The Detroit Pistons are not having the offseason that they thought they would have. While many assumed that Malik Beasley would be back in Detroit, the unexpected off-court drama put his NBA future in jeopardy. The Pistons were priced out of Dennis Schroder and lost Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency. While they were able to add Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson, the Pistons didn't exactly make the best use of their cap space this season, leaving plenty of fans frustrated.
In fact, GM Trajan Langdon voiced his own frustration about the process, according to Detroit Free Press' Omari Sankofa II. Langdon said that while they were able to bounce back from the Malik Beasley saga, but admitted that he wasn't sure whether the team got better this summer.
"I think with our two additions we got bigger. We want to continue to put around guys that can play-make a little bit but also shoot the ball, and those guys have postseason experience as well. In a way, we do get bigger. Will we be better? I’m not sure."Pistons GM Trajan Langdon
This is a devastating admission from the lead decision-maker of an organization trying to take the next step into becoming a contender. While getting better positional size with Robinson and LeVert is good, bigger obviously doesn't mean better. At the end of the day, the Pistons lost two sharpshooters in Beasley and Hardaway Jr. and only replaced them with one elite marksman in Robinson. If we consider Schroder to LeVert as a near-lateral move, the Pistons GM may be right in his assessment.
However, this is entirely on Langdon and the front office. The Pistons were one of a handful of teams with legitimate cap space this summer. Instead of using this to their advantage and aggressively pursuing prized free agents like Nickeil Alexander-Walker or Dorian Finney-Smith, Detroit went a different direction, which has blown up in their face so far.
There is still some time for Langdon to salvage this offseason, but things have to take an unexpected turn relatively quickly.