NYLion

The Wolves are fun as hell to watch, defense first team that plays actual team ball but also has a ridiculously dynamic superstar with all sorts of swagger. Ant vs. Luka is going to be wild.

19 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Mobley is really stepping up. Garland, not so much.

Hard for little guards to be highly successful in the league today. It's why I think it's possible that Dillingham and Sheppard slide down draft boards in favor of prospects with a better archetype like Buzelis/Holland etc.

9 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Counting playoff games, Stafford is 40-43 at Ford Field. Goff is 17-11.

Playoff games at Ford Field - Goff 2-0 and Stafford 0-1. The Rams can take their "Stafford" Field and shove it.

3 out of 4 home games with at Arizona sandwiched in between is a nice start to the schedule then comes the bye and straight into the meat grinder with road games against Dallas, Green Bay, Houston and Minny.  Playing Chicago with a more experienced Caleb late in the season isn't great but it doesn't matter much anymore, the Lions are now for the first time in....well.... forever are good enough to beat anybody anywhere under any circumstance.

7 hours ago, Deleterious said:

I don't believe it. We don't even know who will be making the decisions on free agency. 

 

All Pistons rumors should be taken with a giant grain of salt for the reason you stated, we have no idea who the decision maker will be.... unless Gores intends on pushing Weaver on to the next POBO in which case the Pistons are even more screwed than I ever imagined.

14 hours ago, Betrayer said:

Bad for him. 

Also bad for us. Many mocks had him going to SAN. With him off the board that basically means we now have the #6 pick. 

In other news, Reed Sheppard just logged the largest Max Vertical (42”) in the combine. Even if he alligator-armed it to get a few extra inches, it’s still pretty impressive. I sneaky wanted him if we didn’t land Sarr, but it’s looking more and more like he won’t last to #5. Most likely Houston will get yet another player I wanted. 

I don't think the Pistons would take Sheppard anyway if Weaver is still around. Sheppard was the one guy I was warming to, he's a pretty high floor prospect. At the worst, you're getting a guy that can shoot the hell out of the ball. I know it's a lazy comparison because...white guy... but Austin Reaves seems like a pretty good comparable and I'd take that guy on my team.

The other guys don't really do much for me. Sarr has a bundle of potential but he's another non-shooter and seems like a project, I've seen another Pistons projects the last few years to last a lifetime. Risacher has the coveted archetype but his 3 ball really fell off, Buzelis same as Risacher. Stephon Castle has an intriguing skillset but, again, a guy that can't shoot. Clingan could be a defensive game changer but he seems more like a late lottery type of guy like Lively. Really isn't much there to be excited about.

The contract is a lot of money but Goff has earned it and what else can the Lions do really? This guy led the Lions, THE LIONS, to the NFC Championship game and probably the Superbowl if Reynolds fingers didn't magically turn into butter on that fateful day so he's well worth it and he might not even be a top 10 paid NFL QB in 2-3 years so it's all good with me. This is a market where Cousins, who is 6 years older than Goff, got 4 years $180m. QBs are getting that cheddah, fat stacks.

21 hours ago, buddha said:

we all know how bad the pistons management has been.  its the worst.  tom gores may be the worst owner the nba has seen post-sterling/michael jordan.  but the bottom line is that they have been very unlucky in the draft lottery.  and if they had a normal amount of luck, they would now be a better team with a much brighter future.

dropping out of the #1 spot to 5th for 3 years out of four is unlucky and, quite frankly, unfair.  its a bad system.

the nhl also had an unfair system that screwed detroit multiple times.  the nhl changed it just as the wings got good enough where it would have helped them.  i expect a similar thing from the nba eventually.

if you had a system of ping pong balls that correlated to prior lottery successes (i.e.: if you won the lottery the previous seasons you get less balls, and if you were bad and didnt win previously you get more balls) then it would even out.  this system is unneccesarily punitive to teams that are rebuilding and are just bad.

the point is to distribute the best talent to the most struggling teams and this version does a poor job at doing that.

Well, the objective of the league was to discourage tanking and it seems like that objective is being reached. 

I always laugh at the concept of "tanking" anyway. Yes, these bad teams do tend to load management more towards the end of a lost season but for the most part, these teams are just bad. Rebuilds, building with primarily young players, was always a thing and will always lead to teams being bad for a couple of years. Now, the Pistons have taken bad to another level with a 4+ year rebuild but it doesn't mean they're intentionally tanking, they just suck.

14 hours ago, Betrayer said:

Crazy series, but a lot of fun. Everyone thought Denver was cooked - some were even calling it a sweep - when the Wolves went up 2-0.

Indy crushing NY today was interesting as well.

Well, that was foolish then. I know that the Wolves were dominant in the first 2 games but experience means a whole lot in the NBA moreso than most sports and the Nuggets are a true champion so I figured at the very least that Denver would be a much tougher out in Minnesota, didn't see them blowing them out twice though.

Same is happening with OKC now too. The lack of experience is starting to show against a more experienced opponent. There always seems to be harsh lessons that have to be learned by young teams before they reach the pinnacle as us Pistons fans know all too well in the 80s then early 00s.

39 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

That also takes a little of the shine off the pick if they plan to trade it.

That's my biggest issue with the drop. I didn't think they were trading it anyway but this makes a trade far more unlikely. I hope they take more of a high floor prospect than can contribute sooner, like a choose your white shooter guy Sheppard or Knecht I guess.

Haha, what a joke. All these years of suffering for 4 straight #5 picks. 

On 5/7/2024 at 1:53 PM, Deleterious said:

I will rent the private plane to take him to LA.

 

From Windy's mouth to the freaking basketball gods ears. Please Jeannie Buss, take him.

Boyd was likely getting more opportunity with the Titans so he's likely to get a bigger next contract playing for them. I'm not really loving the Lions receiver room so I was hoping to land somebody like Boyd but I think he saw more opportunity with Tennessee so it was probably never realistic for the Lions to sign him, or Holmes is content with the receivers.

6 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Look at Minnesota. Ant is the straw that stirs the drink. But Gobert picked 27. McDaniels picked 28. Alexander-Walker picked 17. Reid was undrafted. All play a huge role in the teams success. None were even lottery picks.

While that's true, most stars are taken in the lottery. There's exceptions like Jokic and Giannis but most are taken high in the draft.

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

There will probably still end up being some good players there.

Exactly, high draft picks are always valued in a cap world. I know most don't really care too much about winning the draft lottery this season but I still think there's a significant value difference between the 1st and 5th pick even in a draft where there is no clear #1 based on value alone so a lottery win would still be beneficial or even merely not dropping freaking 4 spots.

12 hours ago, KL2 said:

It's not attractive at all. 

There is cap space, but nobody worth spending on. There are no building blocks, outside of cade, in players or draft assets. The only hope is to get crazy lucky in draft with the little you do have and land a superstar out of nowhere. Then you can have something to build with. The more likely outcome is a slow rebuild where the pistons buy draft picks for bad contracts and in four years hope to have some talent just in time for Cade to bounce when he's tired of 10 years of losing and when you have 200 loses on your resume. 

Money and power is very attractive. As long as Gores gives the new president full autonomy, I don't see why it wouldn't be an at least somewhat attractive job for those two reasons mainly.

Also, the Pistons have talent. Cade, Ivey, Ausar and Duren are all very talented but the question is how they fit together.  They'll also have a high draft pick even though it's a bad draft and cap flexibility with no real anchor contracts tying them down so the new guy will have an opportunity to mold the roster as he sees fit, cap flexibility is a real big thing for executives that are looking to make big changes. It's certainly more attractive of a job than the one Weaver took on. 

13 minutes ago, buddha said:

connelly may want to escape the twolves' messed up ownership situation...

yet....if so....why would he want to come to a spot with the least successful owner in the last 15 years?  stability?  

Money and power and we all know that Gores is really good at shamelessly groveling. One thing I'll give Gores credit for is that when he locks in on a target, he does whatever it takes to land the target. He might be batting .000 in terms of landing the right targets but he does land the ones that he REALLY wants.

Tobias Harris 0 points. His performance in the playoffs might save the Pistons from themselves.

16 hours ago, buddha said:

brugler rated the lions draft as #3 in the league.

bears were #1.

Not surprised. The Lions took a lot of guys that were high on Brugler's draft list. 

I always wonder about these rankings. Do they rank teams drafts based on pure value or do they account for where the team drafted and how they did relative to draft position?

For instance, the Bears had two top 10 picks while the Lions drafted 29th so based on draft position alone, you'd expect the Bears to get better value so you'd expect them to get better prospects. I don't know, just a thought exercise on my part and I should know better because nothing ever comes good from me having to think.

I can't wait until Generation Whine in KD, Harden and Kyrie retire. Dudes are nothing but malcontents at every stop and I'm shocked, shocked I tell ya, that it didn't work out for the 3 bozos in Brooklyn. I would throw Ben Simmons in that whine pile as well but he doesn't have anything to whine about since he's never on court and why whine when you can collect millions upon millions of dollars to not work.

That was a clinic on how to blow a game as a coach. I'm sure it's been touched on here but continuously letting Harden go 1 on 1 when he torched his defender time after time and, in addition, sitting the big guys in Gafford and Lively that got them back in the game in the first place and thus taking away any rim protection they had was coaching malpractice. Lue schooled Kidd yesterday, not that I'm surprised.

3 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

Fuller is the new Chase Young. 

Or the new Connor Cook (that was Tater who was riding that Cook Bandwagon hard, right?)

Just messing with you Tater, I actually kind of agree with on Fuller.

5 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I love the Mekhi Wingo pick. He was productive as all hell from the interior in the SEC, was one of the most athletic DTs in the draft, and was falling just because he’s a bit undersized.

Put him between Reader and Houston on obvious pass downs and watch Caleb Williams eat turf.

I was shocked that he dropped to the 6th, I'm guessing that teams were scared off by his size? He was arguably the 3rd best DT after Murphy and Newton, he really showed out to me when watching LSU.

Mahogany was great value too and at a real area of long term need. Lots of folks had 3rd/4th round grades on him.

Not a big fan of giving up the 2025 3rd to take Manu who I knew nothing about but reading up on him, there's a whole lot of talent to work with (good athleticism for his size and apparently he plays like a "bully"). The Lions are the perfect landing spot for a developmental tackle like him. Again, don't like giving up the 3rd but there's some real upside here, similar to Martin I suppose. The Lions can afford to take swings like this because they're deep at most positions in the short term so... why the heck not?

7 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

See, this is where I have a little consternation with what Holmes did. I would have saved the pick and signed Kendall Fuller. Miami only had to give him a 2 deal worth $16.5 million and I would have done that deal for a better corner and not had needed to surrender that pick. I'm not upset at all and am I'm very happy with what Holmes has done in this draft and off season overall. I would have done this differently though. 

I think Davis is a bit better than Fuller but I too would have rather just signed Fuller instead of giving up the 3rd but maybe Fuller didn't want to sign with the Lions or maybe Holmes was just a much bigger fan of Davis. I think it's just a "Trust Brad" situation, he's earned that. The team is looking real strong going into next season either way, I'd feel even better if they added a receiver.

1 hour ago, Tenacious D said:

Yes.  Won’t be shocked if we go and sign a WR in free agency.  Isn’t Tyler Boyd still unsigned?

It's their only real need left. It's St. Brown and a lot of question marks. Jamo could be good but he's proven very little, DPJ was non-existent in his stint here but does have a history of production, Raymond injured. They could really use another guy.