What is your ideal move for Gores and Pistons
Another boring football news period, so as I watched the NBA finals I got to thinking about what Gores can do to make the Pistons a top echelon team, again, if possible.
The newest NBA trend is to have a multi-star team. Superstars can't do it alone as LeBron has learned. It may not be possible to get the 3-Star team like Miami, but what if we had a team with 2 solid superstars. This is all wishful thinking, but the next two years both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul are moving on. What if Gores can open up his checkbook and draw these two to the D.
I know, I know, not likely, but here are a few things that might help.
1. Although the Pistons lack a superstar, we do have a number of SOLID players. Rip, Stuckey, Monroe, Gordon, Charlie V. (meh), hooked up with the likes of Paul and Howard would be a formidable force. Miami doesn't have much of a bench, but they can survive wth 3 stars. 2 super stars with a bunch of solid veterans may be tough to beat.
2. Detroit City would give these guys idol status if they came in and lifted the spirits of a beat up city with a long playoff run or championship. Idol status is hard to come by on the coasts (NY or LA).
I'm not sure about a coach, yet, but you don't need a proven veteran coach who has been to half the teams in the league already. The young pup coach in Miami is doing pretty well.
Again, this is fantasy, but one can dream. Gores has money, let's see if he can use it.
Food for thought as we dream of September.
I've acknowledged the low-if not negative-trade values of those players many times on this board. All of Hamilton, Gordon, VIllanueva, and Maxiell put up career low or bottom two seasons in minutes played last season. Of course they couldn't perform well enough to justify those millions.
I have no idea what Joe was thinking when he signed Gordon after extending Hamilton. Perhaps he envisioned BG playing some minutes at PG and Hamilton some at SF. Either way, none of our bad contracts have been given the opportunity to warrant the money we pay them, especially when Rip fell out of the rotation entirely for a stretch, Maxiell got DNP-CDs for 25 games, Gordon has the red light to shoot, and Daye got a shot to start at PF before Villanueva did.
Their production, our team success, and the generosity of their contracts have all been affected by their usage and our scheme. We would have won more games, our players would be happier, and Joe's seat wouldn't be so warm if our best players were consistently on the floor.
and draft Wade or Melo
As a Pistons fan: Bill Laimbeer.
As a Michigan fan: Tom Izzo.
This is what a new owner can do with money and vision under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. I’ll outline where money can help and where it can’t.
- Spend money on a top notch coaching staff. If your plan is to go young you probably want a younger coach but the most important thing is the assistants. Pay for great assistants and basketball development coaches. You want to develop your talent to the fullest and put your current players in the best places to succeed. This can help.
- Out spend the competition in your scouting and advance scouting departments. If you can trade for undervalued existing players and draft undervalued amateurs better than the competition this obviously helps.
- Do like Dallas and upgrade your locker room, facilities, and trainers. This makes the team player friendly and encourages current players to stick around and work out and train more on their free time. Better training staff and medical staff also means less injuries.
- Spend cash when making trades. The current CBA allows you to throw 3 million into any trade or transaction. For example late first round picks usually go for 3 million dollars and often you can move up in the draft by throwing in a few million dollars. Portland, OKC, and Houston have done this a lot recently and they all have a lot of coveted assets. Opposing teams that are cash strapped are also willing to make bad trades sometimes if they can get 3 million back in lieu of a decent player.
- Overpay for great players but don’t’ overpay for marginal players. Try to find good role players on the cheap, and save your cap space for trades and free agents.
- Hire a top notch stats/data analytics guy. There are about 10 teams in the league that do this to work with their coaching staff, advance scouts, and draft scouts. This can help around the margins and occasionally help find diamonds in the rough and help with talent decisions in general.
All in all this probably costs about 10-20 million more a year than your average to bad owners are willing to spend but will pay huge dividends in the long run. What owners can’t do under the current CBA is just outspend their peers; this isn’t baseball. Dallas has done all of these things last 12 years and they haven’t had and under 50-win season since. If you think that’s all Dirk then you’ve forgotten how many sub 50-win seasons teams headlined by LBJ, Kobe, Dwade, Chris Paul, and KG have had in that same time span. Hopefully your owner is a bit more humble than Cuban but he is a great example to follow as far as where to spend money.
Great players are max contract players unless they're on their rookie contract or agree to take less (e.g., James/Wade) and, as such, are generally underpaid.
The key is finding bargains (rookies, max players, role players) and avoiding overpaying non-elite players.
As for everything else - totally agree.
I'd add another action. Demand a rebuild. No more clinging to hopes of remaining in contention of the 8th seed. Joe D's said that it's important to remain competitive - BS. The directive has to come from the top - infuse the roster with young talent.
If you're waiting for Detroit to sign a few "superstar" free agents, you're going to be waiting for an awfully long time.
IMO, you start simple.
The rumored Rip and the Pistons 8th overall pick to Cleveland so Cleveland can buy-out Rip's contract would be fantastic.
Then it gets more complicated.
The next step would be for Gores to fight like hell to make sure that the rumored contract exemption rule is a part of the new CBA. If I have understood the proposed rule correctly, it would make it so each team could eliminate one player's salary from their cap per year (you would still have to pay the player, it's just their salary won't be counted against you).
The obvious move then would be to choose Ben Gordon's contract for exemption, thus freeing up $13 million(?) from the salary cap. You then sit on that money, don't spend it on free agents, and try to build through the draft by trading expiring contracts for future draft picks.
This would take a number of years, but unless you happen to win the draft lottery, and there happens to be a Lebron James/Derrick Rose caliber of player in the draft pool, then this is way to go.
The worst thing the Pistons could possibly do, is what they've been doing. You need to be one of the 2-3 worst teams in order to build back up. If you're consistently picking 4-10 in the NBA draft, chances are you're going to toil in mediocrity.
the Pistons should hire:
Mike Woodson or Lawrence Frank. Both have HC experience and have coached from a dismal team to a playoff contender within years.
Moves:
Trade Rip Hamilton since his contract is essentially an expiring contract with the lockout looming next season(technically he has 2 more years left but with lockout, it's almost a year contract).
Resign Jonas Jerebko and Chris Wilcox(Wilcox as a depth player)
Draft Bismack Biyombo at #8. He's a young kid with huge upside. Freakishly athletic with NBA body(6'9" 240 lbs with 7'7" wingspan). Outstanding defender who can block shots. Excellent rebounder. At worst, he'll be a great interior defender. He's very raw with room to grow into a dominant low post scorer. Once he figures out the game, sky is the limit. He may end up being the best player in the draft when all is said and done.
Release due to expiring contracts:
Tayshaun Prince
Chris Wilcox
Tracy McGrady
DaJuan Summers
Uncertainity:
#8 draft pick
Ben Wallace retirement
That leaves with the roster of:
Ben Gordon
Charlie Villanueva
Jason Maxiell
Will Bynum
Chris Wilcox
Rodney Stuckey
Greg Monroe
Austin Daye
Jonas Jerebko
Terrico White
That leave 3 slots to fill. One of them is certainly going to be filled via 1st round pick unless it's traded for players. The Pistons will probably committed about 38-40 millions to the roster(35,613,032 are already committed to players on the roster if Hamilton is traded). The salary cap is projected to be about 60 million. That's nearly 20 million of cap space. Even if the Pistons have players in return from the draft picks and Rip Hamilton, they will have about 8-9 million of cap space.
Clear up cap space and build a super-team like Miami did.
First off, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol are not superstars.
Second, we need hire to Bill Laimbeer. Im sick of the Pistons hiring their own reject assistant coaches (see Michael Curry, John Kuester, and Mike Woodson would be the third)
Third, If Derrick Williams, Brandon Knight, Enes Kanter, Tristian Thompson, or Kyrie Irving, we should just go home. Darko has scarred me on International players for life.
Lastly, we need to simply cut Rip or try to package him in a deal for Al Jefferson. Utah has 4 all-star caliber bigs, somebody has to go. If Joe can't pull that off, I say we tank the season to draft Harrison Barnes. That's the superstar we need.
Enes Kanter is Turkish, aka international. As a matter of fact, Tristan Thompson is Canadian.
I just made them scary, didn't I?
a superstar.
There are a lot of successful international players playing in the NBA. There's Steve Nash(duh), Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Yao Ming(before the injuries), and to name a few. To say that you don't want an international player means that you're going to pass up a potential superstar for a possible medicore player. One failure shouldn't deter you from not taking international player. If that player is a good player, you take that player instead of reaching for a medicore player. It's funny that you mentioned Kanter and Thompson because both are international player. Shows how much you know about NBA draft.
I don't want Al Jefferson because he carries a big contract and does not fit in with Greg Monroe. He's a terrible defender. Pistons need a tough interior defender who can bang with the bigs.
I don't know how you define "superstar," but Pau and Nash are both too twenty players in the league. Pau in particular is a rare talent, who plays great defense, has great post moves, and shoots 85%ish from the line.
Maybe a young up and coming attorney from Los Angeles thats worked for him before who can be a middle man between Tom and Joe...
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<br>Tommy you got my number!
Tell Dumars to not be afraid to (continue) to play in front of mostly empty arenas, so they can truly suck, and not just be bad, and get a top draft pick enough years that they can get the next Derrick Rose. Because unless you get a superstar through the draft, you're not going to attract other free agents. But there's been a mentality that you have to win as many games as you can for ego/selling tickets/making money, rather than be in position to make your team good enough to win a title, which is what really matters. Last year they end up with a top three pick but for a mini-win streak at the end of the season, including beating a T-Wolves team in a meaningless last game...then watching the two teams in the lottery in front of them jump up.
But this thread has depressed me and made me think it was hopeless. So I'm going to say he can at least afford an Auomotion for every seat-
(And this is ON-topic)
FFS, just don't hire Isiah and in a couple year, they'll probably be decent.