A total rebuild would signal never-ending doom for the Detroit Pistons
By Joseph Sinke
With a regime change in progress, there is thought that the Detroit Pistons should not stop with the front office and coaching staff. That would be a bad sign.
The Detroit Pistons parted ways with Stan Van Gundy after four seasons. Van Gundy had his fingerprints all over the organization with his position as both head coach and President of basketball operations.
With a new coach and front office incoming there has been a lot of talk that the Pistons could rescind on the final move of Van Gundy’s tenure and initiate a total rebuild of the roster.
Most notably by trading BOTH of Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond.
It is imperative to note that trading both Griffin and Drummond for draft picks/young pieces/expiring contracts would be the sign of the Detroit Pistons being eternally doomed.
Even if it is not an especially sound argument, an argument can be made that Griffin and Drummond are not meant to co-exist together.
There is a theoretical universe where one of the two is traded and the Pistons come out as a better team next season. What I am referring to is not that (although I think it would be similarly stupid to do that). What I am referring to is a total rebuild and the start of something similar to a Sam Hinkie style, “process.”
The reason that a rebuild would signal a never-ending doom for the Pistons has less to do with the fact that it is a bad idea. The problem is that it would be a very loud and obvious way of announcing to the world that the Pistons have no direction, plan, or patience to actually see a plan through.
The only thing worse than a bad plan is no plan at all.
When Van Gundy was first hired in the summer of 2014, there was a very clear end-goal that the Pistons had in mind and a clear direction that they aimed to accomplish that goal. The end goal was to build a competitive team featuring multiple all-stars who were under contract for the long term. The way they would do it was without tanking.
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The Pistons looked to use the Houston Rockets formula. Collect assets of various sorts and eventually package them to get a star.
The main benefit of this strategy is obvious. While you wait for the right star to become available in a trade, you don’t suck. Even if the right trade doesn’t come along you may accidentally put together a really good team in the meantime.
This strategy is not above criticism. The Pistons cannot realistically expect to get an all-star by signing them in free agency. Detroit has never been a free agency destination.
They would have to nail smaller, less obvious, free agent signings and trades. They would also have to bide their time for a star to become available.
Its lack of free agency appeal simply leaves very little room for mistakes in other areas. The reality is that a certain number of mistakes are inevitable even with the best teams.
On top of that, the execution of this plan under Stan Van Gundy is certainly open to plenty of criticism. The Pistons’ draft picks over the last four years are not as bad as some make it out to be.
Luke Kennard is already good and Stanley Johnson is at least a rotation-level player. They didn’t nail them, either. In free agency, the Van Gundy Pistons were even less successful in nailing smaller-scale signings.
Ish Smith, for all his flaws, has mostly been a success and bringing back Reggie Bullock may end up saving the team next season. Beyond that, there is not a lot of success.
Jon Leuer is a good player but is significantly overpaid. Same goes for Langston Galloway.
Boban Marjanovic, for all his charm, was a total whiff. The Pistons won most of their trades under Van Gundy, but the final move for Griffin can be argued against.
Griffin fills the goal of an all-star caliber player in his prime and under contract for the future. However, he is on the back-end of his prime and that contract is huge. To top it off, he may not be the cleanest fit with the Pistons’ other all-star, Andre Drummond.
So we have established a couple of things here. First off, the plan to contend can be argued against and the execution was far from perfect. The fact that the Pistons had a cohesive plan in place the entire organization was moving toward from day one is not arguable.
What would it say about the organization if they gave up after four years of building towards a single goal?
You could forgive Gores if he had decided earlier this was not the best plan or that Van Gundy was not the man to execute it. Deciding that if Griffin is the guy they waited four years to get then scrap the whole thing and start over (and not make that trade) from scratch. Gores didn’t do that.
Trading away Griffin and Drummond to rebuild would show the turmoil of years leading up to Van Gundy’s hiring may have actually had less to do with Joe Dumars letting a championship get to his head and thinking he is smarter than he was.
It is possible the lack of any direction and cohesion may have actually been an owner who was not willing give the green light.
To be clear, I have mostly been a fan of Gores as an owner. He has avoided the two biggest pitfalls that come over owners in sports. Being overly involved is the first. The other is being too stingy with money.
By every indication and report, Gores never overstepped himself with Van Gundy (and we all know that Van Gundy is not the type to stay quiet about that sort of thing) and was always willing to provide any needed funds.
What if you went to college for four years to get a degree and get a job in a field. You start to have some second thoughts about the career nearing the end of your studies.
Would you give up and go back to school for something else? No, you would at least give it a try before tossing away all the work you put in. To give up so easily would be not just foolish, but reckless.
The firing of Van Gundy was the first step of worrying signs in this area. Tearing it down proves Gores is all of the things he is accused of by the most pessimistic fans.
The Pistons spent four years building toward the goal of having multiple all-star caliber players. They now have that, even if the all-stars are imperfect, as is the roster around them.
With all that in mind, this group has to get at least one year to try and make it work. Van Gundy should be the one leading that chance.
Neither Drummond or Griffin are going anywhere so give them a season to prove their worth. If it doesn’t work, then you admit Van Gundy’s tenure was a total and abject failure and try something else.
Giving up after building for nearly a half-decade would be a terrible sign.