NYLion

Sure but he's been really good the last 10 games or so albeit against weaker competition. I think of Beasley as their #2 scorer anyway. Regardless, the Pistons are playing with house money this year so it doesn't matter much who their #2 option is now anyway. Starting next year though, Langdon needs to build a roster capable of taking the next step. I think the current group even with a healthy Ivey has a limited ceiling without a legit #2 to team with Cade.

Good win against a vet team. The Boston game might be the biggest Pistons regular season game in 15 years, nice for the current version but also sad at the same time considering how awful the last 15 years have been.

Good win but one gripe of mine is putting Ausar on Trae early and getting him in foul trouble. They struggled defensively without him, I would have played Ausar on somebody else to start the game then switch him on to Trae in the 4th.

This includes the play-in. With less than 30 games left, the Pistons are 9 games ahead of the Nets, 8.5 games ahead of the Bulls, 4 games ahead of the Hawks, 3 ahead of both Orlando and Miami. It would take a collapse of epic proportions to finish behind all of those teams and miss altogether.

I just don't think Ivey has enough value to warrant trading him now. I do think he was on a nice trajectory before the injury and would have been a nice piece to add into a trade for a more proven star especially now that they have full control of their picks most likely after the season but with the injury, I think it puts a damper on his value until he comes back 100% and proves that the injury is behind him completely. The Pistons are in an interesting position. They have young guys surrounding Cade that have all shown signs of progress (not coincidentally the moment Monty was shown the door) but how much of a ceiling do they have and are there any legit #2 options blossoming among any of them? I think Ausar has the highest ceiling of the bunch but he'll likely never be a knock down shooter so that caps his ceiling. The other issue is that Ivey and Duren are closing in on the end of their rookie deals so are they worth signing that 2nd contract because once you do, you're sort of locking into them as the core and running mates for your budding superstar. Ivey is a big part of that discussion and I'm honestly not sure what the right move is whether to keep developing him or trade him and find a better running mate for Cade. Also, the aprons are confusing where teams like the Celtics with double the payroll of the Pistons are able to navigate it while we're talking about the impending Pistons cap crunch with one large contract on the books and among the lowest tier of cap committed salary this offseason.

Same with his brother who has also blossomed this year as well, can't hit an outside shot but is an impact player. They don't need Ausar to hit 3's if he keeps playing like this.

Have said it before and will say again. Ausar's ascension raises the ceiling for this team considerably, not to mention Duren unlocking some playmaking potential. Really soft schedule the last 4 games but the signs of a good team emerging are there. This season displays even more what an incompetent buffoon Monty Williams was last year.

Ha, I thought about you immediately when seeing the score.

I keep saying to keep the level of competition in mind but it's hard not get at least a little excited by Ausar's ascension, he has star potential.

yes but in the same token, it kept their price down on their second contract so in that sense we should thank for Monty for his utter incompetence.

I continue to be intrigued by Ausar handling the ball more effectively. If he can do that more consistently against better teams that could really unlock this team's potential. It's too bad he can't shoot from deep because he does everything else at a high level and would be a legit #2 but without that shot becoming more consistent there's a cap to his ceiling as a player.

Seriously. Why does it have to be that Philly played like trash, maybe the Pistons played well. Give them some credit.

Missed the game but I heard that Ausar was impressive running the team. I've always felt that he had the 2nd highest ceiling on this team, has elite of the elite athleticism and feel for the game so if he got his 3 point shot up to respectable levels he could be an All Star and even if he doesn't (like what his brother is now) that's still a very good player. Tiny sample size but with Ausar running the team so well it makes me wonder if they should try an experiment of him sharing the ballhandling duties with Cade and seeing if they have something with Cade playing some offball which I always thought he would excel at, not that he isn't excelling as is as the primary ballhandler but in terms of scoring efficiency which has kind of cratered a bit lately.

Well, the Wizards and Hornets were able to stockpile some 1sts for salary dumps so there were opportunities available. With that said, Langdon did fine. Got somebody competent to help Cade with ballhandling duties and got some 2nds whatever that means.

Looks like this is it for Langdon. I didn't expect much yet still feel underwhelmed, still no ball handler to take the pressure off of Cade. Maybe they pick up somebody during the buyout period but, as is, this deadline was very Weaver-like. Edit: Or they get Schroder. That's...something even though he's kind of an idiot for his NBA=Modern Slavery nonsensical remark.

Well, Luka, AD and Fox all just got traded so still seems like fun, no? Fun for Silver's golden goose franchises but fun nonetheless.

In that case, we probably see a trade to use the cap space before the Martin trade becomes official. I can't imagine that this is Langdon's big move so I'd like to think that he planned on using the Martin contract to absorb into the exception not eat away at cap space.

Kenyon Martin's kid, seemed kind of promising a few years ago. Apparently the Pistons are getting two 2nds to take his contract so seems like an ok move and hopefully not Langdon's only move.

Actually, I didn't realize how poor his shooting numbers were until I just checked. I thought he was having a better year but those shooting numbers are putrid. I think I'm starting to backtrack on wanting him here. Is he even better than Sasser at this point? He's bigger so that helps defensively and he's a better playmaker but it's hard to get past those shooting numbers and it's a high volume of shots too.

He's an injury risk but he's just a rental and won't cost much to acquire so there really isn't much risk with potential nice reward as a much needed ballhandler to alleviate some burden from Cade. I think it's imperative that Langdon add a ballhandler, he has to see that it's just too much on Cade's shoulders right now.

Bad loss but I think we need to keep in perspective that this is overachieving big time considering the personnel so it's a minor miracle that they're in this position in the first place.

That was my thought too when they made that trade, and they still have a giant war chest of assets to add more. This was arguably the biggest failure of the Weaver era outside of the 2020 draft, his failure to accumulate assets with all that cap space he had to work with. I still hope that Langdon is in asset accumulation mode despite them being in a playoff race, eye should still be on the bigger picture. I wouldn't mind if they added somebody like Lonzo Ball but not sure if it's time yet to be adding rentals with the remaining cap space.

No chance. Guy is one serious injury from being out of the league and/or a few hamburgers away from being on "My 600-lb life"

And they were calling it a "win now" move after trading Luka freaking Doncic. I just don't know what's going on here.

Even if the writing is on the wall and Luka wanted out, how do you only get old AD and a 1st? Ridiculous and of course it's the Lakers reaping the benefits as they have for like 6 decades always getting these generational talents landing in their lap.