Detroit Pistons thread: With the exchange rate that’s a win streak

Sounds like OKC is making a run at horford.

 

I don't see how OKC could make that happen with the guys they already have under contract. I think he would have to take a discount, or he would have to replace Durant. And that's not even talking about the long term concept of paying Westbrook, Durant, Horford, Adams, Oladipo and Kanter at least $15M a year (and, in three of those cases, $25M+ per year).

 

On the radio this morning they said OKC is shopping Kanter and Singler to make a run at Horford.

 

Really hoping we pull a rabbit out of a hat and steal a good PG via trade, because I'm scared of every one of these FA options. When you look at a list of players and think "DJ Augustin might be our best option," your list sucks.

 

According to some of the interviews the local writers did with Stanley Johnson, it sounds like he's changed the form on his jump shot. Probably needed to happen to be able to get it off quicker, but not sure that's the best way to get improvement from one year to the next. Seems more likely to see the better results down the line than next year, but maybe I'm being pessimistic.

I like him changing his number after Ben's retirement thing last year. I don't understand why they aren't making Reggie do the same with #1. Why retire a jersey, but still have someone on the team wear it?

 

Drummond max deal 5 years 130 million. Hopefully he learns how to shoot 50% from the line.

Also signed Ish Smith to 3 year deal. Never heard of him.

 

And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen."

 

I would like for the terms to come out about Ish Smith's deal so I can know how I feel about it. I'm guessing that feeling won't be good.

 

Our Jayhawk game is improving rapidly.

 

3/18 for Smith

 

Wow probably the only reasonable deal signed so far this offseason in the entire league

 

Not sure we can say at this point in terms of whether it's "reasonable". Smith was pretty close to being out of the league last year. He wasn't getting minutes for a bad NO team that needed guards. He ended up in Philly, which has no players, and dominated the ball on the way to putting up numbers for a historically bad team.

I could see him having some success with Stan, and the terms aren't "lol" bad. I'm not really sure how good he is, either.

 

This makes no sense to me, but whatever. I wonder if we will still get a meeting with Horford. Don't think the Smith signing has anything to do with that either way.

 

The going rate for quality bench players is now $10-15 mil. They just signed a guy with starting experience for half that. Not saying it's a good or great yet but saying it's reasonable is not a stretch in any way. They just paid him 9th or 10th man money, seems like a very low risk move and questioning the merit of it already is pretty silly.

 

In this year's FA cycle, a flaming bag of poo is going to sign for 3/18.

 

Linsanity got 2x that money.

 

The Wizards are about to give Bradley Beal $125 mil. He can't be considered more valuable than Andre right? This is ridiculous amounts of money.

 

The contract is fine. My point is more that I don't know that Ish Smith is any good. We were in a tough spot because of need at the position and the players that were available. I'm not complaining. Just saying that it doesn't really matter how his contract looks compared to other deals in the last 12 hours if he's not that good. I don't know if he is or not, but being the only guard on a historically bad 6ers team and putting up numbers is a pretty loose interpretation of the term "starting experience".

SVG has had a very good run with PGs. I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt at that position that he knows what he wants. That's a really important position for us, though, and I'm not entirely sold on Smith just because it cost less than others have. This is essentially the one summer where we have a window to spend legit money no someone (or multiple people) before all the extensions kick in. When you add in the Josh Smith contract on the books four more years, we don't have a ton of wiggle room. I don't hate it because of the reasons I stated, but I was kind of holding out hope for better.

 

Drummond's deal has a player option after year 4

 

i like that Smith deal a lot ...

 

Guys, Mike Conley just got $30M a year.

 

Reggie is a bargain

 

Reggie is a bit of a headcase, but dynamic and impactful at times. Stanley and Tobias have upside. Overall, they're making good decisions as an organization.

 

Anyone else afraid of our situation at the 2? I really like what we have up front. Morris/Harris/Johnson should get at least 80% of the minutes at the forwards, and Drummond/Baynes is a very nice duo at C. I like our starting backcourt, and Smith should at least be a clear improvement over Blake this year.

It gets a little thin at the 2, though. I really hope they're planning on Bullock being that guy. Hilliard had back surgery, which doesn't sound good. We really don't have anyone else after the Meeks deal. I'm a little surprised that the rumors have us continuing to chase bigs, considering our depth seems a lot shakier at guard. Not really sure what the answer would be, though.

 

I've been a bit surprised that we haven't tried finding a better shooting 2/3 kinda guy.

 

I think Bullock is as good of a shooter as we could reasonably get in that role. He just needs the minutes. The question with him seems more about whether he's athletic enough to guard 2s. He kind of seems like one of those "not big enough to guard 3s, but not athletic enough to guard 2s" kind of guys.

I would love it if he or Hilliard gets a shot and proves worthy. I could definitely see it happening. I'm just surprised SVG has talked so openly about a need at the 4 when he has 2 perfectly good options there in Harris and Morris. I would much rather they bring Tolliver back than sign someone like Robinson. Tolliver is kind of the perfect 10th man who sits on the edge of your rotation, and every once in a while gets some run and maybe makes 4 threes in a game.

 

I agree with this.

 

That sounds right. SVG and Bower supposedly weren't at practice today, so I guess there's a chance we might have been one of the other two, but with Smith signing we would almost certainly have to move Harris to offer Horford the max.

 

My boy with the Pistons said it went well and he was pretty optimistic...but who knows.

 

None of those guys can guard the post against a physical 4. They've talked about that being the need at the position. Not sure how Robinson fills that need though. Sounds like Bullock is going to be given the opportunity to fill the bench shooter role

 

None of the players who could guard the post against those kinds of players are good enough to play over those guys, unless we're signing Horford. How many of those guys are really out there we would need to worry about, anyway? I thought SVG overreacted to one good half from Love in game one in terms of scoring against those guys in the post, and Morris especially got back at him a lot on the other end to negate a lot of that. I just don't see the reward there unless it's a Horford-level player.

 

Seriously? Did they visit with him? Or was this a joke and my circuits can't tell the difference.

 

Serious.

 

Go to microsoft/firmware/sarcasm/Heesu for the upgrade.

 

Seems really weird that a team would wait until after they agree to pay Dwight Howard and Kent Bazemore > $40M per season to move people. I don't think they can do much with Horford at this point. Millsap makes no sense to trade in that scenario, though.

 

I would deal a first for him, but I wouldn't give up all the stuff it likely would take to do that deal for Atlanta.

 

Making the playoffs in the East is going to be hard next year. Still no one that can challenge the Cavs, but I think everyone but Philly and Brooklyn has a path to 45 wins if things fall their way. If Washington gets Horford, they might be the favorites in that division.

 

These salaries are ridiculous. We have a log jam up front. Gotta think that maybe Morris gets dealt, right? Otherwise Ellenson won't see much PT

 

I didn't know Jon leuer was still a thing.

 

Heesu don't lie

 

Ellenson wasn't getting any PT this year, anyway. I think this means we won't see much of Morris at the 4, which means we won't see more than 12-15 minutes a night from Stanley (unless they try to play him a lot at the 2, which seems unwise).

 

I still say Johnson should start over Morris if he can improve his jumper enough. I think Morris has more of the scoring mentality we need from someone off the bench. Here is your roster, outside of the 13-15th men (probably Joel Anthony and Lorenzo Brown)

Rod Beard ‏@detnewsRodBeard
#Pistons starters: Jackson, KCP, Morris, Harris, Drummond Bench: Smith, Johnson, Baynes, Leuer, Hilliard, Bullock, Ellenson, and Gbinije