Big Decisions at the Trade Deadline

[GreekAlex]

I just read a new interview from Andre where he states with 100% certainty that he’s opting out after this season.

His camp knows he’s the best front court player available in this next free agent class and want to capitalize.

I wouldn’t mind him back at a fair rate but if he’s set on another max deal, I hope the team is able to move him before the deadline.

Seeing the 4 year $100M Draymond Green got makes me hope to resign Andre at a annual deal of $25M or less. Draymond is far more impactful, skilled and better defensively.


Reggie Jackson has been very polarizing and is an easy scapegoat but he was pretty decent last year shooting & creating as well as being durable playing all 82 games.

I personally don’t see a future with him in Detroit and hope he’s dealt before the deadline. He would do better on a team in a different role and I’m not sure what he’s willing to accept here role-wise.

I’ve seen a lot of proposals with Andre going to Golden State for D. Russell but I don’t see that as being realistic.

I’d really love to see the front office be proactive rather than just letting them walk but just clearing big money off the cap isn’t really that bad of a scenario.

Who are the teams that would actually want Andre?

What is the best case scenario to hope for at the deadline?

[Snakebites]

I think Dre’s value is still minimal. There’s always the chance he doesn’t opt out, meaning teams may not view his deal as expiring.

Regardless of what you think of him as a player, at his dollar amount his greatest value will be in expiring status.

Best case for me honestly is letting Reggie and Dre walk and shopping Blake at the deadline. Don’t know how likely any of that is.

[Manocad]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

[Spider156]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

We can be contenders if the team brings in another star player like Beal or Booker. These opportunities become available as the season goes on. I think there's been too many stars moving to disbelief in it. It requires luck. I'm just saying I don't think Blake's time is wasted of the team gets lucky getting another star. You can then still trade Blake after that. I don't think we'll do anything with cap space. Although this front office has been impressive with what cap space they had to use last offseason.

[GreekAlex]

I think Dre’s value is still minimal. There’s always the chance he doesn’t opt out, meaning teams may not view his deal as expiring.

Regardless of what you think of him as a player, at his dollar amount his greatest value will be in expiring status.

Best case for me honestly is letting Reggie and Dre walk and shopping Blake at the deadline. Don’t know how likely any of that is.

I’ll be interested to see how Dre & Reggie play in the first half of the season. They’ll both have the mentality that they’re in a “contract year” and I just hope that doesn’t fool “Coked up Tom” into any errant extensions.

If they increase their value and can be sold at the deadline, that would be my dream scenario.

I also hope Strffanski faces reality and moves Blake to a desperate contender at some point but I’m less optimistic about that.

[GreekAlex]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

We can be contenders if the team brings in another star player like Beal or Booker. These opportunities become available as the season goes on. I think there's been too many stars moving to disbelief in it. It requires luck. I'm just saying I don't think Blake's time is wasted of the team gets lucky getting another star. You can then still trade Blake after that. I don't think we'll do anything with cap space. Although this front office has been impressive with what cap space they had to use last offseason.

I don’t really see any reasonable path to Booker or Beal unless Sekou pans out and in that case, it would be unwise to trade him.

Blake has 2 years left on his deal plus a player option. If his next 2 seasons are relatively healthy, I imagine he opts out like Al Horford did for one last big contract. In that scenario, I pray the Pistons aren’t the team resigning or extending him.

[Snakebites]

Yeah, I'm pretty concerned still that we'll resign Dre and Reggie.

I have been operating under the assumption that the talk that we're "happy" with our trio was simply what they have to officially say when the guys just aren't tradeable, kind of like the Rocket's insistence that they have no interest in trading CP3.

I really hope I'm right about that. We'll find out soon enough, I suppose, with 2 of the big three potentially ending their contracts with us at season's end. It's (hopefully) telling that with Dre there's really been no reports of extension talks at all.

[Pharaoh]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

I'd like to hear how you think we can go from where we are now to a real contender in 3 years.

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[DBC10]

I really don't think we can build a great contending team if we bring back Dre & and God forbid Reggie back too. Especially what Dre will ask for, which is going to start at minimum $25m per seeing as that's how Draymond Green got.

That's...not worth the money. The so called "big 3" that we have with RJ, Dre, and Blake has always been awkward, no? They all in some capacity demand or want the ball in their hands, with Blake being far away the best of the bunch. I'd rather just go all in with one of Dre or Blake (with favoring the Blake route) instead of trying to repeat last season. Of which involves trading away one of them to do so.

[Invictus88]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

I'd like to hear how you think we can go from where we are now to a real contender in 3 years.

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This. I mean, we'll have cap space to do damage but don't have the allure to attract top flight FA's right now.
I think it's more plausible that we use our space to acquire more picks; building a steady pipeline of young talent.
Then once we think we are a piece or two away from something we switch modes and flip some of it for a guy we couldn't get otherwise.
I'd think that's a longer process than 3 years.

[Drwho17]

I predict the Pistons will resign Drummond at 30 mill per year.

[Snakebites]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

I'd like to hear how you think we can go from where we are now to a real contender in 3 years.

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This. I mean, we'll have cap space to do damage but don't have the allure to attract top flight FA's right now.
I think it's more plausible that we use our space to acquire more picks; building a steady pipeline of young talent.
Then once we think we are a piece or two away from something we switch modes and flip some of it for a guy we couldn't get otherwise.
I'd think that's a longer process than 3 years.

Yeah, 3 years is probably too optimistic unless they do it right AND get some crazy luck.

[Manocad]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

I'd like to hear how you think we can go from where we are now to a real contender in 3 years.

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I don’t have a plan. Let me rephrase...in the state the Pistons currently are in, it will be at least three years before they can become real contenders.

Which doesn’t negate any of my points in any way.

[Manocad]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

We can be contenders if the team brings in another star player like Beal or Booker. These opportunities become available as the season goes on. I think there's been too many stars moving to disbelief in it. It requires luck. I'm just saying I don't think Blake's time is wasted of the team gets lucky getting another star. You can then still trade Blake after that. I don't think we'll do anything with cap space. Although this front office has been impressive with what cap space they had to use last offseason.

And I don’t think the team is that close. Plus like others have said, playing this “If if if...” game is useless. Unless you KNOW there’s a superstar out there looking to become a champion with the Pistons, there is ZERO point in arguing what the team COULD be IF a superstar came here. Right now the team has clearly showed it is nowhere near contending. That’s a fact.

[Billl]

The only way we could be a true contender before Blake retires is if we luck in to drafting the next jordan with the 15th pick. Even then, we just don't have the talent base to immediately contend. We would need another offseason or 2 for free agents to see how lucky we got

[Pharaoh]

I don't want him back. If they can trade him for a young player/pick, great. If not, let him walk because he's not going to accept what I'd be willing to pay him. Same with Reggie and shop Blake for what you can get. My opinion is that the Pistons are three years away from being a real contender IF they do it right, so Blake's time would pretty much be done anyway. Send him off now in a Rasheed-like "last piece of the puzzle" move to a contending team.

I'd like to hear how you think we can go from where we are now to a real contender in 3 years.

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I don’t have a plan. Let me rephrase...in the state the Pistons currently are in, it will be at least three years before they can become real contenders.

Which doesn’t negate any of my points in any way.

Just wanted to clarify tbh as you've been consistent over the last few years.

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[Canadafan]

Please lord trade him before the season. Along with Reggie or reggie in a separate deal.
I want two guys in here that take the game seriously. Not clowning around in interviews and acting a fool. Not half-assing it in games.
We'd be so much better if we replaced those two with two guys that just actually played hard every night and played smart.
Fingers crossed. Would be a great new era for us to get fans a little more excited to go down to LCA

[Manocad]

I'd like to hear how you think we can go from where we are now to a real contender in 3 years.

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I don’t have a plan. Let me rephrase...in the state the Pistons currently are in, it will be at least three years before they can become real contenders.

Which doesn’t negate any of my points in any way.

Just wanted to clarify tbh as you've been consistent over the last few years.

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Yeah, that was somewhat poorly worded. The intention was to say that even if the Pistons do it right (scout well, draft well, make the right off season moves), they’re a minimum of three years away from contending, not that they WILL be contenders in three years.

[Manocad]

Please lord trade him before the season. Along with Reggie or reggie in a separate deal.
I want two guys in here that take the game seriously. Not clowning around in interviews and acting a fool. Not half-assing it in games.
We'd be so much better if we replaced those two with two guys that just actually played hard every night and played smart.
Fingers crossed. Would be a great new era for us to get fans a little more excited to go down to LCA

Bingo. I’d rather see a team that misses the playoffs but has 100% hard-nosed effort every night than watch a team that can be world beaters one night then a joke the next.

[Pharaoh]

Please lord trade him before the season. Along with Reggie or reggie in a separate deal.
I want two guys in here that take the game seriously. Not clowning around in interviews and acting a fool. Not half-assing it in games.
We'd be so much better if we replaced those two with two guys that just actually played hard every night and played smart.
Fingers crossed. Would be a great new era for us to get fans a little more excited to go down to LCA

Bingo. I’d rather see a team that misses the playoffs but has 100% hard-nosed effort every night than watch a team that can be world beaters one night then a joke the next.

Exactly!

I'd rather a young, hard working team that loses 40-50 games than a group led by "stars" who honestly won't take us anywhere worth going.

First round flame outs are pointless.

?, Sekou, ?, Luke, Brown might get beat every night but at least I'd care enough to watch more

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