S68 Pistons Pre-Season Presser (PPP)

[IamQuailman]

Hay y'all!

How's it going?! I'm coming back from a cruise this past off-season and have a new lease on life. Things didn't end great for us last year, so I decided to say FARK IT and just drink away my sorrows. We made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs for the first time in a bit and got handed a big fat L from the Spurs. SUCH IS LIFE I GUESS.

However, we knew that last year was a little bit of a developmental year. We wanted to get under the tax and see what we could do with our young core. And the early returns looked promising. As a result, we really didn't make any changes to the core. Our primary goal was retaining Hoyt Timmerman at all costs. And we did so. HOORAY! So, look at us! We are running back our best five players of Carrasco, Timmerman, Van Gundy, Markkannen, & Dawes. We also wanted to bring back Joe Freitag, but for some reason that IDIOT thought 3 years and 27mil was from the Lotto-bound Utah Jazz was a better deal than a 6th man role on the Pistons for 4yrs, 53mil. Can't please everyone I guess. He must've gotten some other green stuff from the Jazz GM to smoke on his off days.

That said, one goal this offseason was to bring in some more perimeter scorer and shooters. And I feel like off the bench, we did just that. Then comes training camp. And boy this may have been one of our best camps yet. Lauri came in in his best shape and is ready to ball out. Same with Bernardo. Both of these guys are excited to get on the floor together and make some magic happen. This season, I think our primary focus is advancing beyond the 2nd round. It's a tall task with so many stacked teams in our conference, but I think we have one of the best starting squads in the league. Hard to argue that. Fingers crossed.

[Eazy P]

Lauri looking good. What is you excitement level with his progress?

[IamQuailman]

Lauri looking good. What is you excitement level with his progress?

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty thrilled. Folks close to the organization had been spreading rumors that I was looking to sell the franchise to new ownership. But i hope my excitement shows that those rumors can be put to bed.

[greepleairport]

Hi @IanQuailman , what's up Iam? Anything new? How tight is Lauri? You know what I mean, don't play coy. So what's it gonna take to take Lauri? Huh? You want some action? I got action. I got action for you and Lauri all day. Come holla atcha boy.

Bernardo has been slowly building. What's taking so long? Is this the year he becomes an all star?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: You've had the same core for a while and are showing patience to let them progress together. If you were never able to make a trade again, what's the ceiling for this team throughout its window and what pieces are you missing?

[IamQuailman]

Hi @IanQuailman , what's up Iam? Anything new? How tight is Lauri? You know what I mean, don't play coy. So what's it gonna take to take Lauri? Huh? You want some action? I got action. I got action for you and Lauri all day. Come holla atcha boy.

Bernardo has been slowly building. What's taking so long? Is this the year he becomes an all star?

So many loaded questions here, where to start.

New - nothing really new
Tight - Not very anymore
Take - He's going NOWHERE
Action - Maybe later, but Lauri's not involved
Long - Grower, not a shower
All Star - That's a tough one. We hope so, but also this starting 5 is so balanced, that what it takes for an all-star to get those votes may not happen due to the balanced nature of our offensive scheme.

[IamQuailman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: You've had the same core for a while and are showing patience to let them progress together. If you were never able to make a trade again, what's the ceiling for this team throughout its window and what pieces are you missing?

I think the ceiling could be a championship and our win is the next 3 seasons. We have ducked the tax once again and aiming to stay under this season. Which means, with both SVG & Dawes hitting RFA, we are most definitely to some extent be deep deep in the tax next year. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I've been rather slow on the trade market lately, unable to make a trade due to lack of focus and inability to keep up with the changing guard of ownership in the league. But hoepfully in season, we can make something work out where we can strengthen our bench depth (backup guard or big would be priority).

[AngryBanana]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: Do you expect Van Gundy to keep up his pre season form in the regular season?

[IamQuailman]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: Do you expect Van Gundy to keep up his pre season form in the regular season?

Not at all, this team is too balanced to sustain that level of output. Would be nice... but too many mouths to feed.