He said it. More than once. Let’s make that clear at the top.
Trajan Langdon wants to turn the Detroit Pistons into a championship contender – every year. That’s the goal.
The Pistons’ president of basketball operations is willing to consider everything – and everyone – to make that happen. He said this, as well. Several times: Everything is on the table; every rock will be overturned.
Those phrases make you cringe? No doubt. And wouldn’t it be nice if all of us spit bars every time we opened our mouth, and if saltwater fueled cars.
Don’t get lost in the phrasing, though; Langdon said everything is on the table because he meant everything is on the table. So, for those convinced the he doesn’t want to win big and do what he thinks it takes to make that happen, I’m not sure what to tell you.
Other than … listen?
The key here is “what he thinks it takes to make that happen.” That will be different than what you think, or I think, or anyone else thinks. There will be disagreements. That’s how this goes. Just don’t forget this context:
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.
“I think the more guys like that you have, the more difficult it is to guard,” he said, “and just spreading the floor and shooting. I think everybody knew that was something that we might struggle with a little bit, so addressing some of those things could help. But again, those things are hard to find.”
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.
Don’t forget about the defense
Both things can be true.
Cunningham can get better. Thompson can get better. Duren and Holland and Daniss Jenkins can all improve. How quickly and by how much are the questions. Langdon has thoughts about each.
Cunningham, for example, can find even more wind. He can improve his athleticism – his primary goal this offseason, he said after Sunday’s Game 7. He can become more efficient, something Langdon would like to see.
He can slow the turnovers. Shoot, if he’d had just slightly few of them, or found a touch more efficiency late, in Game 3 or Game 5 last week, the Pistons would have been hosting the New York Knicks on Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena, and Langdon’s sitdown with reporters would have had to wait.
So that’s out there, regardless of who the Pistons trade or sign. And that will matter. Just as it mattered from last season to this one.
To maximize whatever internal growth happens, Langdon has to find more ball-handing and shooting at the two-guard spot and more consistent shooting – and defense – at the four. He may not be able to get both done this summer – that’s what the trade deadline is for, too. Making sure one happens before the fall rolls around is critical, though.
Langdon knows this. Admitted this. Not specifically those spots, but that’s what he was saying when he said the team needed more ball-handling and play-making and shooting and spacing.
If those things come with a little defense, all the better. He watched the opening game of the Western Conference finals on Monday night. He saw the level San Antonio and Oklahoma City displayed. He witnessed not just Victor Wembanyama – the 7-foot-6 alien, as he said – but all those other two-way players streaking around the court.
Both of those teams can score, obviously. But it’s not an accident that both are top-five defensive squads as well. Teams rarely win without great defense: Even the great Golden State teams, with their scorers, were great defensively; Steph Curry and Klay Thompson weren’t getting rings without Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala.
So yes, he is thinking about how this team can get better, from inside and from out. And though he didn’t pound his fist on the table or speak in loud declarative sentences Tuesday afternoon, he said what needed to be said – that he is going to consider everything to get this team to the next rung.
Now he has to do it.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons exec Trajan Langdon delivers big offseason message
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
