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Pistons Off season grade

mhughes0021

mhughes0021

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Messages
28,734
Couldnt have said it any better....should have waited a year to make a strong push instead of shelling out big money now jut to fight for an 8 seed. Fall out of the top 8 in the draft and charlotte gets our pick in the best draft since lebrons. Youre bascially saying youd rather pay smith more money than have one of the top 5 guys next year.....thats bad bad scouting or actually a complete lack of scouting. The B is generous....

DETROIT PISTONS | GRADE: B

Additions: Josh Smith (FA), Brandon Jennings (S&T), Chauncey Billups (FA), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (draft), Will Bynum (re-sign), Luigi Datome (FA), Tony Mitchell (draft), Maurice Cheeks (coach)

Subtractions: Brandon Knight (Bucks), Jose Calderon (Mavericks), Jason Maxiell (Magic), Slava Kravtsov (Bucks), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Kim English, Lawrence Frank (coach)

The Pistons have been in lottery purgatory for the past four seasons, and Joe Dumars has had enough. The team signed Smith to a huge contract, added Jennings as its new starting point guard, brought back Billups and added two intriguing shooters in Caldwell-Pope and Datome. The hope is the new additions, combined with the emerging talents of Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, will be enough to crack the top eight in the East.

That hope waxes or wanes depending on how you feel about Smith and Jennings. Defensively, Smith should give the Pistons one of the biggest, most athletic front lines in the league. Offensively, the concern is he exacerbates Detroit's spacing issues. If Smith is jacking up long 2s, he can hurt the Pistons as much as help them.

Jennings has his fair share of issues as well. He still can play out of control despite the fact that he's been in the league four years, and his maturity level still hasn't caught up to the talent. But the Pistons felt he was an upgrade over Knight and desperately wanted to add a true point guard to the team. Jennings is blessed with remarkable athleticism and talent, and the Pistons acquired him at a fair price. If new coach Cheeks can get through to him, Jennings suddenly make this team much more dangerous.

The Pistons' spacing issues should somewhat be mitigated by Caldwell-Pope and Datome, an Italian sharpshooter who won the MVP of the Italian League last season. If both players can sink shots, they should be in pretty good shape.

I understand the push to end the rebuilding phase, especially since they're obligated to send next year's first-round pick to the Bobcats if it falls outside of the top eight. I think the Pistons probably should have waited one more year to make the push, but if the team really does jell with Smith and Jennings and makes a run in the playoffs, then it was clearly worth it to try to make the leap now.
 
Regardless of how well players fit, I believe the roster was overturned for the better and a great amount of talent was added. This is a totally different team than last year. Joe D bringing some excitement to Detroit basketball gets an A from me. Hes done nothing but good this offseason.

Not enough talent/ athleticism? Josh Smith signed

No shooters? Datome, Billups signed

No PG? Brandon Knight sucks? Brandon Knight traded for a PG that averages double the assists and much better turnover ratio.

We have a legitimate NBA starting lineup now.
 
jrange378 said:
Regardless of how well players fit, I believe the roster was overturned for the better and a great amount of talent was added. This is a totally different team than last year. Joe D bringing some excitement to Detroit basketball gets an A from me. Hes done nothing but good this offseason.

Not enough talent/ athleticism? Josh Smith signed

No shooters? Datome, Billups signed

No PG? Brandon Knight sucks? Brandon Knight traded for a PG that averages double the assists and much better turnover ratio.

We have a legitimate NBA starting lineup now.
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all accurate. But theres 1 thing worse than being bad in the NBA.....its being in the middle. Were almost guaranteed to be in the middle next year which eliminates our 1st rd pick and basically means we will be in the middle again the following year.
 
That's why the NBA sucks. You get a lower grade by improving your team instead of staying status quo by sucking and getting a top 5 pick.
 
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I agree, if we just miss the playoffs and lose our pick it would be a blow, but I also think we could definitely get into the playoffs with this roster and then still get a pick in the draft.

You know if joe didnt make these moves people would be like he's giving up and tanking, or joe sucks the pistons are boring. Now we have a team that's interesting.
 
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I think Joe D took 2 pretty big gambles on Smith and Jennings. Both have huge upside but thy are also chuckers that take a ton of bad shots at a low percentage. Hope, Datome and Billups are probably not the answer for the lack of outside shooting. I don't think Smith fits well with the games of Drummond and Monroe. They probably should have targeted a SF that has more of an outside shooting game (although I do like what he brings to the table on the defensive end)

This team will struggle to score. My guess is they stay the same as far as points per game as last year. From what I have read Jennings isn't a good defender and we don't know what we will be getting on the defensive end from the SG position.

I think they will have a better record than last year....maybe a little under .500 and flirting with the 8 seed in the east. Unless Drummond turns into a superstar...this team will be mediocre for years to come.
 
Mitchrapp said:
That's why the NBA sucks. You get a lower grade by improving your team instead of staying status quo by sucking and getting a top 5 pick.
Click to expand...

Yup philly got an A for trading away their best player and getting an extra high 1st rd pick for next yrs draft
 
tomdalton22 said:
I think Joe D took 2 pretty big gambles on Smith and Jennings. Both have huge upside but thy are also chuckers that take a ton of bad shots at a low percentage. Hope, Datome and Billups are probably not the answer for the lack of outside shooting. I don't think Smith fits well with the games of Drummond and Monroe. They probably should have targeted a SF that has more of an outside shooting game (although I do like what he brings to the table on the defensive end)

This team will struggle to score. My guess is they stay the same as far as points per game as last year. From what I have read Jennings isn't a good defender and we don't know what we will be getting on the defensive end from the SG position.

I think they will have a better record than last year....maybe a little under .500 and flirting with the 8 seed in the east. Unless Drummond turns into a superstar...this team will be mediocre for years to come.
Click to expand...

We drafted KCP to be a SF with outside shooting ability. Well see how that goes.
 
I thought he was a SG...

Anyway, I'll say a B for now. I'm more optimistic about Josh Smith than some. Dunno about Jennings. I have high hopes for KCP. Mitchell and Datome are intriguing.

They'll get better as the year goes on, and end up around #6 seed methinks.
 
Opps I misread yeah hes a SG but he can shoot outside. Datome, however, is an SF who was brought in just to shoot 3's. He shot a very high percentage in the Italian league. He will likely be mixed into a lot of lineups to stretch the floor a bit.
 
jrange378 said:
Opps I misread yeah hes a SG but he can shoot outside. Datome, however, is an SF who was brought in just to shoot 3's. He shot a very high percentage in the Italian league. He will likely be mixed into a lot of lineups to stretch the floor a bit.
Click to expand...

you are who you guard....datome isn't guarding any sf's.
 
lgolfer said:
He's 6'9" and 210lbs. I'm not saying he'll be a star defender, but he should be able to guard at least some SFs.
Click to expand...

I don't know what kind of defender this guy is. I did look at a youtube highlight video of him and he was surprisingly athletic for a white euro. I understand it was highlights but I was still impressed.

here is a link....I would mute it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuqnXd34GX0
 
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