Pistons shouldn’t fear patience
By Dan Feldman
"The Pistons need a starting small forward. They need a starting power forward, in the likely event that Greg Monroe leaves in free agency. And they need an overall talent upgrade.The one thing they absolutely don’t need: to rush anything.Chad Ford of ESPN recently wrote that the Pistons were expected to seriously consider trading their draft pick “to accelerate rebuild.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with trading the No. 8 pick for a veteran. But flipping the selection because the team’s top priority is next season would be a mistake.The Pistons have the luxury of patience. They should take advantage of it.This is the first first-round pick Stan Van Gundy will make, and we’ll learn about the team president with it. There are two schools of thought on how Van Gundy, who’s both president and coach, will operate:1. He’s a coach first, and coaches typically are driven to win as much as possible as quickly as possible. That’s simply how many of them are wired.2. He has the ability to be patient in other ways coaches can’t, because he’s his own boss. Pistons owner Tom Gores can fire Van Gundy, but Van Gundy has a layer of protection.I hope that the second view wins out in this draft.Next season shouldn’t be the Pistons’ top priority. Their long-term health should be.Van Gundy shouldn’t fear drafting a young player who needs years to develop. He has the job security to do so.The Pistons are well-positioned to add a player who could fit their immediate needs. And because the salary cap will skyrocket in 2016 because of the NBA’s new national TV contracts, the Pistons would be wise to spend their cap space this summer, rather than save it.Circumstances are shaping up for the Pistons to improve quickly. But potential trade-offs will arise throughout the off-season."
"The Pistons are in the position they’re in. How the last six years went is now immaterial when deciding the franchise’s best course.They have a core of Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Jackson (a restricted free agent) and, wishfully thinking, Monroe. They have salary cap obligations. They owe future second-round picks to other teams.It’s a situation that demands improvement.But the Pistons should focus on being better five years from now just as much as they should focus on being better next year.They shouldn’t let the frustration of the last seven years cloud their thinking.Seeking short-term gains while sacrificing the future is how the Pistons got into their current situation.It’s time to build something significant, not necessarily something immediate."