What does George's injury mean for Detroit?

[Cowology]

It's kinda weird, but this is the 1st year I've actually felt a little pessimistic. Usually I'm an optimist and it's kept biting me in the butt. I think I'm still just waiting to see how the Smith/Monroe sagas' play out. It looks like we should be improved, but I kinda feel the East in general is maybe slightly better. TOR & Wash continue to improve. Cleveland just got a hell of a lot better. Chicago has Rose back. Even teams that lost players or declined (MIA/ATL) still look solid. Indy I dunno about, but I think they'll be OK. A lot will depend on Hibbert. This could be an opportunity for him to step up and get over some mental hurdles... or the team could implode.

[RasheedTupac]

I don't know why people are so down on our squad

Last season we lacked coaching...BOOM we hired a top 5 coach

Last season we lacked spacing...BOOM we signed Meeks and DJ

Last season our rotations and bench were abysmal...BOOM we're likely to have Smith, Meeks or KCP, DJ, Jerebko and Butler off the pine.

Either Monroe will be here or he'll bring back something via S&T...

So why the negativity?

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Thank you. We will have a great squad this year. Even without Monroe because quite frankly I rather have smith

[Pharaoh]

Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Miami, New York, Toronto, Washington will fight for playoff spots.

Of those 11 I think Indy, New York, Brooklyn and us are fighting for #8

Boston, Milwaukee, Orlando, Philadelphia are Lotto bound


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[Spider156]

It means the Pacers won't be a big threat in the Playoffs and that's about it. It doesn't change where we stand in the standings. If I were you reading ANY of the posters' standings, take it with a grain of salt. It means nothing! After last season, I learned that anything can happen in the NBA. Toronto was so good last season as well as Charlotte. You'd think the Knicks and Nets would be locks for the Playoffs with all that talent but they didn't show up for anything at all. Keep in mind just because a team was good enough to go to the Playoffs last year like Charlotte, Toronto, and Washington, doesn't mean they'll be able to repeat this season. As far as the Pistons go, I expect us to play correct fundemental basketball with our new head coach and I expect us to win at least 10 more games with or without Greg Monroe. Where does that put us? I'm thinking 7-8th seed. But anything can happen like it could be Drummond's breakout "I think I'm going to take over the NBA" year. His numbers already suggest that he's already done that which is the crazy part.

[vic]

I don't know why people are so down on our squad

Last season we lacked coaching...BOOM we hired a top 5 coach

Last season we lacked spacing...BOOM we signed Meeks and DJ

Last season our rotations and bench were abysmal...BOOM we're likely to have Smith, Meeks or KCP, DJ, Jerebko and Butler off the pine.

Either Monroe will be here or he'll bring back something via S&T...

So why the negativity?

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It shows you the difference between who's rational and who's negative because they just want to appear smarter than they really are. Some people are negative just because they think its cool... no real thought involved.

[Pharaoh]

IMO:

Indiana will struggle to make the playoffs without PG & Stephenson. They imploded after the Granger trade. No team relied more on their starting 5 (thanks Zach Lowe) and they've now lost 2 starters!

Brooklyn lost Pierce but gained Lopez. They're pinning their hopes on DWill and Lopez beibg healthy AND their Euro contingent being able to step up. Added Jack via trade and got Hollins but at the end of the day health is what matters to them

New York? Upgraded at PG, downgrade at C - Melo is a one man offense...Fisher is a rookie coach

I like our chances...but a lot of my hopes hang on my faith in SVG.

Top 5 Coach! Smith off the bench (most likely). Meeks and DJ off the bench. Development of Dre and KCP. It could be bad but come on - its August. Every team is tied for first right now

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[BadMofoPimp]

I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit wins the Division even if they lose Monroe.

This is what it means to me.

[Invictus88]

I don't know why people are so down on our squad

Last season we lacked coaching...BOOM we hired a top 5 coach

Last season we lacked spacing...BOOM we signed Meeks and DJ

Last season our rotations and bench were abysmal...BOOM we're likely to have Smith, Meeks or KCP, DJ, Jerebko and Butler off the pine.

Either Monroe will be here or he'll bring back something via S&T...

So why the negativity?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using RealGM Forums mobile app

It shows you the difference between who's rational and who's negative because they just want to appear smarter than they really are. Some people are negative just because they think its cool... no real thought involved.

vic,

I think you and I had an epic debate last offseason about whether or not the Pistons were championship contenders. I took the 'negative' side which I felt was more rational based on stats and reason -- not because I thought it was cool. And we kind of all know how that turned out...

I totally understand the enthusiasm about a clean slate and a new season. I also totally believe we will be much better next season with all of the additions and because we were pretty much at our floor the last one. I'm really excited to see how things turn out

However, there are very valid reasons to be pessimistic as well. We don't know what will happen with the Smith / Monroe situation. There could be locker room issues depending on the fallout. We don't know what will happen with Jennings. Drummond still hasn't developed a post game yet based on what we've seen at the team USA games. We don't know whether the people we signed (particularly Meeks) were at their peak last season or will continue. We don't know what we will get back for Monroe if he doesn't remain here. We don't know what the locker room will be like. And as others have said the East has gotten a whole lot better.

I still think the pluses will overcome the minuses in the end but I'd be careful making blanket statements. There's plenty of good reason to fuel both sides of the debate and it's a bit short-sighted to dismiss either viewpoint out of a hat.

[BadMofoPimp]

Pistons = Title Contenders 2014/15.

There, I said it.

[vic]

I don't know why people are so down on our squad

Last season we lacked coaching...BOOM we hired a top 5 coach

Last season we lacked spacing...BOOM we signed Meeks and DJ

Last season our rotations and bench were abysmal...BOOM we're likely to have Smith, Meeks or KCP, DJ, Jerebko and Butler off the pine.

Either Monroe will be here or he'll bring back something via S&T...

So why the negativity?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using RealGM Forums mobile app

It shows you the difference between who's rational and who's negative because they just want to appear smarter than they really are. Some people are negative just because they think its cool... no real thought involved.

vic,

I think you and I had an epic debate last offseason about whether or not the Pistons were championship contenders. I took the 'negative' side which I felt was more rational based on stats and reason -- not because I thought it was cool. And we kind of all know how that turned out...

I totally understand the enthusiasm about a clean slate and a new season. I also totally believe we will be much better next season with all of the additions and because we were pretty much at our floor the last one. I'm really excited to see how things turn out

However, there are very valid reasons to be pessimistic as well. We don't know what will happen with the Smith / Monroe situation. There could be locker room issues depending on the fallout. We don't know what will happen with Jennings. Drummond still hasn't developed a post game yet based on what we've seen at the team USA games. We don't know whether the people we signed (particularly Meeks) were at their peak last season or will continue. We don't know what we will get back for Monroe if he doesn't remain here. We don't know what the locker room will be like. And as others have said the East has gotten a whole lot better.

I still think the pluses will overcome the minuses in the end but I'd be careful making blanket statements. There's plenty of good reason to fuel both sides of the debate and it's a bit short-sighted to dismiss either viewpoint out of a hat.

Yeah bUt I based my argument on rational thought, based on the assumption that we had a coach with a brain. (Only 1 person i knew from Pistonpowered expected Mo to be as clueless as he was) Also based on playing 2 out of 3 bigs at a time. I said this from the beginning of the season, as well as many others around the country.

Now that there is a brain or two on the team i think it's rational to think that the talent will be maximized.

[Invictus88]

It shows you the difference between who's rational and who's negative because they just want to appear smarter than they really are. Some people are negative just because they think its cool... no real thought involved.

vic,

I think you and I had an epic debate last offseason about whether or not the Pistons were championship contenders. I took the 'negative' side which I felt was more rational based on stats and reason -- not because I thought it was cool. And we kind of all know how that turned out...

I totally understand the enthusiasm about a clean slate and a new season. I also totally believe we will be much better next season with all of the additions and because we were pretty much at our floor the last one. I'm really excited to see how things turn out

However, there are very valid reasons to be pessimistic as well. We don't know what will happen with the Smith / Monroe situation. There could be locker room issues depending on the fallout. We don't know what will happen with Jennings. Drummond still hasn't developed a post game yet based on what we've seen at the team USA games. We don't know whether the people we signed (particularly Meeks) were at their peak last season or will continue. We don't know what we will get back for Monroe if he doesn't remain here. We don't know what the locker room will be like. And as others have said the East has gotten a whole lot better.

I still think the pluses will overcome the minuses in the end but I'd be careful making blanket statements. There's plenty of good reason to fuel both sides of the debate and it's a bit short-sighted to dismiss either viewpoint out of a hat.

Yeah bUt I based my argument on rational thought, based on the assumption that we had a coach with a brain. (Only 1 person i knew from Pistonpowered expected Mo to be as clueless as he was) Also based on playing 2 out of 3 bigs at a time. I said this from the beginning of the season, as well as many others around the country.

Now that there is a brain or two on the team i think it's rational to think that the talent will be maximized.

I can't tell whether commenting on a single point and not the entirety of my post was intentional. I know my posts can be long so I'm just going to assume it was just that.

TLDR: My point was to caution you about making blanket statements about people (such as people who take a glass half full look at the season) saying they are thoughtless.

As for your response, I'm not saying you didn't put thought into your argument. However there was already plenty of prior evidence that Cheeks was a sub-par coach in Portland.

The team was already set up to fail from a personnel standpoint as well. You don't sign a guy for 13.5 million dollars to sit the bench. The intent was for Smith to play at the 3 and that was doomed from the onset. There were plenty of people on that thread that correctly predicted the spacing issues we would have. There was already a decent sample size to predict that outside shooting was going to be a big problem. This was mentioned as well.

I don't think any amount of coaching would have resulted in anything better than a low playoff seed in the East with our roster. That's a little far from contending.

Circling back to my previous post, despite the fact that we obviously disagreed I wouldn't categorize your argument as thoughtless. I just think it focused on different sets of facts than my own did. I would hope that my 'negative' viewpoints would be viewed by you in the same light.