We don't need to make a move this year. But, I think we need to make a move for next year. We'll have 5 open roster spots. I think the Pistons should try and resign Hayes if it's not to costly. They should try and trade Primoz Brezec & Ronald Murray for Zaza Pachulia and Mario West. West's contract is up this year and Zaza's next year. Try and trade Walter Herrmann & 1st round pick for Hakim Warrick. Sign Mejia back. Then we'd only have 1 roster spot to fill.

Everyone's talking about getting big name players. It's fun to talk about but, it's not going to happen. We already have our big name players our starting five. And a bench full of some pretty good players. This year looks real good. But, I do think it's time to think about next year.

Pistons 2008/2009 roster

Billups/Stuckey/?
Rip/Afflalo/Mejia
Prince/Hayes/Warrick
Dice/Maxiell/Amir
Sheed/Zaza/Samb

What happens in this years playoffs will probably help in making decisions for next years roster.

There are too many things that will have to happen. Right now the only open position I see is backup SF. Hayes hasn't been an answer, and I'd love to see more of Hermann to be able to gage whether he could be a viable option. Otherwise, we are set and in addition there is a matter of 1st round draft pick coming in as well as Samb getting closer to being a contributor.

Exac-adactly!

This year's playoffs is definitely something to keep an eye on, but the two positions we need to look at are SF and C. We need to look long term at those two spots. It seems that when Hayes is in he takes our strongest defender and replaces it with our weakest (in the rotation). I'd like a bigger, younger, more defense-minded/rebounding, SF. I see the second unit with only a few scorers, right now Stuckey and Maxy as go to scorers with Amir cleaning up and Afflalo getting a couple of shots. I'd like to have a more unselfish presence at SF with stronger D. I'd like to see Herrmann there, but depending on the post season we'll have Flip as head coach meaning Herrmann is played at the 4 not the 3. Regarding the Center spot, I think we should start looking at another young big body, a banger. I think Amir will be a PF, I think Maxy is a 4/5 guy but is very undersized so can only handle limited minutes at the 5. Cheikh will be a defensive presence and I like his outside shooting, but until I see an inside game I'd like to get someone who has one already established.

I think we're set at the guard positions with Chauncey, Rip, Stuckey, Afflalo, and we should bring back Acker. I think we're solid at the 4, and our starting 5 will hold up until the youngin's start pushing to replace them. So right now we should sign/draft 3s and 5s.

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“We don’t measure ourselves,” he said. “We just play. Teams try to measure up to us. That’s why they did all those trades and stuff. We just play."
“Kudos to them for getting off to a good start, but it ain’t about how you start.”
-Sheed

"I wanted to hit him," McDyess recalled, "but I didn't want to pay all those fines." [talking about the tussle with KG]

this is true.

Thats what I thought the past 2 years, did not make a difference.

I think this time though, if they can't get it done, something big has to change.

Defense minded/ rebounding SF? That was Delfino and that didn't work out too well. i'm with max that we're going to need a bigger change.

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Delfino (who I liked very much) was a tweener 2/3 who never recovered from the knee problems, he was way more dynamic his rookie preseason than we ever saw again.

And he was way too inconsistent a presence for a veteran team.

A competent player but not a good fit for the Pistons.

I'd just clear out the dead wood...Brezec, Herrmann, Murray...and promote Hunter to the front office. The only FA I'd bring back is Hayes.

That would clear roster spots for our draft choices, and one low priced, defensive minded FA to be signed with what's left of the MLE (Mejia?).

All the heavy work has aready been done. Joe has planned out the off season very well. All he needs to do now is let those contracts expire, draft well, and pick up one cheap FA.