I am hoping Joe has another move up his sleeve because this deal makes no sense. I think he is making room for a good player.:fingerscr
Unfortunately, with that rule, we'll only have about 3 guys who can suit up on any given night. We are a team of horrible finishers. Chauncey is amongst the worst of them. Judging by the Cavs series, Tayshaun is right there as well.
It's true, we have 3 good backup Power Forwards, and have no one else on the bench worth playing time. At least with Delfino you could plug him in for a few minutes and he wouldn't totally hurt you. No one else on the team has shown they are capable of playing backup SF as well as Delfino (even if that isn't a very high standard), so it's another hole to fill. J-Max a SF? No. Only in very rare matchups for very limited minutes. Amir? Who knows? We haven't seen anything from him there, can't assume he can. He's obviously much better around the basket than the perimeter. Dupree? laughable. Bottom Line: You fill your other holes (backup PG, SG, C), before creating new ones.
I am really anticipating that Joe is gonna free up a lot more cap space to acquire some game changing players for our bench. A lot of us in here are waivering in our confindence in Joe, but lets not forget that he got us a title from nothing. Making moves and getting players that fit and countibute right away is an extremely difficult process. The only GM that I can think of who has consistently done this is the guy in San Antone, everyone else has struggled a bit. I think we all can agree that we all are in love with Amir's upside but he can tank also. Remember guys no player is a guarantee just ask the GM of the Wizards when they drafted Kwame Brown and so on and so forth.
If we need his spot for other FAs then we have to get rid of him before any good free agents will think about signing with us. Good players don't want to sign with a team overloaded with depth at their position!
The Pistons bench will be fine if a great shooter comes. The Pistons still need to draft a backup PG and get some Centers in here as well though. The Pistons have 2 first round picks. Not to mention that Samb and Acker are still Pistons as well. We will be fine. Joe needs to get a proven scorer though. I don't think that type of guy can be drafted. Get a Pg and C in the draft. Get a shooter in free agency.
The "cap space" angle is going to get played up. Here is the straightest dope I can muster on it (someone correct me if I am wrong). Assuming we are going to sign Amir and Chauncey, we're going to be over the cap. It wouldn't matter if we traded Delfino to make some room or not. His $ figure is insignificant assuming that Amir gets a deal for at least $3 million to start and Chauncey comes in somewhere north of $10 million. What this does is release salary that would have been tied up with a player who was going to see his minutes stay the same, or erode. That money will help us stay under the luxury tax level, which is imminently desireable as long as the Knicks and Mavs are floating massive payrolls and paying a lot into the tax re-distribution fund. Basically, we can't give Amir a raise and then pay Delfino to sit. It would be different if Delfino was a Brent Barry or some other veteran who is strictly depth, but Delfino needs minutes to be a worthwhile asset to re-sign next offseason, both for us and for himself (maximize his earning potential). I've gotten into all of the debates about the Pistons being cheap, and until they pay tax I won't buy that they aren't very conservative. However, this is smart business both for the franchise and building the team. It's ugly trying to shed salaries, so the best teams try to flirt as close to the level as possible without exceeding it, because their share of the reimbursement can be a nice side profit.
McCoskey in his blog tends to think that Pistons are clearing up space to go after G.Hill. I agree that G would be a clear upgrade over Delfino. The question is can we win in heavy competition - Phoenix, Spurs, etc.?
I think the best players in the second half of the draft are going to be 2's and 3's. So that's what Joe is going to draft. Whether he also brings in a veteran to push the youngsters to end of the bench again remains to be seen. Delfino's played 3 seasons, and after 3 seasons Joe says he can pretty much tell if a guy is going to "get it." He obviously has decided it's time to cut Delfino loose - because he's not "getting it'" Somebody here already mentioned it, but if we were reading between the lines in Joe's recent interviews, we could have predicted that Delfino was being shopped.
As I posted in Amir thread, Pistons are viewing Amir as a 4 and not a 3. So more likely this move was made to be able to go after the likes of G.Hill.
There is no "cap space" it doesn't exist. Joe could release Chauncey (i.e. waive him for nothing in return, let him walk, etc.) and sign Amir to an inexpensive 1 million dollar contract and at the end of the day all he would have this summer of serious mention would be the MLE. Look it up. the salary ends up being $51,159,811 less than the MLE away from the projected cap. This is assuming that Chauncey leaves and we get nothing in return, Acker stays in Europe, Joe doesn't take the team option on Blaylock, and AND He would also have to trade both of our first round draft picks for future draft picks before the draft. (they count against the cap as well after they are drafted) In other words... there is no cap space.
This trade is for Grant Hill. Simple as that, it will be interesting to see how Dice, Sheed, Amir, JMax, and Nazr are juggled next season.
You mentioned McCosky's blog. In his blog he claims that the Pistons "have to clear" salary space in order to sign Grant Hill, which is incorrect. My post was more directed at this prevailing notion than you in particular. The reason I quoted it was your mention of the blog. Technically, Joe didn't have to dump Delfino right away either, unless he has a trade in the works that will likely bring more players back than he is giving up, he could have waited for a better deal than 2 picks somewhere around #50 of the draft.
