Detroit Pistons 2021 NBA Draft Review: Our Cade Fire!

After decades of draft lottery misfortune, the Detroit Pistons finally had their moment in the spotlight as owners of the first overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Troy Weaver could have gotten cute and flipped the pick for extra draft capital since he had a seemingly endless supply of suitors willing to deal for the right to select at the top of a top-heavy draft. Smokescreens were set and lies were told in an effort to conjure up the perfect asset package that was too good to pass up. At the end of the day, the Pistons stood pat and filled their biggest remaining need: a player with superstar potential.

Enter Cade Cunningham, the new face of Detroit sports.

I laid out my thoughts on Cade in my post-lottery breakdown pretty extensively. Despite what the rumor mill was churning out Cunningham’s selection was the most likely course of events because, a) never believe what you hear/read during lying season, and b) Cade to Detroit always made the most sense given the current state of their franchise. Even though I fully subscribe to Ted Dibiase’s theory that “everybody’s got a price” and I love a good value chase. I didn’t come across a credible draft board or scouting guide that didn’t have Cade Cunningham as the No. 1 player in this class. A few talking heads here and there tried to get hot-takey, but they wouldn’t have the sack to select anyone not named Cade Cunningham if they were in the GM seat. Draft Cade –> Win Draft is the quick and easy breakdown.

But draft reviews are probably my favorite piece of content to crank out, so let’s do this breakdown proper. Besides, there’s been no shortage of Cade propaganda in the past couple of weeks that I’ve found interesting.

With the first overall pick in the NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons select @CadeCunningham_ from the @okstate. Welcome to the Motor City, Cade! #DetroitUp | @DraftKings pic.twitter.com/mN8quV3b8l

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) July 30, 2021

Round 1 (1) – Cade Cunningham – 6’8″ Wing/Lead Ballhandler – Oklahoma State

The kid who checks all the boxes is now being given the keys to his own NBA franchise. He looks the part, talks the part, and has all the tools to play the part. The word prototype is thrown around a lot. With Cade Cunningham, it appears justified.

Here is just a sampling of thoughts on Cade, courtesy of ESPN NBA Draft Analyst Mike Schmitz:

• “future star and one of the young faces of the NBA for years to come”
• “in winning time when it matters most, he’s calm, cool and collected”
• “an All-Star in his first two or three years in the NBA and a longtime All-NBA type of player”

Cunningham has one of the highest floors of any prospect in recent history, giving him very low bust potential. This will help me sleep at night. Which is good because I have a lot of nightmares. You know, Detroit sports fan and all. While some may question the ceiling given some of his perceived warts, such as low assist numbers for a lead ballhandler and bloated turnover totals, these “weaknesses” can easily be explained away by the lonely island on which he found himself during his freshman year at Oklahoma State.

Those who scouted his game at prep powerhouse Montverde Academy saw an intelligent and fundamentally sound leader that quarterbacked what Sam Vecenie of The Athletic called “arguably the best high school team of the last decade”. You’ll find the term “elite distributor” in that very same scouting report, which doesn’t sound like a guy that should have only averaged 3.5 assists at the collegiate level. Schmitz would also like a word in the discussions about Cade’s meager assist totals…

“What gives Cunningham his Doncic-like upside is the promise he shows as a facilitator, which is largely a product of his vision, length and ambidexterity.“

Don’t shoot the messenger.

Maybe it’s the hard seltzer talking, but forgive me for brushing under the rug Cade’s less-than-stellar AST/TO ratio over the course of one pandemic season with a new team. What’s more impressive is that Cunningham dragged preseason unranked Oklahoma St. to its first NCAA Tournament since 2017 and highest seeding (4) since 2005. It may be a bit of an exercise in transitive property, but Cunningham’s work at Montverde showed he can be the star of an elite squad. I think he can do the same in the NBA, and Detroit will give him the opportunity to prove it whenever the Pistons’ “restoring” phase is complete.

Others who are doubting his star potential at the next level are using his merely “good” athleticism as the reason why Cade’s name doesn’t belong alongside Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis as the best NBA prospects of the last decade. Hey, they can’t all be genetic freaks. And besides, is being the third-best pro prospect in the past 10 years (another claim from the Schmitz piece above) really a knock?

In an effort to quell those “not a great athlete” concerns, The Ringer’s Danny Chau did a deep dive on Cade’s basketball IQ, arguing that Cunningham simply processes the game at a higher and faster level than his peers. As the game evolves and the pace of play quickens seemingly year-over-year, situational processing becomes that much more important to maximize each possession. Chau sees Cade’s “feel” for the game (pattern recognition, visual processing/spatial recognition, and processing speed) as being the bridge he uses to close the athleticism gap (and throws in some more Doncic comps to boot).

What does “feel” look like, exactly?

Oh, nothing: just Cade Cunningham driving from 30+ feet out, scanning over the top of a double team and, while falling out of bounds, throwing a teammate open for a layup pic.twitter.com/9HiGGZhaVA

— Brian Geisinger (@bgeis_bird) June 7, 2021

The Detroit Pistons restoration process was fuel-injected as a result of landing Cade Cunningham. Troy Weaver had done an excellent job of infusing this franchise with interesting young talent with limited resources in a short amount of time. Landing a star was always going to be the tricky part without a fat wallet and/or a sexy market as the bait to lure them in. But that all changed with a little help from the lottery gods. I take back all the bad things I said about the LGs. I love them. Now and forever.

Round 2 (37) – ………………………..???

Hell’d it go? That 37th pick was just here a second ago. Consolidating their surplus of second-round picks (No. 37, 42, and 52) and jumping up into the late-first round felt like a perfectly reasonable plan to me. Instead, the Pistons flipped pick No. 37 AND two more years of Mason Plumlee to Charlotte for…wait for it…pick No. 57.

Did I miss something or did Plumlee not prove to be worthy of the 3yr $25 million deal he signed last offseason, a deal I didn’t even like at the time? Now Weaver is paying Charlotte a draft tax to take him off the books?

The reason Weaver needed the Plumlee cash was that he had his sights set on Kelly Olynyk, who he signed to a 3yr $37 million deal in the opening hour of free agency. I like Kelly Olynyk, and I don’t even think Weaver necessarily overpaid here. The number seems to match his value pretty well. And Olynyk probably does fit better alongside Cade as a floor-spacing center offensively versus the more traditional, but plenty skilled, Plumlee. I just don’t understand the sense of urgency Weaver displayed with this move.

While Detroit should make a sizable leap in the win column, next season is still a developmental year for the young core, and Plumlee was brought in for that exact purpose last offseason: to help keep the ship afloat while the kids learn to play together. Extracting maximum value from all your resources should always be a priority, and Weaver somehow turned the Plumlee contract into a negative asset after a career year. Also not great, Bob.

If given the option between Olynyk and pick 57 or Plumlee, pick 37, and an extra $4 million in cap space (per year), give me option B, and it’s not even particularly close.

A big part of that hinges on who was still on the board at No. 37. And there were some dudes. Round 1 quality hoopers. Let’s meet the fellas.

Jared Butler – 6’3″ Guard – Baylor

Ended up going No. 40 to Utah. An NCAA champion and top-25 guy on most boards, including No. 17 in Vecenie’s draft guide. One of the best shooters in the class, which proved to be a high priority for Weaver given how things shook out. Legit 3&D prospect. You can’t surround your stars with enough of those guys.

Ayo Dosunmu – 6’5″ Guard – Illinois

He’s staying home after being selected by Chicago at No. 38. The 23rd overall player on Vecenie’s board and 30th overall in The Athletic’s Consensus Big Board aggregate ranking. High character guy that will have value in the locker room even if he flames out on the court. The Pistons could have had a nice little collection of All-Big-Ten-ers after the way the rest of their draft went down. We’ll get to that in a bit.

Sharife Cooper – 6’0″ Guard – Auburn

Went No. 48 to ATL. The draft’s biggest faller? Ranked 17th overall by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and 21st overall on the consensus board. An elite ballhandler by trade. As Dwane Casey has told us many times, you can never have too many of those. Could have been a spark plug off bench/2nd unit leader.

JT Thor – 6’10” Forward – Auburn

If Thor attended the draft he would have had to awkwardly put on a Pistons hat, because Detroit selected him for Charlotte with their traded 37th selection. Ranked 30th by Givony, 33rd on the consensus board. Went a little guard-heavy on the shoulda-coulda-wouldas, so here is a bouncy big with a 7’3″ wingspan that would have made Weaver feel something wiggling in his trousers.

Dog ear the Plumlee trade to free up cap space for Olynyk as a candidate for the worst move of the Weaver era so far. Thankfully, there aren’t many candidates. Time for Olynyk to put on that clinic and prove me wrong.

Live from the Barclays Center …

With the 42nd Pick in the 2021 Draft … The Detroit Pistons select … Isaiah Livers from the University of Michigan!

Draft Board | https://t.co/qRuAF9Imst#NBADraft #ProBlue#GoBlue 〽️🏀 #ForCompetitorsOnly pic.twitter.com/7ixuKM0pxM

— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) July 30, 2021

Round 2 (42) – Isaiah Livers – 6’7″ Wing – Michigan

My man! I don’t need to dive deep into the scouting reports on this one, because I’ve seen nearly every second of Livers’ four years of NCAA play at The University of Michigan, which spanned 119 games, nearly 3000 minutes, and a whole lotta winning.

Take a trip down memory lane for some Livers thoughts from 2020, courtesy of yours truly. I’d say my analysis aged quite well when compared to the current draft analysis by luminaries in the industry. Why pay them when you can get it for free right here, eh?

Michigan basketball is my baby. My long johns in the neverending winter that is Detroit sports. I’m not going to throw shade at this pick, even if there were higher ranked players still lingering on the board at No. 42 (including Cooper: see above). However, this does qualify as a slight reach, especially since the Pistons had another selection coming just 10 picks later. For the record, the guys who wear suits to break this stuff down had Livers ranked mostly in the 50s, with Givony’s 49 being the highest among my preferred draft gurus.

But I feel that if draft analysts were putting together Detroit-specific big boards, Livers would be ranked significantly higher than he appears nationally. His strengths fill needs for Detroit while his weaknesses are not things he will be tasked with doing if he plays alongside Cunningham.

Shooting is his NBA-ready skill, on the back of his career .412 3PT% at Michigan. Take away his freshman campaign and this number climbs to .421. Yes, please. Vecenie points out how Livers is an elite catch-and-shoot guy but not as strong off the bounce. No biggie. Cunningham and Killian Hayes will be handling the playmaking duties for the foreseeable future. Just get open and wait for the kickout, where Livers is “lethal” with “quick and simple mechanics”.

As Jon Hamilton of The Warm Take (great guy) has written Livers has flirted with the elusive 50/40/90 shooting slash line at various points in his amateur career (are we still calling college basketball players amateurs?) but never quite landing there at seasons end. With less of the offensive load on his shoulders at the NBA level, a slight uptick in efficiency could get him there.

High-level shooters from range are always useful, but ones that play defense and know what to do without the ball contribute to winning basketball, which is what Livers has done for the past four years. You’d think a guy that tested the draft waters after his junior season before ultimately deciding to come back to school would have a sense of urgency to raise his draft stock and play a more selfish style of basketball. But Livers actually shot the ball less while raising his REB, AST, and STL numbers from the previous year, proving just how well he fits within a team concept.

This wasn’t an “upside” pick for Detroit. They got plenty of that in the first round. Livers is a role player with very specific strengths, and that’s ok. His experience and floor-spacing ability sound like a perfect complement to Cade.

Oh yeah…GO BLUE!

Welcome to Detroit my guy!!! @LukaG_55 #gohawks 🐥 https://t.co/MxFAB4ptQx

— TJ Hockenson (@TheeHOCK8) July 30, 2021

Round 2 (52) – Luka Garza – 6’11” Center – Iowa

The Hock approves of the Hawk(eye).

Reigning national player of the year. Top center in college basketball the past two years. Can sleepwalk his way to 20/10 on a nightly basis. A 44%(!) 3PT shooter that tips the scales at 265lbs. How does that guy fall out of the top-50?

Exhibit A: “I’m not sure I could do much more than (a two-way deal) given how poor the defense is right now” – Vecenie

Exhibit B: “It’s clear the game has moved away from big men in this mold over the past few years” – Givony

Exhibit C: “Matador on defense…He’ll be exposed defensively against teams that run a heavy dose of pick-and-rolls, which is most teams” – Kevin O’ Connor (The Ringer)

I typically like taking a shot on guys that dominate in college but don’t look the part of a star at the next level. Chip-on-the-shoulder stuff. Garza’s resume can put to shame other bigs that were taken 30+ picks earlier. Think Kai Jones at No. 19, who wasn’t even the best big man on his own team last season, let alone the country. Unfortunately, Garza’s defensive struggles are not due to a lack of effort or polish. His character and motor each garner rave reviews. He simply doesn’t have the physical makeup to play against more athletic competition.

He was so much better than his peers offensively that it outweighed his defensive limitations in college. KenPom reminds us that Iowa had the No. 3 offense in the country last season. Defensively? Iowa’s ranking drops to 75th. You’ll find a similar profile for all four of Garza’s Iowa squads dating back to 2017-18. No matter how badly he wants to improve, you can’t will yourself into speed, mobility, and twitch as a fully-formed 22-year-old. Average can get you by. You can even carve out a lane as a below-average defender if you bring enough to the table offensively. But below-average seems quite the climb from where Garza currently stands.

Maybe, maaaaaaaaybe Garza can find a role as an end-of-bench weapon that can come in and give you instant offense against specific opponents. But I can definitely see Garza contributing to G League titles for years to come. And I don’t mean that as a slight. I want to check out some Cruise games. The Sekou and Garza show sounds like appointment television (is the G League televised?)!

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍

The @DetroitPistons select Balsa Koprivica with the 57th pick in the @NBA Draft! 🍢#NBADraft pic.twitter.com/0Rk9th1qZa

— Florida State Men’s Basketball (@FSUHoops) July 30, 2021

Round 2 (57) – Balsa Koprivica – 7’1″ Center – Florida State

Troy Weaver’s famous “eye for talent” may turn infamous after this selection, because no one else saw this kid getting his name called in the draft.

There was no consensus ranking for Balsa Koprivica because no one knew who the hell he was. Sam Vecenie’s draft guide went 100 players deep. Balsa didn’t make the cut. However, Vecenie’s colleague at The Athletic John Hollinger (who admittedly doesn’t make my big board of NBA analysts) had a hot take on Balsa, calling him “probably the worst college player drafted in the last decade”. Ouch. Hope Hollinger is wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

It was rumored by the local beaters that the Pistons would stash a player in Europe to incubate and see if they hatch into an extraordinary and majestic phoenix down the road, and Balsa appears to be that guy (in theory). The odds are low, but at least he showed growth in his sophomore year at Florida State.

If Balsa were a salsa, he’d be Kroger brand mild.

There were only three more picks in the draft remaining after the Balsa selection at 57. Being overly critical of picks this late is likely a waste of character count. But I think we have time for one more game of “Who was still on the board?”…

Jericho Sims – 6’10” Center – Texas

Went one pick later to the Knicks. Sims was mostly a 50-ish guy. Still, 50s looks a lot better than N/A. But Vecenie has a feeling about Sims and slotted him all the way up at No. 46. He was the above-mentioned big man from Texas that was better than top-20 teammate Kai Jones. The polar opposite of Luka Garza, Sims has a dunk-or-nothin’ offensive game but is a tenacious and versatile defender. I saw his name come across my Twitter feed as a best-case-scenario draft haul leading into the festivities, and after reading more about him I can see why.

However, I shall not question the eye for talent. It is all-knowing and has seen many things.

Final draft grade: C(ade Cunningham is a member of the Detroit Pistons)

I can sit here and pick nits all day, and I certainly don’t think Troy Weaver has done his finest work in the past week. But this draft was 90% about landing Cade Cunningham and the looming return to relevancy of a storied franchise that has laid dormant far longer than its fans have deserved.

First came the Bad Boys era. Then the Goin’ to Work era. Is the Motor Cade era on deck?

"Motor Cade" loading in Detroit 😎 pic.twitter.com/Rjl0teMpHQ

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 30, 2021

Subscribe to The Warm Take to receive the latest content straight to your inbox

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

“Like” The Warm Take’s Facebook page to help this site grow

Pistons Draft Lottery Thoughts: Justice League

I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I make a concerted effort to block out narratives when things can be explained purely by numbers and logic. That being said, it was getting really hard to rationalize the fact that the city of Detroit and its sports franchises are continually boned by the draft lottery process. Maybe some shadowy forces ($$$) really were at play, keeping a downtrodden city from acquiring young, high-profile stars that would expedite the endless rebuilding processes that have resulted in a depressing existence as a Detroit sports supporter. I did a deep dive on the Pistons’ lack of lottery luck last year, but the gist of it is that the franchise had never improved its draft position relative to its final place in the standings. Ever.

Time to put the conspiracy theories to bed. Despite only a 14% chance to do so, the Detroit Pistons have won the 2021 draft lottery.

Now it’s time to go to work.

BEN WALLACE WAS GOOD LUCK

The Pistons get the No. 1 overall pick! @detroitbadboys pic.twitter.com/8aJmge4h1b

— SB Nation (@SBNation) June 23, 2021

Good things happen to good people

Speaking of narratives…

a fun one that is totally unsubstantiated but it makes me smile so I am rolling with it anyway, is that the Detroit Pistons won the draft lottery because they deserved it.

Only one team gets the pot-o-gold at the end of the tanking rainbow. This year the Detroit Pistons, led by first-year GM Troy Weaver and a head coach in Dwane Casey whose calling card is player development, executed a near-flawless tank job. ICYMI, the 2020-21 Pistons were a bottom 10-ish team masquerading as a doormat. I called it a masterclass in my season wrap-up because they laid such a solid foundation for the future while simultaneously locking in the best possible odds to acquire a franchise-altering talent in the draft. Despite logging the fifth-worst season in franchise history from a win/loss standpoint, this team was so much more interesting (and fun to watch!) than any Drummond-led team that was trotted out over the past decade.

The product on the court was synergistic with what management told us we would see this year. “Wins” didn’t matter. “Competing” did. And they did just that, with seemingly 1,927 different lineup combinations and nearly every player on the roster getting an audition to play a part in the next version of the playoff Pistons. Some questions remain (is Sekou any good?) but many more were answered.

I’m chalking this lottery win up to competent management. The basketball gods awarded Detroit with some good karma for doing things the right way (shout out to Larry Brown). This lottery wasn’t random. It was justice.

Of all the years to win the draft lottery, this was an especially good one. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie is on record stating that the top four players on his board are each rated more highly than Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft. And those four players are all very different physically, stylistically, and in terms of experience.

Options galore. Pick your path to prominence. That being said, the top of the draft doesn’t appear to be a tier of four, but rather a tier of one. And you’ve probably heard his name by now.

Is it almost Cade SZN in Detroit?

Cade Cunningham is a bad boy (pun intended). He checks all the boxes. The guy can do everything. He looks like a star in the modern NBA – a primary ballhandler, facilitator, shot creator, and plus-defender with a 7’1″ wingspan (Troy Weaver’s junk is wiggling at that last factoid). He talks like a star – comfortable in front of the camera as a result of being the No. 1 high school recruit in the country prior to his lone year at Oklahoma State. He has the high-character makeup that Weaver and Casey are building this team around. It still feels weird to think a player the caliber of Cunningham could soon land in Detroit, of all places. This just isn’t how it ever works out. But make no mistake, the reason teams tank is for the opportunity to land a star that can become the face of their franchise, and those guys don’t come around every draft (don’t believe the media hype train).

Refer to the excellent breakdown above from Hoop Intellect to familiarize yourself with the specs of Cunningham’s game if you are new to the party. Not gonna lie…I’m new to the party myself. I spent much more time (see: all of my time) familiarizing myself with Jalen Green (Guard – GLeague Ignite) and Evan Mobley (Unicorn – USC) leading up to the draft because I never truly considered winning the lottery an actual thing. I even did some “worst-case scenario” dumpster diving in the likely event the Pistons fell out of the top four entirely (guess I’ll just have to get a Scottie Barnes OKC jersey now).

Generational Talent?

People throw around the term “generational” talent way too loosely. By definition, a once-in-a-generation player should only come around every 20-30 years. Yet every year we hear this cliche overused, sometimes with multiple players in the same draft. So in an attempt to reel in the hyperbole, here is a realistic overview of how good an NBA prospect Cade Cunningham is in relation to his contemporaries. From Sam Vecenie:

“Any team that gets Cade Cunningham is going to have a drastically different outlook moving forward. He’s a spectacular prospect, my favorite to enter the NBA in the last two years. He’d be somewhere in the top 10 within the one-and-done era — and probably much higher if I really sat down and thought about exact placement.“

For the record, the one-and-done era began in 2006. So, according to Vecenie, Cunningham is one of the 10 best NBA prospects of the past 15 years, and he threw in that little sweetener of “probably much higher” if he was playing the rank ’em game. Much higher? So essentially, with Cade we are in the ballpark of a true generational talent.

The fit

Near-perferct, just like he would be with any other franchise that would have earned the rights to his services. Can we just leave it there?

Come on, you know I’m too long winded for neat and tidy bows like that.

One of the things that is jumping out at me is how badly the Pistons need a closer. In my end-of-season breakdown, I highlighted how competitive the Pistons actually were despite finishing with one foot in the league basement record-wise (20-52). Detroit only lost eight games by 15+ points all season, which was fewer than eight different teams that made the play-in/postseason. To take this a step further, 6Man on Youtube broke down the Pistons’ record in clutch situations (exact parameters unclear, take it up with him). The final tally: 7-25, good for a .219 win%, worst in the NBA by a wiiiiide margin (Toronto .282).

Interestingly, the 23-49 Minnesota Timberwolves had a .462 win% in these exact same close game scenarios (18-21) with the exact same late-game +/- as Detroit (-1.6). So, with a little variance, a bounce here, a call there, even simply not resting guys like Jeremi Grant and Mason Plumlee down the stretch to ensure developmental minutes for the young boyz, the 2020-21 Detroit Pistons were a play-in-esque team…without Cade Cunningham.

Enter Cade Cunningham, the NCAA leader in “clutch points” last year – per Hoop Intellect – who also calls him the most “consistently clutch performer” in recent memory.

I think Weaver can find a spot for a guy like that.

I also love the idea of Troy Weaver being able to get very specific in terms of character and fit with Detroit’s three second-round picks. When you pick first overall you know you are making a “best player available” selection by default. That lessens the urgency to find a diamond-in-the-rough type of player later in the draft, instead focusing more on players with higher floors and specific strengths. Weaver knocked his selections of Saadiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart (all-rookie first and second team, respectively) out of the park last year. Each had a very projectable game and performed as advertised. Neither will likely ascend to all-star level because of their capped upside, but that’s ok. Both are going to be plus-contributors for a long time.

With three in the clip (No. 37, 42, & 52) and one in the hole (No. 1), Nate Dogg (Troy Weaver) is about to make some bodies turn cold. Regulators! Mount up.

In other words, after the selection of Cunningham and given what we know about the rest of the roster, Weaver will be able to get very deliberate with his next three selections and show off his famous “eye for talent” thrice more. And he’ll even have the resources to trade up into the first round and double-dip if the EFT gazes upon potential value falling through the cracks (or if he simply wants to consolidate, since there are only so many roster spots to go around).

Questions? Concerns?

No, Jonny Pessimist didn’t take this article off.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “can’t miss prospect”. Though the odds seem comparatively low, Cunningham carries bust potential just like any other player that has ever been drafted. And wouldn’t it be fitting for the capital of sports misery to whiff on their long-overdue shot to join the superstar party?

Cade has a few warts, no doubt. They happen to the best of us. I had one on my foot when I was eight. Luckily, the Pistons have a framework that just might be able to mask Cunningham’s “flaws” (using that term very loosely) better than most.

One of his knocks is consistent defensive engagement. Despite projecting as an above-average pro defender, critics point to the fact that he took a play off here and there at Oklahoma State last season. This could simply be due to the fact that he was a one-man show at OSU, and one simply can’t sustain that high of usage without conserving energy somewhere. But Cade also says he never gets tired in games, attributing his infinite gas tank to the fact that he is “95% vegan” (aka he thinks he’s better than us).

Whatever the Casey may be, it won’t matter once Dwane is his head coach.

One of Casey’s favorite pastimes is taking minutes away from rookies who aren’t playing the right way. Sekou Doumbouya in 2019-20 comes to mind, who couldn’t seem to crack consistent playing time despite showing flashes of the upside that made him the 15th overall pick. Would Casey have the sack to jerk Cade’s minutes around? I wouldn’t put it past him. If Cade has ROTY aspirations, as he’s on record stating, he’d do well to stay on coach’s good side. At any rate, as a Piston Cade would be surrounded by a squad of high-effort and “compete level” guys. This “flaw” would likely be ironed out the day he steps into LCA.

Perhaps more concerning is Cunningham’s compatibility with Killian Hayes, Detroit’s 7th overall selection in 2020 and PG of the future. In some ways, their skills offensively complement each other well. Though Cade’s turnover problems in college can mostly be debunked (largely due to his lack of a supporting cast, defensive keying on him, and poor spacing) he could probably benefit from a slight dip in usage for the benefit of efficiency. With Hayes, despite a truncated rookie campaign, he definitely proved he is a guy that can get to his spot and make any pass. It’s scary to think what Cunningham might be able to do offensively when someone else does the heavy lifting to get him in position to score.

The problem here is with Killian and what he will be able to do when Cade initiates the offense. Because Killian showed next to nothing in terms of scoring potential last season. It was tough to watch at times. Ok, a lot of the time. We can’t just project that Hayes will develop a jump shot simply because he is still green. And I’m someone that was fairly high on Killian coming into his draft. I’m very sensitive when I deem a player uncomfortable to watch. It makes my Drummond PTSD flare up.

But this is ultimately a Killian problem, not a Cade problem. And they should have a year to work out the kinks. Detroit is still on the hook for the ghost of Blake Griffin and the $30 million he is due, which mostly takes them out of the free-agent game until 2022. That is when Weaver will likely shift into a playoff mindset. Until then they are still in development mode, meaning they can figure out how Cade and Killian mix on the fly without the pressure to win now. Cunningham has a long reputation of making those around him better, and Hayes will have to hold up his end of that equation by knocking down the open shots that will come. Hayes’ shortcomings have no bearing on whether the Pistons should draft Cunningham. Besides, they could be a nightmare defensive pairing for opposing backcourts, which is not insignificant.

The other guys

No, this section isn’t a review of the 2010 Wahlberg/Ferrell classic.

This is to highlight just how much upside Jalen Green and Evan Mobley have. A month ago all I wanted was a shot at drafting either one of these guys. Then that whole winning the lottery thing happened. Still, despite Weaver’s vow to uncover every stone and explore every avenue in this draft, there are only two non-Cade options, trading back to No. 2 (Houston) or No. 3 (Cleveland) and coming away with their favorite of Green or Mobley.

Green looks like an incredible offensive prospect. Better than Cunningham in that regard. Put the kids to bed before you watch the above Hoop Intellect breakdown because you are going to make noises they shouldn’t hear. Offensively, this is the “fit” guy for Detroit. An elite scoring guard to pair with the pass-first Hayes. The reason Cade is in a different tier is because of what he offers defensively. If Green can iron out his defensive wrinkles, some of which were communication/team-based, there is definitely a world where he becomes a better NBA player than Cade.

Then there’s Mobley, the first guy I fell in love with when the regular season ended and I shifted my focus to dreaming of better days. He leaps off the screen in very different ways than Green. While Green is the more explosive athlete, Mobley is a 7-foot slenderman (7’4″ wingspan) that doesn’t look like he should be able to move the way he does. When a player’s strengths include “rim protection” and “playmaking/shooting potential” you need to take a long, hard (oh so hard) look. Unlike Green, there are no defensive concerns here, as Mobley eats anything that enters his orbit. He has unicorn potential due to the fact that he is a skyscraper that can handle and shoot from distance.

His biggest concern is whether or not his slim frame can hold up against other NBA bigs. He should have went to Michigan instead of USC. Not only would they have won the NCAA Tournament, but Mobley would have undergone the world-famous Michigan Basketball offseason body transformation a la the Wagner bros. Besides, good luck trying to bully Mobley with Beef Stew as his frontcourt bodyguard. It’ll be the last thing you ever do.

Beef stew slowly cookin' the defense! 🚨🔥@Dreamville_33 | #Pistons Hits x @DraftKings pic.twitter.com/3HFh22GOWN

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) April 30, 2021

$$$ Everybody’s got a price $$$

This isn’t just the “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase’s motto, but also my golden rule in sports. Falling in love with one guy and putting on your blinders to all other avenues of team building is bad business. It’s going to take a lot for Houston or Cleveland to pry the top pick away from Detroit, but there are some juicy theoretical trade packages out there. Houston has the draft capital to tip the scales if they want to go all-in on Cade, who is a Texas boy and probably was secretly rooting for that Detroit card to be flipped over at No. 2. Cleveland hasn’t done much right as an organization except win draft lotteries and being the closest major city to Lebron’s birthplace. Perhaps they see no path forward besides mortgaging their entire future for the consensus top guy.

Fortunately for the Pistons, this isn’t year one of a rebuild. They need quality over quantity. Second-round sweeteners and post-hype prospects aren’t going to be as enticing to Detroit as they have been in the past. The Pistons won’t, and shouldn’t, settle for anything less than a treasure trove of high-end assets in any trade scenario. Is there a gulf in talent between Cade at No. 1 and Green/Mobley at No. 2/3? No. But fair value is not what Weaver should settle for here, even if he is high on the non-Cade prospects. Detroit holds the keys to this draft and are playing with house money after an unlikely lottery win. I wouldn’t get cute by playing the value game. Make someone blow you away with an offer.

Or simply…

#JustTakeCade.

Subscribe to The Warm Take to receive the lastest posts straight to your inbox

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

“Like” The Warm Take’s Facebook page to help me grow my audience.

The days of crying about a lack of #NBADraftLottery luck (Who does that? Surely not I…) are over in #Detroit. The foundation is in place. The roster is stocked with role players and character guys. Now it's time to finally land their star. #DetroitUp https://t.co/myOr3uzPW6

— The Warm Take (@TheWarmTake) June 30, 2021

Detroit Pistons Final Thoughts: Tanking With ‘Tude

Let’s get some cold, hard, ugly truths out of the way right off the jump. The 2020-21 Detroit Pistons just finished with the second-worst record in the NBA at 20-52, spending a sizeable chunk of the season in the league cellar. Their prized rookie Killian Hayes missed over half the season with a torn labrum in his hip, missing over 40 games worth of invaluable developmental minutes. They failed to flip Blake Griffin’s bloated contract for any return whatsoever and instead opted to pay him to hit the bricks. His ghost will make $30 million in Detroit next season (can his ghost dunk, tho?).

Blake Griffin did not dunk in two years with the Pistons and now he is throwing down HAMMERS with the Nets 😂😤🔨 pic.twitter.com/I66289bpaT

— BroBible (@BroBible) May 7, 2021

Sounds like yet another lost and miserable season in a sports town full of ’em. That is, until you pop the hood (car analogy, cuz, you know, motor city and stuff).

The anatomy of a losing season

Part of what makes the final record far from an indictment of this franchise and its future is the fact that this was all part of the plan from the outset. The front office acknowledged the fact that this was a ground-up rebuild…er…retool….uhh…restore (settle on a damn re-buzzword already) before the season started. There were no mid-season pivots. No delusions of grandeur. Tom Gores’ favorite “P” word (playoff) was never mentioned and was instead replaced by a much more attainable and culture-setting “C” word (compete).

GM Troy Weaver and Dwane Casey drove home the fact that this team was going to compete every night regardless of their place in the standings or who took the court. The competitive loss is a rebuilding art form. Enhanced draft lottery odds are the pot-o-gold at the end of the losing rainbow but you’d rather not get mopped up on a nightly basis trying to “win” that prize. And this team mastered the art of the competitive loss like no team I’ve seen in this city.

Here are some fun facts that illustrate how this team may have actually been closer to the play-in tourney than the league basement in terms of their quality of play:

• The Pistons lost more than four consecutive games only once this season, that being the five in a row they lost to finish the season to lock in their share of the top lottery odds. The Houston Rockets had a 20-game losing streak, which is the opposite of impressive, but equally pathetic was Orlando having five different losing streaks of at least 6 games. Oklahoma City lost 23 of their final 25 games, which included a 14-game losing streak as well as a niner to finish the season. Yet the Pistons somehow weaseled their way below the Magic and Thunder by one and two games, respectively, in the final standings. Riddle me that.

• Ok, so that first one wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. I was just highlighting the magic trick they played to sink to the bottom of the standings. But how about the fact that the Pistons had a NET rating (point differential per 100 poss.) of just -4.5, which doesn’t even land them in the bottom five. Their closest neighbor in these rankings? The 31-41 Sacramento Kings (yes, I’m making a favorable comparison to the Sacramento Kings). Had the Pistons won merely 28 games (a much more accurate reflection of their not-terribleness) instead of 20 they would have finished with the 8th worst record in the NBA and would have little to no chance of landing a franchise-altering talent in the draft. Instead, they own a share of the top odds and didn’t have to embarrass themselves on the court to earn that luxury.
• The Pistons’ first seven wins this season all came against eventual playoff/play-in teams, making it difficult for good teams to overlook them on a nightly basis. All of these wins came before the tank picked up steam and the “injuries” and rest days started to pile up, which began around mid-February. This is encouraging for the future to know that, while far from a finished product, the core pieces of this rebuild like Jerami Grant, Mason Plumlee, Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart have the ability to hang with good teams whenever it is Weaver and Co decide to shift into win-now mode.
• Of Detroit’s 52 losses, only eight came by more than 15 points. That’s it. Less than twice a month this team was blown out. A team full of rookies, reclamation projects, and a few vets sprinkled in. For reference, eight different playoff/play-in teams got obliterated more times than the Pistons this season. I repeat, eight different teams that are playing in the post-season got smoked more often than a 20-52 Pistons team that was playing guys named Frank Jackson and Tyler Cook 30+ minutes down the stretch.

That final bullet point leads into what this season was really about: player development and meaningful minutes.

The “D” stands for development

With so many competitive games in the books we were able to learn a lot about the makeup of the young players on this roster and their outlook for the future. Here are my takeaways.

Killian Hayes

The torn labrum he suffered back in January was a major speed bump in Hayes’ path to becoming the point guard of the future. However, he did look much more comfortable on the court after his injury sabbatical. Mostly because he couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable to start the season, with Dwane Casey throwing him straight into the fire as the starter. It was painful to watch him play alongside the early season version of the Pistons, which actually featured an experienced rotation with Griffin, Grant, Plumlee, and Delon Wright starting alongside Hayes with Derrick Rose playing a 6th man role. The sample was small (7 games) but Hayes had more turnovers (17) than made field goals (13) in that initial stretch, which isn’t ideal. He rarely ever looked for his own shot, deferring to a fault. And when he did shoot it, it wasn’t going in.

Here is something I wrote in my notes about Killian in the game in which he suffered his hip injury on 1/4 against the Bucks. “1stQ: Killian all-net 3 from corner. 1 min later from same spot, air ball and looks deflated”

Those were real-time, handwritten game notes from a Mead Five Star Advance 5 subject notebook. Where else you gonna get that kind of analysis without a paywall?

In hindsight, maybe a hard reset for Killian wasn’t such a bad thing.

Fast forward to April and we started to see some of the things that the scouting reports advertised when he was selected 7th overall in the 2020 draft. He can make every pass on the court and he knows it, which leads him to trying stuff like this…

This pass was coming right at where I'm sitting. Killian Hayes curved it like a bowler. Might be a contender for pass of the season. pic.twitter.com/3SEYE233uf

— James Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) April 17, 2021

He began to show what he can do in the midrange and floater game with some nice touch near the basket. From distance his shot looks ok, but the results were gross (sub 28% from 3). An 82.4 FT% leaves me hopeful, albeit not confident, that he can develop into a respectable 3pt shooter. He also has a knack for getting to the rim but often with no intention of finishing, instead launching himself under the basket and kicking out to an open teammate. To his credit, most of these passes do find an open shooter, but if he’s passing up open layups to do so…just cut it out and put the ball in the hole. You’re right there.

Kevin O’Connor and The Ringer put together a nice breakdown of why we should be pleased about Hayes’ overall development. But buyer beware, O’Connor might be playing damage control here. He once made the argument that Hayes should be in consideration for the top selection in the 2020 draft. Hence the title of his video: “Killian Hayes Is Not A Bust”. Whoa, Kev. No one said he was. Take it easy.

For what it’s worth, I’ll put Killian’s eventual bust percentage at 50%, but we don’t need to rush to apply this label. Let’s say that by the end of his rookie contract there is a coin flip chance that we will be regretting that pick in hindsight. How’s THAT for a Warm Take?

Gun to my head, I’d lean towards Hayes not paying off his No. 7 pick price tag.

Isaiah Stewart

Stewart didn’t even begin the season in the rotation and it took until March for him to consistently see 20+ minutes per night. By season’s end Stewart had his own merchandise line and was benched because he played too hard and risked blowing up the tank.

RT for a chance to win our exclusive, brand new Beef Stew 🍲 tees inspired by our collab with @Dreamville_33 & @TestKitchen. We'll pick one lucky winner and DM them tomorrow.

Also available for purchase now → https://t.co/kPzHC5papc pic.twitter.com/A7Jl5CN9y6

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) April 21, 2021

You goddamn better believe I re-Tweeted that shit with no shame.

Stewart led all NBA rookies in rebounds and blocks. Clean and easy stats there. He also finished second among rookies in Player Efficiency Rating (16.4), second in True Shooting (59.7%), and led all rookies in Win Shares (4.0). His per/48 rank in WS actually landed him in the top 60 in the league, while no other rookies finished in the top 100.

But the thing I like most about him was how he immediately made his presence felt with his physicality, toughness, and high motor (city). Opponents are going to hate going against this guy for years to come. Montrezl Harrell, Markieff Morris, and Dwight Howard are among the players he scuffled with this season. He even got ejected for intentionally elbowing an opposing Blake Griffin in the side of the head, just two short weeks removed from them being teammates. Thought we were bros? Take this bionic elbow Dusty Rhodes style to your dome.

Stewart is cut from the Bad Boys/Goin’ to Work cloth. Just makes too much sense for him to have landed here. Easy to root for. Easy to watch. I heart this guy. But let’s cool it with the Ben Wallace comparisons…

He’s Ben Wallace with a jumper.

This was Troy Weaver’s most scrutinized pick in the 2020 draft. Early returns are that it was also his best pick. One might say he has an “eye for talent”.

Saddiq Bey

Dude woulda smashed the all-time rookie 3pt record in a season of pre-pandemic length. Bey finished just 12 threes shy of Donovan Mitchell’s rookie record of 187 set in 2017-18 despite playing 729(!) fewer minutes. He also did it at a significantly higher clip (38.0%-34.0%). What else really needs to be said? Home run pick. Keep it moving.

Weaver made a mid-draft trade of Luke Kennard and a bunch of second-rounders to acquire the No. 19 pick and snag Bey. D’ya know what that tells me?

Seems like this Weaver guy has an “eye for talent”.

Saben Lee

The real PG of the future?

That might be me venturing into hot take territory, AKA the forbidden land. But I’d be lying if I told you Lee isn’t a more comfortable watch than Killian Hayes after year one.

The guy doesn’t have any remarkable skills, but he finds a way to get stuff done despite his limitations. His three-point shot looks wonky, yet it fell at nearly a 35% clip. His AST/TO ratio put Killian’s to shame. The Pistons had a grocery list of point guards this season and Saben Lee managed to log more minutes than anyone at the position that finished the season on the roster. The front office has plans for Lee. What role he eventually settles into is far from decided, but there’s just something about the guy. I’m excited to see more.

Lee was another draft day trade up target for Weaver. Do his eyes ever lie? No. No they do not.

Pistons player potpourri

In addition to the rooks, there were a LOT of dudes that logged minutes for Detroit this season. Some noteworthy, others notsomuch. Here is a collection of rapid-fire thoughts on the rest of dem boyz.

Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose

Thank you for your service. The Griffin and Rose eras won’t be looked back upon fondly in Pistons lore, but I liked both of these guys character-wise. Griffin’s 2018-19 campaign was probably the best individual season by any Pistons player in the past decade. Had they done more winning you could argue it was one of the best seasons by a Detroit player ever. Rose was really fun to watch and bought into his role as mentor for the young guards he played with.

Thank you for your service honorable mention: Delon Wright. Was as good as advertised in his cup of coffee with Detroit, and played well enough to get flipped at the deadline.

Jerami Grant

Wasn’t in love with his signing initially, but he quickly won me over. One of the things I found interesting about Grant’s season is when you look back and compare his numbers to his past two seasons in DEN and OKC, his offensive efficiency actually took a major hit. Such is life when you go from a role player to a number one option, right? But I’m not holding this against him yet. Grant is a smooth player that can score from anywhere and fills up the box score effortlessly. Maybe his sweet spot is somewhere between the 8.9 shots per game he was taking last year in Denver and the 17.3 he got off this year.

I also noticed Grant wearing Grateful Dead and Kill Bill shirts on the sidelines of the final two games of the season. What an interesting fella!

Jerami grant’s Grateful Dead tee 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/3fSWEHOrEC

— Blake (@blakesilverman) May 15, 2021

Mason Plumlee

My least favorite offseason acquisition by Weaver ended up being….the Pistons best player? There’s an argument to be made (led the team in many advanced stats, plus two trip-dubs), but at the very least Plumlee is proving to be a bargain at the 3yr/$25 million it took to acquire him. My initial concerns were that he was going to soak up developmental minutes for the youngsters and that he was good enough to raise the team’s floor but his age didn’t fit the rebuilding timeline. Turns out none of my concerns mattered. There ended up being plenty of minutes for the young bigs once Griffin was bought out and Plumlee ended up being one of the key ingredients in the competitive loss cocktail.

Hamidou Diallo

The Pistons said Svi (Mykhailiuk) ya later when they had the opportunity to swap him for Diallo via mid-season trade with the Thunder. Diallo just fits the Weaver mold to a tee. Athletic freak. 6’5″ but secretly a baby pterodactyl (6’11 wingspan). Just 22 years old and hasn’t fully broken out yet due to a logjam at the position in OKC. The only thing missing from his game was a consistent deep ball, and then he went and flashed 39% long-range upside in his 20 games in Detroit. Knocked down four triples en route to a 35pt game on 5/4. All that’s stopping Diallo from being a core piece of this franchise moving forward is if another team shells out some cash and lures him away (restricted FA this offseason).

Josh Jackson

He earned the right to have his “reclamation project” status revoked with the way he played this season. Though oddly enough, his numbers with Detroit look very consistent with what he’s done over the course of his four years in the league. Perhaps it’s because he was essentially a clearance rack find for the Pistons and no longer carries the weight of 4th overall pick expectations. He seems tailor-made to be an instant offense off-the-bench guy with the way he attacks the basket with reckless abandon. It’s weird because even when his body looks out of control his shots rarely are. I don’t know how he gets them to fall, but I won’t question it.

Josh Jackson ties the game 👀 pic.twitter.com/QQr5O9MJhw

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 7, 2021

Sekou Doumbouya

It really bothers me that I have watched nearly every second of Sekou’s 1623 career minutes and still have no idea if he is good at basketball. Maybe that fact in and of itself means that he isn’t? Yes, I’m going with that mindset. This guy sucks. Get him outta here.

Ahh, what could have been.

19-year-old Sekou Doumbouya just destroyed Tristan Thompson 😱 pic.twitter.com/qSV3Qq8vK9

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 8, 2020

Frank Jackson

He may have been a two-way player, but there’s no two ways about it, Jackson can put the ball in the hole. Over 40% from three over a 40 game sample in Detroit. That skill can find a home on any team. How much Weaver will have to pay to keep him is the only question.

The eye for talent strikes again.

A little lotto luck?

This season was nothing short of a masterclass of how to lose games without losing the fanbase or the morale of your young players. But regardless of the fact that Detroit shares the best lottery odds with Houston and Orlando, the fact still remains that we have no evidence that the mythical lottery ball sucker thing accepts ping pong balls with Pistons logos on them. There is a 72.5% chance that their draft position will slip relative to their place in the final standings. Their most likely draft slot is currently 5th (27.8%) which is nearly double the odds of landing the top spot (14.0%). Falling out of the top four this season would be a demoralizing blow, as there appears to be a tier drop after Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Suggs and Jalen Green. There might be a different kind of tier drop (the kind falling from my eye) if we once again wind up in worst-case scenario land (6th).

Troy Weaver made it a point in his postseason presser to harp on how much he hated being the architect of a 20-win team, saying “I don’t like the way it looks. I don’t like the way it smells. I don’t like anything about it.” and vowing that it won’t be happening again next season. So we might as well make it count while we’re down here.

Lottery gods, hear my plea. Reward this team for a well-executed season. From last year’s draft to free agency to a fly collabo on a new Martin themed merch line, this organization is making all the right decisions.

WZUP, Detroit! What’s a @realmartymar collaboration without recreating the opening? The entire organization went all in. We’re talking players, Coach Casey, and even the man himself, Troy Weaver! Don't forget to grab today's Martin merch at 3:13 pm on https://t.co/bqkN2mAqLK. pic.twitter.com/O1y6fVfmQg

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) May 14, 2021

Just grab our balls, dammit.

Subscribe to The Warm Take to receive the latest content straight to your inbox.

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

“Like” The Warm Take’s Facebook page to help grow my audience

Troy Weaver is Making Money Moves in Detroit

With a flurry of pre-and-post-draft moves, Troy Weaver has put his stamp all over the Detroit Pistons franchise, and he’s done it in record time. If you followed Pistons basketball last season but have been preoccupied with other things since March, you won’t recognize the squad that Detroit trots out there on (unofficially) December 22.

Maybe we should just rename the team to reflect the onslaught of deals the new GM has pulled off in the past week-plus. My submission is the D’Troy Pistons. No need to fully commit today, let’s just workshop it for a while and see where the creativity flows.

This post will serve as part two of the Pistons roster upheaval and will dive into post-draft movement and free agency. Part one covered the lead-up and analysis of the NBA Draft, of which the Pistons kinda stole the show despite originally heading into draft season with only one selection.

As in part one, we will start with a little roll call to recap who has come, who has gone, and who has come and gone.

“Like” The Warm Take on Facebook

IN: PG Killian Hayes (Pick No. 7 – France/Germany) | C Isaiah Stewart (Pick No. 16 – Washington) | SF Saddiq Bey (Pick No. 19 – Villanova) | PG Saben Lee (Pick No. 38 – Vanderbilt) | F Jerami Grant | PG Delon Wright | C Jahlil Okafor | C Mason Plumlee | SF Daznan Musa | SF Josh Jackson | SG Wayne Ellington | G/F Zhaire Smith | G Jaylen Hands | G Nikola Radeicevic

Out: SG Luke Kennard | SG Bruce Brown | PF Christian Wood (come back)| SF Tony Snell | SG Langston Galloway | PG Khyri Thomas | PG Brandon Knight | C John Henson | SG Jordan McRae | PG Jordan Bone | C Thon Maker | C Justin Patton

IN-N-OUT Burger: SF Trevor Ariza | C Tony Bradley | C Dewayne Dedmon

When we last saw our heroes they were emerging from the cave of “Hey, everyone is saying what a good draft we had! Neat!“, and headed towards the enchanted free agent forest. Would Troy Weaver stay true to his rebuilding intuition? Or would the temptation to buy some shiny new toys prove too tantalizing to resist? Onward in our rebuilding adventure.

*This is organized in the order that these events went down for added context, not in order of importance/impact.

Pistons sign C Mason Plumlee to 3 yr $25 million deal

Plumlee is a serviceable NBA player. He should be a high-level backup big man on a contending team, which is basically what he has been the past several years in Denver. In Detroit, he will likely be a low-level starter, and based on that dollar amount we will be seeing plenty of him regardless of how the starting lineup shakes out come December.

The obvious question is, of course, why Plumlee? Why is Weaver paying significant money to a medium-floor low-ceiling (the floor can be higher than the ceiling in my world) center on the wrong side of 30 instead of taking a shot at a player with more upside? Perhaps a younger player that may be entering his prime when this team turns the corner rather than entering retirement age?

Turns out the writing was on the wall all along.

After Weaver took his post this summer he made it clear that he didn’t want his franchise to be a doormat, despite tanking being all the rebuilding rage. He reiterated this sentiment into the month of November. Plumlee might not move the needle in the win column, but he could make some of the losses much more competitive. Plumlee plays hard and smart, and is known as a guy who will accept any role with a smile and simply do his job. He is a low maintenance, set-it-and-forget-it kind of player that will help balance out the youth movement.

On top of that, Plumlee just might be the perfect stopgap big man for the development of Killian Hayes. Plumlee’s above-average passing and skills in the lob game will give Hayes a much-needed safety net to keep the offense flowing.

My instant reaction to this signing is very different from how I now view it. I still don’t love the dollar amount, but I am now fully behind this pickup from a stylistic standpoint. There’s always a place for steady-Eddie.

Pistons sign C Jahlil Okafor for 2 yrs (vet minimum)

That’s more like it, Troy.

The No. 3 pick in the 2015 draft has crashed and burned since his promising rookie season in Philly. He’s a guy no one wants to pay or commit to long-term, but plenty want to take a flyer on. He hasn’t played consistent minutes since the 2016-17 season but shows flashes whenever an injury thrusts him into a starting role.

Do me a favor and check out Okafor’s 2019-20 game log. From the start of 2020 until the end of the season you will find a whole lot of single-digit minute games and “did not play/dress” designations. But on 1/13/20, against your Detroit Pistons, Okafor drew the start and dropped 25 points on Andre Drummond. He’s not a great rebounder…but he had 14 on this night. Certainly not a ball-handling big…but dropped 5 dimes on this night. Regarded as a porous defender…but had 3 blocks on this night.

Jahlil Okafor vs Andre Drummond last night:

25 pts (11-21 FG)
14 rebs
5 ast
3 blks

Every so often, when he gets the touches and these minutes, he'll have these big games.

Is there a place for him today? I say there should be. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

(📹: NBA/Down To Buck) pic.twitter.com/1YVNLQ1jOT

— Bryan Fonseca (@BryanFonsecaNY) January 14, 2020

Ok, that was mostly Drummond shade rather than an Okafor endorsement. I just can’t let the last eight years go. But Okafor flashed his entire arsenal in the above clip, and it’s worth a dart throw to see if he can consistently play like this with either a) a locker room/culture change (Weaver is putting a major emphasis on acquiring “character” guys), or b) consistent minutes.

If he hits, you just created a trade chip using money you found in the pair of jeans at the bottom of the drawer. If not, you have a guy you can throw out there if you need to lose a bunch of games at the end of the season to get some extra lottery balls.

Keep moves like this coming, Troy.

Pistons sign SF Josh Jackson (contract details not yet announced, but he’s cheap)

Another post-hype project for Weaver and company with the signing of Jackson, the No. 4 pick in the 2017 draft and Detroit native.

Jackson has some stuff to work on. His career slash line of .417/.298/.655 is…unsightly. His laundry list of off-court issues is…not ideal. But somewhere underneath all that mess is a guy from a basketball factory (Kansas) who was considered the top wing and one of the most well-rounded players in the 2017 class.

He dominated the competition after a demotion to the G League last season and came out the other side as the most efficient version of his NBA self. If he can build on that on-court momentum and stay out of trouble off of it, this will have been another well-aimed dart. If not, no cap harm done.

Troy Weaver seemed to be hitting a bit of a free agency stride after the signings of Okafor and Jackson. And he still had plenty left in the kitty to re-sign Christian Wood at this stage of the game. But all that went up in smoke after Weaver broke the bank for…

Pistons sign F Jerami Grant to 3 yr $60 million deal

Let’s just go ahead and make it official…

Rockets signs PF Christian Wood to 3 yr $41 million deal

Goodbye, my guy.

#Rockets are getting a good one. Some question the small sample and whether it warranted a big payday, but my eyes told me the dude was legit. Really enjoyed watching @Chriswood_5 play in #Detroit. My thoughts on his game from just before the shutdown. https://t.co/uHjI7ADnbI https://t.co/VLnVy1SgaX

— The Warm Take (@TheWarmTake) November 25, 2020

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

*The Grant and Wood signings technically go in the books as sign-and-trade deals.

Jerami Grant is a very good basketball player. The 26-year-old fits the Weaver mold perfectly as a highly versatile forward with a massive wingspan (7’2″). He transformed from a guy with limited range to one of the more accurate 3pt shooters in the league the past two seasons. He’s an athletic freak who is an aggressive finisher at the rim.

On the defensive side of the ball, I’ll just leave this breakdown here. Courtesy of The Ringer:

“The best way to see Grant’s value is to look at the players he defended in the playoffs. Per NBA Advanced Stats, Grant’s three most frequent assignments were Kawhi Leonard, Donovan Mitchell, and LeBron James. Anthony Davis was no. 5, and Paul George was no. 7...and there is no real list for players with that kind of defensive versatility who can also shoot as well as Grant did from 3 last season (38.8 percent on 3.5 attempts per game).

With all that being said…give me Christian Wood over Grant. In fact, I would take Wood over Grant regardless of the contact structure. The extra $6-plus million annually in potential savings would have just been icing on the cake.

That ringing endorsement (you know, cuz it was from The Ringer) absolutely highlights why Grant has become one of the premier 3&D role players in the game. Denver, who reportedly matched Detroit’s offer, will not be able to replace Grant’s contributions and very well could fall back a tier in the overall NBA power structure. But Denver’s loss may not equal Detroit’s gain for a variety of reasons.

Unfortunately, unless Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose stay healthy, turn in All-Star caliber performances, and don’t get traded, Grant won’t be guarding anyone in the playoffs anytime soon. The Pistons are still very much in “find a star” mode, and Grant offers very little chance of becoming the face of the franchise.

Wood comes with some bust potential due to his small sample size of high-level play and concerns over how he will respond to his first big paycheck (not concerns of mine, but plausible). But he also offers star potential which Houston just poached for less than $14 million per year.

Put it this way: I think Grant’s value to the Detroit Pistons is closer to the contract Wood just signed, while Wood’s upside warranted the contract that Grant just signed.

If you think my judgment is clouded because I am an unabashed Christian Wood slappy…you may have a point. Allow me to bring in some unbiased third-party observations courtesy of The Timeline: a Phoenix Suns Podcast, who offer two excellent free agency scouting reports of Grant and Wood.

These breakdowns reassured me that there is a lot to like about Grant’s game. I was happy to learn that he may be an analytics defying player after finding him buried on certain metrics I have put previous stock in. I watched every minute of Wood growing (wink wink) last season, so these clips were just a nice trip down memory lane for me. But the TL;DW summary of these videos comes in the final minute of the Wood breakdown, where the host says point-blank “Wood is the No. 1 target for the Suns this offseason”.

It’s still unclear exactly why the C-Wood era came to a close in Detroit. Would things have played out differently had Weaver, who took the helm in June, had a front row seat to Wood’s coming out party like the rest of us? Did Weaver have a hard number he was willing to offer Wood and simply refused to budge, knowing he actually wanted to reunite with Grant (whom he and GM Sam Presti traded for/away in OKC)? Did Wood secretly want out of Detroit?

That last one might be the real answer, considering he was asking for advice on where to take his talents on IG last month. But even if Wood did want out, he’s not really in a position to turn down the highest bidder considering he’s already 25 and has earned south of $5 million over his five NBA seasons. As the kids would say, “C.R.E.A.M.” (kids still say that, right?).

You’d have to imagine an offer of $15 million per – totally reasonable and quite possibly still a bargain – would have been accepted. What god-fearing man wants an annual salary that ends with a .666 anyway?

I know I’m focusing too much on Wood and not enough on Grant here. But this really feels like a missed opportunity to add to the lore that the “Goin’ to work” Pistons established in the early 2000s. Unheralded journeyman gets his first real opportunity in Detroit and flourishes. Fair or not, it’s now up to Grant to prove that Weaver made the right decision giving him more than twice as much money as any Piston not named Blake Griffin.

Delon Wright traded to Detroit in three team deal

Why doesn’t anyone want to keep this guy?

Delon Wright, of fantasy basketball “pickups of the week” fame, has been dealt three times in less than two years. Detroit will be Wright’s fourth stop in just six seasons. Which is strange because…the guy is a pretty good player, who is pretty good at a lot of things.

Wright doesn’t need a lot of minutes to be effective, but he can absolutely stuff a box score when given his share. He has come off the bench for nearly 90% of his 271 career games, but his brief run as a starter in Memphis in 2018-19 saw him post 3 triple-doubles in a four-game span. Dallas returned him to his 20-ish minute bench role last season, and Wright responded by posting some of the most efficient scoring of his career, despite a career-low usage-rate.

Long story short: everyone needs a Delon Wright. If Derrick Rose gets traded and/or Dwane Casey doesn’t want Killian Hayes thrown into a featured role as a rookie, Wright can be trusted to run a competent offense. He is a versatile player with a versatile contract if a needy team comes-a-calling at the trade deadline.

*The outgoing Detroit piece in this deal was Trevor Ariza

Housekeeping

A quick rundown of the Pistons’ remaining transactions to put a bow on all this madness.

Don’t forget to stretch

One of the earliest post-draft moves Weaver pulled the trigger on was trading for Atlanta C Dewayne Dedmon, shipping out SF Tony Snell and PG Khyri Thomas. The 31-year-old Dedmon has since been waived, proving that this was merely a trade to facilitate trimming the fat on the roster.

Noteworthy here is that Dedmon’s $14 million in guaranteed money will be stretched over the course of the next five seasons, with a cap hit of just under $3 million on the Pistons’ books until 2024-25.

My concern here is why the Pistons are kicking the can down rebuild road when now is the time you are supposed to be eating bad contracts? I’m no cap-ologist, but I can think of a way the Pistons could have fit the entirety of Dedmon’s money into the rebuild window and kept the books clean for when it’s time to compete for the playoffs.

Ah, the trickle-down effect of signing Jerami Grant instead of Christian Wood for a fraction of the cost.

Pistons trade C Tony Bradley to Philadelphia for PG Zhaire Smith

Bradley was the guy the Pistons acquired from Utah in a mid-draft trade (along with No. 38 pick Saben Lee) in exchange for “future considerations”. Smith was a player that was linked to a potential Derrick Rose deal at last year’s deadline.

Smith is also rumored to be waived, so we will hold off on getting to know him yet. Though it would be odd to part with a 21-year-old player just two years removed from being drafted 16th overall without first kicking the tires. What do you have to lose?

Pistons sign SG Wayne Ellington to 1 yr $2.6 million deal

The journeyman long-gunner returns for his second stint in Detroit, and I am happier than I probably should be with the news. I’ve just always liked the guy.

Ellington was a member of the last Pistons squad to make the playoffs (2018-19) and, quite frankly, he was one of the only players worth a damn down the stretch that season as the ‘Stones slipped in the standings. The team barely hung on to the 8th seed, earning themselves the right to get their trousers pulled down by Giannis and the Bucks.

He’s 33-years-old and has been on nine teams in 11 seasons. But you can never have enough shooters or good locker room guys, and Ellington checks both boxes.

Final thoughts

This offseason had A LOT goin’ on. There was no chance that I would agree with every move Troy Weaver made, because he made all the moves. That said, I am happy with the overall direction of the team now that most of the dust has settled.

The draft looks like a real bright spot. I always take a hard stance against draft grading (haven’t heard from all the people who gave former Lions GM Bob Quinn A’s across the board lately) because we simply won’t know anything until these guys actually start producing on NBA courts. But I love the disparate skillsets and diverse roles that the rookie class offers, and I am really interested to see their development this season.

Love the low-risk, high-reward reclaimation projects that Weaver took on in the signings of Okafor and Jackson, and balancing those with high-floor steady vets in Wright and Ellington will help keep things on the rails.

Don’t love letting Christian Wood walk. This will be a bad look for Weaver if Wood turns his small sample of high-level play in Detroit into a big sample in Houston.

Don’t love the contracts, but I do love the games of Jerami Grant and Mason Plumlee. And this leads into the biggest reason why I am pleased with work Troy Weaver has done this offseason:

This team isn’t going to win a lot, but they should be fun to watch. This is a squad of guys who play hard and have “Detroit basketball” written all over them. This might sound cliche, but it is so important for fan engagement and establishing your brand that the product matches the identity of its audience. These quotes from Dwane Casey regarding the incoming rookie class sum up what I mean. From MLive:

“These guys fit Detroit basketball,” Casey said. “They’re hard-playing, hard- charging. They’re a good character guys but they’ll knock you on your butt when it comes time to.”

I eat stuff like this up. Every sorry ass team in this town talks about establishing a culture, but the words largely ring hollow. I may be taking the bait here, but I believe in the message this front office is selling.

We won’t see it reflected in the win/loss column for a while, but I think this team is going to play a refreshing brand of basketball from the jump.

Subscribe to The Warm Take to receive the latest articles straight to your inbox.

“Like” The Warm Take on Facebook

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

Troy Weaver Takes a Cleaver to Detroit Pistons Roster

New Detroit Pistons GM Troy Weaver knows how to make an entrance.

Weaver was hired back in June to little fanfare (the world was preoccupied with other stuff, me thinks) after spending more than a decade as Assistant GM for the Thunder. It was unclear how the division of power would shake out among owner Tom Gores, who spoke of the front office as a “team” that could shift roles as needed, and Senior Advisor Ed Stefanski, who has served as pseudo-GM in the post-Stan Van Gundy era.

This past week, Weaver made it abundantly clear that this roster construction stuff is his world, and we are all just living in it.

A flurry of moves – before, during, and after Wednesday’s NBA Draft – has this team looking very different than it did at the time Weaver assumed his position this summer. In lieu of a normal “Draft Recap and Review” post that I would normally drop here, I am taking a timeline-style approach and I will fill in my thoughts along the way.

There is a lot to unpack here and, quite frankly, my head is spinning. Consider this part 1, which covers the NBA Draft and the events leading up to it. Part 2 will tackle free agency.

“Like” The Warm Take on Facebook to help this content reach new readers

Who’s in? Who’s out?

First, a rundown of all the arrivals and departures to help us visualize what the hell just happened.

*This list will be updated as movement continues in the coming days.

**Some players have already arrived and departed, hence the need for the “here today, gone tomorrow” section.

IN: PG Killian Hayes (Pick No. 7 – France/Germany) | C Isaiah Stewart (Pick No. 16 – Washington) | SF Saddiq Bey (Pick No. 19 – Villanova) | PG Saben Lee (Pick No. 38 – Vanderbilt) | F Jerami Grant | PG Delon Wright | C Jahlil Okafor | C Mason Plumlee | SF Daznan Musa | SG Wayne Ellington | SF Josh Jackson | G/F Zhaire Smith | G Jaylen Hands | G Nikola Radeicevic

Out: SG Luke Kennard | SG Bruce Brown | PF Christian Wood (come back)| SF Tony Snell | SG Langston Galloway | PG Khyri Thomas | PG Brandon Knight | G Jordan McRae | C John Henson | PG Jordan Bone | C Thon Maker | G Louis King | C Justin Patton

Here today, gone tomorrow: SF Trevor Ariza | C Dewayne Dedmon | C Tony Bradley

The story so far…

11/16: Pistons trade Bruce Brown to Nets for Dzanan Musa and 2021 second-round pick (via TOR)

The first cut is the deepest?

Weaver kicking off his flurry of pre-draft maneuvering by trading the most Piston-ey Piston on the roster woke me from my football induced malaise. I really liked Bruce Brown and am disappointed that this was the best they could get in return for their best perimeter defender with an improving 3-ball.

And he did it all with a mean mug and a shoulder shrug.

That being said, the full teardown hadn’t yet materialized (and still hasn’t!) when this trade went down, and in hindsight, it makes a little more sense now that some dust has settled. Brown flirted with 30 minutes per game last year and those minutes are now available for the kids. Detroit gets worse in the short-term with this deal, but maybe that’s part of the plan.

Why does Detroit get worse with this deal? Because this is the player they are getting in return:

Dzanan Musa Brooklyn Nets career highlights pic.twitter.com/U2hnLuh0hS

— John 🇺🇸 (@KyriesIntellect) November 16, 2020

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

He’s only 21, so anything can happen, but it will be a good old fashioned rags to riches story if Weaver and company can turn this mess into a functional NBA player. We also can’t poo poo a late second-round pick. Small assets like those get dismissed, but a good chess player knows how to use his pawns.

*More on that last part coming up, as it seems this second-rounder (and a few others) are already on the move.

11/18: Pistons trade a future first-round pick to Rockets in exchange for No. 16 and Trevor Ariza

This is the type of deal I was expecting the team to make. The Pistons absorb the unwanted contract of Ariza with their abundance of cap space and are rewarded with a mid-first rounder for their efforts. This deal showed the Pistons’ cards quite a bit. Turns out they wouldn’t be offering max-level cash to a less-than-max quality free agent this offseason simply because they have the dough lying around (AKA Fred VanVleet ain’t coming here no more). And that’s a good thing.

The future first they gave up is top-16 protected for the next four years, meaning the only way they will lose the pick anytime soon is if this team turns the corner sooner than later. Which would also be a good thing.

*Don’t bother getting to know Mr. Ariza, as he has already finished his cup of coffee in Detroit and has been flipped. More on this move when it fits in the timeline.

**Additional details surrounding this move have been released. We’ll get to them shortly.

Draft: Pistons select PG Killian Hayes 7th overall

No. Issues. What. So. Ever.

I made a big to-do over the summer when the Pistons once again fell victim to the lottery gods, slipping two spots down the draft board to No. 7. A two-spot jump to No. 3 would have netted LaMelo Ball, my preferred top pick for the Pistons.

But Killian Hayes is a damn good consolation prize.

A pass first PG with a 6’8″ wingspan who has elite court vision? Sign me up. Sure, Hayes has his shortcomings, like left-hand dominant tendencies and some ugly numbers from deep last season playing professionally in Germany (29.4%). But when you simultaneously fill your team’s biggest need while also snagging what many believed to be the best player on the board with massive upside, that’s a slam dunk of a pick (boomshakalaka).

I love the idea of Hayes learning behind Derrick Rose, who has been all business since he came to Detroit and has publicly stated his desire to take young players under his wing and raise their game. He did this with Luke Kennard last season, and while Kennard could always shoot, he more than doubled his assist output while becoming much more active in the flow of the offense. And if the Pistons keep their 25-minute cap on D-Rose’s usage, that leaves 20+ behind for Hayes to get his feet wet next season.

Back-2-Back first-round selections from France, eh (Sekou Doumbouya, 2019)? Sounds like Detroit basketball to me. Wee wee wee, here comes a bounce pass from the top of the key.

Draft: Pistons select C Isaiah Stewart 16th overall

Reach alert!….or was it?

The Pistons surprised many when they selected Stewart, a 6’9″ C from Washington with their newly acquired No. 16 slot. The Athletic’s Consensus Big Board, an aggregate list of rankings from around the interwebs, had Stewart as the No. 28 ranked player in the draft. A sampling of the highly touted players still on the board at the time of this pick included R.J. Hampton (13), Saddiq Bey (15, but we’ll get to know him shortly) and Aleksej Pokusevski (18).

Let’s hope the rankers out there were just sleeping on Stewart based on the fact that he is an undersized center in a modern NBA that is devaluing the position by the minute. That might be exactly what happened based on a few factors:

First off, the scouting report is glowing in regards to this dude. We might want to hold off on the undersized label, considering the guy is a pterodactyl (7’4″ wingspan) and is built like a brick shithouse. Of course, what’s the point of all that strength if you aren’t going to use it (looking at you Andre Drummond)? Thankfully, Stewart is being described as the highest motor player in the draft, and he plays mean to boot. He’s a rim protector on the defensive end and a finisher around the basket offensively. If Stewart uses his frame to make himself available Hayes should be able to find him with ease for years to come.

Additionally, after the Pistons selected Stewart they were immediately offered a trade from a team hoping to acquire his services (which included first-round capital in return). So regardless of where Stewart was ranked pre-draft, it appears the Pistons stuck a wrench in at least one other team’s plans with the selection.

Lastly, a collection of notable scouting quotes released prior to the draft included these two lines regarding Stewart: “He won’t drop out of the top 20”, and “He’s going to go higher than people think.”

Reach? Or just right? Only time will tell. But this kid has “goin’ to work” written all over him.

Mid-Draft: Pistons trade Luke Kennard to Clippers, receive pick No. 19…

…if it were only that simple.

Luke Kennard is a good NBA player that is more of an asset to a contender like the Clips than he would be to a now rebuilding Pistons squad. It is unlikely the Pistons will be ready to compete by the time Kennard is ready for his next payday (2021 offseason), so why not ship him out in return for similar value to where you originally drafted him in 2017 (12th overall)?

Makes perfect sense on the surface. Less so when you look under the hood.

There are a TON of moving parts in these trades, and new details emerge seemingly by the minute. But as it currently stands, it appears as though the Pistons parted with not only Kennard, but also FOUR F*CKING SECOND-ROUND PICKS to facilitate the Kennard and Bruce Brown trades, which despite being announced two days apart, somehow Jedi mind-melded into one deal. So much for my chess/pawns analogy above.

I’m still holding out hope that there is some fine print that makes the above information somehow not true, or that there is some unannounced future capital headed Detroit’s way that lessens the blow. But these are not insignificant details. The impact of those lost second-rounders will be felt, particularly if this rebuild goes poorly and these end up being picks in the 30s. At least the aforementioned picks are well down the road (2024-2026), so Weaver has time to weave this franchise into a contender.

Just to finish the housekeeping here, the Pistons also received SG Rodney McGruder and G Jaylen Hands in the process of these deals, while losing C Justin Patton, who they signed over the summer. McGruder is 29 and just a guy, and it is still unclear whether or not the Pistons will “waive and stretch” his contract or simply leave him as bench fodder. Hands was a late pick in last year’s draft, so maybe Weaver sees something he can develop here. We won’t get to see what Patton could have brought to this team, but considering he has more fouls than defensive rebounds in his career so far, I’m fine with that.

At the end of the day, this was about acquiring pick No. 19 and adding to the rebuilding war chest, and if Weaver used the pick wisely it will quiet all the other noise. And he may have done just that.

Draft: Pistons select SF Saddiq Bey 19th overall

He’s got the 3. He’s got the D. He comes from a basketball fac-to-ry. So much to like, so little time.

Bey is a 6’8″ wing out of Villanova who was widely considered a top-15 selection, so for Weaver to conjure up an additional pick and snag Bey at 19 is quite the parlay (besides giving up all the second-rounders there ever was). His scouting report tells of a player who is NBA ready yesterday, equipped with a high basketball IQ and a lethal deep ball (45.1% on high volume).

This isn’t a star player, but rather the type of guy you surround stars with. If the Pistons have their future star in Hayes, it will be players like Bey that help him reach that status. He knows where to be and when to be there, and his 7’0″ wingspan gives him mouthwatering versatility on both ends of the court.

I’m a big proponent of disparate and complementary skillsets, particularly in basketball where the five players on the court can have such an impact on the effectiveness of one other and the unit as a whole. With the selections of Hayes, Stewart, and Bey, the Pistons have landed three players with a really nice collection of skills that don’t overlap. It might take a while before we see them all on the court playing extended minutes together, but I’m excited to see what it looks like down the road.

Mid-Draft: Pistons acquire pick No. 38 and C Tony Bradley from Utah for “future considerations“

Tough to evaluate this trade without knowing what the “future considerations” are, so we won’t spend much time here. Bradley is a young big who has some fans in the media that feel there is some untapped potential here. Unfortunately, as we will learn in part 2 of my breakdown of the week’s events, center minutes will be tough to come by in Detroit (the Pistons have ALL THE CENTERS).

*Tony Bradley just finished his cup-a-joe and has been shipped to Philly for Zhaire Smith. More details in the timeline.

Once again, the main event here is pick No. 38, as Weaver must have had his eye on a special someone out there to pull the trigger on yet another draft-day deal. That special someone was…

Draft: Pistons select PG Saben Lee 38th overall

I didn’t know a lot (anything) about the 6’2″ point guard out of Vanderbilt coming into the draft. But watching his highlight videos makes one thing perfectly clear:

Saben Lee will shit on you.

Lee is being touted – in a positive way – as the Pistons’ new Jordan Bone, their two-way PG project from the 2019 draft. Not sure why that is a good thing, considering Bone was recently given the “good luck in your future endeavors” speech and is no longer with the organization.

This is a “smartest guy in the room” type of pick for Weaver, as Lee was not included in the Consensus Big Board (it went 76 players deep) and was on nearly no ones top-50 radar. Among the best players available were Duke PG Tre Jones (29) and Mississippi State wing Robert Woodard (31). That being said, Lee certainly has tools. Lot’s of ’em. Doesn’t know how to use ’em all, but he’s got ’em. And the best part just may be – say it with me – his massive 6’9″ wingspan at the PG position (Weaver has a type, it seems).

There’s no harm in swinging for the fences this late. The players Weaver landed in round 1 have relatively high floors, so rolling the dice with his fourth and final pick of the night is forgivable. And if Lee can develop his jumper and lower his turnover rate he will be a handful for opposing defenders, because the dude is nasty when he gets to the basket.

SABEN LEE IS A DAWGGGG

6’9” WINGSPAN PG THAT HAS HELLA 🐰 WELCOME TO DETROIT @SabenLee LETS GOOOO pic.twitter.com/RP1BRRpsiE

— Scott Bentley (@BentleyScotty) November 19, 2020

We’re just getting started

All in all, Weaver put together quite the draft haul despite originally only having one selection to work with. The means he used to acquire his additional picks were…passable, if not ideal. But he knew what he wanted and made it happen.

So, that’s it, right? We’re now in full rebuild mode, have a stockpile of youngsters to be mentored by Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose, and have a bunch of cash left over to resign my boy Christian Wood. Call it an offseason and see you in December, right?

Spoiler alert: Part 2 of the Pistons roster breakdown ain’t gonna be authored by Jonny Sunshine.

What the hell did Troy Weaver do to the #Pistons roster this week, and where did he get dynamite during quarantine? Amazon Prime? #DetroitBasketball https://t.co/EQRf9PjUFg

— The Warm Take (@TheWarmTake) November 22, 2020

Subscribe to The Warm Take to receive the latest articles straight to your inbox

“Like” The Warm Take on Facebook

Follow @TheWarmTake on Twitter

Detroit Pistons Draft Lottery Talk: Go Luck Yourself

“I’ve suffered through the years, and shed so many tears.” – 2Pac

Clearly ‘Pac was referencing/predicting Detroit’s draft lottery luck, or lack thereof, in this classic from Me Against the World (1995). Remember, he was wearing a Wings jersey coming out of court that one time, so he’s clearly a fan. He’s probably watching the Fox Sports Go app on that island he’s been hiding on since ’96. Have you seen T-Mobile’s 5G coverage?

Read more “Detroit Pistons Draft Lottery Talk: Go Luck Yourself” →

Christian Wood: The Detroit Pistons’ New Bad Boy

This is a story about a man for whom I have been trying to suppress my love for some time. The Detroit Pistons have a new bad boy. His name: Christian Wood. Read more “Christian Wood: The Detroit Pistons’ New Bad Boy” →

Pistons Deadline Fallout: The Purge of Reggie Jackson

If the trade deadline has taught us anything about the Detroit Pistons’ relatively new front office regime, led by Senior Advisor Ed Stefanski, it’s that they aren’t afraid to cut their losses. The optics around trading Andre Drummond at the trade deadline for 10 cents on the dollar weren’t ideal, but it was still better than getting zero cents, which would have made zero sense. On Tuesday, we learned that Drummond’s longtime running mate and good buddy Reggie Jackson was being bought-out of the remaining 25 games of his Pistons contract, freeing him to find work elsewhere (he signed with the Clippers Thursday). Let’s discuss the buyout, as well as another trade deadline topic that is still buried in the back of the fridge: a missed opportunity to trade Langston Galloway. Read more “Pistons Deadline Fallout: The Purge of Reggie Jackson” →

Pistons Trade Deadline (pt.2): The Remainders

Despite officially entering the rebuilding phase and being possibly the most talked-about sellers at the trade deadline, the Detroit Pistons pulled the trigger on only one transaction. Granted, it was the most important one for the future of the organization. Moving Andre Drummond during his eighth season in Detroit symbolizes the end of a very underwhelming era in Pistons history. That being said, it was mildly surprising to see them stand pat on all of the other players who garnered reported interest around the league. What can we make of all this, and how does it change the outlook of this team moving forward? Let’s go down the line, player-by-player, and try to make sense of it all. Read more “Pistons Trade Deadline (pt.2): The Remainders” →