Pistons Deadline Buyers

The NBA trade deadline expired yesterday afternoon, and the Pistons were buyers. Stan Van Gundy architected... orchestrated... whatever... 1 good move and 1 bad (and very puzzling) move.

New Piston #1: Tobias Harris PF/SF
The trade was backup PG Brandon Jennings (on an $8M expiring deal) and starting PF Ersan Ilyasova (2 yrs left at $8M/yr, roughly speaking) for Harris (3 yrs left at $16M/yr).
The Good: Harris is pretty young at 23, the best player in the deal, and is on a relatively team-friendly contract with a lot of upside
The Bad: the Pistons don't have a suitable backup PG to replace Jennings, and they lose 3pt shooting, and important factor in Van Gundy's offense
Overall: it's a good deal for the Pistons & should pay off down the road



Harris' game is a lot like Marcus Morris' game (part 2 of the highlight vid is here, btw). He shoots the 3 okay but not great, he can score from mid-range or by posting up, and he's decent at scoring off the dribble in iso. He'll be a bit of a defensive upgrade over Ilyasova, although he won't draw NEARLY as many charges. He finishes at the rim better and is FAR more athletic. His 3pt shooting took a dip this year, but I'm hoping it bounces back under Van Gundy. Harris runs the court really well, so I expect to see our starting offense pick up the pace.

New Pistons #2 & #3: Donatas Motiejunas PF/C, Marcus Thornton SG/SF
SVG sent 3rd-string C Joel Anthony and a protected 1st-round pick to Houston for Montiejunas (who turns into a RFA this summer) and Thornton (vet minimum contract that expires this summer).
The Good: Montiejunas is EXACTLY what you want in the current NBA - a passing big who can shoot the 3 - and a perfect fit for SVG's offense
The Bad: A 1st-round pick, even a protected pick, is too much to give up for essentially 2 months of Donatas and the rights to match any offer for him this summer. He's only played 14 games all season and is just coming off the injury list, so it's not certain what level of production he'll provide. We JUST traded for a young PF, so it's unclear what the strategy is here. Does Motiejunas start, or Harris? Finally, Thornton provides depth, but not NEEDED depth. The Pistons desperately need a backup PG, so not getting something they actually need in this deal isn't good
Overall: Donatas is a good player, or should be if he's healthy, but a 1st-rounder was too much to give up, considering he hits the market as a restricted FA this summer. Not addressing the hole at PG is a HUGE negative in this deal as well



I'm not going to bother showing Thornton's highlights (if they even exist), but Motiejunas (pronounced moe-tee-YOU-nus) is worth a look (part 2 is here). He really broke out last year, his 3rd year in the league. The first thing you notice with Motiejunas is his passing is REALLY, really good. Like, Chris Webber good. Secondly, he can use that passing ability to create open looks for himself in the post. He's got a number of tricky moves, including a wicked up & under, and I think it will be great for Drummond to see a regular diet of this guy in practice. Thirdly, he's hit his threes at a .373% rate over the past two seasons and averages taking 3 per game. That number should go up under Van Gundy, since Motiejunas will be playing the 4 much more than the 3.

On the down side, I don't see much versatility in his scoring. I'd like to see more face-up game from a 4 in this offense. Motiejunas scores off of cuts, post-ups, and spot-up threes. He did work effectively with Dwight Howard, who is similar in style of play to Drummond, so that's promising. But he's probably not starting, given that we just got Tobias Harris, so...

On the plus side, we've got a lot of interesting players to check out now. On the negative, I don't like what we gave up (that 1st-rounder), and I'm not sure how they're all going to fit. We're back to either Steve Blake or Darrun Hilliard running our 2nd-team offense, so that ought to be interesting (not in a good way).

***

I watched all of maybe 8 min of the NBA All Star game. Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my middle-30s, but I have no interest in watching a game where everyone jogs around, jacking up shots against nominal-to-no defense. I get that it's an exhibition, but the effort level needs to be higher than 20% if it's going to draw my interest. It was a bit of a mess, since the starting frontcourt for both the East and the West were all small forwards. Anyway, I've got no comment on the game because it was total garbage.

All Star Saturday was MUCH better. The skills competition was interesting, because they pitted 4 bigs (Draymond Green, KAT, Cousins, and Unibrow) against 4 smalls (Clarkson, Isaiah Thomas, McCollum, and Mudiay), with the winner of the smalls facing the winner of the bigs. Isaiah Thomas looked to be the class of the group, but KAT won it because it turned into a 3-pt contest at the end, and he hit his shot first. I didn't like that aspect of the contest. I think it would've worked better if they had switched the layup and the three, and given everyone 4 tries at the 3 before they had to take a ball out at the other end and hit their layup.

The three-point competition was really good, with Devin Booker, Klay Thompson and teammate (and last year's winner) Steph Curry as the 3 finalists. It was REALLY close between Curry & Thompson, but Thompson ended up taking it.

I was most excited to see the dunk competition, since Drummond was participating. That part was disappointing, actually, because Drummond either didn't practice his dunks or just picked dunks that weren't in his wheelhouse. His first dunk would've been nice if he could've landed it, but there were too many moving parts. His 2nd dunk (an alley-oop off of Steve Nash's feet) was just a bad idea, since they clearly didn't practice it. He should've tried to do dunks that only he, as a big, could do. Like palm 2 basketballs, dunk one, put the other between the legs & dunk that. Or balance a ball on the top of the backboard, against the shot clock, go up & get it, then throw it down hard. Something that only a really big guy can do.

The finals of the dunk competition were on another level though. I thought several of the dunks Gordon & Zach Levine came up with were among the best I'd ever seen. I think it probably should've been a tie, but Levine ended up getting the trophy again. I'm sure the dunk competition was way more exciting than anything that happened in the actual AS Game.