP to send Fontecchio to the Nets and sign someone like Aldama? There's a trade I like for them with the KINGS that I know will be widely rejected because the board hates Zach, but I think he'd be an incredible fit alongside Cade/Ausar... and he only has 2 years left on his contract...
Harris/Fontecchio/Ivey for Lavine/Murray

Cade/Lavine/Thompson/Murray/Duren
Schroeder/*Beasley/Holland/Klitman/Stewart

[pepe1991]

Probably should seek to trade parts of youth core with other teams and their youth core for better fitting team.

Holland, Duren, Thompson, that's simply not modern basketball right there.

Also it's questionable can Ivey be more of positive contributor.

Would Ivey for Jabari Smith help both teams? Probably?!

[FarBeyondDriven]

Keep FO and Keep coaches as both have done enough to get more time. As expected because I saw a change in Cade's mentality preseason and his maturity combined with FA additions meant they were likely to be a playoff team in a weak Eastern Conference. Rising team because there's enough talent and picks to tinker with. The only blemish I think was drafting Holland who is blocked by Ausar and is essentially the same player with same weaknesses. He might have been the most talented player on their board but he (and Ausar) are terrible fits next to Cade. Hopefully one of them is moved for a shooter or big.

[Message Boar]

Well, this one is hilariously easy compared to the Lakers one.

[Sixers in 4]

Detroit got robbed of an opportunity to win this series by the officiating, but then again, if you live in Detroit, you are probably used to getting robbed by now.

This series was a tough watch some of the Brunson flops would make Embiid blush. To me it's more surprising NYK felt they needed to win this way because to me they along with the Celtics were 1 and 2 talent wise at the start of the year. To me this series is less about Detroit and more about the east it looks like the Cavs and Celtics are on another level than the Knicks right now

[pipfan]

I like the idea of KD
Harris/Holland/2026 #1
Suns save money and get a placeholder in Harris, plus a good young prospect and a pick

Det goes with
Cade/Ivey
Beasley/Ivey
Thompson
KD/Stewart
Duran/Stewart

Bring back Schroder, Simone, Reed, Sasser for deep bench and sign another wing

[Johnny Tomala]

Keep, keep, better, improving.

[Godymas]

Ofc everything about this team is the upswing, but one comment.

Bickerstaff did something similar in Cleveland, he had them playing the right way and getting buy in from the guys in the locker room. However, last year in Cleveland Bickerstaff had a hard time figuring out rotations and lineups and the team was mediocre and looking like a treadmill. They replace him with Atkinson and the change is massive.

Now, maybe Bickerstaff improves, but imo even in this series you could see the coaching issues lowkey pop up where the decision making from Bickerstaff wasn’t up to par or the Pistons seemed to look lost from their young talent.

I say this because, Bickerstaff has yet to prove he can be the coach to make a team a contender. He has no issue in the playoffs, and the expectation was lower in Detroit, but eventually Detroit will look to contend from day 1 and Bickerstaff could be a problem, similar to Cleveland.

[Mr Peanut]

If you'd told anyone a year ago that the 14 win Pistons would made the playoffs next season and push the Brunson/KAT/Bridges/Anunoby-led Knicks to six games in a hard fought series no one would have believed you, so this season was a success by any metric.

With internal development and health alone this team can take a big step next year. Cade, Ausar, Duren, Ivey and Holland will all be a year older/more experienced/battle tested from their first taste of the playoffs.

I'd like to keep Beasley (despite his playoff struggles his regular season play/shooting off the bench was a big reason we even made the playoffs in the first place) and Schroder. THJ can move on. And I love Tobias, but If the right trade came along for an upgrade at PF we should consider it.

Bright days ahead.