S65 - Detroit Pistons Rebuilding Again Announcement?

[IamQuailman]

MAKE DETROIT REBUILD AGAIN!

Is that what we are doing? What exactly *are* we doing? That's a good question that I'm hoping we can maybe find an answer for over the course of this press conference. But first, let's recap the disappointment that is last season. We had the highest hopes going into last season. Some called us dark horse contenders for the title even. Things started out pretty good. As always with a slightly revamped team by adding in a guy with a good amount of usage in Harold Schiff, it's expected to have some things you need to work through as a squad. But we were winning most of the games we should've won, losing a few nailbiters... but the team overall was in a great spot. Detroit was riding high on that wave... and then Schiff broke his *bleep* leg. Talk about a buzz kill. We hung around and managed 50 wins. Lomax & Milsap did Lomax & Milsap things. But we were really shallow in depth. We made it to the playoffs and barely scraped by against the crafty Raptors in 7 games. And then just got pummeled by the Warriors. Schiff was back for that by the way. But at that point I realized our team was predicated on attacking the basket but lacked spacing.

So here we are at the off-season. Reports of a rebuild imminent leading into the draft. Players names were discussed. Hell, Schiff & Milsap (who both had fantastic camps and look to be poised for big seasons once again) are still on the block for the right deal. But the first cog was filling some of that open cap space before re-signing Lomax. We did that in bringing in EJ Liddell, a young big looking to for a change of scenery after a tumultuous stay in Boston. Then we re-signed Lomax to a slightly less than super-max deal. But the crossroads happened. We didn't sign any of our other min targets or anything. And while that seems so miniscule, it was a tipping point in that this team was capped out. So we shopped Lomax to other teams. There were two directions we could've gone, but inevitably brought back Britney Griner & the guard we had been targeting in that draft a couple seasons back from the start, Bernardo Carrasco. We also brought back former Milwaukee Scouting product, Trey Murphy as well. This trade did also cost us Nicholas Zika & Tony Hinshaw, but it is what it is.

Where do we go from here? That's a great question that I'm not still fully sure. Milsap & Schiff could easily make us a fringe playoff team. There have been very few nibbles on their availability, even though both of these players are dominant offensive & defensive weapons on reasonable contracts (compared to some other new contracts signed out there). We'll just have to play it by ear.

Any questions?

[AngryBanana]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: Can you please rank every GM by who you think is the most likely to have a beef with you.

[greepleairport]

How many seasons could it take for you to rebuild from this point? You got a solid return in your Lomax / Zike / Hinshaw deal. Do you expect any of those guys to be a Piston long term?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: What do you think the biggest challenge has been in trying to move a guy like Harold Schiff? And if you don't move him, do you pick up his team option or send him to free agency?

[IamQuailman]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: Can you please rank every GM by who you think is the most likely to have a beef with you.

1. Angry Banana
2. Black Superman
3. LazyTitanSmash
4-25. Everyone else

[IamQuailman]

How many seasons could it take for you to rebuild from this point? You got a solid return in your Lomax / Zike / Hinshaw deal. Do you expect any of those guys to be a Piston long term?

Carrasco was a guy we wanted from that draft from the start. We tried to move up from #2 to #1 but the Pelicans GM at the time wouldn't budge (until he budged himself out of the league). So we are thrilled to have Carrasco back. Griner looks like something special too, but needs much more time to marinate. Expect another red-shirt year even though the Pelicans ruined her untainted rookie status last season by playing her 2mpg for 8 games... smfh. Trey Murphy is intriguing... we'll need to see how he plays the first few months to know. He could be moved to another team or maybe he could be a candidate for return. He's young enough.

[IamQuailman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: What do you think the biggest challenge has been in trying to move a guy like Harold Schiff? And if you don't move him, do you pick up his team option or send him to free agency?

I think there's a combination of salary + age, even though his age is a non-factor with how he plays. His rebounding potential ratings are like 125-130 so those 100s in rebounding arent going anywhere any time soon. He'll be a rebounding machine (aka +2 points for averaging Double Double on the season) for a while.

If he sticks around, we'll probably decline his team option and let him enter free agency. He could still return. We're leaving all options on the table at this point.