NBA Power Rankings: Preview the Los Angeles Lakers and the rest
By Corey Rausch
. Detroit Pistons. 28. team. 64. .
Dearly Departed: Bruce Brown, Langston Galloway, John Henson, Luke Kennard, Brandon Knight, Thon Maker, Tony Snell, Khyri Thomas, Christian Wood
New Additions: Killian Hayes, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart, Wayne Ellington, Jerami Grant, Mason Plumlee, Josh Jackson, Jahlil Okafor, Delon Wright
Win Projection/Prediction: 24/Under
New general manager Troy Weaver has certainly made his mark on the Detroit Pistons. There are only four players back from last year, an astonishing turnaround that made the team the butt of some jokes during the first days of free agency.
You can see a plan in place if you dig a little deeper. Whether you agree with that plan is another issue, but there is logic to the madness. Killian Hayes was the best ball handler available in the draft for a team in desperate need of one. Adding guards to the team made Bruce Brown expendable. Luke Kennard was almost traded at the deadline due to a pending extension and chronic knee issues. Weaver cares about a certain kind of character that all of the additions seem to share.
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The question marks come around the former Denver Nuggets. Jerami Grant is likely overpaid but the contract is ultimately for three years, shorter than the duration the rebuild is likely to last. Mason Plumlee will likely end up looking like good value as he, along with Derrick Rose, compliment the growth of Hayes early on.
Losing Christian Wood hurts, especially considering the amount spent on the aforementioned former Nuggets. Would it have been better value to pay him what he ended up getting? Was he willing to sign that deal in Detroit? Those are tough questions without any answers.
Ultimately, however, this is a step the franchise has needed to take for some time. Committing to a rebuild is long overdue and their roster is ready for that. Three first-round picks, second-year teenager (at least for a few more days) Sekou Doumbouya and a flier taken on Josh Jackson embrace that movement. Should any of the veterans (looking at you Blake Griffin) look able to impact a contender, their trade value for the Pistons can only go up. The Pistons will undoubtedly be bad, but that is fine. They have needed a hard reset dating back to the beginning of the 2010s.