The Pistons can win Championships again.

[blueadams]

Step 1. Start losing, now. 21-27 now. 34 games remaining. Best possible (tanking) record: 21-61. Might be too late to get into the Zion sweepstakes. But it's not too late to get a really nice pick. Start "resting" Blake in order to keep him healthy and fresh, and to develop our young players. Roll his minutes back, give him a lot of nights off, etc. He's really the only threat we have on this team to win games.

Step 2. Trade Blake, if at all possible. Sure, he's got a massive contract. But it's only got 2 guaranteed years left on it. He's 100% healthy. And he's a top-15 player in the league right now. Hopefully there'll be someone willing to take him this year. Or next year. Take nothing back but expiring deals and picks.

Step 3. Trade Drummond, if at all possible. He's got a dumb contract too. But it's only got 1 guaranteed year left on it. And he could help someone. Maybe there'll be a taker, this year or next. Again, nothing back but expirings and picks.

Step 4. Try to trade Reggie, Leuer, Galloway and GR3. Probably won't be able to find any takers there. Probably stuck with them all for another year (until their contracts expire). Nothing back but expirings and picks.

Step 5. Anyone else on our roster, than anyone else wants -- have it. Take nothing back but expirings and picks.

Step 6. Make a smart pick in the 2019 Draft.

Step 7. Assuming we can't move Blake or Dre, tank again in 2019-20.

Step 8. Make a smart pick in the 2020 Draft.

Step 9. Assuming we can't move Blake, tank again in 2020-21.

Step 10. Make a smart pick in the 2021 Draft.

*****

2021 Offseason. Assuming Blake opts out, or we can move him (pretty likely by this point). We've got no contracts on our books other than our high (and cheap) 2019, 2020 and 2021 picks -- hopefully these guys are pretty good, and attractive to play with. And we've got enough cap space to sign 3 max FA's.

Detroit's not a big time FA destination. But if we've got 3 talented top-5-ish picks on our roster. And enough cap space to bring in 3 max all-star buddy's... it becomes possible.

Giannis will be a FA. Paul George will be a FA. Rudy Gobert will be a FA. Damian Lillard will be a FA. Victor Oladipo will be a FA. Bradley Beal will be a FA. CJ McCollum will be a FA. Steven Adams will be a FA. Jrue Holliday will be a FA.

*****

Suck the rest of this year. Suck next year. Suck one more year. We've sucked with no purpose for a decade. Sucking with a purpose will be more than tolerable. Nice young star or two to build around -- with the potential to add many more. It will be far more exciting than what we've had the past decade. And I can't imagine that ticket sales could possibly decrease to much lower than they already are now.

Will it happen? Probably not. We're not that smart / we don't really care about winning.

Should it happen? Definitely.

[Snakebites]

This is more or less a synopsis of what’s been discussed on these boards for over a year now. At this point I’d just settle for drafting smarter and not dealing pucks away, honestly.

I’ve made my peace with most of the rest of that never happening, though it’s very frustrating still.

[Invictus88]

^ This.

So far the new FO regime hasn't made any rash decisions to try and win now. At least some folks around here would want this to happen. I think it's the same mistake that we repeatedly have made the last 2 decades.

Do we actually have the patience to do a proper rebuild?

One thing specifically about the first post (good post btw): I think Blake is now much more moveable than he was before. His
improvement behind the arc has really changed my mind about the ability of his game to age well. It's no longer based just on physicality.

It's just too bad we have so much dead weight in dollars spent on previous win-now impulse buys to give him a proper supporting cast. I'd love to keep him because I really like him but he really is just wasted here. Both he and we would be much better off if we were able to deal him for expirings and young talent/picks.

[Billl]

Blake has been an absolute beast for us. I'd love to build around him, I just don't see a way. He turns 30 in2 months. If we go the smart route and start gaining some cap space back and adding some talent though the draft, we are 2 years down the road and just barely starting to put some pieces around him. Unless our next 2 second rounders are the next manu and rodman, we aren't going to be able to add enough talent to make any sort of noise no matter how well blake plays. Our only shot for this year was if RJ went back to an near all-star level and either SJ or Luke took a big leap.

[MotownMadness]

Blake has been an absolute beast for us. I'd love to build around him, I just don't see a way. He turns 30 in2 months. If we go the smart route and start gaining some cap space back and adding some talent though the draft, we are 2 years down the road and just barely starting to put some pieces around him. Unless our next 2 second rounders are the next manu and rodman, we aren't going to be able to add enough talent to make any sort of noise no matter how well blake plays. Our only shot for this year was if RJ went back to an near all-star level and either SJ or Luke took a big leap.

While your right that we don’t have good enough assets to build around Blake properly but I’m pretty sure the FO is going to go that route anyways. They seem to have no interest in rebuild right now from their own mouths.

[DetroitPistons]

Blake has been an absolute beast for us. I'd love to build around him, I just don't see a way. He turns 30 in2 months. If we go the smart route and start gaining some cap space back and adding some talent though the draft, we are 2 years down the road and just barely starting to put some pieces around him. Unless our next 2 second rounders are the next manu and rodman, we aren't going to be able to add enough talent to make any sort of noise no matter how well blake plays. Our only shot for this year was if RJ went back to an near all-star level and either SJ or Luke took a big leap.

While your right that we don’t have good enough assets to build around Blake properly but I’m pretty sure the FO is going to go that route anyways. They seem to have no interest in rebuild right now from their own mouths.

We have all of our FRPs, including a likely lottery pick this year, and a boat load of expiring contracts to package next year. Those are key assets for any team wanting to trade a quality player to facilitate a rebuild. Packaging those for an allstar level wing and having one or two of our younger guys step up would do wonders for this team.

[Billl]

Blake has been an absolute beast for us. I'd love to build around him, I just don't see a way. He turns 30 in2 months. If we go the smart route and start gaining some cap space back and adding some talent though the draft, we are 2 years down the road and just barely starting to put some pieces around him. Unless our next 2 second rounders are the next manu and rodman, we aren't going to be able to add enough talent to make any sort of noise no matter how well blake plays. Our only shot for this year was if RJ went back to an near all-star level and either SJ or Luke took a big leap.

While your right that we don’t have good enough assets to build around Blake properly but I’m pretty sure the FO is going to go that route anyways. They seem to have no interest in rebuild right now from their own mouths.

We have all of our FRPs, including a likely lottery pick this year, and a boat load of expiring contracts to package next year. Those are key assets for any team wanting to trade a quality player to facilitate a rebuild. Packaging those for an allstar level wing and having one or two of our younger guys step up would do wonders for this team.

Ok. Then what? We trade all our expiring rotation players and some combo of picks for a Holiday level talent. We have them, blake and Dre. And nothing else. And Blake is now 31. You might be able to add a couple pieces in the following years, but by then it's too late. Even if everything pans out, the timeline isn't going to work.

[DetroitPistons]

Ok. Then what? We trade all our expiring rotation players and some combo of picks for a Holiday level talent. We have them, blake and Dre. And nothing else. And Blake is now 31. You might be able to add a couple pieces in the following years, but by then it's too late. Even if everything pans out, the timeline isn't going to work.

Well hey, I'm not opposed to tanking and rebuilding either but I see possible scenarios for winning too. I posted a trade idea for Holiday in the other thread where I explained a potential plan.

Before the trade deadline: Kennard, Smith, Johnson, Leuer, 2019 FRP for Holiday, fillers if need be

Offseason: Resign Bullock to 6-8mil

Next year/Offseason: Package Jackson's expiring/Galloway's expiring/1 or 2 FRPs and maybe Brown or Thomas if they develop into solid prospects for an upgrade at PG, SG, or SF. A PG could be a guy like Fultz, DSJ, Brogdon, Dinwiddie, Lowry just off the top of my head. I'm sure there will be plenty of wing options that become available too. But anyway, that would be a good win-now plan imo.

???
Holiday
Bullock
Griffin
Drummond

[BadMofoPimp]

Does OP understand that teams do what he is asking all the time and 75% of them end up no better than where the Pistons are at doing exactly what he wants? Sounds more like a dumbass move to me. Because for one, there are no guarantee's that the team will draft a superstar much less an All-Star at any point during this supposed tank. And secondly, if he is such a huge Sixers fan, please go over to that board. Because, if the Sixers did not get super lucky Embiid panned out or the Bucks didn't draft Embiid before Philly, they would still be worse than the Pistons right now. Hence, there are ZERO guarantees that Tanking will win anything and more often than not multiple losing seasons puts the team right back into mediocrity. I can deal with tanking one season in order to unload large contracts and get a young player, but tanking multiple seasons is madness which creates a losing mentality which may never be overcome without a massive roster overhaul again, negative team chemistry and wasted talent development.