| The Detroit News
It hasn’t even been two months since the end of last season and things are already gearing up for the 2020-21 season. Training camps begin this week, with preseason games next week and the regular season soon thereafter.
The Pistons haven’t played a game since March 11 and besides a few days for an in-market training camp, they haven’t had much time to work together. They’ve been one of the busiest teams in the offseason, with a slew of trades and free-agent signings as new general manager Troy Weaver turned over the roster in a matter of days.
As training camp opens and “Media Week” begins Tuesday, here are the answers to 10 questions about the Pistons, their remade roster and their outlook for the season:
►1. How will training camp and the preseason work?
Players already have returned to their home NBA markets and are doing mandatory COVID-19 testing. They’ll begin doing individual work with only one player and one coach for a couple of days, before transitioning into multi-player drills and workouts later in the week.
This time will be especially important for the Pistons, who have just four players back from last season’s roster and will face the challenge of establishing chemistry with mostly new players on the roster, including four rookies.
In the preseason, the Pistons will play four games, two at home against the New York Knicks on Dec. 11 and 13 and two on the road, against the Washington Wizards, on Dec. 17 and 19.
►2. What about the regular-season schedule?
Each NBA team will play a 72-game schedule in the regular season, which begins Dec. 22. The first half of the regular-season schedule will be released this week; the second half of the schedule will be revealed about midway through the season. Releasing the schedule in halves allows the NBA to reschedule any games that may have been postponed during the first half.
It appears that Little Caesars Arena won’t have any fans because of local and state restrictions.
►3. Why did Weaver make so many moves?
In Weaver’s first opportunity to remake the roster, he dove in completely, making a flurry of trades to gain two more first-round draft picks (center Isaiah Stewart and forward Saddiq Bey) and one in the second round (guard Saben Lee).
Clearly, Weaver wasn’t enamored with the roster from last season and wanted to get players who fit his vision and ones he thought would develop under coach Dwane Casey. Luke Kennard and Bruce Brown were the most notable moves, given that they were young and offered some promise. They didn’t seem to be in Weaver’s long-term plan and in Kennard’s case, they were coming up on his rookie contract extension. Instead of waiting, he managed to get some value out of the trade.
The moves in free agency were done to augment the draft picks — and all the contracts are moveable if they don’t work out.
►4. How good is rookie Killian Hayes?
That’ll be a big question going into training camp and into the season. Hayes could be the opening-night starter and much like he was with his European team, Ratiopharm Ulm, Casey could just let him learn on the job, in a sink-or-swim environment. Hayes is 19 years old, but he has been playing professionally for three years, so he likely won’t be overwhelmed.
Hayes has worked on some of his weaknesses since the pandemic hit, so it’ll be interesting to see how he performs in the preseason and how he handles the pressure. If he sinks a bit, Delon Wright can handle some of the duties in the interim.
►5. What about the other first-round picks?
Stewart was ranked as one of the top pure centers in the draft and Bey could turn out to be a steal with the 19th pick. Given the other moves the Pistons made, there could be some questions about whether they can commit enough playing time for first-round picks who come so highly regarded. That’ll be one question mark, whether they give the rookies a ton of playing time or just work them into the rotation.
►6. Are the Pistons better after their busy offseason?
Better than 20-46? Probably. Adding Jerami Grant will give them a go-to option that they didn’t have toward the end of the season. Blake Griffin has said he’s 100 percent and ready to go, which will be a huge boost.
Make no mistake — the Pistons likely won’t jump out of the gate and surprise teams. They may not be a top-8 playoff team this season, but with the NBA’s expansion to a play-in format for the playoffs this season, the Pistons could conceivably be good enough to sneak in as the No. 10 team. That doesn’t seem to be the plan, though.
The incremental improvement this season would be just establishing some chemistry with their veterans and building around the young draft picks, along with Sekou Doumbouya.
►7. Will Weaver trade Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose next?
The possibility of another big-time trade was the buzz even before the smoke cleared in free agency. From all appearances, the Pistons are done making deals — at least for now — and will start the season with what they have. Any team trading for Griffin would rightfully want to see whether he’s completely healthy and whether he can reach his All-NBA status from a couple of years ago.
Rose is a different question. My thought is that the Pistons will want him around to mentor Hayes and to see where this season goes. It’s the last year of Rose’s contract, so there’s some thought that he’ll stick around until the trade deadline and he’ll be traded to a contender to gather more assets.
►8. How long will this rebuild take?
In previous years, the focus was trying to get to the playoffs. With three first-round picks, that’s shifted to the first-round picks, gathering young assets and building around those young pieces. The tentative timetable seems to be the rookie contracts, which is about four years. Even the biggest contracts in free agency were only for three years, so there’s a clear plan and timetable in place. If things aren’t working out, there’s plenty of room to trade players and continue to draft the types of players that Weaver covets.
►9. Were the additions in free agency worth it?
That’s the big debate among many of the experts and Pistons fans. The prevailing notion is that they paid Mason Plumlee (three years, $25 million) too much and that he’s not a good fit. That remains to be seen, but it seems to be completely based on giving Hayes a prototypical pick-and-roll partner.
The bigger questions were about the logic in trading for Dewayne Dedmon and Zhaire Smith only to waive them and stretch the payments over the next five years. It seems unnecessary, but many of those trades were made with the original intent of gathering the first-round picks and the young players, not the other contracts.
►10. Who will be in the opening-night starting lineup?
There still is plenty to work out, but a rough guess would be Hayes, Josh Jackson, Grant, Griffin and Plumlee. Shooting guard seems to be the biggest question mark, with Svi Mykhailiuk also in the mix. There could be some other variations but given the short timeframe between the start of training camp, the preseason and opening night, that seems to make the most sense.
Rod.Beard@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard