Have A Good Summer: Lakers, Pistons

There were two more teams eliminated from the playoffs over the last couple of days as the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons were sent on their merry way by the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks, respectively. Here, we bid them adieu and take a look at some of the things that will define their offseasons.

Los Angeles Lakers

I detailed most of my season-ending Lakers thoughts on the latest Double Dribble podcast with Mo Dakhil. The Lakers-Wolves Game 5 discussion starts at around 14 minutes and the Lakers obituary begins at around the 24-minute mark.

A few more stray thoughts on L.A.

• No fucking way LeBron is retiring. If you believe that, there is a bridge near my apartment in Brooklyn that I would be interested in selling to you.
• Luka, get ready to learn Mike Mancias, buddy.
• I wonder what Dorian Finney-Smith does with that player option. He can probably get a bit more than $15.4 million, given the demand for players of his archetype. And even if he can't, he can get a longer-term deal at a similar or slightly lower salary.
• I'm definitely interested to see what happens with Dalton Knecht on the trade market.

Detroit Pistons

• What a season for these guys. Tripling your win total from one year to the next is literally unheard of, and they did it. Shout out to Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duran and Malik Beasley and Ausar Thompson and J.B. Bickerstaff and to everyone else and to specifically Ron Holland because he would probably fight me if I didn't mention him by name and I don't want those problems.
• Cade passed just about every test in this series. He didn't shoot well, but he played well. (For the most part. It was a bit of a rough go in Game 6, particularly down the stretch of the game.) He's going to be really, really good for a long damn time, and he is going to be hell to deal with for defenses once he cracks the code of consistently leveraging his size in the way it needs to be leveraged in any given game or situation. He's getting there, and he'll get there.
• Ausar is just an unbelievable defender. "Try dribbling against Ausar. I dare you. You will not have a good time," was the first thing I wrote about him when naming him an All-Dubin Team member and boy if that didn't play out in this series. You could see on Jalen Brunson's face in his postgame press conference, even after shaking Thompson into the goddamn ground for the game-winning jumper, how relieved he was to be rid of this guy. Brunson also said it himself that he told Thompson to his face just how much the kid made the veteran work throughout this series. He is special and he is going to make numerous All-Defense teams and if there's another season where Victor Wembanyama isn't eligible then Ausar might even win a Defensive Player of the Year trophy one day. He's that good.
• Incredible growth for Duren in this series. Particularly on offense, where his flip shots and floaters and finishing around the rim and even his free throws all provided tremendous value. He and Cade got some real stuff going in pick and rolls and made the Knicks work as they got them into rotation. Duren is still a work in progress defensively but he showed some things on that end, too. The next step is staying out of foul trouble so he can stay on the court. VERY interested to see where his extension number comes in, assuming he and the Pistons are able to find an agreeable deal.
• I was, uh, very surprised to see Beasley not play all that much in the second half (9 minutes) after being engulfed in flames for most of the second quarter (15 points on 5-8 from three). Maybe that played into his dropping Cade's pass that would have set up a WIDE OPEN three in the final seconds. The Pistons should very obviously try to figure out a way to bring him back, not least because he is their only elite shooting threat on the roster. They need to figure out a way to get even better on offense, and losing that threat from the outside would obviously be a significant step in the opposite direction.
• It'll be nice to see Jaden Ivey back next season. Remember him? The growth potential with him being back, Cunningham, Thompson, Duren, and Holland hopefully improving, and any potential trade acquisitions leaves a lot of roo.
• Speaking of... Tobias Harris was really valuable for this team this season and they would have a bit of a veteran leadership vacuum if they moved on from him, but man that $26.6 million salary looks tailor made to be used in a trade this offseason.