Sort wrote:Christian Wood defines rebuilding a career from the ashes and I totally respect that, but man, I don't think the Pistons lost much long term and Houston hasn't gained much short or long term. He's a good player, and he certainly is a position of need right now for the Pistons, but Wood isn't helping Houston even be competitive most games.
Bagley is Internet fodder. Long term the dream should be Ayton. No idea what you can meaningfully do at this point after the roster has been constructed with a starting four that doesn't do rebounding and a starting five that's really a starting four glue player. Casey might not be doing a dream job in any sense, but that doesn't change the fact that the pieces don't fit together.
I don't see Bagley moving the dial.
Yeah, I'm looking at this and making a clear distinction of "need" vs "will improve." As I've posted previously the Pistons don't NEED to do anything right now, whether it be short term or long term. They're likely not making the playoffs this year so making moves right now just to get better, i.e. win more games, don't make sense to me. Stick with the rebuilding plan and address the needs when the time is right. And certainly if a deal comes along for a young player at the right price, i.e. contract and what the Pistons would have to give up, that benefits the team long term, go for it. But I don't think Bagley falls into that category because he IS a flyer, so what's the point? It's not like there won't be other flyers out there and flyers IMO are what you use for those last pieces, i.e. players 8-12 who are adequate but that flyer could make a pretty nice improvement if he hits. And if he doesn't, no biggie.
Certainly some will claim that it's disheartening for young players to keep losing games because they don't have X player who fills a position of need, but it's not like they're not being told "Stay the course, we have a plan to build something long term, and we'll address needs in the proper fashion." Of course that makes the assumption that that IS what they're being told, but I'd bet my house they're not being told "What we've got is what we've got. Suck it up and deal with it because this is all you're gonna get."