The Pistons are off and running with the opening of training camp under Dwane Casey. Let’s get right to the heart of it in the latest edition of Pistons Mailbag.
Ken (Baton Rouge, La.): So you want an All-Star front office but you won’t trade for an All-Star being dangled in front of your face? Wouldn’t you say Ed Stefanski really made himself look bad on this one?
Langlois: Did I miss something? Stefanski said what anyone would have expected him to say and essentially what every other GM asked about the possibility of trading for Jimmy Butler said. Virtually every team will contact the Timberwolves to see what the asking price is for Butler – just as everybody talked to the Bulls about Butler last year or to the Pacers about Paul George before that – because that’s the business of running a basketball team. That’s what their jobs entail. But when you say “you won’t trade for an All-Star being dangled in front of your face,” you must know something the rest of us don’t. Did the Timberwolves offer the Pistons a sweetheart deal for Butler they’re not offering anyone else? It’s wrong to assert that trading for an All-Star is a no brainer without knowing the asking price. Ask the Nets how trading for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce worked out for them. Ask the Knicks how trading for Carmelo Anthony worked out for them. Butler’s a great player. But that doesn’t mean any deal for him is a win for the team that gets him. As with any deal, there’s a tipping point.
Ian (Westland, Mich.): So maybe Stanley Johnson, Luke Kennard and a first-rounder is too much for one year of Jimmy Butler because we need one of those to be able to trade our bad contracts. But any of the two should work. Unless we are able to attach one of our bad contracts to the deal to make the money work and Tom Gores doesn’t mind overpaying.
Langlois: That’s not a decision I would want to make. If you were to take that plunge, you’d have to be convinced that Butler would be a fit in every way with Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. This isn’t 2013 Jimmy Butler, who made his chops as a defensive stopper content to play fourth wheel on offense. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that Butler has grown accustomed to being a focal point of his team’s offense, but the front office would have to weigh whether Butler could be folded in to a system they’ve planned to build around Griffin, complemented by the Jackson-Drummond pick-and-roll dynamic efficiently. Even if you were comfortable taking on the risk of letting Butler walk after one season – and not having had Butler through the off-season to give everyone time to acclimate to the idea of his addition and how it would alter team makeup – it’s not a given that it would work on the court for however long you had him. Giving up Johnson, Kennard and a No. 1 (and it would have to be the 2020 No. 1 since the Pistons can’t trade their 2019 No. 1 pick because they dealt their 2018 first-rounder) is giving up a huge piece of the future. If it goes south, you’re looking at something approaching what Brooklyn has endured the past several seasons. Of course, if it clicks and Butler loves his surroundings, you’re set up for a pretty good run.
Jae (@A2Jae7): Any chance the Pistons are going to get Jimmy Butler?
Langlois: Maybe less than 3 percent. As one of 29 teams but without a No. 1 pick to offer for 2019, you’d have to say the Pistons are one of the least likely suitors. I know Tom Thibodeau would prefer an equal return in ready-to-play NBA talent for Butler, but the likelihood of the Timberwolves getting that type of haul at this point on the NBA calendar is remote. The most recent comparable trade came late last August – about a month before training camp opened, not as it was already under way – when Boston acquired Kyrie Irving from Cleveland. Irving had more trade value given his age and the fact the Celtics were buying two years of team control, not one as is the case with Butler. And the return was one lottery pick – Brooklyn’s, which Cleveland used on Colin Sexton – a greatly diminished Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and Ante Zizic. The lottery pick was the most critical element of that trade for Cleveland. The Pistons don’t have their first-rounder for 2019 to offer – they have it, but can’t trade it after dealing their 2018 pick in the Blake Griffin deal – and that is all but disqualifying unless they’re willing to sweeten the pot from assets already on the roster. So, possible – but highly improbable.
Joe (@Joe_Truck): Will they try to stagger Blake Griffin and Reggie Jackson’s minutes at all, meaning Blake gets time at backup center?
Langlois: I think the bigger thing will be staggering Griffin and Andre Drummond’s minutes and Dwane Casey said that’s something they are planning on at this point. He said he’ll probably keep one starter out with the second unit and the likeliest feature of the rotation to achieve that will be to get Griffin out of games fairly soon – midway through the first and third quarters – and then bring him back when Drummond takes a break, maybe late or at the end of those quarters. It wouldn’t surprise me if Jackson exits somewhere between Griffin and Drummond so he’d get some time with each player at center, meaning 1-5 pick and rolls would involve Jackson and Griffin as well as Jackson and Drummond at various points. Also, using Griffin at center with Ish Smith on the second unit would mean the offense would flow through Griffin more frequently with that unit than when Jackson’s on the floor, though certainly the Pistons are going to play through Griffin a great deal no matter who else is on the floor with him.
Steve (@StevenCPat): At media day, Ed Stefanski said Luke Kennard might not go full contact. Kennard says he’s 100 percent. What’s his actual status?
Langlois: Those things are not mutually exclusive. Kennard has been fully cleared medically. But because he hasn’t had the typical ramp-up to training camp that the rest of his teammates have had, they’re ready to get dropped into full-court, five-on-five scrimmages and Kennard isn’t. It’s the same with Reggie Jackson. The last thing they want is to throw them into the fray and risk another injury. The idea is to have both ready to go on Oct. 17, not on Sept. 25.
Jason (@JLilaj9): Who do you think will start at small forward? Stanley Johnson or Glenn Robinson III?
Langlois: If Stanley Johnson gives Dwane Casey reason to believe he’ll be a competent 3-point shooter, it’s his job to lose. And Casey said on Monday that he doesn’t remember Johnson missing a triple in last week’s scrimmages during voluntary workouts. D.J. Bakker, the player development coach Casey brought with him from Toronto who spent a great deal of time working with Johnson in the off-season, told me he thinks Johnson can become a better-than-average 3-point shooter. Casey was up front about his expectations for Johnson from his introductory press conference in June when he called him as well equipped as anyone in the NBA to guard LeBron James. The best way to utilize Johnson’s potentially elite defensive skills is to pair him against the opposition’s best wing or frontcourt scorer and it’s easier to match those minutes when you’re in the starting lineup. Robinson, for his part, should fit well on a second unit with Ish Smith – a unit that figures to play in transition, given Smith’s proclivity for pushing the pace, which also suits Robinson’s athleticism and 3-point ability. Casey said he viewed both Johnson as Robinson as starters – and also said it’s more important to him who finishes games. That could be a more fluid equation than the starting lineup and based both on matchups and game situation – for example, are the Pistons protecting a lead or playing from behind?
Ryan (@RyanLaprade): Do the Pistons still have a two-way spot open or is Reggie Hearn still on his two-way from last year?
Langlois: Hearn remains on a two-way deal. He and Keenan Evans fill the two spots available to the Pistons, and each NBA team, for two-way contracts.
Cameron (@CamKarody35): Is there a Jon Leuer update?
Langlois: Leuer participated in the non-contact portion of Tuesday’s first day of training camp and Dwane Casey said he was “further along than I thought he would be.” Leuer said at media day on Monday that they were able to shave off part of the cartilage and preserve most of it, which means the recovery period is much shorter and his long-term prognosis is much better. That was something his doctor wasn’t sure about until he got into surgery and more precisely gauged the damage. Had the cartilage needed to be removed, the recovery would have cost Leuer more than half (or nearly all) of the season. Shaving off only the damaged area and preserving the rest, he said, came with a six- to eight-week recovery. Leuer is about six weeks out now. And he said he hopes to be ready to play on opening night, Oct. 17.