The Pistons are battling a losing streak and fans have thoughts – on all variety of issues – in the latest edition of Pistons Mailbag.
Adriaan (The Hague, Netherlands): An encouragement to keep the truth and faith in the franchise as a whole. Yes, a 20-loss streak. Horrible, but it’s a reality. The vets are back, but the franchise needs some luck, one way or another. Just do your utmost, some tweaks in the strategies here or there, some smart trading if needed. Keep up a good spirit, show grit, forza Pistons, Goin’ to Work Pistons, I am beside you.
Langlois: There’s the holiday spirit! Let’s see if it’s contagious.
Langlois: Sadly, it does not appear Adriann’s generous spirit was able to cross the Atlantic. Ah, well. Let’s move on, then. Firing someone might satisfy a segment of the fan base’s need to assign blame, but does it get you any closer to righting matters in the moment? Let’s keep both feet planted in the real world. There’s not much the front office can do in the first few months of the season to alter the makeup of a team significantly. Dec. 15 – that’s Friday – is an important date because the vast majority of NBA players who signed as free agents over the off-season can then be included in trades. In-season changes in management are rare because the bulk of a front office’s decision-making gets done in the off-season. Tom Gores was on board with the direction of the franchise to start the season and what’s happened since then, it can be reasonably argued, is mostly a function of an incredibly unfortunate run of injuries that struck across the roster but disproportionately to the team’s veterans and 3-point shooters. I think it’s reasonable for ownership to exercise patience and judge the product when it can be fairly evaluated after a decent sample size with a relatively healthy roster. Leading scorer Bojan Bogdanovic missed the first 19 games and fellow veterans Alec Burks (seven) and Joe Harris (15) – three proven 40 percent 3-point marksmen – have also missed big stretches. Monte Morris, who’d help with the turnover issue as well as add another 3-point shooter, has yet to play. The general manager whose scalp you’d take explicitly said the blueprint for this season was depth and defense, but the depth was gutted before the season even tipped off and then was further depleted. Just as some vets (Bogdanovic, Isaiah Livers, Burks) started to trickle back, the Pistons are now playing without their starting and reserve center. More established teams can navigate brief periods with two or three players missing; no NBA team will be able to sustain winning through a rash of injuries like the Pistons have endured. That’s reality.
@bigdogpistons: If a trade happens, what position do you think they are targeting? Power forward?
Langlois: My guess is it’s not so much “position” but skill set and compatibility. The Pistons – if they ever have a relatively full roster available, at least – have plenty of guard depth and they have three centers plus Isaiah Stewart, who has spent most of his career there and is the incumbent starter until at least one of Jalen Duren and Marvin Bagley III can return. They don’t have a more conventional modern-day four, someone at least 6-foot-8 who is comfortable shooting 3-pointers at a relatively high volume while also being adept at defending bigger forwards on the move. Those guys don’t grow on trees, so I don’t know about the likelihood of landing one that moves the needle with an in-season trade, but it is almost assuredly on the shopping list before the next training camp convenes.
@ryanc0417/IG: Why aren’t you starting Jaden Ivey?
Langlois: Monty Williams has answered that around the edges, at least, and has also indicated that he’s actively looking for ways to get Ivey more time and more opportunity to use his speed and athleticism in ways that mesh with a compatible unit around him. Ivey played 34 minutes off the bench in Monday’s game. I would expect we’ll continue to see bigger doses of him going forward. “We’re trying to change up the rotations a bit to get certain combinations on the floor where he can have live-ball situations, get the ball and flow and attack. The best offense for us with him is jail-break – hit it ahead. I don’t think there’s anybody that can catch that kid when he has a head of steam,” Williams said Monday.
@ge0rge.456/IG: How can our offense improve?
Langlois: The first important domino to fall was getting Bojan Bogdanovic back. In his fourth game back after missing 19 – and, remember, all of training camp, meaning he’s still trying to play his way into game shape – the Pistons scored 123 even if Bogdanovic didn’t have a great shooting night. He’s important in many ways, from his 3-point shooting to his ability to create shots late in possessions to his savvy and experience. Getting Alec Burks back to his early-season form – and he looked close to that guy in Monday’s game – also is a big boost. Their shooting and presence can make life much easier on Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes. Whenever Monte Morris can return, he’ll also help other players to function in more streamlined roles.
@FlakeJakethe: Are Arn Tellem or Tom Gores to a lesser extend putting up roadblocks on how Troy Weaver wants to guide this team such as telling him which coach to hire and which players he can or can’t pick? Or is this solely Troy Weaver’s product? Are there too many cooks in the kitchen?
Langlois: No one can know the degree to which ownership or highly empowered executives outside basketball operations influence a front office’s thinking unless the principles go on the record – and let me know where you find examples of that throughout professional sports. It’s rare. Gores has spoken in general terms in the past about how he strives for a collaborative approach to decision-making throughout the many businesses he’s touched via his experience as the leader of a major private-equity firm. And he’s stressed his belief in the need for a front office and coaching staff to work in concert in the past. So it’s likely that he takes the temperature of a variety of opinions he values before signing off on all major decisions, but he certainly knows the role of a general manager and has lauded Troy Weaver’s experience and insights often since tabbing him to run basketball operations for the Pistons 3½ years ago. I don’t know that you’ll find any general managers throughout the NBA that make coaching hires and important personnel decisions without a healthy exchange of ideas with ownership involved, the Pistons included.
@pistons.analyst/IG: What’s the best move to make before the trade deadline?
Langlois: Just as with the stock market, it’s tough to turn a net positive when you’re selling low. The Pistons, like pretty much every franchise, have traded away young players and seen them flower elsewhere a few times over the years – Arron Afflalo, Khris Middleton, Spencer Dinwiddie and Amir Johnson come to mind. That’s not to say any conceivable trade consummated now inherently will come back to haunt the Pistons, only that the buzzards will swirl at times like this in the hope that the Pistons will feel enough external pressure to make an ill-conceived trade. At times like that, the best move might be no move.
Melvin (West Bloomfield, Mich.): Where is the passion? I am not saying the Pistons are not working hard and do not care, but this shows in their performance on the floor at times. The Pistons have a tremendous amount of talent but that alone will not win games consistently. I have been a Pistons fan all my life and until they get consistent passion with purpose they will continue to be at the bottom of the league. It starts with our best players. Isiah Thomas and Ben Wallace did it with their teams. Who will do it for this team?
Langlois: Monty Williams twice in recent weeks expressed a level of disappointment with what he’s called the “urgency” he’s witnessed and I think you’re talking about the same thing here or something close enough to it. The only answer I can offer, based on my four decades of doing this professionally and seeing it up close in teams across all four major professional sports, is teams that fall into tailspins invariably suffer from fragile confidence and fragile confidence often manifests itself in what appears to be listless effort. It’s the same thing on a larger scale of what you can clearly see at various points in games when teams go on runs – football, basketball, baseball, hockey – and they play with an unmistakable aggressiveness or swagger while the opponent seems back on its heels. The Pistons are on their heels right now, almost anticipating when the hammer will fall on them. Before Isiah Thomas was regarded as the ferocious lion who became a champion, he had his mettle questioned severely. I remember Boston Globe basketball reporter Bob Ryan, a prominent voice in an era before TV hot-take artists replaced print journalists as thought leaders, asserting the Pistons would never be winners so long as the All-Star game was the pinnacle of Isiah’s calendar. Winning changes perception. The Pistons have to figure out how to get to winning. Passion will accompany it. What comes first is a chicken-or-the-egg debate that I can’t definitively answer. Confident teams play with passion. Losing teams often play like they’re walking on egg shells.
@TimB1953: This team needs to forget about the losing streak and focus on addressing those crucial moments when they fall apart. A turnover or missed three seems to suck the air out of them. Monday night they looked better. One possession at a time. Win the moment. The rest will come.
Langlois: That’s exactly true. And teams not living with the enormous weight of a losing streak that has reached historic proportions have the liberty to live that creed. Teams – and teams as young as this one, particularly – have great difficulty pushing their current straits out of mind to focus on the building blocks of winning during those crucial moments you cite. So – and I could be proven dead wrong here – my suspicion is that the Pistons are much more likely to break their streak with a going-away win than by pulling out a squeaker.
@ck2art/IG: Are the Pistons better off with Beef Stew at the five?
Langlois: We’re getting a peek at it now, while both Jalen Duren and Marvin Bagley III are out, so let’s see what the results are. There’s more to being a power forward in today’s game than the threat of the 3-point shot, but Stewart as a center at least plausibly gives the Pistons the ability to throw a new wrinkle at opponents with a five-out look, especially if they’re lining up with Bojan Bogdanovic at power forward and, perhaps, Cade Cunningham at small forward with two other guards on the floor. Can they rebound and defend well enough with such units to give themselves a chance? We’ll see.
@adam_peterss/IG: What should fans be optimistic about this season, if anything?
Langlois: I think there are several instances of individual growth worth heralding. Before injuries to both ankles, Jalen Duren was a dynamo who looked like a budding All-Star center. Cade Cunningham, despite not having the shooting around him to force defenses to spread out, many nights looks like the player around whom a winner can be constructed. Ausar Thompson is a positive force already with the breathtaking athleticism to become an even bigger force as he builds a base of experience and familiarity with personnel. Jaden Ivey is on an upward trajectory as he learns to harness his athleticism and Killian Hayes has clearly turned a corner this season. As the veteran cohort gets back from the injured list and rounds into form, the infrastructure – and the 3-point shooting – the Pistons hoped to surround their young core with will give them a chance to find their footing. They’ve got to grind through this stretch and survive it, then start spreading their wings.
@bill_blasky: Doesn’t it seem odd that Troy Weaver had a 17-win team and opted not to add any winning-caliber free agents? Seemed odd then and seems crazy now.
Langlois: Joe Harris and Monte Morris were both important parts of winning teams in Brooklyn and Denver. They brought with them elements important to a young team in need of 3-point shooting and structure. They did it with zero long-term impact on the cap situation. The Pistons had about $30 million in cap space to start the off-season last year and I’m not sure which players fans thought were realistic additions. But premier free agents are increasingly unlikely to hit the open market before signing contract extensions these days and the few who do aren’t clamoring to join rebuilding teams. We haven’t had a chance to fairly evaluate what the Pistons would look like with a full roster yet, but hopefully Jalen Duren will be back by Christmas and Morris in a month or so. Until then, getting Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks back on their games will give the Pistons a fighting chance to win their share of games. The quickest way to sink a rebuilding is lavishing excessive long-term money on free agents whose flaws are exposed as they step into bigger roles than they previously occupied.
@mrgang23: What is the way out of this situation? It seems totally hopeless. Do they fire everyone except Monty Williams? Do they trade Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey and keep tanking? Something is seriously broken. Can it be fixed? Can anyone be salvaged?
Langlois: The way out is to limit turnovers, play consistently responsible defense and knock down open shots. The Pistons have one or two stretches of several consecutive possessions in nearly every game where three or four bad minutes encompassing seven or eight possessions causes a 14-4 or similar run that puts them in a hole. When you’re an experienced team with consistent shooting firepower, those stretches aren’t insurmountable. In fact, the Pistons have seen the opposition recover from such stretches routinely. But the Pistons lack a combination of confidence and shooting firepower right now, hopefully remedied by the return of some of their injured players, to recover from those interludes.
@linushestermeyer/IG: What is the current mood in the locker room?
Langlois: Players consistently maintain their bond remains unbroken but admit the losing takes a toll on their collective psyche. Here’s what Ausar Thompson said after Monday’s loss. “I think we’ve got to go into the game not thinking we’ve lost 20 in a row. You’ve got to go in like we’ve won a couple in a row and keep it going. If we go in thinking we’ve lost 20 in a row, it’s just bringing in bad vibes. I try to come in every day happy, happy as I can. Just go out there and play like we’ve won a lot and we’re a winning team – because I feel we can be that.” If fans think they care more about winning and losing than the players suffering the direct effects of losing, well, that’s not reality.