3 things the Detroit Pistons would like to re-do in the last 10 years
Smoove move
One of the main things that would be redone if given the chance would be to not sign forward Josh Smith to his four-year, $54 million contract back in 2013. Fortunately, that contract is over at the end of the 2019-20 season, but still at a very frustrating cost. And also to be mentioned in the unfortunate offseason of 2013, hopefully drafting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope would be re-done as well.
Smith was off the team nearly 16 months after signing on the dotted line. He played 34.5 minutes per game to go along with shotting splits of .41/.26/.52. His time with the team was unfortunate for both parties.
The Josh Smith era is finally ending. light. pistons
In Bleacher Report’s 2013 article, the Pistons were the No. 4 team most-improved team through free agency and the draft. This put them a spot ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers. In hindsight, the Clippers acquisition of JJ Redick and the addition of Doc Rivers would likely have the Clippers jump the Pistons.
The best part of the article has to be this.
"Drummond is 19, Monroe is 23 and Smith is 27. Add in third-year combo guard Brandon Knight, the recently signed Chauncey Billups, a host of holdover role players (Will Bynum, Jonas Jerebko, Kyle Singler, Rodney Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva) and this year’s draft picks—Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchell and Peyton Siva—and the Pistons look like a playoff team. Detroit was 29-53 last season. The Pistons’ best-case scenario is that their strong frontcourt carries them to 10 to 12 more wins next season to capture one of the higher playoff seeds in the East."
That 2013-14 Detroit Pistons team also went 29-53. Not quite the best-case scenario that Bleacher Report and Pistons fans were hoping for.
pistons history. Reviewing each team of the last decade. light
The Pistons worst-case scenario was having the Josh Smith project flatline by December of 2014 and Greg Monroe off the team at the end of the 2014-15 season. And Caldwell-Pope not really living up to expectations, unlike CJ McCollum, Dennis Schröder, Rudy Gobert, Steven Adams (same with Gobert, didn’t make the most sense given the frontcourt of Drummond and Monroe), and even Tim Hardaway Jr., who were all drafted after KCP. I left Giannis Antetokounmpo off the list because I don’t think many expected that.
The team would probably like to re-do some of the summer of 2013.