After squandering their cap space in the summer of ‘09 on two of the worst contracts of the past decade, Joe Dumars has begun to embrace the tried and true approach to rebuilding a team in the NBA – keep payroll flexibility, acquire lottery picks, don’t miss on those picks. But Dumars must also properly and proactively evaluate the talent on his own roster. His most important evaluation this season, is Brandon Knight.
Knight won’t turn 21 for another month. Although he showed flashes last year, he raised many doubts as to what his future ceiling may actually be. Certainly rushing to judgement on a young point guard is senseless. But this is precisely why Dumars must soon identify whether Knight will ever be capable of dominating games. If Knight is not destined to be a difference maker, then his trade value will never be higher than it is right now. He has the perfect combination of an appealing trade piece: a cheap contract, talent, and youth.
To win in this league today, you need a core unit of 3 elite level players. Greg Monroe looks close to getting there. Andre Drummond is capable of getting there. Beyond that, no one on this roster projects to coming close, meaning they should all be expendable with the ultimate goal of finding that 3rd piece. The 1st round pick sent to Charlotte in the Ben Gordon trade leaves the Pistons with one fewer coveted asset to build with. But it also gave them the cap flexibility to facilitate trades. Detroit may not be able to attract a high level free agent on the open market. But they can trade for one looking for a new deal like the 76ers did with Andrew Bynum and the Rockets with James Harden.
Dumars will likely be patient with Knight and hold onto him at least until his rookie deal expires. Patience is defensible. Though it’s fair to wonder how much of it Tom Gores will have. Brandon Knight is most likely destined to be a solid scoring guard who will have a long and productive career. That’s not a bad outcome for the 8th pick in the draft, but it won’t be enough to get Detroit back in The Finals. And really, isn’t that all that matters?
Yes is the answer. I guess another question would be “Is Brandon Knight a real PG?” After the opener, I personally wished that we’re the team who traded for Harden, BK7 would have been part of that trade which I would welcome.
Drummond is so raw. Remember knight was a very good college player got 40 minutes a nite and is still a year from being a point guard .
Drummond will need the same amount of minutes but rite now he can’t play more than 10.
By march drummond will be up to 20 minutes and next year 40 minutes and then TWO YEARS from now drummond will be ready to compete at an elite level.
Much as I hate knight I guess there’s no harm in waiting. But I wish we had a real point guard like isaiah thomas
Brandon Knight is already 20, nearly 21 right now.
You are correct, the bio I found said he was born in ’92. Thanks for catching that! I’ll correct it.
Nat,i love this article of yours and my answer is NO!Last year i said i m not to convinced by him and after season opener i still stick on that one.hell in my opinon 1st pg should look more like i dunno kyrie than like i dunno ne1 else brandon included and brandon doesent look like that guy to me lets give him till new year and see but if he s D dont go up and his TO get lower i think he should be traded for better and long-time solution(and we all know there are better solutions but will they be tradeable thats for another discussion)
I think Knight is a good PG he just need to have better shooters in the lineup(Singler,English). I know it was just summer league, but just look at how good he played when he had English and Singler in the lineup. Its not Knight fault that Stuckey can’t shoot and Prince isn’t a consistent shooter. They clog the lane and that lead to turnovers. I watched all preseaon and wed games.Knight will get them open shots and they just missed them. When its all over if Stuckey keeps playing like he played wed Frank need to start English.
You want to play musical chairs with the roster, this week stuckey has an off nite, bench him, next week prince is bad bench him, then maxiell has a bad night bench him, english starts but has a bad game bench him.
rosters need stability. This is just one game. And Stuckey was our second best player from last year. if he doesn’t perform in 20 games in a row, that would be different.
One game.
And you want to bench him.
@edt First of all I am a fan of Stuckey and Prince. If you took the time to read what I said and understand. I say if stuckey keep playing the way he did wed he needs to come off the bench. Understand what the hell you are reading before you try to go off on someone. Its not like I’m lying about stuckey he doesn’t have a consistent jump shot.
hehe sorry bro. I thought you were a hater, I shouldn’t have gone off like that on you.
@ edt It’s all good bro. I think we all get a little frustrated with this, because I believe we got all the pieces to the puzzle.Frank just gotta put them together.