Defending the Detroit Pistons’ offseason moves so far

The Detroit Pistons have had an underwhelming offseason so far.

After enduring a 17-win season, fans are being told once again to be patient, after Detroit used the cap space we’ve been hearing about all season to swing trades for Joe Harris and Monte Morris.

Fans are understandably upset, as these hardly seem like moves that are going to propel the Pistons into contention for a playoff spot next season.

These don’t look like the roster upgrades Troy Weaver talked about in his letter to fans, who are tired of hearing “wait until next year.” It’s like the old bar joke where the sign says “free beer tomorrow” when it is perpetually today, with that glass of suds always dangling on the horizon.

So I understand the frustration, as no one wants to see this team succeed more than me, but once I got past the initial resentment over these moves and looked at them logically, they started to make more sense.

Defending the Detroit Pistons’ offseason moves so far

#1: The big names weren’t coming

It became clear early on that some of the dream free-agent targets for the Detroit Pistons had no intention of leaving their teams. Harrison Barnes, Kyle Kuzma, Jerami Grant and Cameron Johnson all signed big deals to stay put and there was no indication they ever entertained doing anything else.

Fans seem to forget that these are human beings with sovereignty over where they work, not a pair of shoes you can buy if you just pay enough. There was no indication from any of these guys that Detroit was on their radar, that was all driven by speculation from media and fans.

It’s possible that Detroit may have been able to pry one of them away with the right offer, but what was it? Did you really want to pay $30 million a season for Cameron Johnson, a guy who averaged 15 points and four rebounds and only played 42 games last season? That is the exact type of move that got the Pistons into this mess to begin with.

I keep getting angry fans on social media telling me “Detroit should have done SOMETHING!” but failing to tell me what that something was. I’m sure they kicked the tires on all of these guys, saw the price tag, laughed and moved on. They didn’t even have enough cap space to sign Grant and it was clear that they would have had to go into uncomfortable territory for Johnson, and even then may have come up short.

So who exactly did the Detroit Pistons miss on? What big name wanted to come here? How much should the Pistons have overpaid to get a guy who may not have moved the needle much? I keep asking these questions and getting crickets in response. There wasn’t a deal for big name (and these aren’t even star players!) that would have been financially prudent. It just wasn’t happening so they pivoted to plan B.