it's time. tanking season is upon us...

jakebernat · Post #1 » by **jakebernat** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:53 am

for better or for worse, this talented, albeit flawed lineup as it's currently constructed simply isn't working. however, it's common belief that trading either monroe or smith for a perimeter player would greatly improve the team on both ends.

that presents us with a bit of a dilemma. it's common knowledge these days that the bobcats own our top-8 protected pick in 2014. we currently sit with the 10th worst record in the league with a few teams nipping at our heals who, in my opinion, should perform much better in the second half (cleveland, new york, boston, sacramento).

now, if we were to move just one of either smith/monroe, we more than likely improve record-wise, lose out on our pick, and get bounced in the 1st round.

what about moving both in an effort to join tankapalooza 2014? granted, smith's value at SF is piss poor, i fully believe teams see him as a PF being masqueraded as a SF. one team that could be interested in smith would be the surging suns who're open to moving some of their draft picks for proven stars. with okafor's deal expiring and a hole at PF, it really does seem like a tailored-fit for smoove who would fit right in with their up-tempo style of play. throw in washington's 2014 protected 1st rounder, and things suddenly make sense for both sides.

now, moving monroe's a little more complicated. personally, one player who i've been high on for some time due to his blend of defense and athleticism is moe harkless. though his perimeter shot is still shaky at the moment, it is rapidly improving. he'd team with KCP to form a dogged defensive duo (alliteration much??) on the perimeter. remember though, the idea here is to get worse in the present and stockpile draft picks to get better in the future. i'd jump on this deal: monroe and singler for harkless, maxiell, and a future 1st.

i'm aware that's probably selling monroe short a bit, but it's unlikely that we'd receive full value for him. that's just the nature of the business.

a lineup of jennings, KCP, harkless, ???, and drummond is young, but FULL of potential. throw in the fact that we'd hopefully have a lotto pick in next year's draft, and the future is beaming. if we were able to draft marcus smart and fully commit to a defensive identity, i'd be absolutely thrilled and be willing to deal with one last season of mediocrity and misdirection...

DBC10 · Post #2 » by **DBC10** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:56 am

Tanking is likely not going to fully happen with Dumars running the show, even though it's looking like the more wiser decision at this point in time. If however, Dumars was somehow fired and Gores brings in a new GM, then yes, a lot of the options somehow become much more open to us.

DCintheD · Post #3 » by **DCintheD** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:09 am

so effing sad that for the 5th year in a row, we gotta cheer for us to lose...

I seriously hate hoping we lose only to win meaningless games at the end of the season. If we wanna do this right then a tank trade needs to be made.

kurtis48239 · Post #4 » by **kurtis48239** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:16 am

At first I thought we would make a trade to balance this team out more,but as time passes by iam getting the impression that dumars is going to stand pat and we tank this season.Or go on a ridiculos run and lose our pick.

Post #5 » by **theBigLip** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:31 am

Yes, time to tank.

Dumars is not the one to lead the tank since he still thinks he did a good job this summer getting Cheeks, Jennings and Smith. (Jennings was an okay move - BK was not taking us anywhere)

So Gores needs to pull the plug on Dumars first, let then new GM decide what to tell Cheeks to do the rest of the year or just can him. Most importantly, the new GM needs to run the team BEFORE the trade deadline.

Phobo_Phile · Post #6 » by **Phobo_Phile** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:36 am

Serious (potentially stupid) question though, when's the last time an executive has been fired mid-season?

DetroitDon15 · Post #7 » by **DetroitDon15** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 4:18 am

I agree its time to tank. Id move forward with Drummond and Jennings while bringing back Singler, KCP, Siva, Mitchell for bench roles and deal the rest. Id deal Jennings too but we can't get better . Id keep him.

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Phenomenonsense · Post #8 » by **Phenomenonsense** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:11 am

DetroitDon15 wrote:I agree its time to tank. Id move forward with Drummond and Jennings while bringing back Singler, KCP, Siva, Mitchell for bench roles and deal the rest. Id deal Jennings too but we can't get better . Id keep him.

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"I'd move forward with Jennings." **** stupid.

paQo the BAWSER · Post #9 » by **paQo the BAWSER** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:44 am

theBigLip wrote: (Jennings was an okay move - BK was not taking us anywhere)

Jennings is going to take us to somewhere? When the Pistons sign Jennings in summer all my friends told me "With Jennings as PG you're going nowhere". I didn't see him play too much... Now I understand what are they telling to me...

Maker_84 · Post #10 » by **Maker_84** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:59 pm

DCintheD wrote:so effing sad that for the 5th year in a row, we gotta cheer for us to lose...

I seriously hate hoping we lose only to win meaningless games at the end of the season. If we wanna do this right then a tank trade needs to be made.

agreed i think i was onboard with losing this season before any1 else was. I saw how horrible they were in just week 2

Post #11 » by **theBigLip** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:02 pm

paQo the BAWSER wrote:
theBigLip wrote: (Jennings was an okay move - BK was not taking us anywhere)

Jennings is going to take us to somewhere? When the Pistons sign Jennings in summer all my friends told me "With Jennings as PG you're going nowhere". I didn't see him play too much... Now I understand what are they telling to me...

I'd still say Jennings > BK. Will Jennings lead us to a championship? Probably not, but a step in the right direction. With Chauncey on the team and Cheeks as the coach, you'd think he'd be playing smarter by now. But like many things this year, they haven't quite turned out so well :-)

paQo the BAWSER · Post #12 » by **paQo the BAWSER** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:16 pm

Knight ethic work and hustle are over all Jennings' highlights, he he's got less talent, of course, but Lebron James is by far better player than Carmelo, don't forget it.

Natopher · Post #13 » by **Natopher** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:19 pm

theBigLip wrote:
paQo the BAWSER wrote:
theBigLip wrote: (Jennings was an okay move - BK was not taking us anywhere)

Jennings is going to take us to somewhere? When the Pistons sign Jennings in summer all my friends told me "With Jennings as PG you're going nowhere". I didn't see him play too much... Now I understand what are they telling to me...

I'd still say Jennings > BK. Will Jennings lead us to a championship? Probably not, but a step in the right direction. With Chauncey on the team and Cheeks as the coach, you'd think he'd be playing smarter by now. But like many things this year, they haven't quite turned out so well

While I agree that Jennings is the better player than Knight, in hindsight that trade has to be considered a failure. We have the same record as we did last year at this time (+ or - 1 loss). If all we'd given up was Knight then I probably wouldn't care, but I truly believe Middleton can be a quality starting SF in this league. So if we aren't winning this year (which we haven't been and it doesn't appear as though we will be), that trade hurts.

BadMofoPimp · Post #14 » by **BadMofoPimp** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:22 pm

No matter what, the pistons are not going to be worse than those other tanking teams out there. Tanking at this point is just giving Charlotte a better draft pick.

MotownMadness · Post #15 » by **MotownMadness** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:27 pm

BadMofoPimp wrote:No matter what, the pistons are not going to be worse than those other tanking teams out there. Tanking at this point is just giving Charlotte a better draft pick.

The way I see it we are already as bad and we aren't even trying to tank. So imagine if we were trying to tank, We would rival the Bucks.

BadMofoPimp · Post #16 » by **BadMofoPimp** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:42 pm

MotownMadness wrote:
BadMofoPimp wrote:No matter what, the pistons are not going to be worse than those other tanking teams out there. Tanking at this point is just giving Charlotte a better draft pick.

The way I see it we are already as bad and we aren't even trying to tank. So imagine if we were trying to tank, We would rival the Bucks.

At this point, I can't see the Pistons getting anywhere close to a top 5 pick under any circumstances. In addition, if they tried to tank to do so, then Joe and Cheeks are throwing in the towel on their jobs.

Just not gonna happen. They are not quitters so this thread is useless.

MotownMadness · Post #17 » by **MotownMadness** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:54 pm

BadMofoPimp wrote:
MotownMadness wrote:
BadMofoPimp wrote:No matter what, the pistons are not going to be worse than those other tanking teams out there. Tanking at this point is just giving Charlotte a better draft pick.

The way I see it we are already as bad and we aren't even trying to tank. So imagine if we were trying to tank, We would rival the Bucks.

At this point, I can't see the Pistons getting anywhere close to a top 5 pick under any circumstances. In addition, if they tried to tank to do so, then Joe and Cheeks are throwing in the towel on their jobs.

Just not gonna happen. They are not quitters so this thread is useless.

We don't have to tank, We just flat out suck and we are a bottom feeder right now so it's all good.

Post #18 » by **theBigLip** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:06 pm

BadMofoPimp wrote:
MotownMadness wrote:
BadMofoPimp wrote:No matter what, the pistons are not going to be worse than those other tanking teams out there. Tanking at this point is just giving Charlotte a better draft pick.

The way I see it we are already as bad and we aren't even trying to tank. So imagine if we were trying to tank, We would rival the Bucks.

At this point, I can't see the Pistons getting anywhere close to a top 5 pick under any circumstances. In addition, if they tried to tank to do so, then Joe and Cheeks are throwing in the towel on their jobs.

Just not gonna happen. They are not quitters so this thread is useless.

I guess if someone told Gores that tanking would be the best idea, he could tell Dumars the only way to save his job is to make a long term trade (Monroe for picks, for example) that would hurt us this year. Anything could happen (except us making it to the second round)

BadMofoPimp · Post #19 » by **BadMofoPimp** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:30 pm

theBigLip wrote:
BadMofoPimp wrote:
At this point, I can't see the Pistons getting anywhere close to a top 5 pick under any circumstances. In addition, if they tried to tank to do so, then Joe and Cheeks are throwing in the towel on their jobs.

Just not gonna happen. They are not quitters so this thread is useless.

I guess if someone told Gores that tanking would be the best idea, he could tell Dumars the only way to save his job is to make a long term trade (Monroe for picks, for example) that would hurt us this year. Anything could happen (except us making it to the second round)

Well, that all depends on how much Gores would like to crush the development of Drummond and KCP. I mean, if the team and ownership gives up so often, then the young players definitely will be affected in very negative ways. This team could get stuck as the next Clippers for over a decade chasing that ever elusive Franchise player.

To me, losing is not acceptable. Everyone should be held accountable, top to bottom.

jakebernat · Post #20 » by **jakebernat** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:00 pm

an interesting point you guys bring up is the fact that dumars probably wouldn't throw in the towel on his working masterpiece of a roster and just tank the season. i'm not sure if i've ever seen a GM get fired mid-season, but now's as good a time as ever for such a thing to happen.

another possible tank route that even joe himself might end up taking would be simply standing pat. dumars is widely known for overvaluing his players (unless it's ben gordon...) which is one of the main reasons he makes very little noise on the trade market. it's entirely possible that he doesn't see a deal he likes on the table this deadline and keeps the roster in tact for the remainder of the season in an effort to "gel" aka "tank". i'm not sure i like the idea of having smith on his contract and monroe in RFA limbo at the same time though.

bottom line, things are going to get messy one way or another. we can only hope that D'OH! jewmars doesn't make additional ridiculous moves that set us back another 5 years in an effort to "win now".