Betrayer

A clear sign that they don't mess around when they decide to tank.

Sasser looked bad and in general I don't think he has a place on this roster now that you have taller shooters available who can actually catch and shooter rather than requiring a side step dribble every time. He's clearly not a point guard either. I'd love to see them pick up a vet PG (if they can find one) even if they're going to stagger Cade and Ivey. Holland looked like I expected. An athletic prospect who needs work and is suddenly realizing that he can't just out-athlete everyone anymore. But, that's why they built a roster of serviceable vets so we don't have to play a rookie who needs development 35 minutes per game like Weaver did. Klintman looked pretty good. Showed some nice passing, cutting, and shooting touch. Daniss Jenkins was better than Sasser and had some nice defensive plays, but overall he was nothing to write home about. Overall, this summer league roster is bad. Very little shooting, no actual PG, and the center position is terrible. Still wish we could've landed Reed Sheppard.

Looking forward to it! Itching for Pistons basketball. After this it's 3 months of waiting.

Reunited at last with the man who drafted him.

JB Bickerstaff press conference today:

Solid move to get some Center depth. He played all 82 last season either backing up or starting for Embiid when he was injured.

In regards to Tobias, why does the discourse always have to be either: A) He sucks! B) He's an All-Star! Everyone who chooses option A loves to use the tiny sample size of his 6 playoff games from 2024. What about the 2023 playoffs where he averaged 15 and 7 on 52/37/87 splits in 11 games? What about the entire 2024 season when he averaged 17, 6.5, and 3.1 on 49/35/88 and played in 70 games? No, he's not an elite shooter, but he shoots it well enough to have gravity and his Synergy rank is Above Average to Very Good at every facet of scoring. He's also not an All-Star and anyone who expected us to attract an All-Star hasn't been paying attention. Tobias is a solid vet and a legitimate starter at a position of need on a short contract. He's exactly the type of player this team needs to raise the floor and start to rebuild it's reputation. Solid pickup for a 14 win team that no free agent in their right mind wants to come to. Again, these vets are all transitional players. If the youngsters don't pan out then we're back into a full rebuild. If they do, then you've surrounded them with solid players to help them develop.

-41% overall on threes -43% on catch and shoot threes -40% on guarded catch and shoot -47% on open threes -95th percentile as shooter in the NBA last season -Less than 1 turnover per game -Played 79 games and started in 77 of them for a playoff bound team No, he 's not a defender, but that Beasley deal for 6M is an absolute score for Langdon. I realize this team has been garbage for a while now and so we're all jaded, but so far the offseason has been solid. They've acquired multiple vets who provide spacing, have low turnovers, and are durable. Those were 3 of the 4 major issues from last season. Yes, defense is still a concern but you aren't solving all the problems of a 14 win team in one off-season.

I was hoping for a soft ban, where teams just decided not to sign him. Unfortunately, Charlotte is happy to have a team full of garbage human beings.

KCP is a two time-champ who's gone from playoff team to playoff team. He wasn't coming here. Let's be real. Even draft prospects were told not to workout here by their agents. Like I said previously, we have to put out the dumpster fire before we're going to get any players. Raise the floor and build a respectable organization. And we certainly don't have a lot of assets to give away to trade for good players either thanks to Weaver's rebuild strategy. Tobias isn't an All-Star but he's a legitimate starter at a position of need and a perennial 17ppg scorer who's rated as Above Average to Very Good on Synergy at every facet of scoring. He's a neutral defender, unlike Bogie who was a huge minus on that end and got hunted on every play. And he's also been very durable in his career, unlike Bogie. He'll raise the floor.

There have been Tobias rumors for a long time because he has ties to Michigan. His wife went to Michigan State and they met while he played for the Pistons. Apparently, they come back often and he's actually one of the few people who wants to play here.

Were people expecting us to attract All-Stars in free agency? Trade our empty asset cupboards for them? We have to put out the dumpster fire before anyone is coming here. We also have to see what we have in the youth movement before locking in to players like Ingram for the next 5 years. I hate to be the positive one, but everything they've done so far tracks pretty well with what we should have expected after hearing Trajan's vision. These are all things he talked about at the presser: Raise the floor Build a better culture/organization Develop/evaluate the young players Get NBA players who will actually play Acquire future assets Improve shooting Improve the defense Reduce turnovers Tobias - Actual NBA starter and floor raiser. Durable. Low turnovers. Floor spacer. Good locker room guy. Short contract to remain flexible. THJ - NBA rotation player (25+ mpg game on a good team = better than 70% of the guys we rolled out last year). Pretty durable. Floor spacer. Low turnovers. Added draft capital. Short contract. Bickerstaff - Floor raiser. His teams in Memphis and Cleveland were near the top of the league in defense and low turnovers. Vinson - Development. Improve shooting. Improve the organization. The deals have to be there for them to absorb contracts, so who knows how much of that will happen. And they still have 25M in cap space, so there's plenty of money to do stupid things, but if they bring in someone like Gary Trent Jr and maybe absorb Capella, they've really raised the floor, easily double the win total, and changed the narrative around the team while developing youth without being locked in long term. You also still have a shot at a good pick in 2025 as well. If Cade takes an SGA or Haliburton leap and another youngster pans out, you can start making bigger swings. You might even have a free agent look at you. If not, then you aren't committed long term and you can keep drafting. We can't forget that although we may have endured 15+ years of Piston's trash basketball, Trajan hasn't. I'm sure he expects to come in here and be given a few years to build it the way he sees fit without "skipping steps".

Are there bad reports about his character or something? He's essentially a 5 years younger version of KCP. Can't imagine why a contender wouldn't want a guy like that.

Who's the fifth best prospect?

Ugh. Bad at rotations, zero offensive creativity, doesn’t make in-game adjustments, but he’s a strong locker room guy and good with young players. Sound familiar? Welcome to the team, Dwane Casey. Get ready for Ausar standing in the corner and Cade running endless pick and rolls again.

This is the first guy Langdon has moved, so I don't see how we can come to the conclusion that it was because he was a "Weaver guy". By that logic, he's got about 9 more guys to move. However, I have heard some comments on Pistons podcasts about Grimes not wanting to be here, so maybe that's part of it. He certainly didn't look like he wanted to play for us last year. I don't blame him, just saying that might be part of why they felt they needed to move him.

Curious what the "and more" is because right now I'm just laughing at how wonky the NBA can be sometimes. Just goes to show you that you have no idea what you're players are worth and what people are willing to give up (or not). Murray and Bridges are both essentially fringe All-Star players. Murray has made 1 All-Star game, Bridges none. They both have 1 All-Defensive team appearance. Both guys are 27 years old. Last year's numbers: Bridges: 19.6 PPG, 3.6 AST, 4.5 REB, 1 STL on 44/37/81 splits Murray: 22.7 PPG, 6.4 AST, 5.3 REB, 1.4 STL on 46/36/79 splits Arguably Murray was better, even at rebounding. Sure, you're going to pay more for a wing because that's the most coveted position in the NBA, but NYK gave up 5 unprotected first, a pick swap, and a second while NO gave up just 2 picks and a trash player.

3 second rounders, including Toronto's which will likely be in the 30s in a stacked draft is not a "negative asset". And, as was mentioned by Buddha, we've already seen the Pistons use two 2nd to get a 1st. So, if you do the math you could argue they got a late 1st and a second out of the deal. I understand arguing that they could've gotten a little more based upon the Reggie Jackson trade, but honestly THJ is worth more than the desiccated corpse of Reggie Jackson. Pistons fans are out here acting like Grimes is something special. Vinson only has so much time. Maybe he can shoot, maybe not. Either way, he's struggled to stay on the court enough in his career to prove it. Wound up in the doghouse in NY and we also have no idea if he even wanted to be here which does play a part in building a good locker room. In the end, this move is a bit of a "who cares". They traded the 9th guy on the bench for another 9th guy on the bench and a little cap space and got 3 second round picks out of the deal.

So, he's Alec Burks.

Definitely feels like they could have demanded more, however the 2025 pick is from Toronto which should be a lot better than the 2025 Denver pick that Charlotte got. Either way, the Pistons have a problem. They had 9 young guys in need of time and development and yet they need to bring in vets to surround these guys and create a real roster. Something has to give. You can't go into the season with Cade, Ivey, Duren, Ausar, Stew, Holland, Grimes, Sasser, and Klintman. Even if Klintman is in the G-League, that's still 8 guys out of a 9 man rotation. Add Tek and there's your 9. It's also basically the same team that won 14 games last year and you have little room for some new vets. They were also up against paying Grimes at the end of the year or just losing him for nothing since he probably wasn't getting much court time to show out. I'm actually expecting a little more house-cleaning before this is all over. Maybe Sasser and probably one of Ivey or Duren (maybe both) need to get moved. It's possible they wait until closer to the deadline to evaluate, but I just can't see them going through the whole year with all of these same, ill fitting players heading into extension eligibility for them and a good draft where they'll likely have a lottery pick for Trajan to bring in more of the guys he desires.

Pistons also signed Daniss Jenkins to a two-way deal. 6'3" gritty guard with some skills on both sides of the ball. Here's a scouting report someone posted on Reddit: https://edemirnba.substack.com/p/daniss-jenkins-scouting-report

I feel like we've been talking about THJ becoming a Piston in various deals for 3 years now.

There are definitely more cases of guys becoming good shooters than there are of guys suddenly becoming great athletes. We also just hired the guy who's considered to be one of the best (if not the best) shot doctor in the league. He's been credited with greatly improving a number of players in New Orleans (Lonzo Ball, Herb Jones, Jose Alvardao, Naji Marshall, Brandon Ingram, etc). Herb Jones went from 28% to 37%. Lonzo jumped up 5% and then another 5% the following year after he left for Chicago. Alvarado has gone from 29% to 37%. Marshall jumped up to nearly 39% this year from about a 30% average before that. There are many others and I'm sure most of us could probably name 3-5 off the top of our heads easy. Jaylen Brown shot 29% in college and is around 35% now. Anthony Edwards was 29% as well in college. Even old guys like Demar Derozan and Brook Lopez have learned to shoot. Sure, for every one of those guys there are 10 Hamidou Diallo's who never get it, but the possibility is there. And when/if those guys hit, they really hit because they already have the other stuff to make them elite. On the other hand, there are zero Luke Kennards who suddenly become Donovan Mitchell level athletes. Some things like size, length, athleticism you just can't teach.

Yeah, everyone was saying it was a "down year". Although scouting was pretty bad with Covid. Like most down years though, when you look back you find a lot of hits. Hopefully that happens this year as well and Holland is one of those sleepers.