Time to start talking about the draft and to update the thread to something creative about our tanking job.
He leaves off the obvious response, better than last year, but not at play-in. I’m glad we are bottoming out, but I would have at least liked to see some improvements in the 2nd year players. They all look worse than last season. We are on pace to win like 14 games.
I think this upcoming draft is better than last years. Finishing with worst pick guarantees us a top 5 pick.
I am excited to see the offense without Grant, just to see what happens. Grant is obviously one of our best players, but it feels like this should open up things a bit more.
Grant is a good player but he is an offensive black hole at times. When the ball goes to him you just know he's going to shoot, even if he can't beat his man and it's a long mid range shot. It'll be interesting to see what happens those possessions now without him.
Grant can be a black hole and it's frustrating to watch at times, but it's also probably a positive for this team overall because it has so many guys who can't score. This is a good time to see what Lee can do in extended minutes next to Cade. Lee's one of the only guys we have capable of scoring when he gets the minutes and is allowed to be aggressive. Also time to take the training wheels off Cade and just let him go as the primary guy for 35 minutes a night and see what he does.
And Lee deserves it. He's crushing the G League and often performs when he gets the chances with the Pistons.
he sucks, but he was also the 19th pick in the draft. Most guys taken where he was are out of the league after a couple seasons.
The Orlando Magic traded forward Aaron Gordon to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, it was announced. In exchange, veteran shooting guard Gary Harris, rookie R.J. Hampton and Denver's protected 2025 first-round pick went to the Magic. Would think the return would be somewhat similar to the Gordon trade last year. Similar contract situations, Grant being hurt doesn't help but Shams said the injury hasn't deterred teams
Radio guy threw out the Bulls as a potential match with Patrick Williams coming back. Don't think it was a rumor, just him looking at trades that would make sense. That would be a dream return but hard to imagine they'd go for that, maybe they really think they a championship window in the next few years.
Hollinger just profiled Jabari Smith Jr. and is in love, if you're looking for 2022 draft content... Spoiler PROSPECT OF THE WEEK: Jabari Smith Jr., 6-10, freshman PF, Auburn (Note: This section won’t necessarily profile the best prospect of the week. Just the one I’ve been watching.) Coming into the season, the general consensus was that the top prospects for the 2022 NBA Draft were Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren and Duke’s Paolo Banchero. Not anymore. Several NBA scouts and multiple GMs were in Atlanta on Saturday to watch Auburn’s Jabari Smith Jr. against Nebraska, and they had to come away impressed after his 21 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in just 23 minutes led the Tigers to a 99-68 thrashing of the Huskers. Folks, Smith isn’t just “in the running” for the top pick; he might be the favorite at this point. Analytically, his resume from the early part of the season is about as strong as you could imagine: A 30.9 PER and 13.9 BPM, very high rates of steals (3.7 per 100) and assists (5.3 per 100) for a big forward, and did I mention that he’s shooting 44.7 percent from 3 and 84.6 percent from the line? There are no offsetting warts here; he has a low turnover rate, and he’s scoring and dishing at a high rate. You might want to see him shoot a little better inside the arc, a consequence of his shooting a lot of jump shots rather than getting all the way to the cup. That’s about it. Watching him shoot before Saturday’s game, I can’t emphasize enough what a non-fluke those shooting stats are. Smiths’ release is absolute butter, a smooth launch with clean mechanics and perfect spin that traces an elegant 45-degree parabola toward the bottom of the net. He has to clean up some footwork shooting off the dribble, but he’s already very comfortable rising up from shorter range to hit jump shots, as he showed multiple times Saturday. That’s the best thing about Smith: I talked about his stats above, and they’re awesome, but holy eye test, Batman. He can run and jump and make plays for other people; he can move on the perimeter and still challenge shots at the rim, and he might be the best shooter in the draft. Watch here, for instance, as he jumps a half-beat too soon to challenge a 3-pointer, helicopters in the air for a while waiting for the shooter to catch up and stuffs the shot with his wrist. This is not common. Are there still boxes left for Smith to check? Sure. At 6-10, scouts will want to see him dominate on the interior a bit more — his rebound rate is fine (14.2 percent) but hardly exceptional for this level of prospect, and he’s only blocked six shots in nine games. But this is searching really, really hard for things to nit-pick. I think Holmgren is going to be an elite rim protector, and Banchero looks like a young Carmelo Anthony, but if I had the top pick tomorrow, there’s no question whom I would take. There are very, very few prospects who combine elite athleticism with elite skill level, and Smith looks like he’s one of them.
Pistons I've noticed last 2 days ran some lineups with Cade seemingly playing the 4. He was out there with Killian, Frank and McGruder with Stew for a little bit. Last game they had a similar stretch where Cade was guarding Blake. Like his versatility but would much rather have him playing primary ball handler more