My Kind of Aggressive Offseason Plan
I'll preface the post with this statement: This won't happen. Trajan has shown himself to be a painfully patient team builder and seemingly values consistency. Also having a 60 win team gives him plenty of excuses for why he'll most likely run it back and add an undersized scorer/handler like Sexton or White with the MLE and call it a day.
But for the sake of offseason boredom, let me propose what I would do in an alternate universe where I didn't cap out at 5'10 and went on to play for Duke then ultimately became the team president of the Pistons. Feel free to argue with me in the comments section!
Today: Let's just put the Trey Murphy business to bed. It's like Ross and Rachel from Friends. Everyone knows it's going to happen. Stop wasting our time teasing it.
DET Receives: Trey Murphy
NO Receives: Isaiah Stewart, Ron Holland, 2027 FRP, 2029 FRP.
Notes: Salary wise, this is nearly a wash. The picks are the cost of doing business. I'm not going to worry about picks that should land in the 26-30 range. I'd toss in a pick swap if necessary to get this done. This doesn't impact the draft or FA, so I would get this business done now.
Draft Night: I fully expect Trajan to stand pat at 21 and give some canned ham response about how the price was too much to move up. yada yada. Me? I'm aggressively trying to move up.
DET Receives: Pick 17 (Cameron Carr)
OKC Receives: Pick 21, and five future second round picks.
Notes: This could literally be any team that is in the Cam Carr range willing to do this deal. I picked OKC because they have 3 FRPs and will undoubtedly be making trades to move picks around. Cam Carr could be an amazing 3&D wing. We'll develop him off the bench behind Murphy and Ausar.
Free Agency: Renounce everyone, except Duren. Waive Duncan Robinson. Trade Caris LeVert to any team willing to absorb him, even offering a second round pick swap as minor compensation.
FA Signing: John Collings 3/$75. This is our PF replacement. Collins isn't perfect. But he fits what this team does. He can run the floor off a defensive rebound. He can catch fire from the corners, and should be an upgrade on defense over Tobias.
Jalen Duren: 5/$185 million. I think he's coming back. I didn't want to be unworldly unrealistic.
After that - I'd try to bring back Green and Duncan (Dunc would be a longshot I think). We'd still have a need for a backup PF. But we're talking minimum and room exception level guys.
But this Pistons team would run out a starting group of: Cade, Murphy, Thompson, Collins and Duren. This would improve their shooting and defense.
Then the bench would have Reed, Carr, Jenkins, Green, Sasser (I'd also offer him in the trade deals mentioned earlier if it got that done), Smith and a free agent backup PF.
I did not solve the secondary creation and handling issue. I'd see what this team does with internal growth and make a move at the deadline.