Is the difference between us and Detroit really the #1 pick?

To be fair, I'm sure there was a report at the time of us trying to trade up to try and get Cade. We whiffed with Jalen, but Mobley's way more overpaid and just as fraudulent as a "star" potential as Jalen was, we likely should've took Barnes. The biggest miss really is that we took Jabari when J-dub went 12th and is clearly a star level talent, no other player we could've drafted so far has as big a ceiling or as good results as J-dub.

 

Yes. It's also the difference between us and San Antonio. Had we gotten the #1 pick in either of those years, we would be in a vastly different position.

 

The difference is what NBA market they want to cook. SA plus Houston plus OKC plus Dallas is too much overlap for them, obviously. The answer is simply to no longer watch the NBA.

 

I think if you gave every player a numerical score and added them all together, ours would be roughly equivalent to Detroit's. The problem is that our resources are misallocated. The point guard is by far the most important position in basketball in 2026. Detroit's best player is a point guard and in my opinion we don't even have a real one on the roster (or at least didn't have one available this year). The point guard let's you squeeze more out of your players who are less talented creators. Jabari, Tari, Reed would get massive boosts if Cade was the star here instead of KD. Even role players like DFS, Okogie, Capela become much much better with a star PG. Guys like Duncan Robinson, Tobias Harris and Isiah Stewart would look really bad if they were transplanted to Houston. You can't not have a point guard in 2026.

 

It does make you think whether continuing to try and run Amen or Reed there is the wisest move, FVV means 1 proper PG, we need at least a starter AND a backup to be really competitive.

 

• #1 pick made a difference.
• Our defense took a step back, while theirs took a step forward.
• In the early re-build coaching was relatively better here. This year their coaching was better. Part of it is that their owner didn't mind eating the money until they rotated coaches, got the coach that worked for them. We should be rotating off of Ime.
• While this year they beat us more in head to head match ups, Record and home court playoffs, they still benefit from being in the East.
• Windows are small, as other teams like Indy, Celtics returning, and teams like the Hornets get better, it's not a given Det will be back at #1 next year, so Det is cherishing the situation and any lucky breaks.
• Det will have to pay Duren and Ausar soon, that could effect things, including how well players play after they get their bag.

 

Of course this team would be better with Cade. Can you imagine him playing with KD? Even on his Detroit team. Would be one heck of a duo.

 

I agree on that point, but IMO I care more about the future, and not about "PG" as an arbitrary position label but more about the role of primary offensive initiator.

Going forward, we need to have more active bets on guys who could be "our Cade". Who have an outside shot of being a homegrown on-ball primary initiator / halfcourt offensive engine.

Sometimes those guys come from other places than the #1 pick. But you have to be trying to find them in those other places. When was the last time we even tried? KPJ? (Who ironically may be a better version of it than anybody on our roster right now).

We know now that Amen and Reed will almost certainly not be that guy, although they are good players. If we're still pinning hopes on them to be the long term 1A perimeter guy for us... that's bad.

 

Oh don't get me wrong, as much as I do genuinely think we missed "Steady Freddy" this year, I'd rather he wasn't the main gameplan going into next season - Stone and Ime just basically said he is which is the problem. I think we should keep Amen and play him in his proper position again for the defense alone, but I wouldn't be against moving on from Reed or anybody else to actually find a star who IS a legit lead ballhandler. We need that true playmaker to unlock everybody else, they don't have to necessarily be a heliocentric guy like I think Cade really is or a Harden or Luka, but even a Haliburton type would instantly transform our offense. We need a real floor general, they don't also have to be a transcendent scorer, but they do need to be able to control the flow of the game, calm things down and create real advantages on the offensive end. Since Beard left we always seem to be the defense scrambling to the open man whilst the opponent barely has to shift to defend us the majority of the time. Yeah we do have the odd moment where we do crate a collapse or scramble, but it's not frequent enough where you can see the offense is really creating advantages, I think it's another reason we have an often underperforming bench also. We rely almost entirely on individual offense or natural talent to get our buckets, a real PG does it just by being on the court.

 

You guys seriously underestimate Amen. He is a mid-range shot away from being SGA with better defense.

 

Cade is an actual star player. Amen and Sengun are nothing special.

 

Quit panic attacking after one bad year filled with injuries.

 

If they gave Amen the keys, his numbers would probably be close to Cade’s with better efficiency and defense. Last 25 games, Amen averaged 20/8/6 on a .62 TS%. I mean, that’s not far removed from Cade’s 24/6/10, especially given Cade efficiency has always been pretty meh (.564 TS% this year).

 

I think we still take Amen because he was viewed to have more upside, but we don't try the Amen as a PG experiment and instead use him as a small forward. But who knows what the internal discussions were at the time.

 

He's really not. He's a LOT more than a mid-range shot away from Shai "literal MVP" level player. He's a 3pt shot (Shai shoots 38.7%) Mid-range shot, doubling his FT attempts, 10% in FT%, more assists, 12 ppg and much, much more. Amen's probably better at track though, I'll give you that.

 

I don't think Amen will ever win an MVP award, and I'm one of his biggest fans around here. I think he might be able to make All-NBA though, possibly even 1st or 2nd team once or twice.

 

you are comparing the numbers and efficiency of somebody who’s at best the 3rd option on his team and who teams routinely ignore or sag way off on defense to someone who faces the best perimeter defender and has the entire focus of the defense on him whenever he has the ball

none of that computes…you can’t compare a puppy to a rhino

 

This is why TS% doesn't mean **** without context. Amen has the shot profile of a 90's backup center, Cade has the shot profile of a PG. Seriously though, deluded doesn't even cover it. Using the visual aids, throw a wild guess as to why Amen's got a higher true shooting percentage? It's like saying Rudy Gobert given the opportunities would have anybody's numbers, it's a fantasy that lives in the minds of people who only watch stats and metrics and not games.

 

Do you not really understand what “give the keys” means? It means let him take more shots. Different shots. Let Amen takes 5 - 6 more shots like Cade a game and, yes, he’s efficiency will drop. But not to Cade’s level. Cade’s inefficiency is unacceptable for a #1 option.

 

Part of the problem with this is I don't think Jabari has ever been the player you're asking him to be. I'd love for him to be a jumpshooting, great defensive, post player - but that's a unicorn. He came into the league supposedly a 6'9" Ray Allen. That hasn't happened since the 2 things he was supposed to be elite at, shooting and defense, have turned out to be what he's average to maybe slightly above average at (but he seems to be improving, so who knows). So now you're trying to take that player and put 20-30 lbs of bulk on him and turn him into a post player - something he's never been.

As for Lebron, he's been a monster since he was in high school. He was always bigger than the majority of people he played against. When he played PG or SF, he was bigger and outclassed 99.9% of those people athletically and mentally. It's what made him great. We have no one on our team at that level, and putting 20-30 lbs on Jabari isn't going to change that. On top of that, you're asking Jabari to take on a smaller player, put the ball on the floor and punish the defender when Jabari's dribbling skills aren't the greatest. When a young Lebron faced a smaller defender and put the ball on the floor, the defender was still scared to death. If Jabari did it, he's just looking to commit suicide most of the time.

In Jabari's case, I just hope he can find a good jumper and plays solid defense. Maybe he'll become elite at jumpshooting eventually. I mean, I guess he can develop a post game, too, but I'd rather he just be good at what he was supposed to be great at.

All these dudes we drafted have serious flaws that can't always be covered up because either they're so egregious or they overlap. I'm not going to blame the staff for picking who most people would've picked anyway. Most of the players they picked were pretty much who everybody else would've picked.