Freep: Detroit Pistons exec Trajan Langdon delivers big offseason message

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# Detroit Pistons exec Trajan Langdon delivers big offseason message
full artile at link

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A year ago, Langdon sat in the same room at the Pistons’ midtown HQ and met with a lot of the same reporters and said entirely different things. Like, he wasn’t planning on taking a big swing and that whatever deals he made would almost certainly be made around the margins.
That turned out to be true.

He said no such thing Tuesday, May 19, at the Pistons Performance Center. He couldn’t. Not now. Not after his team accelerated the plan, his plan, and he acknowledged that as well.

“We didn’t think it would come this fast,” he said, “these questions about being a championship contender after Year 2. We have to factor that into the equation as well. … Two years ago, when I got the job, I didn’t think … nobody thought we’d be getting championship-contender questions two years into the job.”

And yet just because his team is ahead of his schedule, and just because this team has surprised him doesn’t mean he can’t adjust his own schedule, too. He can. And he said as much Tuesday.
He also said he knows what his team needs to take another step: More ball-handling, more play-making, more shooting.

How he gets those, though is the key to the offseason, because if you do the math, he can’t add all of that by working around the margins.

…It’s not an excuse to admit he didn’t think it would happen this fast. Nor is it trite to talk about internal improvement, because arguing the opposite is saying Cade Cunningham will never get better, or that Ausar Thompson will never get better. Or that Jalen Duren will never get better.

That’d be foolhardy for Langdon to think. For one, that trio – and several other Pistons – did get better from a year ago; it’s why they won 60 games in the regular-season and reached the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time in 18 years. And two, just because he expects his young players to come back better next season doesn’t mean he expects that improvement will be enough for this team to become a serious contender.

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# Detroit Pistons intend to re-sign Jalen Duren in restricted free agency

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Langdon was far more direct when discussing the futures of two players who are eligible for new contracts this summer – Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren. He expects that both will sign with the franchise long term. Thompson is eligible for his rookie-scale contract extension. And Duren, who has completed the fourth and final year of his rookie contract, is entering restricted free agency

…The Pistons can offer him a maximum of up to five years and roughly $239 million, which is a starting salary of around $41.4 million, or 25% of next year’s salary cap, with 8% annual raises. Outside teams are limited to offering a maximum four-year contract at about $177.4 million with the same starting salary. Though the Pistons offering him a maximum deal already wasn’t a guarantee before the playoffs, a big offer from another team could still force Detroit to pay a hefty sum to retain him.

The extent that Duren’s postseason performance will weigh into negotiations remains to be seen. But for the front office, 14 playoff games won’t undo the growth they saw from Duren through 148 regular-season games. In a sense, he is a victim of his own success. The Pistons have seen what he’s capable of, and how high their floor is when he plays to his potential.

Their bet is that a 22-year-old who has undergone massive growth in two years, will continue to climb upward.

“I think like I said before with all our guys, we’re all going to learn from the positives and negatives, the takeaways and get better from that,” Langdon said. “But saying all that, he had a lot of success this season. He got a lot better from the previous season. A lot for him to be proud of and build on.”

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You see teams all the time that are stuck with really bad contracts and how much it hurts their ability to build a good team.

I have a bad feeling this could turn into one of those. I hope I’m wrong. This decision could determine how good we can become. I hope they make the right one.

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Shams Charania from ESPN said the Pistons are going “star hunting” this offseason.

Grinch Smile GIF

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DetNews: Wojo: Pistons must find help for Cade Cunningham, whatever it costs

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Now it changes even more, and they know it. The Pistons stopped being the NBA’s admirable outlier, the remarkable surprise story, about halftime of Game 7 against Cleveland.

When harsh reality hits, it bites. It also educates.

…That’s the biggest offseason priority, by far, finding someone who can handle the playmaking and scoring duties of a true No. 2 guy. If it comes at the expense of surrendering a key piece of their defensive identity, they have to consider it, and I think they will.

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… But their mindset should be altered, with urgency and expectations automatically ratcheted.

“I think we are one of the youngest No. 1 seeds in the history of the NBA,” Langdon said Tuesday at his end-of-season news conference. “We went from hunting teams to being the hunted, in one season. You don’t learn that until you go through it. It’s a completely different mindset, psychologically different.”

Langdon is still learning — and trying to explain — how different it is, especially in the playoffs, where every opponent is giving maximum effort and exploiting weaknesses. It’s been a whirlwind since he arrived two years ago, when he figured he’d have plenty of time to set his course and his roster. He certainly didn’t expect he’d already have to consider a big move to enhance the Pistons’ contender status.

“We didn’t think it’d come this fast,” Langdon said. “Two years ago, nobody in here thought I’d be getting championship-contender questions now. But here we are.”

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Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson made gigantic leaps to become defensive forces, and both have pending contract negotiations. Thompson, 22, is a rare, pure defensive star, and I doubt he’s going anywhere. Duren, also 22, was powerful during the regular season — 19.5 points, 10.5 rebounds per game — but diminished in the playoffs — 10.2 and 8.5 — when defenses packed the paint and kept him from the rim. Another top-five pick, Ron Holland, 20, shows great promise, but mostly with defense and energy.

Two of the Pistons’ three most-important players are essentially non-shooters from outside six feet, which destroys the spacing for 3-pointers. The Pistons had the second-lowest 3-point attempt rate in the league, a deficiency especially problematic in the playoffs.

The Pistons can keep both defensive difference-makers, and my guess is they will, at least for now. But to get an offensive difference-maker, they’d have to surrender something valuable. Langdon has options but they quickly decrease if Duren and Thompson are locked up long term. Duren is due to become a restricted free-agent and it certainly sounds as if the Pistons plan to keep him. Pending negotiations, of course.

“J.D. had a fantastic season,” Langdon said. “I have no doubt we’ll put a plan together and he’ll attack it this summer, just like he did last summer, and he’ll come back a better player from his experience. We look forward to coming together with his representative and getting a deal done, and for him to continue to be a Piston.”

It’s prudent to judge Duren more on 70 regular-season games than 14 playoff games, although his postseason struggle might limit the market for him. It has to give Langdon pause, but seldom is it wise to move on from a 22-year-old All-Star.

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Lol that really gets me excited.

Also your avatar is gay.

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It fills me with such profound happiness to hear kids your age saying gay and retard again… Gives me hope that it’ll all be okay

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Just don’t go full retard

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Austin Powers Doctor Evil GIF

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They actually never stopped, contrary to popular belief.

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I think too many people in this world look for reasons to be sensitive so they can bitch.

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If Ausar doesn’t develop a jump shot, I have to wonder if starting him is actually the right move next year.

If Thompson and Duren still start next year, I doubt the shooting around Cade actually gets any better. Duncan was a good shooter, and he probably shouldn’t be a starter next season, which means you’d have to replace him with another good shooter. Tobias could shoot alright, so you’d have to somehow replace him with someone who is a better shooter for the floor to be spaced any better than it was this past season.

He can be on the floor to close games, but maybe he doesn’t need to play along with Cade as much. The problem with that is that Cade is usually on the floor at the same time as whoever the other team’s player is that we want Ausar guarding.

All that to say…we really need Ausar to develop a jump shot.

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Even a solid 15 footer would help. They have to make defenders guard him as something besides just a cutter to the hoop. Though I would like to see Ausar attack the rim more because he is so damn athletic.

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He also needs to become a 70-75%+ free throw shooter. Other teams don’t even care about fouling him and sending him to the line because they don’t think he can make two shots.

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Agreed… and your new avatar sucks donkey dick.

See kids? You don’t have to risk offending gay people. The only people I offended are donkey ■■■■■■■ and I think everyone else is ok with that.

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That would be AMAZING. A good 7 1/2 ft taller than shaq or Webyourmamma

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I am both gay and retarded. I’m really not, but those are some favorite people in the world.

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Language is a funny thing. Innocuous put downs that we have now originated from associating negative things with marginalized people. Saying something was dumb or lame 100 years ago would have directly correlated with a person with a disability or someone would couldn’t speak. Now, they just mean what they mean.

100 years from now, I bet the kids will be saying things like: “That’s so trans.” or “He really Trumped that one up.”

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Moron, imbecile, and idiot used to be clinical terms to classify the degree of of mental disability in a patient. Now those words simply refer to Bear, Viking, and Packer fans.

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Thats What I Thought Shadowsfx GIF by What We Do in the Shadows

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