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Detroit Pistons’ assistant GM says the team will wait until the team is healthy to evaluate the situation

By Nicolas Henkel

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 09: Tom Gores, owner of the Detroit Pistons, watches the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on January 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.(Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 09: Tom Gores, owner of the Detroit Pistons, watches the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on January 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.(Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /
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The Detroit Pistons Assistant General Manager Malik Rose said the team will wait until the team regains its health before deciding on the future.

During the broadcast of the Detroit Pistons match up against the San Antonio Spurs, Fox Sports Detroit welcomed on Malik Rose, the Assistant GM of the Pistons for a short conversation. After spending some time praising the young talent we have in Detroit, he addressed the elephant in the room – what does the future hold for this current Pistons team?

He went on to say “we’re waiting for this team to regain its health so we can properly evaluate what exactly we have.” Which at the end of the day is a pretty standard and vanilla answer, not much else was expected.

light. Related Story. A trade will not save the Pistons

However in all likelihood the chances that this team transcends into something completely different whenever it is that they do get healthy are incredibly slim. There has to be a point where you’re able to evaluate where this team is at talent wise and make an educated assessment on what the next step is. Does that point arrive 33 games into the season? It might when your team is 12-21 and has allowed opponents to score over 110 points in six of their last nine games.

Prolonging the inevitable in what has now been nearly a decade long saga of pretending to be a formidable organization has become exhausting.

It is important to note that the current front office is not to blame for the Pistons woes as of late. Both Rose and Ed Stefanski have done a remarkable job trying to turn the ship around in Detroit. This is not their fault. However, the trio of Rose, Stefanski and Dwane Casey were not brought in here to help soften the pain of a rebuild. They were brought in here to win.

So that’s what they’re trying to do, and that’s what they will continue to do. Unless there is a cataclysmic shift in ideology, this front office will continue to try to “win now”, and that’s through no fault of their own. They’re doing what they were hired to do.

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But this is the problem that the fans have, it’s not that we don’t want to have a winning basketball team, it’s that we keep assembling rosters whose success is contingent on team health when the players regularly have injury histories. At some point the front office has to arrive at the conclusion that hey, it’s okay to rebuild this franchise. It’s been time for awhile now.

The timeline on “when this team regains its health” is too tentative. Reggie Jackson‘s timeline on his return to the court is frequently being pushed back and is largely up in the air. Luke Kennard is out for two weeks minimum, and Blake Griffin still has yet to work back to full strength. There are too many moving parts in a relatively short amount of time before the trade deadline. Something has to be done.

Becoming complacent with bottoming out as the seventh or eighth seed in the playoffs is not a reality that fans are comfortable with. Last season was one thing, a year where the coaches and players agreed that despite the first round sweep it may have served as a foundational season. If the eighth seed is once again the ceiling with this Pistons team this year, that should not be a satisfying reality.

Tom Gores is married to the idea of winning, which is not at all a bad trait to have as an owner. However when there’s overwhelming evidence that suggests it may be time to pick a different direction, the charade gets a little tiresome.

Next. Taking a look at Detroit Pistons trade value. dark

Draft capital and younger assets should be the main focus for the trade assets that you have. We know what this team is, and it’s time to assess them accordingly.

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