OT - Pistons just cut Josh Smith
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:34 PM ^
I just looked over their roster and its unbelievably bad. They have Monroe and Drummond and that's it. Jennings is an average PG at best, KCP shouldn't even been in the league let alone a starting SG, and they just don't have a SF. I mean you could probably swap out their entire bench for guys you found at the local Lifetime Fitness or YMCA and wouldn't be much worse off.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:15 PM ^
"I mean you could probably swap out their entire bench for guys you found at the local Lifetime Fitness or YMCA and wouldn't be much worse off."
Stop saying stuff like that. You'll give the 76ers ideas.
December 22nd, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
at your assertion on KCP....
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
i had a chicago friend (bulls friend) saying it was a good signing for the pistons at the time, but he plays fanatasy basketball. i told him that smith may be ok in fantasy, but he's a dude that likes to shoot (but not well) and is poor defender. horrible signing for that kind of money.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^
Can we bring out Muppets for this occasion?
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^
one of the worst contracts in nba history. why dumars couldn't see that is beyond belief. i am not an nba cap expert, but hopefully some of those $ fall of the table, else the pistons are still screwed for a few more years.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
Correction: They waived him. Some other team can pick him up and take on his contract (but no one in their right mind will) or he will become a free agent. If he becomes a free agent, this Pistons will take a $5.4 million dollar cap hit for the next 5 years.
I just think they were tired of dealing with him. He has a bad attitude and is uncoachable. His contract is also untradable. The Pistons simply wanted to move on without the drama of benching their highest paid player and watching his cancerous attitude corrupt the locker room.
They're likely just going to play most of their young players, effectively tanking the season in order to land a high draft pick.
Edit: As has been pointed out elsewhere...Joe Dumars trades a draft pick for Rasheed Wallace and it wins him a title. That draft pick becomes Josh Smith, who ends up getting Dumars fired. It all comes full circle.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^
by dumping him they are creating nearly $9M of cap space per year for the next five years (ie. spreading out the remaining contract over 5 years). i thought the cap hit would be worse up front. smart move by van gundy.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^
The Kings offered expiring contracts for him last summer but Van Gundy wanted more value. Oops!
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
From what I heard those were just rumors, and there were never any serious negotiations.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
Obviously a bad signing, but didn't see cutting him coming. There were no indications that this was on the way. With that said, glad they dumped him as it allows the process of bottoming out and rebuilding to truly begin.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
There is no doubt this makes them better as a team.
5-23.
Next 28 games? 12-16? Anyone think they go higher than that?
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
Van Gundy has said that they're going to start playing the young guys more (Dinwiddie) and getting them more involved in the offense (KCP, Drummond). That will almost certainly translate to more losses, even if Jerebko and Monroe eating Smith's minutes is a good thing.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:06 PM ^
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^
Jennings contract isn't that bad. And he has only one year left after this season. Could possibly trade him, but I wouldn't expect much in return.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:21 PM ^
Thank goodness.. only hope I have for this team is Drummond and MAYBE a little hope for Caldwell-Pope. Everybody else is not good.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^
Meeks is good too! Just shooting a little rusty coming back from injury. There's some hope for Dinwiddie yet too.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:46 PM ^
Forgot about Meeks, haven't been able to watch recent games. Meeks was a bright spot on Lakers last year. At this point I'm hoping for a top-3 draft pick, Jennings to be gone, and a decent Free Agent (like Wesley Matthews).
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:51 PM ^
If nothing else, Meeks is a really solid 6th man. Personally, I think he's good enough to be a starter if you aren't asking to run the offense through him. I think Wesley Matthews would be a great signing, good call there. Big enough to play SF if you want to throw him out there with Meeks and he's a great defender. A lot of people get recognized as "3-and-D" guys, but Matthews is one of the few who truly fit the billing.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^
having a good Pistons team to watch. When they're this bad basketball is pretty much removed from my life.
/dig up Davison and make his reanimated corpse run the team again
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:35 PM ^
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:30 PM ^
i also like the prospects of the 2015 draft, especially some big men. pistons should have a very high pick that helps immediately. they will also have plenty of cash depending on what happens with monroe. maybe they unload monroe and jennings to a contender for a role player. then draft a big man and sign a point guard.
plenty of directions they can go now with the dumping of smith. i think van gundy is the right guy to make these future moves.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:36 PM ^
Monroe has a no-trade clause so won't be easy to trade him. He loses his Bird Rights if he is traded.
December 22nd, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
I think you have to play with the same team for 8 seasons in order to get one...
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
why not trade him?
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
Missed the boat on trading him this summer. According to Wojnarowski, they could have traded him for Carl Landry and Jason Thompson this past off-season. Either way, this move isn't much worse than a Smith for Landry/Thompson deal. Both of those guys are also fairly useless and on bad deals. Just not a deal to be had that would've made sense for the Pistons long-term.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:48 PM ^
In short, his value was so poor they were better off simply waiving him than trading him. Due to his contract they would have had to pay to get rid of him, so they were better off just letting him go.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^
SVG definitely tried very hard to do so. But they would have had to package a first rounder with him in all likelihood - something they can't afford to do again after just losing one because of the Ben Gordon trade.
On top of that, the Pistons would only have gotten bad contracts in return, which would have been just as much as a handicap on the Pistons' cap as waiving him and using the stretch provision.
It's also worth pointing out that the new TV deal should alleviate the $5.4M/year the Pistons will have to pay until 2020. Salary cap has risen every year and is bound to take a good leap up with the massive TV deal they just signed.
December 22nd, 2014 at 2:02 PM ^
The salary cap is projected to jump by as much as $20 million next season and continue to tick upward at an aggressive rate.
I think the Pistons will be just fine.
Source: http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/10/projecting-future-nba…
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
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December 22nd, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
FAN-tastic? Yes. It USED to be.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:59 PM ^
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^
I thought in a vacuum it was a great signing but wasn't sure about the fit. Josh Smith had some All-star calibur years with the Hawks and has 4 he is a defensive monster and can be a plus on the offensive side if he doesn't shoot jumpers. He's always been one of the best finishers in the league. The problem in Detroit as a 3 he had two other guys in the front court who wouldn't shoot and apparently he was also a pain in the ass to deal with. If he was on an expiring the Pistons would have got lots of offers.
Although in retrospect it was an awful signing because of the fit I still think 5-6 teams will bid on him with the Lakers, Knicks, and Kings going after him especially hard.
December 22nd, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:04 PM ^
Good. Never was a good fit, and no reason to keep this going. Maybe now the team will try to spread out the court a bit more.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:06 PM ^
As SDW already said this is frustrating given the fact that they could've unloaded him for expiring contracts over the summer. However, I think this is a positive move as it shows that the Pistons are willing to put support behind a proven coach and young talent rather than a big a contract.
Upsetting but not surprising that Dumars' last two desperation moves haven't panned out. Knight is more or less outplaying Jennings this year. Though the jury is still somewhat out on KCP his minutes may get vultured by Meeks, which makes the fact that they didn't draft Burke even more disappointing. Really would like to see Drummond run a P&R game with a PG who was tailor-made for that offense.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^
to unload him. That's probably what they would have to do at this point.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:59 PM ^
Even if the market had opened up a bit more down the road I still think this is the right move.
It lets players know that the coach and management aren't screwing around which is an attitude adjustment that this team has desperately needed since Larry Brown left. To have a team that is on the same page is exceedingly important in a place like Detroit where you aren't likely to woo a big name FA. This team needs to win by playing like a team because they aren't going to do it by going out and grabbing superstars.
Also, they aren't going to have to eat the contract for long. Josh Smith is too talented for 29 other teams to pass on him.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
They need to bite the bullet, do the right thing, and blow this team up for draft-picks. Maybe keep Drummond and build around him -- if he's willing to be the anchor of a total rebuild. Which he may not be. Beyond him, they really have a bunch of replaceable and poorly matched parts. Monroe is good but not great. And he doesn't want to be here anyway.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^
Honestly, the NBA is a joke. It has been a joke since the mid 90s. A bunch of guys who are put out there and have absolutely no incentive to produce or even look like they give a shit. I automatically think less of someone who still identifies as an NBA fan.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
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December 22nd, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^
point total, it appears that people generally feel the same way about as you do about NBA fans.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:33 PM ^
They need to figure out if Drummond is someone they can build their roster around. Because they could be in position to draft Okafor, and they won't be able to play together. His comp has always been Dwight Howard, and in his 3rd year, Dwight was further along offensively than this. Dwight was also a beast defensively, an area Drummond oddly doesn't have much of presence, despite similar athleticism.
If Drummond shows that he is, then they need to be looking at Emmanuel Mudiay. That's really the only concern the team should have right now. Nobody else on the roster is a long-term solution or anything to build around.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
This is Drummond's first year with a coach who is devoted to developing him, I'm fine with giving him more time. His numbers started out slow but his field goal percentage has shot up considerably the past month, implying that he's getting more comfortable offensively. Also, to say Drummond doesn't have much presence defensively is incorrect. He averages 2 blocks and a steal/game in addition to being a beast on the glass. He does have a tendency to get lost on switches and help defense, but I think it's correctable.
Even if he isn't the next Dwight I don't think that's a reason not to build around him. He's easily the most talented player on this roster and they can't blow everything up. I would love to see them pair him with a true stretch four. I'd even be open to them pairing him with Okafor if they could acquire some defensive-minded, 3 point shooters at SF and SG and a P&R PG.
December 22nd, 2014 at 1:59 PM ^
Andre will be fine. He got off to a relatively slow start, but has been averaging 15 and 14 with 2 blocks and a steal and a half over the last month. The only games this month where he hasn't had a double double have been due to foul trouble.