Pistons Presser for Season 67
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2023 3:06 pm
Greetings and welcome back to another off-season and almost regular season!
I would like to applaud our team for their effort last season, despite the outcome. After all the moves and shifting pieces around, making the playoffs didn't seem like a reality, but this squad kept fighting and got to an immaculate 50-win season. Initially, our priorities heading into the season were to maintain continuity and continued growth for your developing stars. So naturally, retaining Lauri Markkanen & Bernardo Carrasco was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, our two brochachos decided to take max money elsewhere instead of our team-friendly offers, so these decisions (while a no brainer) played some role in the latter part of our plans, which I'll get to shortly. We they approached UFA with the thought of finding some good quality depth with upside, while retaining Curtis Rakes... one of the premier rim protectors in the league. We paid a little more than initially planned to retain, but all in all not a horrific contract by this league's standards.
Training camp occurred, and overall we were pleased with the outcome. However, after taking a look at finances and the further development we would like to put into our young stars, it didn't make sense for us to be nearly $100million over the cap. As a result, we made the difficult decisions to move on from both Rakes & Jalen Warley. Rakes will be moving on to the the Bobcats, where he looks to have a chance to continue his paint protecting dominance on an up-and-coming Carolina squad. Warley is going to Utah.. where unfortunately there's not that much there for him, but he has 120mil to wipe his tears away over the next couple seasons. So he'll be alright. On the plus side, he has a fantastic GM who will be happy to spotlight him in his next exposee.
We are looking forward to seeing how our Big 3 of Lauri, Bernardo, & Hoyt perform, while giving more opportunities to SVG & Trent Dawes (not Spencer) to see what they can offer.
Any questions?
I would like to applaud our team for their effort last season, despite the outcome. After all the moves and shifting pieces around, making the playoffs didn't seem like a reality, but this squad kept fighting and got to an immaculate 50-win season. Initially, our priorities heading into the season were to maintain continuity and continued growth for your developing stars. So naturally, retaining Lauri Markkanen & Bernardo Carrasco was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, our two brochachos decided to take max money elsewhere instead of our team-friendly offers, so these decisions (while a no brainer) played some role in the latter part of our plans, which I'll get to shortly. We they approached UFA with the thought of finding some good quality depth with upside, while retaining Curtis Rakes... one of the premier rim protectors in the league. We paid a little more than initially planned to retain, but all in all not a horrific contract by this league's standards.
Training camp occurred, and overall we were pleased with the outcome. However, after taking a look at finances and the further development we would like to put into our young stars, it didn't make sense for us to be nearly $100million over the cap. As a result, we made the difficult decisions to move on from both Rakes & Jalen Warley. Rakes will be moving on to the the Bobcats, where he looks to have a chance to continue his paint protecting dominance on an up-and-coming Carolina squad. Warley is going to Utah.. where unfortunately there's not that much there for him, but he has 120mil to wipe his tears away over the next couple seasons. So he'll be alright. On the plus side, he has a fantastic GM who will be happy to spotlight him in his next exposee.
We are looking forward to seeing how our Big 3 of Lauri, Bernardo, & Hoyt perform, while giving more opportunities to SVG & Trent Dawes (not Spencer) to see what they can offer.
Any questions?