11/02/2022 8:00 EDT Detroit Pistons vs Milwaukee Bucks

[buddha]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

It's the draft and the Pistons.

dick vitale no longer runs the pistons, they should be ok.

[Betrayer]

On 11/5/2022 at 2:57 PM, boogiebunz said:

Stewart in the starting line-up is not better for the offense regardless of what offense they run, Casey's or otherwise. When Bagley played last season, he still posted up, still ran pickandroll, still was a scoring threat... in Casey's offense.

Stewart in Casey's offense still offers no real scoring threat other than "hey, shoot the occasional three since opposing teams don't even guard you." That doesn't help create spacing. That doesn't help the offense.

 

Oh, I see it now. We'll have one Center who can post up and score inside, but is absolutely terrible on defense. Then we'll put him next to another Center who's really good at rebounding and rim running. This sounds familiar somehow. Too bad it didn't work last time either with Monroe + Drummond in an even less perimeter oriented NBA.

Nobody is saying that Stewart at the 4 is the answer to all this team's problems and they'll suddenly become contenders. What I'm saying is that it's the lesser of evils and that Bagley + Duren is by far the worst option available to us, both defensively and offensively.

Either way, I'm pretty sure we're going to have to agree to disagree on this.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Betrayer

[boogiebunz]

Sure, agree to disagree.

I would just like to point out that the basis of your argument for Stewart initially was that he was necessary for spacing. That’s the point you made. I offered an argument that because defenses don’t even guard him even if he does shoot threes, it actually doesn’t create spacing at all, which refutes that original argument for spacing. And you have not addressed that, but rather chose to point out different reasons other than spacing to advocate for Stewart.

[Betrayer]

Look, I think we both agree that the team needs to try to get bigger. They're getting killed on the offensive glass, they have the worst defensive rating in the league by a wide margin, they simply can't protect the paint at all, and the guards don't have a vertical threat with the starters.

The fact is that we're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but in the interest of seeing 10-15% improvement in this team, I prefer Stew + Duren or Stew + Bagley to the Bagley + Duren combo that you were suggesting.

Within my first posts I laid out my reasons on both offense and defense. Yes, one of those reasons was the potential for better spacing on offense, and I stand by that opinion. It's true that he's a 31.5% 3pt shooter for his career and he's being left open 10 games into the season. I can live with that because his form is excellent and the potential is there for him to get to 33% or higher early on this year. At 1 point or more per possession (which he isn't far from), guys will start to come out and contest more of his shots, but these things take time to prove.

On the other hand, you're going to have to look long and hard to find anyone who believes Bagley can be an outside shooter anytime soon - so there's zero potential for spacing with him and another big out there. He needs to be close to the basket to do what he does best. On top of that, we don't have the personnel or the coach to run an offense that can deal with three defenders in the lane - no matter what the Warriors are doing with their lineups - so we need to try to develop that potential for spacing.

So, at the end of the day, I'll take the potential of Stew creating spacing by mid-season while getting me around 1 pt per possession on his threes in the meantime - along with far superior defense, better shot blocking, and better rebounding which is this team's biggest issue at the moment.

Oh, and the bonus of separating Bagley and Duren is that even with Casey's 5-in/5-out lineups I get to keep one of Duren or Bagley on the court at all times for the size and verticality.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Betrayer