It will be fascinating to see how new team president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon handles his first offseason with the Detroit Pistons.
He’s had precious little time to prepare, still has front office positions to fill and the 2024 NBA Draft is now less than two weeks away. Given that context, it wouldn’t be shocking if Langdon played it safe this summer, grabbed a high-end prospect with the #5 pick and added a few moderate free agents to help this team take the next step.
But he is following a man in Troy Weaver who did nothing but play it safe, never taking a risk on a franchise-altering trade or even attempting to sign a free agent. The Pistons didn’t hire Langdon for another four years of sitting on his hands, so he will have the green light to make the necessary changes.
That could include doing things the fans are not going to like.
Falling in love with the Detroit Pistons’ prospects
Fans get attached to the players their teams draft, that’s just how it goes. We are protective of their potential, give them the benefit of the doubt and blame the coach and front office when they don’t play well.
We get caught up in potential and upside instead of results, overvalue our own guys and balk at the prospect of trading them just in case they go off to another team and become a star.
All of these things make sense.
But the point of tanking is to attain elite talent and not all of that has to come in the draft. Some of those high draft picks eventually have to be moved so that not every player on the roster is on the same timeline, so there is a good mix of young and veteran talent. You collect assets to turn into players and that can happen in a lot of ways.
If Langdon does shake things up this summer, I expect him to complete one task that some fans are going to hate.