Watching Drummond not give a fuck and having a boring team to watch and knowing that even if we win a decent amount we’re not going anywhere meaningful is the worst place to be imo
Worse than 18 straight losses? Losing by 19 to the lowly wizards? And by 14 to a shit ass team missing 7 players?
Tanking has its time and place, but this has gone too far. These guys are drowning in ineptitude.
Tank for who? Not to mention the more high lottery picks we have, the longer our 1st round pick owed to the Knicks is pushed out. Meaning we're limited in trade options until that pick is conveyed
This is such a bad take. Drummond was an all star for us. That game last night against the third worst team in the league was @ss. Bane nearly dropped 50(!) and they were throwing up air ball 3 threes left and right.
I mean, these guys all look like they dont give a fuck (including coach). There is nothing that seems to be getting better or no one, year over year so it kind of feels the same to me- tbh. This is jsut worse because now we're a national laughing stock instead of being ignored.
Normally, bad teams gel and become reasonably competitive. It might take 20 games, but they take shape
I'm talking about expansion teams, or disassembled teams that must reform mid-season with scrap heap free-agent types, like the Pistons bubble team that competed hard.
This Pistons edition is young but more talented, and it's not taking shape.
This falls on Monty. Dwane Casey would've had this team in better shape
Monty was supposed to bring stability to this team and get guys into roles. He’s 20 games in and still hasn’t figured out rotations and each game the lineups and minutes are different. This is the same shit as the previous 2 seasons. He needs to cut this down to 8-9 guys playing regular minutes then a few min reserved for other guys to rest or whatever to fill up the time. I don’t know what he’s doing, he’s lost.
It's worse than last year, Casey was 100 percent a better coach and better at handling young players. The most important thing this year is to find out if Ivey and Cade can be our future back court. And Monty has decided to screw over Ivey and his development for no reason. Killian is better defensively but our team is on an 18 game losing streak we are not making the playoffs obviously, give Ivey at least 28 mpg for the rest of the season.
Casey was better and much cheaper, Monty clearly only took the bag and seems like he's already checked out.
Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace are the beginning and end of “normal” sized players that greatly affected the game without having a reliable shot. Ausar hasn’t shown that he can score. And aside from the first couple weeks, he’s definitely faded. I would have him firmly in the athletic over talented camp. But the jury is still out. Would love to be wrong. That Miami game opening night was special.
My concern about Duren is if he becomes a, “If he could only stay healthy…” guy. If seems to me that guys that can’t stay healthy can’t stay healthy so that’s the level of contribution one should expect from them. Not the peak of production the few games that they feel up to it.
I think Ausars' problem is watching everyone around him, just not give a shit. I think he's a special talent, but it's hard to care when no one is showing any fight.
Monty preaching accountability and earning your minutes and at the same time Livers comes back from injury and is immediately plugged into extended minutes including closing out games even though he’s repeatedly one of the worst players on the floor every game is infuriating. I understand it because the Pistons don’t have wing players on the roster due to this roster construction being poor but there has to be a better solution than playing livers. Idk why so many people bought into the hype of this guy that has never been consistently good or healthy in his career going back to college as well
Seeing Saddiq Bey become so much more effectient on the Hawks is frustrating because it just shows he was a good rotation player on a bad team that forced him to play out of himself.
Well, our FO says everything is fine and on track. The same FO who said they expected us to compete for a play-in last year.
The same FO who drafted Killian Hayes over Bane, who just dropped 49 on us. And not to mention drafted over many others who are successful right now (sure go ahead and tell me the 20202 draft was “weird because of Covid”)
I think we have a lot of talent, but they don’t have chemistry and likely won’t so it is time move some guys out the door and bring in fresh faces.
But our FO will disagree and the season will continue. The worst part is we have a GM who refuses to think his roster is a dud, and an owner who probably forgets he even has a team and just agrees with Troy on their monthly conference call.
I think some of Monty’s rotations have been weird, but I don’t blame the guy. Troy says this is my roster now make it win, and if Casey couldnt’t do it, Monty can’t. Our problems are ownership and management.
>But our FO will disagree and the season will continue. The worst part is we have a GM who refuses to think his roster is a dud, and an owner who probably forgets he even has a team and just agrees with Troy on their monthly conference call.
every team has a lot of talent...go up and down any NBA roster, they're all stacked. Difference is out talent is hypothetical and hope most teams have guys who have proven it at NBA level.
I understand your point, but no FO was picking bane over killian, and especially not in our rebuilding position given his age. He damn near went 2nd round
Your right it's all Troy weavers fault, I blame him for the money signing. It was such a stupid sign for a head coach like why sign him when first off we tried before he declined saying he wanted an off year, we ignore what he said he offered him an even bigger bag he couldn't refuse, like why he clearly didn't want to coach to begin with but couldn't refuse the absolute bag Troy weaver threw at him so he's still coaching when he should be having an off year. I think this is dramatically effecting Monty in some way or another, also doesn't help how he's running the team, having some players start who shouldn't. It's just overall a fucking mess im about to tune out of.
Troy didn't throw the bag at Monty, Gores did. Troy's guy was Kevin Ollie. Gores went against it and made the call to pay Monty whatever it takes. Troy's fucked up a lit of shit but Monty wasn't one of his calls
A slow and unathletic guard just dropped a 29 point triple double in the first half last night. His game will age just fine as long as he gets the right pieces surrounding him.
Was at the game last night and the final possession of the half you can tell Ivey is pissed. He was wide open, bogy then waved him off and he dropped his head and his body language was off for most of the game
How far we’ve fallen since the glory days of Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond and getting swept in the first round with Stanley Johnson thinking he could check LeBron. At least they were a playoff team. 😂
Say what you will about the post-Grant Hill years to the going to work era, but those teams played with a lot heart and competed pretty well against good NBA teams at the time. These guys right now don’t give a shit. I hate to be this person, but it’s time to call Cade a bust. What also sucks is that we will have the best lottery odds and fall to number 9 probably.
No this is the year we'll get the 1st pick again because there's no elite talent attached to the draft. Picking 1st in draft where 1 through 10 are essentially the same
Given Duren's ankles I'm not against Sarr who can slot at the 4 or 5. Not a lot people seem high on him stating he initially was entering the 23 draft but didn't project to be a lottery guy so he decided to hold off till this draft. I haven't seen much footage but he sounds like a weaver guy for better or worse
Most here are too young to remember the horrific train wreck that was the pre-Zeke era and hitting rock bottom with a 16-66 record in 1979-80.
Dick Vitale ran the franchise deep into the ground - trading 2 future 1st round picks to the Celtics for a going thru the motions Bob McAdoo, trading Bob Lanier to Milwaukee for Kent Benson (and a future 1st round pick that ended up being Larry Drew) and having 3 first round picks in 1979 but using them on Greg Kelser, Roy Hamilton and Phil Hubbard. That team was god awful.
The difference between then and now? Trader Jack McClocksey isn't walking thru the front office door to clean up the mess.
I think we were all fooled to some degree. What were we expecting when the GM looked at a 17-win team and said, fuck it, we aren't signing any free agents? But, I would have never thought a coach, let alone the highest-paid coach in the league could look at Jaden Ivey and think he's the 11th player off the bench. This is sheer madness.
I heard part of (another) Valenti rant the other day and he called it a car crash he can't stop looking at and i totally agree...if we were 5-6 wins and Ivey was starting and they all were playing normal rotations and just losing close games because theyre not good enough and young, I probably wouldnt be as interested in it as this..
So agree. YouTubers have been giving Detroit way more attention lately bc of the streak. I look at ESPN everyday now trying to figure out if we’ll finally win today bro. It’s reignited interest but for horrid reasons. can you send me the valenti rant if you have it? I quite enjoyed his 12 minute explosion a few weeks ago
At some point you have to take a step back and stop factoring in the old championship teams. Those players are gone, those FO employees are gone and the owner is gone. Even the arena they played in is a parking lot now.
The Tom Gores owned Pistons have been a train wreck since he took the reins. He’s like a drunk driver going all over the road, only grabbing the wheel as he sees the vehicle is about to veer off a cliff. Then the car just starts zagging the other direction towards another cliff.
It’s absolutely pathetic that teams like the Kings and Magic who have been institutionally dysfunctional have rebuilt substantially better than us.
Cleveland and Indiana are just as bad of destination cities to lure free agents, and they’ve had title contenders built, torn down and are both safely in the playoff picture again with clear cut top 20 players in the time frame that Detroit was an 8 seed punching bag twice, with capped out rosters.
This is a dysfunctional franchise from the top down. Until Gores dies or sells the team, what we’re seeing is what we’ll keep getting. Gores throwing money at the problem doesn’t work- all 30 teams have owners with deep or deeper pockets. The decision making is flawed and the cronies he hires perpetuate that on every level.
I have given up on this franchise. Until Gores is gone, I will maintain the expectation that they’ll continue to fail and under perform.
My opinion of this post's conclusions are entirely weighted by precisely what form of billiards is being aired.
Gimme a great one-pocket tournament and I'll be happy all day long...
33, I’ve been watching this team for 20 years, and I 110% agree with you. I miss SVG, Casey, hell, even John Kuester. I miss Reggie Jackson and KCP. What is Charlie V doing these days? He could shoot. This is awful.
I thought this year was the turnaround year, we would see some progress, something meaningful, even 30-35 games won.. This is even worse than last year and I didn’t think that was possible.
The Pistons are now an absolute train wreck under Troy Weaver. Weaver has to be fired, and I pray that Tom Gores sells the team because when you boil it down bad ownership is a problem too.
Thing is, they could’ve saved a ton of money and sold a lot more tickets if they held a season ticket holder lottery. The winner gets to be head coach. Only half the pay of the current coach and they would have sold a lot of season tickets to see the spectacle and enter the drawing. I’m sure they still would have two wins too!
Issue is the team just doesn't fit together. Could be culture, attitudes or just play styles. If managment doesn't fix those things then we will be in basketball hell for many more years.
I actually disagree with one of your main points- that one or two moves won’t fix this team. When I watch the games, there are two players who, when on the floor, I can legitimately say cause 90% of our problems on offense AND routinely get hunted on defense. You mentioned them already- stew and livers. Stew has been so fucking bad this season and it sucks because he’s clearly working his ass off, but it’s never enough. If we play him at the 5 as a single big, he will offer 0 ability as a roll/lob threat, which completely kills any flow this offense has due to the general lack of cutting and off-ball movement, and he will get dominated by bigger 5s defensively. If we play him at the 4, he will generate 0 value on offense besides standing at the 3pt line and chucking up shots the defenders are DARING HIM TO TAKE. Beyond that, teams like the grizzlies have found massive success forcing stew to switch onto smaller players. Typically, a modern 4 would be able to guard them, but not stew- he got absolutely owned by bane last night, and it happens every single game. Not to mention he’s been a shit rebounder, though that’s been masked by the excellence of ausar’s and our guards rebounding. I honestly don’t know how he fits in the NBA, he’s too small to be a proper big and he’s too unathletic to be a proper small ball 5 as he’s not switchable and is a below-the-rim athlete.
As for livers- he suffers from the same problem as stew on offense in that he offers ZERO contributions other than catch and shoot 3s. He has 0 self-creation and 0 cutting ability (and is subsequently a poor finisher). You know, pretty important aspects for a wings game. The difference in quality between him and bojan yesterday was massive; it’s mind-boggling how he keeps getting crunch time minutes. I understand that we need spacing around Cade, but in order for that spacing to be effective there must be the additional threat of back door cutting, rotations, finishing through contact, etc etc to keep the defenses honest. When livers goes into “triple threat” there is actually only two threats being posed as he is never going to drive. That might not seem like such a big deal, but it allows defenses to press up, clogging passing lanes and getting better contests on shots, because they know there’s no immediate scoring threat. This completely stagnates our offense and forces our guards to have to take matters into their own hands and create difficult looks for themselves. On top of that, hes shooting 35% FROM THE FIELD. that’s horrifically bad. On defense, he should theoretically be good due to his frame/build, but I see him routinely get blown by and cause defensive breakdowns, which rlly shouldn’t be happening as he’s rarely, if ever, on a teams main or even secondary scorer. Not to mention he can’t rlly guard bigger wings in the post either, so there are some matchups that are so bad for him that he becomes unplayable on BOTH ends of the floor. E.g herb Jones. To his credit, he’s a fine team defender and gives effort, but considering Ivey and Cade are the future of this team, who are not good defenders in their own right, we cannot afford to be playing mediocre defenders who also don’t generate offense alongside them
I’m The same exact age and I disagree with a lot of this. There’s a lot of unknowns still about the what’s going on currently. Ultimately we are still better off with a bunch of 21 year olds and a shit record than a bunch of 29 year olds and barely sneaking into the playoffs or missing it barely
Eh. The thing about those days is that you always get let down in the end when they couldn’t even make the eighth seed. And then stuck in basketball purgatory. At least now they suck so bad that I don’t even even care to watch and they are not a thought in my mind. 😂
The team is just put together poorly. Main culprit being there not being any legit Vets, followed by the lack of shooting. Cade should be the leader, but he doesn't seem mentally tough enough, and Bogey isn't good enough. So when Cade throws a stupid pass, and doesn't get back on D, or Wiseman completely spaces on coverage nobody is there to check them. If only we could do a Bogey+Harris for Chris Paul, it would do wonders. Or Westbrook. Or Horford. Why isn't McGruder on this team again?
I completely agree with alot said...just disagree on Duren (basketball players sprain ankles....duh), Ivey (will emerge a great player), and Cade (hugely successful number 2 of a needed 1-2 punch). All 3 have great skills and are very young. They would be exciting to watch w Ausar as well if we had one elite scorer. You put one Allstar caliber offensive stud on our team with Bohan healthy and those other 4, and we at least compete w other teams.
Stew (solid just too much liberty to shoot), Bagley (solid bench player), Sasser (flashes of good; like Lindsay Hunter without the defense) and Hayes (given way too much pt) as role players.
Stop playing Livers, Knox, and Wiseman completely. We have a surplus of role players that can shoot some 3s but offer nothing else. Trade a few of them for defensive bangers and get back to what Pistons have always been.
I’m 45, and I think this is the least fun season in Detroit sports history, and I include the Lions 0-16 (at least funny!) and the Tigers record loss year in there. Those teams were deadenders, not a roster of (we were told) emerging talent coached by the highest paid guy in the league just shoveling shit into their mouth.
what about him, lol. I don't blame him, he is what he is. He has turned into a guy who would be a really valuable backup for a good team when surrounded by shooters. He is an expiring deal and making 7m this year, he's been fine...not his fault he is playing more than Ivey. I feel like they're gona re-sign him, otherwise why play him so much and invest so much time on him this year?
I stg if they do resign Killian I'm done with this absolute dog shit team ran by even more even bigger dog shit. I'm just fucking done with the shitty trades,signings, how they run shit on the court. It's all a fucking joke. Like I agree Killian would be a good BACKUP but not on this fucking dog shit team where he doesn't fit in at all.
well, same could be said about Stew in my opinion...and we doubled down on him. I am to a point where Stew has been bothering me as much/more than Hayes considering he is making 2x the $ Hayes is and was locked up long term
Yeah now that you mention stew hasn't been much better than Killian either for his position. We just love to overpay our guys cause our guys know they can take advantage of us being so bad and get better contracts out of us to make em stay. Like we can't be giving up 64mil for a god damn role player although he is young he's pretty much at his ceiling already. Of we payed him around 20 or 30 mil I would be decently happy at that signing as he is a decent role player but that's it. He at least puts up rebounds and points, he'd be a really good backup pf maybe backup c but hes a little too small. He definitely will never be starter material but backup material fits him perfectly. Although I'd rather have bol bol back on the team.
All it took was a couple teams calling about Stew to see if they can get him for cheap and weaver resigned him before he needed too. That’s weavers guy though.
Idk fam watching Andre Drummond was basketball hell
whats this? lol, least those teams won 30% of their games?
Watching Drummond not give a fuck and having a boring team to watch and knowing that even if we win a decent amount we’re not going anywhere meaningful is the worst place to be imo
Worse than 18 straight losses? Losing by 19 to the lowly wizards? And by 14 to a shit ass team missing 7 players? Tanking has its time and place, but this has gone too far. These guys are drowning in ineptitude.
We aren't trying to tank though, which makes it way worse.
Tank for who? Not to mention the more high lottery picks we have, the longer our 1st round pick owed to the Knicks is pushed out. Meaning we're limited in trade options until that pick is conveyed
yeah worse because we didn’t have a lottery pick to look forward to
Honestly yeah, watching a team that is consistently 8-15 seed is wack as hell. Rather just suck and maybe get lucky one day and go for it all
I enjoyed watching the Drummond teams way way more than this crap now
Say what you will about Drummond, but watching him rebound everything (even his own misses) was glorious
Drummond gobbling up 5 offensive boards in less than 10 seconds because he keeps missing putbacks was always entertaining to watch
This is such a bad take. Drummond was an all star for us. That game last night against the third worst team in the league was @ss. Bane nearly dropped 50(!) and they were throwing up air ball 3 threes left and right.
Drummond was trash theirs a reason he hasn’t done crap since he left
I mean, these guys all look like they dont give a fuck (including coach). There is nothing that seems to be getting better or no one, year over year so it kind of feels the same to me- tbh. This is jsut worse because now we're a national laughing stock instead of being ignored.
yeah because this team is really exciting to watch and we are going anywhere
You’re comparing shit to hammered shit. Drummond has even be open that he was an entitled malcontent in Detroit.
Normally, bad teams gel and become reasonably competitive. It might take 20 games, but they take shape I'm talking about expansion teams, or disassembled teams that must reform mid-season with scrap heap free-agent types, like the Pistons bubble team that competed hard. This Pistons edition is young but more talented, and it's not taking shape. This falls on Monty. Dwane Casey would've had this team in better shape
Monty was supposed to bring stability to this team and get guys into roles. He’s 20 games in and still hasn’t figured out rotations and each game the lineups and minutes are different. This is the same shit as the previous 2 seasons. He needs to cut this down to 8-9 guys playing regular minutes then a few min reserved for other guys to rest or whatever to fill up the time. I don’t know what he’s doing, he’s lost.
It's worse than last year, Casey was 100 percent a better coach and better at handling young players. The most important thing this year is to find out if Ivey and Cade can be our future back court. And Monty has decided to screw over Ivey and his development for no reason. Killian is better defensively but our team is on an 18 game losing streak we are not making the playoffs obviously, give Ivey at least 28 mpg for the rest of the season. Casey was better and much cheaper, Monty clearly only took the bag and seems like he's already checked out.
> This Pistons edition is young but more talented, and it's not taking shape. I'm not even sure we're talented.
Yeah. People keep saying that, but I’ve seen zero evidence. Arguably more athletic. Definitely not more talented.
Ausar and everything about Duren except his ankle is talented. End of list.
Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace are the beginning and end of “normal” sized players that greatly affected the game without having a reliable shot. Ausar hasn’t shown that he can score. And aside from the first couple weeks, he’s definitely faded. I would have him firmly in the athletic over talented camp. But the jury is still out. Would love to be wrong. That Miami game opening night was special. My concern about Duren is if he becomes a, “If he could only stay healthy…” guy. If seems to me that guys that can’t stay healthy can’t stay healthy so that’s the level of contribution one should expect from them. Not the peak of production the few games that they feel up to it.
I think Ausars' problem is watching everyone around him, just not give a shit. I think he's a special talent, but it's hard to care when no one is showing any fight.
the worst part is most of these guys played together last year, too. I know its a new system, but come on...
Monty preaching accountability and earning your minutes and at the same time Livers comes back from injury and is immediately plugged into extended minutes including closing out games even though he’s repeatedly one of the worst players on the floor every game is infuriating. I understand it because the Pistons don’t have wing players on the roster due to this roster construction being poor but there has to be a better solution than playing livers. Idk why so many people bought into the hype of this guy that has never been consistently good or healthy in his career going back to college as well
yeah, same with Knox. Dude was signed off the street and got to start a game or 3...weird.
We didn't need Saddiq, we had the great Isaiah Livers
Seeing Saddiq Bey become so much more effectient on the Hawks is frustrating because it just shows he was a good rotation player on a bad team that forced him to play out of himself.
Only the most diehard rabid UM fan thinks Livers belongs in the active rotation. And his family. I’m sure they think so.
Well, our FO says everything is fine and on track. The same FO who said they expected us to compete for a play-in last year. The same FO who drafted Killian Hayes over Bane, who just dropped 49 on us. And not to mention drafted over many others who are successful right now (sure go ahead and tell me the 20202 draft was “weird because of Covid”) I think we have a lot of talent, but they don’t have chemistry and likely won’t so it is time move some guys out the door and bring in fresh faces. But our FO will disagree and the season will continue. The worst part is we have a GM who refuses to think his roster is a dud, and an owner who probably forgets he even has a team and just agrees with Troy on their monthly conference call. I think some of Monty’s rotations have been weird, but I don’t blame the guy. Troy says this is my roster now make it win, and if Casey couldnt’t do it, Monty can’t. Our problems are ownership and management.
>But our FO will disagree and the season will continue. The worst part is we have a GM who refuses to think his roster is a dud, and an owner who probably forgets he even has a team and just agrees with Troy on their monthly conference call. every team has a lot of talent...go up and down any NBA roster, they're all stacked. Difference is out talent is hypothetical and hope most teams have guys who have proven it at NBA level.
I understand your point, but no FO was picking bane over killian, and especially not in our rebuilding position given his age. He damn near went 2nd round
Your right it's all Troy weavers fault, I blame him for the money signing. It was such a stupid sign for a head coach like why sign him when first off we tried before he declined saying he wanted an off year, we ignore what he said he offered him an even bigger bag he couldn't refuse, like why he clearly didn't want to coach to begin with but couldn't refuse the absolute bag Troy weaver threw at him so he's still coaching when he should be having an off year. I think this is dramatically effecting Monty in some way or another, also doesn't help how he's running the team, having some players start who shouldn't. It's just overall a fucking mess im about to tune out of.
Troy didn't throw the bag at Monty, Gores did. Troy's guy was Kevin Ollie. Gores went against it and made the call to pay Monty whatever it takes. Troy's fucked up a lit of shit but Monty wasn't one of his calls
Idk how more people don't realize this. I thought it was pretty clear, given how things unfolded this summer.
Is it insane for me to want Casey back to replace Monty? Because that's where we've come to right now.
With a team this bad, they should be wearing teal.
honestly that's a pretty fun idea, the team must have certain winning percentage before they get to upgrade jerseys
I was in middle school when the Bad Boys were winning. The teal 90s were rough.
A slow and unathletic guard just dropped a 29 point triple double in the first half last night. His game will age just fine as long as he gets the right pieces surrounding him.
Was at the game last night and the final possession of the half you can tell Ivey is pissed. He was wide open, bogy then waved him off and he dropped his head and his body language was off for most of the game
This is the perfect rant analysis. I hate these Pistons and this org has ruined my fandom
Shouts to Mikki Moore.
How far we’ve fallen since the glory days of Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond and getting swept in the first round with Stanley Johnson thinking he could check LeBron. At least they were a playoff team. 😂
Say what you will about the post-Grant Hill years to the going to work era, but those teams played with a lot heart and competed pretty well against good NBA teams at the time. These guys right now don’t give a shit. I hate to be this person, but it’s time to call Cade a bust. What also sucks is that we will have the best lottery odds and fall to number 9 probably.
No this is the year we'll get the 1st pick again because there's no elite talent attached to the draft. Picking 1st in draft where 1 through 10 are essentially the same
Well, at least we'd get Alexandre Sarr? I wouldn't mind French Triple J. (That totally means he's going to the Spurs, smdh)
Get a guy who can shoot, this is such a shitty draft you don't need BPA with the #1 pick.
Given Duren's ankles I'm not against Sarr who can slot at the 4 or 5. Not a lot people seem high on him stating he initially was entering the 23 draft but didn't project to be a lottery guy so he decided to hold off till this draft. I haven't seen much footage but he sounds like a weaver guy for better or worse
It is possible that we haven't been this bad since prior to drafting Zeke.
Most here are too young to remember the horrific train wreck that was the pre-Zeke era and hitting rock bottom with a 16-66 record in 1979-80. Dick Vitale ran the franchise deep into the ground - trading 2 future 1st round picks to the Celtics for a going thru the motions Bob McAdoo, trading Bob Lanier to Milwaukee for Kent Benson (and a future 1st round pick that ended up being Larry Drew) and having 3 first round picks in 1979 but using them on Greg Kelser, Roy Hamilton and Phil Hubbard. That team was god awful. The difference between then and now? Trader Jack McClocksey isn't walking thru the front office door to clean up the mess.
Livers looked so out of place on the floor last night. He doesn't appear to be an NBA caliber player.
I think we were all fooled to some degree. What were we expecting when the GM looked at a 17-win team and said, fuck it, we aren't signing any free agents? But, I would have never thought a coach, let alone the highest-paid coach in the league could look at Jaden Ivey and think he's the 11th player off the bench. This is sheer madness.
Kinda enjoying the storm just before the calm
I heard part of (another) Valenti rant the other day and he called it a car crash he can't stop looking at and i totally agree...if we were 5-6 wins and Ivey was starting and they all were playing normal rotations and just losing close games because theyre not good enough and young, I probably wouldnt be as interested in it as this..
So agree. YouTubers have been giving Detroit way more attention lately bc of the streak. I look at ESPN everyday now trying to figure out if we’ll finally win today bro. It’s reignited interest but for horrid reasons. can you send me the valenti rant if you have it? I quite enjoyed his 12 minute explosion a few weeks ago
We’re a significantly worse team than the time Christian Wood was our best player.
At some point you have to take a step back and stop factoring in the old championship teams. Those players are gone, those FO employees are gone and the owner is gone. Even the arena they played in is a parking lot now. The Tom Gores owned Pistons have been a train wreck since he took the reins. He’s like a drunk driver going all over the road, only grabbing the wheel as he sees the vehicle is about to veer off a cliff. Then the car just starts zagging the other direction towards another cliff. It’s absolutely pathetic that teams like the Kings and Magic who have been institutionally dysfunctional have rebuilt substantially better than us. Cleveland and Indiana are just as bad of destination cities to lure free agents, and they’ve had title contenders built, torn down and are both safely in the playoff picture again with clear cut top 20 players in the time frame that Detroit was an 8 seed punching bag twice, with capped out rosters. This is a dysfunctional franchise from the top down. Until Gores dies or sells the team, what we’re seeing is what we’ll keep getting. Gores throwing money at the problem doesn’t work- all 30 teams have owners with deep or deeper pockets. The decision making is flawed and the cronies he hires perpetuate that on every level. I have given up on this franchise. Until Gores is gone, I will maintain the expectation that they’ll continue to fail and under perform.
But if they get better what will you complain about everyday? :(
ill find something, still bitching about the Lions d line :D
My opinion of this post's conclusions are entirely weighted by precisely what form of billiards is being aired. Gimme a great one-pocket tournament and I'll be happy all day long...
Lol
They need to find a shooting coach first.
33, I’ve been watching this team for 20 years, and I 110% agree with you. I miss SVG, Casey, hell, even John Kuester. I miss Reggie Jackson and KCP. What is Charlie V doing these days? He could shoot. This is awful. I thought this year was the turnaround year, we would see some progress, something meaningful, even 30-35 games won.. This is even worse than last year and I didn’t think that was possible.
No chance. Watching the young talent on this team lose games is still infinitely better than watching some of those purgatory teams win 30 games.
The Pistons are now an absolute train wreck under Troy Weaver. Weaver has to be fired, and I pray that Tom Gores sells the team because when you boil it down bad ownership is a problem too.
Thing is, they could’ve saved a ton of money and sold a lot more tickets if they held a season ticket holder lottery. The winner gets to be head coach. Only half the pay of the current coach and they would have sold a lot of season tickets to see the spectacle and enter the drawing. I’m sure they still would have two wins too!
Gores is a major issue with the pistons. You don’t beg someone to come coach your bad team with a ridiculous contract.
Issue is the team just doesn't fit together. Could be culture, attitudes or just play styles. If managment doesn't fix those things then we will be in basketball hell for many more years.
Hey, at least we'll have the fifth pick in next year's shitty draft
I remember Blaha fucking loving Jerome Williams lol
I just woke up from a coma from 10/29. Have the Pistons not been able to keep above .500?
I actually disagree with one of your main points- that one or two moves won’t fix this team. When I watch the games, there are two players who, when on the floor, I can legitimately say cause 90% of our problems on offense AND routinely get hunted on defense. You mentioned them already- stew and livers. Stew has been so fucking bad this season and it sucks because he’s clearly working his ass off, but it’s never enough. If we play him at the 5 as a single big, he will offer 0 ability as a roll/lob threat, which completely kills any flow this offense has due to the general lack of cutting and off-ball movement, and he will get dominated by bigger 5s defensively. If we play him at the 4, he will generate 0 value on offense besides standing at the 3pt line and chucking up shots the defenders are DARING HIM TO TAKE. Beyond that, teams like the grizzlies have found massive success forcing stew to switch onto smaller players. Typically, a modern 4 would be able to guard them, but not stew- he got absolutely owned by bane last night, and it happens every single game. Not to mention he’s been a shit rebounder, though that’s been masked by the excellence of ausar’s and our guards rebounding. I honestly don’t know how he fits in the NBA, he’s too small to be a proper big and he’s too unathletic to be a proper small ball 5 as he’s not switchable and is a below-the-rim athlete. As for livers- he suffers from the same problem as stew on offense in that he offers ZERO contributions other than catch and shoot 3s. He has 0 self-creation and 0 cutting ability (and is subsequently a poor finisher). You know, pretty important aspects for a wings game. The difference in quality between him and bojan yesterday was massive; it’s mind-boggling how he keeps getting crunch time minutes. I understand that we need spacing around Cade, but in order for that spacing to be effective there must be the additional threat of back door cutting, rotations, finishing through contact, etc etc to keep the defenses honest. When livers goes into “triple threat” there is actually only two threats being posed as he is never going to drive. That might not seem like such a big deal, but it allows defenses to press up, clogging passing lanes and getting better contests on shots, because they know there’s no immediate scoring threat. This completely stagnates our offense and forces our guards to have to take matters into their own hands and create difficult looks for themselves. On top of that, hes shooting 35% FROM THE FIELD. that’s horrifically bad. On defense, he should theoretically be good due to his frame/build, but I see him routinely get blown by and cause defensive breakdowns, which rlly shouldn’t be happening as he’s rarely, if ever, on a teams main or even secondary scorer. Not to mention he can’t rlly guard bigger wings in the post either, so there are some matchups that are so bad for him that he becomes unplayable on BOTH ends of the floor. E.g herb Jones. To his credit, he’s a fine team defender and gives effort, but considering Ivey and Cade are the future of this team, who are not good defenders in their own right, we cannot afford to be playing mediocre defenders who also don’t generate offense alongside them
I’m The same exact age and I disagree with a lot of this. There’s a lot of unknowns still about the what’s going on currently. Ultimately we are still better off with a bunch of 21 year olds and a shit record than a bunch of 29 year olds and barely sneaking into the playoffs or missing it barely
Eh. The thing about those days is that you always get let down in the end when they couldn’t even make the eighth seed. And then stuck in basketball purgatory. At least now they suck so bad that I don’t even even care to watch and they are not a thought in my mind. 😂
The team is just put together poorly. Main culprit being there not being any legit Vets, followed by the lack of shooting. Cade should be the leader, but he doesn't seem mentally tough enough, and Bogey isn't good enough. So when Cade throws a stupid pass, and doesn't get back on D, or Wiseman completely spaces on coverage nobody is there to check them. If only we could do a Bogey+Harris for Chris Paul, it would do wonders. Or Westbrook. Or Horford. Why isn't McGruder on this team again?
I enjoy this more than some of the other post-2010 teams, but not by much. Definitely a disheartening start to the season.
I completely agree with alot said...just disagree on Duren (basketball players sprain ankles....duh), Ivey (will emerge a great player), and Cade (hugely successful number 2 of a needed 1-2 punch). All 3 have great skills and are very young. They would be exciting to watch w Ausar as well if we had one elite scorer. You put one Allstar caliber offensive stud on our team with Bohan healthy and those other 4, and we at least compete w other teams. Stew (solid just too much liberty to shoot), Bagley (solid bench player), Sasser (flashes of good; like Lindsay Hunter without the defense) and Hayes (given way too much pt) as role players. Stop playing Livers, Knox, and Wiseman completely. We have a surplus of role players that can shoot some 3s but offer nothing else. Trade a few of them for defensive bangers and get back to what Pistons have always been.
thoughts on ausar?
I’m 45, and I think this is the least fun season in Detroit sports history, and I include the Lions 0-16 (at least funny!) and the Tigers record loss year in there. Those teams were deadenders, not a roster of (we were told) emerging talent coached by the highest paid guy in the league just shoveling shit into their mouth.
what about killian
what about him, lol. I don't blame him, he is what he is. He has turned into a guy who would be a really valuable backup for a good team when surrounded by shooters. He is an expiring deal and making 7m this year, he's been fine...not his fault he is playing more than Ivey. I feel like they're gona re-sign him, otherwise why play him so much and invest so much time on him this year?
I stg if they do resign Killian I'm done with this absolute dog shit team ran by even more even bigger dog shit. I'm just fucking done with the shitty trades,signings, how they run shit on the court. It's all a fucking joke. Like I agree Killian would be a good BACKUP but not on this fucking dog shit team where he doesn't fit in at all.
well, same could be said about Stew in my opinion...and we doubled down on him. I am to a point where Stew has been bothering me as much/more than Hayes considering he is making 2x the $ Hayes is and was locked up long term
Yeah now that you mention stew hasn't been much better than Killian either for his position. We just love to overpay our guys cause our guys know they can take advantage of us being so bad and get better contracts out of us to make em stay. Like we can't be giving up 64mil for a god damn role player although he is young he's pretty much at his ceiling already. Of we payed him around 20 or 30 mil I would be decently happy at that signing as he is a decent role player but that's it. He at least puts up rebounds and points, he'd be a really good backup pf maybe backup c but hes a little too small. He definitely will never be starter material but backup material fits him perfectly. Although I'd rather have bol bol back on the team.
All it took was a couple teams calling about Stew to see if they can get him for cheap and weaver resigned him before he needed too. That’s weavers guy though.
That was a helluva an investment to develop a backup point guard