Trajan Langdon, the Pistons‘ new president of basketball operations, has an enormous task ahead of him.
The Pistons were supposed to turn the corner this season and show marked improvement. Instead, they smashed into a brick wall, setting a single-season record for most consecutive losses and finishing with the league’s worst record. Adding to their misery, they dropped from the top spot to No. 5 in the draft lottery.
Troy Weaver’s four-year regime as general manager was a disaster. The Pistons won the lottery in 2021 and drafted Cade Cunningham, the only player on the roster with All-Star potential. Otherwise, his personnel moves only made a bad situation worse.
Langdon has been tasked with building a roster around Cunningham to maximize his talents. That means some serious evaluations of other recent first-round picks – Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart and Marcus Sasser – on the roster. All of those players have shown talent to some degree but none are surefire starters on a quality team.
Langdon also has some decisions to make regarding restricted free agent Simone Fontecchio and Quentin Grimes, who is extension-eligible as he enters a contract year. It’s generally assumed the club will retain Fontecchio, who provided much-needed outside shooting after he was acquired from Utah, as long he doesn’t receive an overly generous offer sheet. Grimes, who barely played after being acquired from the Knicks due to injuries, is a bigger question mark.
The good news is the Pistons will have plenty of cap room – projected around $60MM – to spend on free agents and facilitate trades. The fact they still owe the Knicks a first-round pick hampers their ability to include draft assets in deals.
Another obvious issue is coach Monty Williams, who still has five years left on his contract. Langdon apparently has the leeway to hire another coach, but owner Tom Gores might not want to eat that much money unless Langdon has someone specific in mind who can turn things around quickly.
And that’s what makes the new president’s job even more difficult. The organization and its fans are tired of losing and don’t want to go through another long rebuilding process to see some positive results. Yet he inherits a roster that looked overmatched against its opponents on a regular basis.
That brings us to our topic of the day: What kind of moves should Langdon make this offseason to turn around the team’s fortunes? What type of players should he target in free agency and trades and which young players on his roster should he be willing to deal? Should he retain Williams or look for another coach?
Please take to the comments section to weigh on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Monty should not return as coach. He did nothing to develop whatever “talent” the Pistons had and looked bored doing his job.
There is no viable replacement for Monty at the moment so I hope they keep him. The team itself has a lot to work with, outside of Cade, there is no long-term talent. However, there are a lot of viable pieces that can be traded to acquire the right players That will help the team take a step in the right direction.
While Weaver’s tenure was not good, I have to disagree that Cade is their only player with all-star potential. Jalen Duren is coming into his third year after averaging a double-double, and is still only 20 years old – younger than many prospects in this coming draft.
He has to continue his growth, but saying he doesn’t have all-star potential is ridiculous.
Ivey got hamstrung by Monty as well, throwing him on the bench and constantly limiting his minutes as punitive measures instead of letting him grow. I don’t know that I’d call him a sure all-star talent, but he’s at least borderline, potentially. Thompson’s potential is sky-high if he can figure out a jumper; even if he never gets to league-average from 3, anywhere close would make him a dangerous opponent.
Duren is already a full-time starter and has the potential to become a Jarrett Allen-esque Center, a potential All Star even if he’s not super flashy.
Disregarding Sasser after a strong rookie season for as few minutes as he got is also weird to me. His minimum ability is that of a quality 6th man, which is a solid outcome for a 25th overall pick.
Just strange for a throwaway comment in something that’s not an opinion piece.
coach k. 2 yr 40 mil.
They will go hard and I think will end up with Miles Bridges. Return home, great fit and number 1 option for them.
After this wouldn’t be surprised to see Stewart traded as Duren has cemented himself as the centre and Stew has a good market.
Aside from that I’d follow Udokas approach in Houston with locker room vets around the young talent. Cade Ivey Duren Amen these guys are very talented, Miles would play the FVV role of quality production, but you need to find your Dillon Brooms, Steven Adams, Jeff Green etc
Let the young guys continue to develop but be more competitive and maybe in another years time you’ll be looking at trying to make the playoffs/play in
1. Sign a bunch of rebound free agent Derrick Lively type deals and trade em all at the deadline for more picks.
2. Take back a bunch of salary for even more picks.
3. With 1 and 2, try to quickly rebuild the resources/roster the way the Knicks did and the Warriors almost did (if they just drafted better).
4. Get whatever coach is the best at player development, whether that person is Monty or not Monty.
5. Use all the draft picks and use them to get low cost guys to build a bench around Cade.
6. Repeat everything again next year, and you should have a solid roster at that point.