Detroit Pistons
Needs: Frontcourt, Improvement from Front office
Picks: 5, 53
Imagine signing Monty Williams to a massive six year, 78 million dollar contract and giving him a roster where the three best players are all point guards (Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, and Marcus Sasser). You use the fifth pick in the draft on Ausar Thompson who shot a whopping 18.6% from three and 59.6% from the free throw line. You also trade the top veteran in the lineup to the Knicks (Bojan Bogdanovic) for spare parts. Then, you expect coach Williams to win. No coach in recorded human history could have won with the roster Detroit had last season. Was Williams perfect? Absolutely not. But playing musical chairs on the bench is not the path to rebuilding a team. Sure, they also cut ties with GM Troy Weaver and this gives the new general manager, Trajan Langdon, the opportunity to start fresh with a coach of his choosing, but eating that kind of salary on an established coach with no homerun hires available on the market seems silly at this point.
As far as the product they have on the court, they have a good trio of guards to build around, but could stand to improve in every other area. Jalen Duren is still young and averaged a double-double last season, but is he the long-term answer in the post? The Pistons have the 5th pick (for the third straight year) and grabbed Ivey and Thompson at that position the last two times. Because of their roster construction, it becomes an interesting pick. Do they add another guard like Stephon Castle from UCONN? Castle played the wing in college but insists he should be a point guard at the NBA level. Do they go with G-Leaguer Matas Buzelis, a forward that likes to operate as a ball handler? Do they upgrade the post with UCONN’s Donovan Clingan? Or do they take a project forward like Cody Williams of Colorado? No matter what they do, Detroit is years away from playing any sort of meaningful basketball, so it is in their best interest for the new front office to rebuild from the ground up around Cade Cunningham and not try to skip steps.
Chicago Bulls
Needs: A fresh start
Picks: 11
The Bulls need to tear it all down and start from scratch. It sounds like ownership is against that idea, but this is a flawed team that was the victim of some really bad luck. They pushed their chips in to attempt to challenge for a championship, but Lonzo Ball’s body failed him, Nikola Vucevic has started to regress, DeMar DeRozan is a free agent, Zach LaVine’s contract has become an albatross, and Patrick Williams has failed to develop into the player they hoped coming out of college. As a result, they are in the unenviable position of having too much talent to be terrible and too little talent to accomplish anything of note – they are in no man’s land, the NBA’s version of purgatory. They have two choices, push forward in an attempt to improve the team enough to maybe host a playoff series if literally everything goes right for them, or auction off their parts to the highest bidders and start from scratch. They aren’t just one player away at this point, so pushing forward could result in being stuck in purgatory for even longer, and that’s a hard position to truly improve your team from. However, I get the feeling that ownership will want to take this route, and generally, what ownership wants, ownership gets. So let’s say that the Bulls look to resign DeMar DeRozan. Will he want to resign with them for more money or would he want to chase a championship ring? They would still have the 11th pick in the draft, and while they would love to get their Hands on Donovan Clingan to start at center as Vucevic takes a step back, it’s unlikely he falls to them. Devin Carter of Providence would make some sense for them as replacement for Ball, as it’s becoming increasingly unlikely he ever returns to what he once was, or they could look at Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht if they don’t think DeRozan will return. Baylor’s JaKobe Walter also feels like a player that could be under consideration
Cleveland Cavaliers
Needs: Donovan Mitchell resigned, head coach
Picks: 20
Cleveland showed real promise last season and will be looking to keep that positive forward momentum. In order to do that, the most important thing is to make sure they are able to hold on to star player Donovan Mitchell. If they fail to do that, nothing else this offseason really matters all that much. Luckily for Cleveland, it appears they will be able to do just that. So, let’s assume that they do hold on to him. The next biggest issue is finding a new head coach. J.B. Bickerstaff was let go after a 48-34 season. I never got the feeling the team was in love with him, but it is clearly a major risk moving on to a new coach when you just hosted a playoff series and made it to the second round. Something that I will be interested to see with a new coach is if the Cavs continue to play a dual big starting lineup with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. They are both certainly two of the five best players, but a new coach could come in and attempt to alternate their minutes more or even push to trade Allen with Mobley in place. I would suspect that any potential coach being on the same page as general manager Koby Altman will play a significant role in choosing the next head coach. The Cavs also have the 20th pick in the draft. I could envision them taking a long hard look at Nikola Topic of Serbia, who could give their back court a little more size to pair to balance Mitchell and Darius Garland both being smaller guards (although his lack of wingspan could limit his appeal). Jaylon Tyson of Cal, Terrence Shannon of Illinois, and Cam Christie would also make a lot of sense for them. Most likely, I would expect the Cavs to select the best player available and not focus as much on need, as they have some versatility with their lineup.
Milwaukee Bucks
Needs: A lock down defender
Picks: 23, 33
So, is it too late to get Jrue Holiday back? Milwaukee went from being champs to losing in the second round, to losing in the first round back-to-back years. They decided Mike Budenholzer wasn’t the coach for them and decided to hire Adrian Griffin. After a 30-13 start, they decided to go a different direction and brought in Doc Rivers, who ended the season with a losing record in his 36 games. They decided before the season they needed to bring in Damian Lillard and in order to do that, they sent out Jrue Holiday (who looked like the missing piece for the champion Celtics) and Grayson Allen (who blossomed in Phoenix). Lillard scored 24 a game, but his defense was abysmal compared to what the Bucks were used to getting from the position, and Jrue shot a significantly better percentage from three this season than what Lillard was able to offer the Bucks. The Bucks fumbled the championship caliber roster they had in place, and while Giannis is still incredible and Lillard is still an amazing offensive force, the pieces simply don’t fit as well, and they lack the point of attack defense that was so important to their scheme. So this offseason their primary focus should be to find a really good defender that can fit into their lineup next to Lillard and guard the opposing team’s best guard each night. However, as a first apron team, even that task becomes more difficult. They could consider players such as Josh Okogie, Justin Holiday, Kris Dunn, or Dennis Smith – somebody they could get on a cheaper deal but could focus primarily on defense. As for the draft, they have the 23rd and 33rd picks, and they could get players that could come in and play a role for them right away at both spots if they play their cards right. Jaylon Tyson of Cal, France’s Pacome Dadiet, UC Santa Barbara’s Ajay Mitchell, Sweden’s Bobi Klintman, G-Leaguer Tyler Smith, and Kansas’ Kevin McCullar could all get long looks when the Bucks are making their draft selections.
Indiana Pacers
Needs: Build chemistry
Picks: 36, 49, 50
Bringing in Pascal Siakam really helped this Pacer team last season, and with Tyrese Haliburton leading the attack, Indy’s offense really had some horse power behind it. The combination of Siakam and Myles Turner gives them shooting in the frontcourt, and Haliburton is one of the best in the league at creating opportunities for his teammates. This offseason will primarily be about continuing the momentum and creating more team chemistry. Their acquisition of Siakam last season was their big splash, so I don’t expect a ton of movement from them this offseason beyond resigning him. It will be interesting to see what decision they make on Obi Toppin, who is a restricted free agent. I would anticipate them matching any reasonable offer. If a good free agent is looking to chase a ring, I could see them approaching the Pacers and looking to take the taxpayer midlevel, and if they were to happen, Indy would likely look to go all in on pushing the Celtics in the East. As for the draft, the Pacers’ approach will most certainly be to take the best player available, and I would be mildly surprised if they ended up making all three of their picks at 36, 49, and 50. They simply don’t have a need for three second round picks on their roster. I would look for them to move off one or two of them in exchange for future seconds. The 36th pick, however, could be a valuable one as there projects to be some quality players still available there such as Kevin McCullar, Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves, Weber State’s Dillon Jones, and UCONN’s Tristen Newton could all be available at that point in the draft.
