Betrayer

For me, both Dre and Jackson have to go. I'd actually tolerate 1 more year of Reggie (maybe move him for a pick at the deadline like Bullock) rather than keep Dre. You can mitigate Reggie by bringing his minutes down a bit and going with whoever is having a good night in the 4th - he seems more willing to accept a backseat role. Dre, on the other hand, has no clue and can't accept that he's not a star player.

Nobody is giving the guards a free pass here. Reggie is a horrific defender and the others aren't much better (except Brown). Doesn't change the fact that Dre is a bad defender. His rotations are either out of position, late, or simply non-existent. It's simple: If the fault was on the guards alone, then Dre would be cutting off those drives and his man would get dunk after dunk. What actually happened is the guards got beat and Dre didn't rotate so the initial drivers got layup after layup. Unacceptable. Oh, and my comment was that Dre was terrible on both ends. Overdribbling, bad shot selection, missed shots in the paint, standing around at the three point line after setting a screen, complaining for fouls while his man races down the court, not even bothering to step out on shooters. Just terrible.

Classic Dre game. -32 while he was on the court. Put some empty stats on the board but played terribly in both ends and created so many lost possessions. We’re going nowhere with this kid on the roster. But hey, this is worth it because we’re learning something about players who won’t be here when we’re actually a relevant team, right? Way more important than a higher draft pick.

Agreed. To sit Blake now just makes this whole situation even worse. You should have moved some contracts for picks and sat him two months ago. But you didn't, so now you better put all the cards on the table. Otherwise you're just saying, "all we cared about was making the playoffs and who cares after that." That's garbage.

What a turnaround from game 1.

But hey, we got playoffs so it’s all good.

12-14 gives you lottery balls that could change your franchise. This butt kicking gives you nothing but embarrassment. Every position lower in the draft reduces your chances at finding a Star.

That block by Lopez. Impressive.

Keep jacking up those threes Josh S...uh, I mean Thon Maker.

Drink!

How many point blank layups has Dre missed now?

14th would’ve been the smarter move. At least you have a couple lottery balls that might change your franchise. Even better would’ve been to move some players and gather additional picks at the trade deadline and drop down to an even better pick.

I expect a pretty brutal sweep. This is based upon the regular season games we played as well as the way these two teams match up. Our offense struggles mightily against teams with their kind of length and athleticism. We also struggle to protect the paint and that's where they are most dangerous. Dre struggles with Lopez who makes him guard the entire court and understands how to box out to nullify Dre. Bledsoe kills our guards, especially Reggie. And we really don't have anyone to stop Giannis (not many teams do). All that and you have Middleton just bombing away.

On your first point, we disagree. Even a top 5 pick is better than what they wound up with and it's not that hard to have a reasonable shot at that. Certainly a better chance than they have of winning a single game in this series, that's for sure. Every single position higher in the draft increases your potential for drafting a star. Getting playoff experience for a core (Reggie/Dre) that has no future potential and isn't going to be here when this team is relevant again does nothing for you. I'm not concerned about playoff experience for bench guys and fringe rotation players since that doesn't move the needle and those guys may not even be here either. On your second point, I watch this team because I'm a fan. I also put my money where my mouth is and purchased season tickets for 14 years before I moved to North Carolina. Now I purchase NBA League Pass to watch them (and other games). I watch plenty of other basketball, but this is my team, I love the Pistons, and I want better for them. That's why I criticize them because they can be better if management would get their heads out of their behinds. That's also why I come here to have discussions about the path of the team and honestly, to vent my frustrations with other fans who will listen since Gores probably wouldn't answer my calls or he'd be too drunk to understand. I don't come here to put on rosy glasses and ignore the issues.

This. And this. Bottom line: Don't stand in the middle of the road being mediocre for years and throw up your hands saying, "it's too hard to make moves." The GM needed to grow a pair and choose a path. That should have happened at the trade deadline. Instead we're sitting in the worst possible position in the NBA and we've just kicked the can down the road. What we don't know is if that's truly on the GM, or if it's the direction that Gores has dictated for this organization because he refuses to sell low and wants to keep banging his head against the wall so he can feel like he's done something by squeaking into the playoffs with no real vision for the future.