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| Detroit Pistons Offseason | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 11 2013, 12:39 AM (93 Views) | |
| Charle$ | Aug 11 2013, 12:39 AM Post #1 |
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![]() Detroit Pistons Offseason: When Gores bought the team three years ago, he informed Joe Dumars that he had four years to compete his rebuilding project and to make the playoffs. The 2013 offseason was is the 4th year, so some might say that his job is on the line right now. The moves for the Detroit Pistons' 2013 offseason actually began last offseason, when Joe Dumars packaged together a protected first round pick and Ben Gordon and sent them to Charlotte for Cory Maggette. The logic behind this trade? Moving on from the disaster 2009 offseason, and clearing more cap space for the 2013 free agent class. Paying a future first to gain this cap flexibility came at a risky price, even though it is protected, the Pistons are the type of team that could end up just making it out of the protection and losing the pick for "one of the best draft classes in recent history". Coaching change: Lawrence Frank fired, Mo Cheeks hired. The Pistons fired yet another coach that didn't seem to work out that well. I had a major problem with Lawrence Frank for a couple of reasons. The first, only playing Andre Drummond 20 minutes per game and rarely playing him with Greg Monroe. What team doesn't play their best two players on the floor at the same time? Second, his in-game adjustments were always extremely slow and by the time he made them, the outcome had already been decided. Mo Cheeks is an interesting coach that doesn't have much of a style or scheme to put into place, he's coached fast teams with great offenses and he's coached slow teams with very strong defenses. Having a type of coach like this can be alright, and I hope that he understands what pace and tactics he can put into place with the players on the roster to put them in the best position to succeed. Cheeks was most recently in OKC where he serves as a personal mentor to Russell Westbrook, who gets very emotional during games, but has shown constant improvement. Gaining control of a young roster gives Cheeks and his staff the opportunity to help develop several players with tons of potential. The draft: Detroit finished an awful 29-53 last season. The problem with their whole rebuilding process is that they have never truly just thrown in the towel and hoped for the top pick. They've been bad, but just not bad enough. The team has ended up drafting past the top-5 in all of their recent selections (Monroe, Knight, Drummond). While some of these players look to have promise, drafting higher could have warranted drafting other positions or more talented players (yeah, looking at you Knight). After the lotto, Detroit received the 8th pick. Many analysts and fans were expecting Detroit to select either a point guard or a shooting guard. The two players who's names kept coming up were Trey Burke (PG, Michigan), and Shabazz Mohammad (SG, UCLA). Since Burke played for the University of Michigan and just had a phenomenal year in the college game, almost winning a title on top of everything, getting picked by Detroit who needed backcourt help seemed like it would be the perfect fit. With a crazy beginning to the draft, Detroit came on the clock with both players still on the board things were looking like they were going to fall as expected for Detroit. Then, everything changed, and they selected Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (SG, Georgia). Coming up to the draft, I hadn't even heard rumors about him working out with the Pistons. KCP has the size of a pro-SG, at 6'6" - 200, he's actually pretty perfect. He averaged 18 PPG/7 RPG and was named SEC Player of the Year in his Sophomore season. The one thing that he does really well that the Pistons are going to need is shooting from range. He's an extremely athletic player, on defense he has the ability to make an error and then correct it because of his athleticism. I think that this pick is actually going to turn out to be pretty good in a couple of years. In the second round, Detroit was also able to land Tony Mitchell and Peyton Siva, both players looked skilled in their summer league performances. Mitchell is a very explosive PF, he kind of reminds me of a Josh Smith type player. While Peyton Siva posted the best A/TO ratio out of all of the summer league participants. Siva sort of reminds me of a lesser Rondo or a young Tony Parker. If he can ever develop a jumpshot, he's going to be dangerous. Free Agency: Detroit signed one of, if not the biggest name in the free agent class, Josh Smith. Smith has played in Atlanta for his whole career until expressing his extreme displeasure last season. With a roster that already has Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe in the frontcourt, obviously the Josh Smith signing was a little surprising. Josh Smith can play SF and will have to start there on the new-look Pistons team, but just because of that, doesn't mean that he won't get minutes at PF as well. Smith is great defender, passer, and finisher for his position, but has been know to be inefficient when stepping away from the basket. However, one thing is for sure, and that is Josh Smith is a very talented player and has star power. He's easily one of the best PFs in the league and one of the most versatile players. Joe Dumars has came out and said that he doesn't really care that Josh Smith is more of a PF than SF, because he feels like Smith is a high IQ basketball player and he will be able to figure it out. They were also able to terms with former-Pistons PG (FMVP) Chauncey Billups. Even though Billups hasn't played that much the last two years with the Clippers, this was a great signing and now he will be able to end his career in Detroit. The things that he's going to bring to the team that are the most valuable is going to be his leadership and his experience, he's a winner and this team was in desperate need of someone like that. Trade: Brandon Knight for Brandon Jennings Some people hate the trade, others love it. The thing that really stands out is that Jennings has basically shown people what he can do in the league, while Knight is still sort of unproven. Knight as an NBA PG, just doesn't seem like a legitimate option. He's turnover-prone, he doesn't run an offense that well, he's more of just a spot-up shooter, he's not a good finisher. There's a lot of problems in Knights game that need serious addressing. Jennings is a lot different, and a much better player than Brandon Knight is right now. So in terms of "right now", Detroit wins this trade (unless you honestly feel like Jennings can make teams worse...). Jennings gives Detroit a real, young, PG headed forward. His time in Milwaukee has basically labeled him a shotjacker that no franchise should want to have, but this situation is totally different. He's going from being the star on a team, that expects and demands him to score a ton of points in order for them to compete ... to a team where's he's going to be the 3rd-4th best player. He's also adding in Mo Cheeks, who played the position in the NBA and has worked with Russell Westbrook, and Chauncey Billups, who is one of the best leaders in the NBA. Throw in a little bit of Rasheed Wallace and Joe Dumars, and he's not going to be throwing up 15-20 shots a night in Detroit. In an interview after the trade Jennings made some interesting comments, ones that basically stated that he would have to change his game because of the roster around him. Quote from the Interview: "“You’re going to see a whole different player,” Jennings said. “…I definitely have to change my game.” “The things that I was doing in Milwaukee, I won’t have to do here, take all the bad shots,” Jennings said. “Now, I can just actually be myself and be who I was five years ago when I was in high school, playing AAU basketball.” Link: probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/08/06/brandon-jennings-says-pistons-could-become-lob-city-pledges-to-change-his-game/ How Brandon Jennings Fits: Jennings excels in the pick and roll situation. Last season for the Bucks, he shot just over 40% FG and just under 40% from 3PT. He's now on a roster with Greg Monroe, Josh Smith, and Andre Drummond. Having these sort of pick and roll options is going to really be beneficial to his assist numbers and what he wants to do on offense. He'll be able to use the high screen and roll with pick and pop players like Monroe and Smith to create 3PT opportunities for himself, and he'll also be able to roll to the basket and throw lobs to Andre Drummond. Another thing, with players like Monroe and Smith who will want the ball in iso situations on the block, this will take away from Jennings' iso opportunities. Last year, Jennings shot under 30/20%s from FG/3PT in iso situations. Basically, he's a great ball handler for the pick&roll, a good spot up shooter, and he can get into transition. Don't forget that Chauncey Billups is on the roster and he can play PG. I would think that Billups will get to be the primary ball handler in some situations, which will allow Jennings to get some spot-up attempts instead of having to run the offense all night. Info from: http://mysynergysports.com/ This whole offseason has actually been just upgrading the overall talent of the roster and I think Joe Dumars deserves credit in accomplishing that goal. This team has went from another year being in the lotto to a playoff team in the Eastern conference, and trust me, it's not a team that I would want to face in a 7game series. The positioning of the team is definitely going to be weird, and there are obvious problems like spacing that can be brought up, but this is arguably the most talented roster Detroit has had since 2007 or 2008. Dumars has also mentioned that this team feels like Memphis as in how we have three big men that like to operate in the paint, and it ended up working pretty good for them. A simple prediction is that the Pistons will finish about the 6th seed in the Eastern conference. |
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| Rog | Aug 12 2013, 12:55 PM Post #2 |
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:-?
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Grade: 1.1k |
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