The Pistons Are Ready To Go For It All…

The Pistons Are Ready To Go For It All…

A lot of you guys for a while now have been asking me to make a video about the Detroit Pistons. And here it is. They are the best team in the Eastern Conference. Pretty much from the first week of the season on, they’ve been at the top of the conference. They have some crazy winning streaks and they put themselves in a very interesting situation cuz they’re good, they’re young, and there’s constantly trade speculation around them potentially adding one more piece. And we’re going to talk about all of it. First, I want to talk about why the Pistons have been as good as they have been this year. Because I think there was a little bit of a of a trend in the offseason that the Pistons were still going to be good, but they weren’t necessarily going to exceed expectations and that they were going to maybe regress a little bit back from what was a surprising year last year, especially in the second half of the season. And with Malik Beasley leaving, with some other guys on the rotation leaving, I think the expectation was that they were going to kind of fall back down to earth a little bit. And that has not happened at all in Detroit. And they’re a very interesting team. team and have kind of represented a little bit of a shift that we’ve seen this season in the NBA shifting towards teams that play defense and teams that rebound. You think about a team like Houston that has one of the best offensive ratings in the entire league. Even though you don’t really think of them as like an offensive team and it’s just cuz they’re absolutely destroying teams on the glass. That’s kind of what’s happening with the Pistons. They have a top 10 rating in both offense and defense. They’re top five in defensive rating. We know that they’re great on defense. They have all these different rangy athletic guys on the perimeter. Jaylen Duran has made a leap defensively. They’re rebounding the ball extremely well. That was kind of the expectation for the Pistons this year was that they were going to be this strong, physical, defensive-minded team. The thing that has shifted for them this year is their offense. And especially with a team that is not near the top of the league at all in terms of overall three-point attempts and three-point percentage, it just doesn’t matter for two reasons. They’re really good on the glass and two, they get to the free throw line a ton. And everybody across the league this year is taking more free throws. But the Pistons are one of the best teams in the entire league at getting to the line at overall free throw attempts. And that powers an offense that at times looks like it struggles with spacing. It doesn’t look super free flowing. It doesn’t matter cuz they’re so physical. They’re so strong. They have Cade getting to the rim all the time. They have Jaylen Dur who’s been unbelievable and I think is going to be an all-star this year. And all these things have combined to not only make the Pistons good this year, but the best team in the Eastern Conference, not to mention plenty of clutch performances from someone like Kate Cunningham. And as I mentioned before, puts them in a very interesting position from a roster building perspective because as we keep saying with every Eastern Conference team, the conference is pretty wide open. I don’t think it’s crazy to think that the Pistons could be in the NBA finals this year. We saw Indiana make it last year. The Knicks and Cavs haven’t been overwhelmingly impressive to begin the season. Those were kind of the consensus top two teams in the East this year. The Celtics are getting better, but you don’t know what’s happening there with Jason Tatum. and the Pistons certainly can look at themselves and say, “Hey, we’ve got a real chance here. Should we try and make a move to try and make that happen?” However, there’s a couple of things that make the overall roster construction a little bit strange before you even get to any of the trade stuff. And that’s because in the offseason, they did not sign either Jaylen Duran or Jaden Ivy, who’s going to be very important here in a second when we’re talking about the trade discussions. They didn’t sign either of those guys to extensions. And obviously, Jaylen Duran made himself a ton of money. He’s probably going to get the rookie max or something very very close to it because he’s been unbelievable this year. Maybe Detroit lost out a little bit on some value by not signing him to an extension this past offseason. He’s going to be on the team moving forward. I’m not trading Jaylen Dur in any of the trade conversations we’re talking about here. Jayen Ivy’s the interesting one though because you would presume there would be some value via trade, but then a team is trading for a guy that doesn’t have a contract for next year is going to be a restricted free agent. And all of those things together again just create a very strange and an interesting scenario for a Pistons team that is clearly good. Having said all those things, let’s talk about the trade possibilities. There’s a couple of players that have been kind of connected to Detroit as possible kind of put them over the hump trade candidates. The first and I think the most likely or at least the the one that makes the most sense from a roster perspective is Lowry Markin who’s been really good in Utah this year and they’ve kind of there have been some reports and rumors on maybe them wanting to build around Lowry rather than trading him. But I think it’s pretty clear that it’s going to be tough for them to make the playin this year and Markin’s value is unbelievably high and he does a lot of things that the Pistons would like to have. He still has plenty of length and athleticism so they can keep up their defense, but he’s a really really good shooter. His three-point volume has never been higher than it is this year and provides them another offensive threat outside of Kate Cunningham. Right now offensively for the Pistons, it’s Cade, it’s some shooters, and it’s Jaylen Duran and not a whole lot else in terms of creation. Like you get some occasional Caris Levert minutes. Some other guys at the bottom of the roster have stepped up this year, but having someone else you can rely on like Larry Markin would be an awesome fit. Not to mention the spacing if they were to make that move. This is at least what the start of a trade structure would look like. Tobias Harris and Jaden Ivy are going to be in every single trade construction that we talk about here by the way. Uh it’s them two. It’s Paul Reed and then I put two first here. If you want to do more first that’s fine. That’s up to whatever Detroit feels like. But that would kind of be the trade construction is you have the Tobias Harris expiring which is the big contract that they have available. Jaden Ivy is like a potential upside piece for Utah and then you get you know whatever future first round picks. Obviously Detroit has more stuff to trade but I put this trade structure on screen for a reason. I don’t think that there is a scenario this year where Detroit makes a move where they trade for a star and that trade involves either Ron Holland or Assar Thompson. If you want to tell me Isaiah Stewart’s in the deal, that’s fine. If you want to tell me Jaden Ivy’s in the deal, that’s fine. If you want to tell me they trade four first round picks and some swaps, I would believe that before I believe they would trade either Ron Holland or Sar Thompson and obviously Jaylen Durn and Kate Cunningham are off limits in these discussions as well. So that’s why I put the trade structure on screen. It works financially. you can add more picks. But if I’m Detroit and what it seems like I think it’s likely they would or wouldn’t do, I don’t think any of those young guys I mentioned are available. So is that enough for Lowry Marketing? I would say probably not. Unless they’re willing to do literally all of the picks and all the swaps. And if I’m Detroit, I think I’d rather just kind of let my team grow with some of these young guys and keep my picks rather than go all in even for someone who’s playing as well as Lowry Markin. But you kind of have to evaluate that if you’re Detroit in terms of do we have a real chance to make the finals this year? And if we do, is this a move worth making? One of the other names that consistently has been attached to Detroit as well. And we talked about a little while ago is Anthony Davis. And I don’t like the Anthony Davis fit in Detroit at all. I don’t really understand what that helps them with. They’re already a great rebounding team. They’re already a great defensive team. And I I just really like Jaylen Duran. I don’t really understand any reason to add Anthony Davis to this group. In theory, it would be Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, Jaden Ivy, Mark Zasser, and then I put a top five protected first in there from Detroit so that the Mavs can get some kind of value. As we’ve talked about in the past, it’s unbelievably difficult to find consensus on what Anthony Davis’s trade value actually is. And Anthony Davis is really good, but then you’re putting him in the front court alongside Jaylen Duran because both those guys have to start. How exactly does that work? I’m not sure. I think Isaiah Stewart would just have to be in the deal because you don’t need as many bigs as then the Pistons would have once you add in Anthony Davis. But then what do the Mavs need with Isaiah Stewart? They’ve already got a bunch of bigs as well. As I’ve talked about in the past, I don’t think the Anthony Davis fit is clean at all in Detroit. But as a potential, you know, put them over the top kind of move, I do think Anthony Davis needs to be mentioned. Now, the last guy that I think people are going to want to mention here is Giannis. Giannis to Detroit for a similar trade package what we talked about so far. And if Giannis was interested in going to Detroit and the Pistons were interested in trading for him, that would be a scenario in which obviously I would see Detroit being willing to put in Ron Holland or Sar Thompson or whatever the case may be because you’re going to have to. It’s Giannis. You don’t have enough assets without those two guys to make this move. So, it would be Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, Jaden Ivy, Ron Holland, and whatever picks and whatever swaps you want to put in there in exchange for Giannis. And for Detroit, this would be the ultimate all-in move. and I think would make them the favorites in the Eastern Conference. There’s two issues with this. One, does Giannis actually want to go to Detroit? It seems like his preference is going to come into play pretty significantly here, and that preference appears to be pointed directly at going to the Knicks, although that’s going to be a difficult trade to actually make happen. The other issue, of course, is whether Detroit actually wants to kind of make this sort of all-in move by going after Giannis. For me right now, if I’m Detroit, I would ask about Lowi Marketing. I would see what the value required in exchange would be and I I really I wouldn’t bother with the Anthony Davis thing and I kind of wouldn’t bother with the Giannis thing unless for whatever reason he really really wants to go there and it’s a situation where you can get him for not less value than everyone else but something close to like normal levels of value where you’re not having to overpay for Giannis and I think the most realistic outcome and really this has been the case the entire season would be a Lowry Markin and trade where you don’t have to give up Ron Holland you don’t have to give up Assar Thompson you don’t have to give up eight first round picks and swaps. You can do some contracts, uh, you know, Jade Ivy, a couple of picks, and then you add Lowry Markin in, and you still have flexibility moving forward. That would be, I think, the best case scenario. But also, if I’m Detroit, you don’t have to do anything. Your team’s already one of the best teams in the Eastern, one of your best teams in the league, uh, and certainly the best team in the Eastern Conference so far this season. And to me, I I would just rather let the young guys grow. Especially if you’re looking at the Western Conference, you’re thinking, okay, even if right now Detroit is the favorite to make the finals out of the Eastern Conference, which I’m not sure that’s actually the case, although obviously by record it is, even if that’s the case, they’re not better than Houston, they’re not better than Denver, and they’re definitely not better than Oklahoma City. And so getting to the finals obviously would be great for this young team. But do you want to make these kinds of all-in moves now or do you want to wait a little bit for the Oklahoma City thing to potentially maybe get worse, Jokic to get older, the the Rockets thing to kind of fall off a little bit? Those are the kind of questions that a lot of teams that are kind of in a similar position to where the Pistons are right now are going to be asking themselves. But regardless, the Pistons have been really fun this season, and it’s going to be interesting to see what they do with their roster the rest of the

The Detroit Pistons are the best team in the East, and are ready to make some big NBA trades to add to their team.

#pistons #nba #nbatrades