Post Mortem #20 - Detroit Pistons

[Sealab2024]

Great season for the Pistons. Cade showed out on the playoffs which means you have your star to build around for sure. Now it's all ancillary pieces that fit him. Shooters and defense is where this team should be headed.

Congrats pistons fans. You're on the right path.

[Moses ShamMoses]

Cade put up some stats but he wasn't great in the big moments offensively (he had some great defensive plays). I'm most excited for Ausar as I think he really showed his growth throughout the series. If he can develop his offensive game a little bit, and become just a decent shooter / scorer, he'll be a star.

[hauntedcomputer]

Well, Cade still isn't a #1. You don't pass to "Trent Jr" Beasley with the game on the line. Look what Brunson did-- he took over. That's what a #1 does.

Can he be a #1? He never really took over at any point to dictate the game. The biggest mistake teams can make is thinking the wrong guy is a #1 (an understandable mistake, since there are probably fewer than 10 at any given time). But it's worth trying for a few more years.

Harris is serviceable for another year and held up against KAT. THJ can go, there's zero point if you keep Beasley. Ausar great, but now you have to compensate with guys who can really shoot, not just volume gunners. As much as I like Holland's game, he's a bad fit here. I like Ivey a lot, the game is starting to slow down for him. You need to keep Schroeder or an equivalent veteran point guard. Duren is a maybe at this point, his physical gifts aren't necessarily translating to production. Stew is fine.

As an agnostic viewer (don't root for any team), Detroit was one of my favorite watches this year. I actually think the Pistons are in better shape than the Orlando Magic, who will have $110 million tied up in three players who can't shoot. I don't think they should go all-in for a rental star, they still have a couple of years of assessment and development, but I like the philosophy and emerging talent. You've come a long way since the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons.

[kenwood3333]

This team wasn't even supposed to make the PO and they held their own against a veteran team. They have one of the most promising future. They just need to bring in some vets to fill their holes and keep developing their young players.

[God Squad]

They get all positives from me. They played great, and they didn't even have Ivey due to injury.

[slicedbread2]

Man that was insane. I didn't see the Pistons improving that much. 30 win improvement is phenomenal and it's nice to see the fan base in Detroit having a basketball team worth watching. League is better for it.

With that said, they got some interesting decisions to make and are at a crossroads with issues to address:

-Bringing back some vets. Beasley played very well, although he really struggled in the playoffs asides from game 6 minus the last second gaffe. He can sign for the full MLE as they have non-bird rights. I'd try to negotiate down and convince him to sign a lesser deal for a little less if possible given how streaky he is from the 3pt line. Schroeder is a nice backup and you got to set a good price that won't hurt you in the long run. THJ can go as he's been brutally inconsistent.
-Ivey's extension. He's due for a new contract after next season and it's pretty interesting that they made the playoffs and made it a series w/o him. With that said the cap sheet is gonna get tight.
-The Thompson/Holland dilemma. Honestly love that Thompson showed out in this series. Yes he's got a lot to learn, but I think he'll be fine if he just develops a reliable 15ft jumper and hopefully a 3pt shot that's at least league average. Doing so would open up his game a lot more. Holland plays the same spot and they may be wise to consider using him as a trade chip to help upgrade shooting for their core. A few good trades have already been suggested.
-The 4 spot. Honestly like Tobias Harris and think he did well this year, but if they can get a long-term solution at the 4, upgrade. Durant is too old and doesn't fit with the timeline and idealistically they could use someone like a Lauri Markannen although Ainge is very stingy when it comes to trades. I'd personally go for it although it'd be something like this:

Detroit: Markannen, Colin Sexton
Utah: Harris, Fontecchio, Holland, multiple 1sts+swaps

Detroit gets their long-term starting 4 to go with their core while getting a great 6th man/spot starter in Sexton(though he'll need a new deal)
Utah cashes in on Markannen and Sexton while getting a good young prospect to develop with their young guys and getting a king's haul of picks. Sure the picks from Cleveland and Minnesota won't mean much, but if history has said anything, it could look promising for the Pistons as the Cavs and Wolves are now big time contenders after getting Mitchell and Gobert.

If this season could be described with a picture/pictures, the restoration of the Michigan Central station in Detroit says it best:

[Jadoogar]

Absolutely fantastic season and really good playoff experience for the team. They were competitive in every game and a couple of calls go their way, they could have won. Even this last game, the final play was perfectly drawn up and should have resulted in an open shot for Beasley to tie.

I believe the next season after a surprise turnaround is the most important. The team will now have expectations and opponents will be better prepared. Will they handle it like the "light the beam" Kings or is this the start of a real turnaround? They need to get a secondary playmaker (maybe that's Ivey) and some more shot creation from other positions, too much on Cade's shoulders right now (again, maybe that's Ivey).

[Jadoogar]

Well, Cade still isn't a #1. You don't pass to "Trent Jr" Beasley with the game on the line. Look what Brunson did-- he took over. That's what a #1 does.

i absolutely hate this line of thinking. People used to complain about lebron making passes at the end of the game too. Cade passing to a wide open Beasley was absolutely the right decision on that play. I would much rather a guy make the right basketball play than go iso just to prove he's a "#1".

[hauntedcomputer]

Well, Cade still isn't a #1. You don't pass to "Trent Jr" Beasley with the game on the line. Look what Brunson did-- he took over. That's what a #1 does.

i absolutely hate this line of thinking. People used to complain about lebron making passes at the end of the game too. Cade passing to a wide open Beasley was absolutely the right decision on that play. I would much rather a guy make the right basketball play than go iso just to prove he's a "#1".

Results matter.

[Chuck Everett]

Markkanen makes too much money now and is overrated as ****. 44+ million to him and we still don't even know what he can do when the games matter. All making huge trades for guys like him is going to do is ruin their future.

Trust in Langdon to make smart decisions and be a little more calculating than to make some splashy bad deal that ruins everything before it gets started. They are not two moves from title contention.

Keep grinding.

[Jadoogar]

Well, Cade still isn't a #1. You don't pass to "Trent Jr" Beasley with the game on the line. Look what Brunson did-- he took over. That's what a #1 does.

i absolutely hate this line of thinking. People used to complain about lebron making passes at the end of the game too. Cade passing to a wide open Beasley was absolutely the right decision on that play. I would much rather a guy make the right basketball play than go iso just to prove he's a "#1".

Results matter.

So you would have preferred he take a step back three over 2 guys? The result would have likely been the same.
The result is out of your control, you can only control the process. Process and decision making matters more to me in player evaluation than whether someone made a shot. Right the story when the ball is in the air, as they say.

[Los_29]

They exceeded expectations. What I’m worried about is their upside. Ausar is going to be a great role player, Cade is a great talent but perhaps not good enough to be a #1 on a championship caliber team. Duren is a nice piece. Other than that I see a team being propped up by veteran players.

[Sealab2024]

I'm gonna be really interested to see how this team goes forward. Cade looked like he wasn't overwhelmed and kind of got it but he lacks go to moves. However they didn't have Jaden Ivey who's entire game is based on scoring so there's a chance that becomes a nice tandem match. There's also the fact that Cade is young and this was his first playoff experience which is always eye opening for a young star. "Oh this is why you need go to moves, this is why you study film all year long, this is why you develop multiple sets throughout the year, this is why you drill the small stuff till it becomes second nature".

It'll be interesting to see what Cade does in the off season and how Ivey fits next year.

[NoStatsGuy]

i want ausar thompson on my team

[Kalamazoo317]

Well, Cade still isn't a #1. You don't pass to "Trent Jr" Beasley with the game on the line. Look what Brunson did-- he took over. That's what a #1 does.

i absolutely hate this line of thinking. People used to complain about lebron making passes at the end of the game too. Cade passing to a wide open Beasley was absolutely the right decision on that play. I would much rather a guy make the right basketball play than go iso just to prove he's a "#1".

Just like Jordan passing to an open Kerr was the right move there. Saying someone "isn't a #1" because they pass to open shooters instead of forcing their own shot is just silly.

[itrsteve]

But in the end, we are too young to win anything yet. We're too inexperienced, and it showed.

I'm part of the group that fell in love with this unit as a viewer glued to the notorious losing streak last year. I was very adamant as it was happening that if they could mentally push through that then there would be huge dividends going forward and we're seeing the very start of the payoff now.

Up and down the bench, the individual growth and experience of going to the depths of a historic losing streak to battling in the bright lights of MSG in a little over a year is an incredible growth journey for these players

The heart, buy-in and effort exists in orders of multitude for this group. Skills will develop naturally, but now they have a taste for blood and will be the hungriest team to return next year IMO. It's huge that they now have confirmation that they belong and Iook forward to seeing what they do with it.

[cgf]

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

A Philadelphia fan would be an expert on what that's like

[tsherkin]

Team looks good. Rising squad.

The problem they had is the one I've been noting about Cade for a while (his scoring is a bit of an issue), but it almost didn't matter due to other improvements in him and in the rest of the squad, which was cool to see.

They won 17, then 14 games in the past two seasons. Then they won 44 this year and took the Knicks to 6. Huge improvements on either end. +1.9 NetRTG team. Just a massive turnaround, which was quite impressive.

Cade had a rough shooting/scoring series. It wasn't good. Brunson also didn't stun, but he was better overall and the Pistons are actually good on D. The Knicks are not a lauded defensive squad. I think Detroit had to be pretty impressed with how much BREADTH of offense they got from their guys, though.

6 guys averaging 11+ besides Cade? 4 of them posting 59.6%+ TS? Team struggled from 3 other than Schroeder and Harris, and that hurt, but I mean, they looked good overall.

Looking forward to seeing them again next season, honestly. And especially to see how Cade bounces back after his first postseason. It shouldn't be ignored that this was his first time in a playoff series, and trying to handle that micro-level scouting adjustment game to game instead of the usual RS level of attention. It isn't the same thing, no doubt. He got cold from 3, which was a little rough, so we'll see if he brings anything new next year.

Definitely a fun series to watch.

[cgf]

They exceeded expectations. What I’m worried about is their upside. Ausar is going to be a great role player, Cade is a great talent but perhaps not good enough to be a #1 on a championship caliber team. Duren is a nice piece. Other than that I see a team being propped up by veteran players.

Cade needs to clean up the turnovers and shoot better, but with his intelligence and the way he can control pace, he'll get there sooner or later. Dude reminds me so much of a bigger brunson with the way he always moves at his own speed and controls things. The Schröder pickup compensated a lot, but losing Ivey was really big for them. How their shooting develops will determine their ceilings, but I like the rest of Thompson & Holland's games.

Is there a world where Cade never figures out how to score super efficiently without turning over the ball, where Ivey maxes out as a 6th man who needs to dominate the ball to be effective, where Ausar & Holland never learn to shoot, Duren never learns to defend, and their FO makes all of the wrong moves?

Sure, but there is also a universe where those kids do learn to shoot well enough to be capable 3rd options that can platoon in that role the way OG & Mikal do for us, Duren learns to be a force on both ends who can be the third option on some nights as well, and a Cade-Ivey 1-2 punch proves to be championship caliber before the end of the decade.

Just going by my gut and assuming nothing crazy...like Thompson turning into Kawhi as a shooter...I'm an optimist on this group in the long run, they have an identity and a leader, the rest will fall into place sooner or later. Even if they drop into the play-in next year because Orlando is more aggressive this offseason after their 2nd straight postseason appearance, and the 6ers have a much less disastrous year, or Miami pulls another #1 option out of its ass for the nifty supporting cast they have waiting, or Risacher is the next big Atlanta wing to take a massive leap next season, like JJ did last year and DD has this year.

[NoStatsGuy]

people need to chill with their cricism on cade and dont act like OG and Mikal are some scrubs. this was probably the best strecht of defense, that he had to overcome. like in his whole career. and he barely had help.

dude is 23 and legit