The Detroit Pistons will be better than the Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a lot of interesting pieces after shipping out Larry Nance Jr. and Taurean Prince in favor of Evan Mobley, Ricky Rubio, Lauri Markkanen.
I like a lot of these players, but I am just not sure how they all fit, particularly in the front court, where the Cavs have a logjam with Mobley, Markkanen, Jarrett Allen and Kevin Love.
Love already said he is not taking a buyout, so if the Cavs want to run with their youngsters, they are going to have to trade Love (good luck) or bring him off the bench as a very expensive role player.
The Cavs also have talent at guard with Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio but Sexton is unhappy and may be even more so in this new rotation.
I think the Cavs have as much talent as the Detroit Pistons, but the pieces don’t necessarily fit and they have at least two guys (Sexton, Love) who could be traded at some point in the season.
This seems like a recipe for tanking and if the Cavs get out to a slow start you can bet they’ll be looking to jettison Love and Sexton for draft assets to add even more young talent to their roster.
I think the Detroit Pistons are done tanking, but the Cavaliers may not be.