Much has been made of Trajan Langdon’s approach to this season, which was to let it play out, and evaluate what he had at the end of it.
He didn’t make the splashy move at the deadline, trusting his young core instead of looking for a win-now move after they exceeded expectations in the regular season. It would have been easy (and popular) to try and skip steps, but Langdon held to his ethos.
Regardless of how the playoffs turn out, he’ll have more data at hand and more ways to tweak his roster to patch weaknesses. You can debate his lack of moves at the deadline, but it’s hard to argue with the logic of this approach.
Langdon will be under pressure this summer no matter what, but my guess is that he still won’t make a blockbuster trade and will instead try to improve around the edges.
That wasn’t the approach for the two teams the Pistons have played in the playoffs, so far, and if their all-in moves blow up in their faces, Langdon’s approach will be even more validated.
The Magic may be in for big changes
The Magic didn’t really go “all-in” for Desmond Bane, but they did give up a ton of draft capital to get him and gave themselves one of the most expensive rosters in the league.
The Magic did have poor injury luck, so may not blow up their roster, especially since it looked like they might have knocked off the #1 seed if they had been healthy.
Regardless of how it happened, that’s a lot of money for an 8th seed, and Orlando still doesn’t look like a contender. They may have to trade from a position of weakness this summer to try and move Jalen Suggs, whose contract doesn’t look great.
They are locked into six players for the foreseeable future and still have Anthony Black to pay, so the big move didn’t work out as Orlando planned. It’s hard to call it a disaster given the injuries, as Orlando looked great in the first round until Wagner got hurt, but they will have a hard time improving their roster without trading one of their best players.
Cleveland pushed in all the chips
The Cavaliers made their all-in move at the trade deadline to acquire James Harden, giving up a very good player in Darius Garland to get him, a move they may end up regretting, and may already, as Garland shot the lights out in 19 games with the Clippers.
The Pistons have a LONG way to go to beat the Cavaliers, so I am not even putting that out there, but anything short of the Finals will be looked at as a failure for the Cavs, so Cleveland isn’t in the clear even if they beat Detroit.
But losing in the second round again could force another very expensive roster into big changes, so there is far more at stake in this series for Cleveland when it comes to the future of the team.
The Pistons are still alive without making the big move and will head into the summer with way more flexibility than the teams that did, one of which they already beat.
I understand those who disagree, but I give Trajan Langdon credit for sticking to his vision, and he’ll look even smarter if the Pistons go any deeper in the playoffs.
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