NYLion

Woah, are you a wizard? Eerie I had a feeling that Weaver would draft a stash kid. The roster already is overloaded with young guys as is.

This makes me think that they'll still pursue Ayton. Sign Ayton to a 4 year deal and Duren will be fully ready to take on the prominent center role by then or even a year or two before then. However, adding Duren lessens the urgency to splurge for Ayton. I wonder if they make a run at Bridges after the way this draft played out, not a great 3 point shooter but a prime scorer on the wing.

I see that the Pistons are only absorbing $9M from the Kemba contract. It gets even better. Apparently Weaver is going to buy him out so they'll still have pretty much all their cap space remaining. I don't know anybody can dislike this move.

Yep. Well, Walker's salary included but, yeah, the trade looks nicer when you look at it that way. They got two 2nds btw, they're own 2nd in 2025 and the better of the Portland/New Orleans 2nds in 2026 so Duren (#13), Walker salary dump and two 2nds, plus move up 10 spots in the 2nd for Grant.

No. Duren was included.

Gave up the Milwaukee 1st so essentially, Grant+Walker's salary+some 2nds for Grant, assuming that the Pistons aren't sending anything else out. Makes the Grant trade look a lot better now.

The Pistons got Duren. They got Kemba Walker? They're still talking to the Knicks about Ivey. What in the world is going on? This is wild.

That's where I'm at too. I'm skeptical of his fit next to Cade but for pure upside, he has way more than the other options at 5 if he corrects that long range shot which did show signs of improvement last season. I think there's only two, maybe three, players in this draft with real starpower potential (if you include Sharpe). Ivey, Banchero and Sharpe. you need multiple stars in this league so they got a guy with that potential. Also, athleticism, man did they need an injection of some in the worst way.

Boom. There you go @Betrayer I don't know about the fit but this kid definitely brings the starpower. The Pistons will be exciting if nothing else. If Weaver can pull off Duren later in the lottery, this is an A level day.

Eh, I think Houston probably preferred Banchero to the other two but I could be wrong.

https://twitter.com/JakeLFischer/status/1540119331861893124?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1540119331861893124|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.realgm.com%2Fboards%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D2205202start%3D980 Seems to be a lot of smoke that the Pistons are willing to absorb salary to add picks. Good move by Weaver if executed. As an aside, how do we embed tweets again?

Ok, I'll take your word for it. I just know Edwards as being one of the most plugged in media guys so I hold his opinion in high regard. I do wonder why they made this trade a day before the draft (I'm pretty sure there wasn't a lot of urgency to close the 46th to 36th pick portion of the deal) so perhaps Weaver is looking to add draft capital by absorbing a contract. This trade sure made the next week or so a lot more interesting if nothing else.

No kidding. That was some pristine turd polishing by Edwards. The return was weak, there's just no getting around that.

James Edwards tweeted that the Pistons will be heavily pursuing Ayton. I trust Edwards way more than whoever this random twitter guy is.

Yeah, that's the key. What Weaver does with this extra cap flexibility will determine the value of the trade, the picks are pretty worthless. The thing is, I see very few positive paths with this free agency class. I don't see Weaver as a creative enough GM like Presti to weaponize the cap space to add high picks so prepare for some combination of Ayton, Brunson, Bridges, Sexton.

They didn't get 36, they swapped 46 for 36. 2nds are virtually worthless in the NBA. It's essentially a likely late 1st when Weaver might not even be GM anymore if things go sideways and filler. The real value is not extending Grant and clearing cap space, the return is a nothing burger. It's slightly better than the Wood return but pretty much in the ballpark and I look dumb for saying that Wood isn't comparable to Grant in terms of value.

Which reports? Like 90% of the mocks have them taking Murray with a few on Mathurin. I know that a lot of folks here really like Murray but I'm very underwhelmed by him, he's a #3 option at BEST if he reaches his max potential IMO and is more likely a role player that will never be as good as Grant even.

Boy am I a dummy for suggesting that Grant had more value than Wood. Weak value but it seems pretty obvious that Weaver is planning something big this offseason but clearing all that cap space and I'm pretty sure we won't like it since there are no stars out there worth cashing out on. This also means that Murray is more than likely the pick which I'm also not a fan of. Not a good start to the offseason from my point of view. Lol at you guys thinking that Weaver would do something smart by trading for Hayward with the picks attached. I fully expect Weaver to max Bridges.

I'm sure most of Weaver's top 4 are projected to go before 5 (assuming that Ivey is a part of that top 4) so he'll need one of them to fall to get his guy i.e at the mercy of the board. The closer we get to this thing, the more I hope Ivey falls. He has some serious deficiencies but he has the star potential that Murray and Mathurin just don't have and you need stars to win in this league. I wavered on this for a while and had Mathurin over Ivey earlier in the process but now I'm on Ivey. The shooting can be worked on but that natural elite athleticism and attack mentality is too enticing to turn down. Not to mention that Ivey actually wants to be here. I still have a hard time believing that the Kings won't maximize the value of that pick by taking the long term upside in Ivey or trading the pick for a haul but it's the Kings so who knows.

I don't think they'd get a better deal than the Atlanta one at the deadline.

You would think so but I don't see any teams in the late lottery that would be in on him. The rumored (speculated) Atlanta deal of 16th plus Bogdanovic or Gallinari seems a tad underwhelming although I suppose avoiding the Grant extension would be the real value.

No. Grant is better. Wood is one of those fan favorites that isn't actually very good. I wouldn't expect #7 in return for Grant but he's certainly better than Wood, as more of a 2 way guy that teams tend to covet.

Interesting because he insinuated that lots of people in the Kings organization prefer Murray including Rivadive (the owner) and Mike Brown and what's also interesting is that Ivey was interviewed recently and asked about where he thinks he might go/wants to go and he mentioned the Pistons and Pacers but not Kings. I don't know if any of this means much but it seems far from a lock that Ivey goes to the Kings unless they trade the pick and I wouldn't have thought that about a week ago. Also, I'm not entirely sure that the Pistons even take Ivey if he drops to them (and Murray is gone). I could see them taking Mathurin over him.

Hard to tell. They have talent on defense but not enough proven talent to be confident in any unit long term. On paper, the defensive line is the strength but it's dependent on a lot of rookies and 2nd year guys as well as Okwara's health and Harris not being a fluke (the potential is exciting though), same with linebacker and the secondary which is almost exclusively young guys. I'm more confident in the offense going forward even with Goff but there's some health questions to answer at receiver and with Hockenson. Long story short, if we're looking "on paper" at all the units, I'd say that QB and linebacker are the biggest questions over the long term. What I really love about what Holmes is building is that he's putting a specific focus on the trenches, where lots of games are decided, that's where the Lions strength is building with the lines and I don't remember the last time I could say that a Lions team had potential to have a top 10 offensive AND defensive line going forward. Not to mention, the high end talent at the skilled positions. Ultimately though, it comes down to Goff. He's being set up to succeed with what Holmes has added the last two offseasons so it's make or break time for him this upcoming season.

Maybe but I think you'll find this interesting given this subjective top NFL QBs list 1) Mahomes - 10th pick 2) Rodgers - 24th pick 3) Allen - 7th pick (and was considered a reach) 4) Brady - 6th round Other guys in the top 10 or around top 10 include Wilson (3rd rounder) and Prescott (3rd rounder I believe), Jackson was taken late 1st. You do have Stafford, Burrow and Murray that were 1st overalls and Herbert was #5 but a lot of the top QBs weren't the 1st or even 2nd QB taken in their draft (the best rookie this past season was the 5th guy taken) so I don't think it's essential for the Lions to finish bottom 5 to get their franchise QB. The other positive is that a lot of the teams that are slated to be bad next season, the usual suspects of Jacksonville, Jets, Bears won't have a need for QB so could see some fallers or teams more willing to trade down if the Lions want to go get their guy. Houston is probably their biggest roadblock to getting the top QB, maybe Carolina or Atlanta if they have worse seasons than expected. In any event, I'm leaning towards Goff having a better season than most expect and putting somewhat of a lid on the Lions QB need. The "somewhat" is a potential worst case scenario if it leaves the question of QB need in limbo if Goff has a good enough season to make the Lions competitive but I do think that Goff can excel here with the amount of weapons Holmes has amassed and the offensive line already in place. I didn't think that a year ago.