GreekAlex wrote:A big part of the roster construction is based on nothing being permanent yet. This is only Ivey and Duren's second season and for all intents and purposes Cade's second season too. The Joe Harris & Monte Morris trades were a miscalculation based on the desire to remain flexible but I'd take that over unmovable 3 or 4-year contracts.
Yes, it's still early in their careers. At the same time... it's the fourth season and everything is a mess. That's not normal, and it's because the management of the rebuild has not been particularly adroit (to say the least). It hasn't been incompetent, mind you, but it hasn't had the necessary successes either.
There's a lot of complaining about the reclamation projects but that's what you do when you're tanking. It's a good time to swing for the fences at a low cost since you're in development mode and not concerned with winning.
The issue isn't the reclamation projects, though the Wiseman trade was an extremely baffling move by any definition. Reclamation projects are well and good, and hopefully you get some successes, though Troy has now swung seven times and missed on every one of those (including the aforementioned trade of a rotational shooter for a sub-rotational fourth center).
The issue is that aside from Grant/Duren, Weaver has thus far had ZERO notable successes in acquiring meaningful long-term impact talent through any means outside of the high picks the lottery has delivered him, be that reclamation projects or otherwise.
16 games is very small in the grand scheme of things and Ivey has started the last 3 games so it only took 13 games to make that change. If that 13-game stretch helps Jaden become more efficient and mindful on defense, it was well worth the investment.
Ivey was sick for half of that time. Anyway, I'm not referring to Ivey. I'm referring to the insane starting lineup that deliberately fielded two non-shooters on the perimeter (three overall) and nowhere near enough shooting or spacing. It was guaranteed to fail, and fail it did, and make Cade's life far more difficult in the meantime for no reason that anyone has been able to ascertain (Monty certainly isn't talking).
The changes will come in the form of determining what to do with all of the expiring veterans at the trade deadline or in the off-season as well as hopefully moving on from Hayes. They have $63M in expirings not including Bojan's semi-guaranteed $20M.
Expiring deals don't inherently have value. They're useful only as trade fodder (the Pistons don't really have big assets they'd realistically be willing to send out at this point, not least because they can't trade a non-draft-night first-round pick until 2029) or as a means by which to take on bad contracts in exchange for assets (sound familiar?), and the latter very rarely brings in much.
Expiring deals can't be traded in the offseason.
No one wanted to win the past few seasons and everyone was on board the tank express. This is the first season they've made an attempt to be competitive. You can't just flip a switch. You can't cry about this being the 4th losing season under Weaver when everyone wanted to lose the first 3 seasons for higher draft picks.
There is no question of flipping a switch. The issue is that this team is not in any sort of fit state after four offseasons and three full seasons, which is itself because outside of Grant/Duren and some short-term veterans, Weaver has done very little of note outside of drafting in the top five three years in a row.
