If major moves are over - Off-season grade?

[Laimbeer]

How would you grade our off-season, assuming there are no more major moves?

I'm at a C+, maybe a B-.

Passing over Burke could be a huge blunder. He has a chance to be a special player. For the third year in a row, a very highly rated player we had no reason to expect fell to us. This time we didn't pull the trigger. Pope just doesn't have the same upside. Looks like we made a "safer" choice.

We had a lot of available cap space and it looks like we weren't able to leverage it into assets from teams that needed it. That said, we did sign Josh Smith, the third or fourth best free agent out there. He's an imperfect player and an imperfect fit, but I've become convinced he's talented enough he can be a major asset to this team. I didn't think we could pull off signing of a player of this ability.

[Brapman]

Couldn't disagree more Mr. Laimbeer. I love the pick of a pure PG - and no doubt that KCP can and will be a big time shooter. The fact that he's long and very athletic and gets after it on D, and isn't a guy that hogs the ball - really that's perfect for us going forward. I think Mitchell was an inspired pick - the guy's going to be a monster in this league if he stays coachable. Smith himself was an "A" draft signing. As to Burke, I'm in the "he'll not be a good starting PG in this league" camp.

Finally, we are not done making offseason moves. There will be at least 1 and probably 2 more signings and possibly a significant trade before the season starts. Also, with Stuckey and CV being excellent assets as expiring contracts (and probably also being guys other teams would view as valuable role players, by the trade deadline this season they'll both likely be traded as well.

[aad]

I say a B for right now if we can get another vet shooter I will give it a A

[ComboGuardCity]

Burke's range was 6-14. He did not fall.

[DetroitDon15]

My grade so far is a B+.

Reason: Joe Dumars addressed two of our three biggest needs going into the offseason, Starting Small Forward and three point shooting. I think Joe did well to add Josh Smith. I do believe he can play the 3. Caldwell-Pope is a great addition to add size and shooting which we lacked. Joe has also done a good thing by letting our scrub Fas go. I still think we need to address the point guard spot. If Joe D can do that, I'll bump it to an A-.

[DBC10]

Burke's stock got inflated because the finals, even then, he was projected as a 10 to 16 at best.

KCP has shown to have near Elie athleticism and extremely active on D. Not to mention he was known for his sharpshooting. He's the best complete package as a SG in this draft in an era where SGs aren't really highlighted anymore.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[E-Z]

Coach hiring: D+

Mo Cheeks is a winning coach, however he prefers the same style of play that most Pistons' squads have used before him. It's a slow grind and I'm not sure if they have the personnel on board for this particular style of play. Players such as Bynum and Stuckey have suggested an increase to the tempo during Frank's tenure.

Will Bynum was the team's best P&R player last season, ranking top 30 in the league based on points per posession. Rodney Stuckey ranks second, Calderon third, and Brandon Knight is a very distant fourth place. None of the guards finish particularly well in traffic, and seemingly only Bynum was capable of finding a big to throw it up to.

Why play in half-court sets when the floor spacing is bad? This is further compounded by the lack of ball handlers with any decent amount of court awareness.

Draft picks: B-

Though BK sucks at mostly everything a point guard is supposed to do, passing Trey Burke was most likely the correct decision. Whatever Burke produces on the offensive end has fair chance of being washed on the other side of the floor. He's not Chris Paul on either side of the ball, where being undersized doesn't harm his game, as his IQ is higher than everyone not named LeBron James.

Caldwell-Pope addresses Detroit's gaping holes on two fronts. He's a shooter that has defensive potential due to his awareness and athleticism. Not to mention he's taller than every 2-guard Detroit has signed since Rip Hamilton.

Tony Mitchell is a solid pick. I really wanted a traditional small forward that has some range, but Mitchell appears to be pretty decent. He has the athleticism and potential to defend anyone, but the verdict is still out on his effort level.

Peyton Siva is someone I did not want to see on the team. Undersized and with a lack of shooting touch. However he has other point guard skills that everyone else on the team seems to lack. Odd pick, I really just wanted another shooter.

Free Agency: C

In a nutshell, Detroit's offense will be horrid. Their defense will be somewhere between good and incredible.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1262240

Here's my knee-jerk analysis.

I'm not sure how a horns set would work with Smith and Monroe up top. Where the hell would Drummond be? In the corner waiting for a screen to the basket, by Knight?

So, to sum this up, the Pistons' offense will largely be pinch post and horns. Both are sets Frank used during his tenure. It makes his firing look silly in retrospect. You can't blame the coach when:

There's no traditional point guard
There's a lack of outside shooting

Smith and Knight are shaky in transition, suck in the P&R...man, Detroit's options are LIMITED offensively.

I would love to see a traditional P&R offense, given all the athleticism... but it just won't happen with Knight.

Detroit will average 15-20 turnovers per game next season. I feel it.

I expect this squad to play some ugly basketball next season. A ton of shots around the basket, offensive rebounds and the like.

Defensively?

Smith and Drummond starting covers a lot of their weaknesses last season. They can switch/hedge P&R's, allowing Knight to have some backup in those situations. Smith shuts down isolation plays no matter who has the ball. I expect Detroit to win the board war on most nights compared to last season.

Games will be low scoring, first to 90 points win type of games.

Overall?

I'll give Joe a C-

Detroit looks to be almost a lock for the 8th seed, but that's all you can possibly hope for given the moves the team has made this off-season.

[SAKURABA216]

I hope we give Pope the greenlight to shoot like what the Wizards did with Beal last year. That kid shot the lights out when he was healthy

[joseph mamah]

GM decision- D, probably shouldn't have rolled with a lame duck GM during such a crucial off-season

Coach- E, not only did we humble ourselves as a franchise by bringing in a former rival to babysit, when it was all said and done we ended up with a laughingstock coach.

Draft- B - I think KCP was the right pick at 8. there was potential to trade back, but the value wasn't really there imo. cant hate the Mitchell pick even though its not the move I would have made, downgraded to a B because of the Siva pick.

FA- inc., mid-term grade- D, so far we sat and waited on a guy with questionable character, who is a questionable fit on the team. he did sign, so waiting wasn't a total waste, but now we're left scrambling to fill out our roster with most of the FA pool having been picked clean. im going to wait and see what Joe pulls out his a** before giving a final grade on it.

[bennett13]

Over all I with no other moves a C+ but they could be a deal away from an A+.

[ripchard32]

Coach- B
I think that Cheeks will be better than most people think. If he was able to coach Allen Iverson, then he can do it with our group.

Draft- C
Still think that skipping Burke is gonna come back and bite us on the ass but Pope was a nice safe pick, at least he can shoot. As for the other picks, they were all good but mitchell looks like a shorter david noel, and we all know how he fared in the NBA.

Free Agency- C
Josh Smith might or might not fit in with us only time will tell ,but honestly we could have gotten a better player maybe even Iggy.

Overall so far: C+
We still need a big move somewhere this offseason

[Kilo]

F

Dumars wasn't fired, Gores shows himself to be a boob. Should have traded down to #14 and #21 in the draft. Josh Smith in a vacuum is a good player, but jury is out if he can fit here. Given our leadership/basketball minds I would bet not.

[Natopher]

I'd give the off-season a B- or a B. I'd give it that because we needed talent and we acquired talent, but it doesn't really fit together right now. After we make some trades and get the players to fit better, that grade will go up. But right now I can't give it more than that.

[E-Z]

Don't get me wrong, I respect the effort being put forth by the front office.

They're busier than recent years which is something I like to see and hear about.

A for effort. Just in terms of how things have been put together? It's like Detroit is executing plan B and C more often than hitting plan A out of the park.

Detroit will make a splash into the playoffs and hopefully they'll have something to build on going forward. I'm just not so sure the ceiling is very high for this club.

[triplet1984]

B.

I grade the Detroit Pistons on exactly one metric:

How much better is our defense?

Yes, you experts here and go on and on about this or that, all I know is this franchise has won titles by doing something unorthodox when going against the Kobes and Magics and Birds and Jordans of the world: Epic defense.

I believe that if we can become a Top 3 Defense in the league, we will be successful.

[HotelVitale]

B.
Yes, you experts here and go on and on about this or that, all I know is this franchise has won titles by doing something unorthodox when going against the Kobes and Magics and Birds and Jordans of the world: Epic defense.
I believe that if we can become a Top 3 Defense in the league, we will be successful.

If you get a top 3 defense but had to close down all your chances at being an efficient offense to do so, you're not going to be a very good team. Given how bad the offense is shaping up, I can't see calling this offseason a success. It's not a failure since we got Smith without giving up anything--though we gave up a first round pick (in the BG deal) to get part of the cap space-- but that move doesn't make us too much better now and it doesn't set us up for big future success. Joe made the most obvious win-now move he could; it wasn't smart but it wasn't dumb. Now we wait and see if we get lucky some way or other and add some offensive talent that for our personnel.

[coordinator0]

Don't get me wrong, I respect the effort being put forth by the front office.

They're busier than recent years which is something I like to see and hear about.

A for effort. Just in terms of how things have been put together? It's like Detroit is executing plan B and C more often than hitting plan A out of the park.

Detroit will make a splash into the playoffs and hopefully they'll have something to build on going forward. I'm just not so sure the ceiling is very high for this club.

Well, maybe plan B and C from a fan's perspective. We have no idea what their priorities are.

[bballnmike]

Hire Rasheed Wallace as an assistant coach? A++

[StickAndMove]

I was disappointed we passed on Trey Burke in the draft (I wanted a pure PG; I could care less about getting the 'Michigan guy'), but if he wasn't available I wouldn't have any complaints about the KCP pick.

Draft: B

I hate the Josh Smith signing. He can't shoot, and I think he needs to play PF to be effective. He's only shot over 50% once in his career. Notably, this was also the only season he didn't take threes, other than his rookie year. He also showed a steep decline last year, as his PER and WS/48 dropped to the lowest they've been since he was 20, in 05-06. His FT% plummeted to 52%. He also decided to take threes at the highest rate of his career, which allowed him to, for the first time, post a negative offensive win shares total (-0.3, to be exact).

According to Synergy Sports, Smith was one of only 13 players who had more than 300 possessions as a spot-up shooter. Eight of those players averaged better than 1.0 points per possession in spot-up situations. Smith was the least effective of the five who didn't, at .788 points per possession.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2 ... ght-howard

What worries me most about Josh Smith is that he is a player who has not shown significant development throughout his career. He's always relied on his elite athleticism, and has been consistently inconsistent, with his shooting improving one year and declining the next.

Free Agency: D

As for Mo Cheeks as the coach, eh. It's an uninspired hiring, a safe decision. It's exactly the kind of hire I'd expect Joe to make if Phil Jackson had no input whatsoever.

Coach: C

Overall: D+

The Josh Smith signing kills me; I was sure we'd get a good deal on somebody with next year's loaded free agency class. While most teams directed their attention to the big names, I thought we'd be able to land someone who would draw a lot more interest if they were in a weaker free agent class. Someone who "slipped through the cracks", so to speak. I wanted nothing more than for the franchise to not lock itself into any long-term deals that would jeopardize that. Josh Smith is a huge improvement compared to the signings of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, but Dumars still overpaid for Smith, and it's still not a good deal, even though it may seem that way compared to the last time Joe D had cap space.

I also didn't want to see any win-now moves that take us out of the Andrew Wiggins sweepstakes. This team isn't ready to win now, so why are we paying big money for a guy in the middle of his prime? In the NBA, the team needs to suck until there is enough talent to truly contend. The only way for small market teams to get that talent is to let the team suck and load up on top prospects. Apparently Gores and/or Dumars think Knight/KCP/Moose/Drummond is enough; I disagree.

Lastly, I want to note that the unfortunate truth is that the Josh Smith signing likely had more to do with improving attendance than future championships. Personally, I can say I'm much less hopeful for the future of the franchise than I was a week ago.

[theBigLip]

F

Dumars wasn't fired, Gores shows himself to be a boob. Should have traded down to #14 and #21 in the draft. Josh Smith in a vacuum is a good player, but jury is out if he can fit here. Given our leadership/basketball minds I would bet not.

Trading down would have sucked. Who would we have gotten? Talent dropped off quickly.