Biggest Winner and Losers from NBA Free Agency
The “WHAT ARE YOU DOING” Team: The Detroit Pistons
What are you doing Detroit? Seriously, like what?
Christian Wood, the 25 year old who burst on-to the scene after Detroit traded Andre Drummond, signed with the Houston Rockets on a there year, $41 million deal, according to ESPN’s Adrain Wojnarowski.
For those who don’t know, Wood was the only reason to watch the Pistons last season. Blake Griffen was hurt for most of the season which should be a surprise to nobody, so there really wasn’t any reason to watch Detroit, unless you’re still on Luke Kernard bandwagon. However, after Detroit traded Andre Drummond to Cleveland, Wood stepped up and balled out. According to ESPN, Wood averaged 22.3 points a game, 9.5 rebounds, shooting 56% from the field and 41% from three once becoming a full-time starter after the Drummond trade.
Letting their most promising player walk in free agency has to be discouraging for Detroit fans in its own right. Then learning about what Detroit did with their money must have Pistons fans pulling out their hair. That’s if they still have their hair.
Detroit signed Mason Plumlee, Jermai Grant, Jahil Okafor, Delon Wright, and Trevor Ariza, according to ESPN’s Adrain Wojnarowski. These are all solid players, but they don’t fit with Detriot’s roster AT ALL! Why sign Delon Wright when Detriot drafted Killan Hayes? They play the exact same position. You would think Detroit would want to hand the keys of their franchise over to their young draft pick? Nope. Instead, what they did was hinder his development by getting Wright who will most certainly take playing time away from Hayes. Oh, and by the way, Detroit still has Derrick Rose, another guard who will take away from Hayes’ development. Yeah, not a good fit.
Detroit also got Jerami Grant, who was great for the Denver Nuggets last season. Grant will have a bigger role in Detroit, which is exactly why he decided to come to the Motor City. According to ESPN’s Adrain Wojnarowski, Grant was offered the same amount of money from Denver, but choose to come to Detroit because he was promised a bigger role. It’s never a good sign when a guy chooses bigger stats over winning. Grant is a solid player, but that’s all he is. He’s not a guy who will drop 20 a night and lead a franchise to the playoffs.
The best case scenario for the Pistons is that they end up at the seventh or eighth seed in the East and loss to the Bucks or Heat in a gentleman’s sweep (4-1). The more realistic scenario for the Pistons is that Blake Griffen gets hurt again, Killian Hayes development get’s hindered from the amount of guards that Detroit has, and Jerami Grant turns out to be the guy every thinks him to be: A great 3 and D role player, who’s a great piece to any contending team, but a guy who can’t create his own shot and be a go to guy for a team. If Jerami Grant is your team’s best player, second best player, or even third best player, then your team isn’t going that far.
Detroit will be back in the place that they have been for the past decade: Irrelevance.