The Detroit Pistons are entering an important offseason that could be a turning point for the franchise.
Troy Weaver has made it clear that the team plans to try to win, and even went as far as to tell Bojan Bogdanovic that they were “going to be great” next season.
If so, Weaver has his work cut out for him, as the Detroit Pistons have a flawed roster that doesn’t have a coherent identity. We never got to see the full team this season and learned little about how the pieces fit.
The good news is that Cade Cunningham will be back and it looks like the Pistons hit home runs in the draft last year with Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren.
But outside of that, the future is unclear, which is why this will be one of the most interesting and difficult to predict offseasons in years.
The Detroit Pistons could go in a lot of different directions.
Detroit Pistons: Which offseason would you prefer?
Option 1: Run it back
In this scenario, the Detroit Pistons do little in the offseason aside from adding a draft pick and some bench pieces.
They continue to allow their young players to play big minutes, and finally build some chemistry with the full team. We really don’t know how Cunningham or Ivey are going to work with Jalen Duren, James Wiseman and Bojan Bogdanovic, as we never got to see them all play together.
The Pistons sit on much of their cap space, keep developing and building around their core. They don’t extend any of the 2020 draft guys, let them play out their contracts and make a more informed decision about which ones (if any) to keep.
They let Dwane Casey play out his contract and then hire the coach of the future at the end of the season. They trade one or both of Bogdanovic and Burks for younger players and draft assets.
They make their big play in 2024 around Cade, Ivey and Duren with a completely clean cap sheet.
This would be the most patient option, but if it yielded a few more wins, the Detroit Pistons would then be in a great position the next season with plenty of data in hand.
I have a feeling this would be the least popular option.