At one point, there was a duality in the rebuilds of the Houston Rockets and the Detroit Pistons. Both teams were coming off of playoff-centered aspirations, with wavering levels of success. Both teams stripped down their rosters by trading away or releasing veterans. Both teams had several top draft picks at their disposal and created a young core to hopefully catapult them into the next era. Both teams had myriad cap space over several offseason, with opportunities to build upon the young core. And both teams lost a ton of basketball games heading into the 2023-2024 campaign. Yet, the two teams are now extremely far apart in terms of success. In fact, one could replace “Houston Rockets” in this comparison with the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, or Indiana Pacers and get a similar output. In the time the Pistons have been rebuilding since the Blake Griffin, Reggie Jackson, and Andre Drummond days, those other teams have turned over their rosters to the point where they are all now playoff-caliber organizations. Detroit, however, does not appear close to that level right now. The Rockets rebuild is the closest comparison to the Pistons. Houston traded Harden, their franchise stalwart, in January 2021 to kickstart their rebuild. Detroit bought out Griffin two months later, officially putting them into rebuilding mode as well. The Pistons were rewarded for their failure by getting the top pick in the 2021 Draft, Cade Cunningham, while Houston used their four first-rounders to select Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Usman Garuba, and Josh Christopher. One year prior, Detroit did something similar by drafting three times in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft – Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart, and Saddiq Bey. Both teams endured challenges, failures, and injuries. Sekou Doumbouya was a huge flop and eventually traded. Kevin Porter Jr., whom the Rockets acquired from Cleveland for basically nothing, went from prospective star to out of the league in a matter of months. Garuba and Christopher were cut. Cunningham missed the start of his first season and nearly all of his second. The young cores for each team struggled, especially Hayes and Green. The head coaches of each team were dismissed this past offseason, and replaced with playoff-caliber ones in Ime Udoka and Monty Williams (the fired Rockets coach, Stephen Silas, was hired by Detroit as well). The two teams even took one of the heralded twins of the 2023 NBA Draft, Amen and Ausar Thompson. The similarities and connections are everywhere. Then, the deviation happens. Houston, like a cruiser at a buffet line, took a bit of everything from the free agency table. They signed Fred Van Fleet, Dillon Brooks, and Jock Landale. The team went after veterans Aaron Holiday, Jeff Green, and Reggie Bullock to round out the roster with experience. Houston spent hundreds of millions of dollars this past offseason, but there was a thought process behind these signings. A method to the money madness. These players fill needs on the roster and provide the young core with quality veterans that build a culture. They are playoff-tested, some even championship-winning. They help establish an identity, one in which winning has to be part of the agenda right now. The Rockets used their cap space this past offseason with a purpose, a clear plan in mind – to start winning basketball games immediately and insulate their young players. The same cannot be said for the Pistons’ offseason. Detroit, who came into the offseason as one of the teams with the highest amount of cap space, elected the more conservative approach. Instead of throwing money at players that may not be worth it in a few years, Troy Weaver filled the cap space with Joe Harris and Monte Morris – two expiring contracts. Essentially, this kicked the cap space can down the road for one more offseason. There was no urgency to do something dramatic and stop the losing, like the Rockets seemingly had. Instead, the focus appears to be to let the young players fail their way-learned lessons. As Tyronn Lue famously said about his Cleveland Cavaliers the offseason after LeBron left, the name of the game is “wins and lessons”. He was fired shortly after. The Pistons had no urgency to get better. They felt getting a healthy Cunningham back would be bigger than any free agency acquisition. Houston understood that they can keep tooling, retooling, and drafting, but there is a point where those decisions offer diminishing returns. Or, in the case of Detroit, they just don’t work out. The jury is still deliberating if Hayes is worth a contract extension, or if Stewart is worth the one he received. Jaden Ivey, drafted with the fifth pick last year, can barely even get on the floor. Saddiq Bey was unceremoniously traded away for James Wiseman, who is one of the worst players in the league, reportedly because Detroit would not pay him what he asked for. That is an understandable course of action on Bey, but Detroit appears to have no plan for who they will be paying. The Rockets decided to pay for good players right now, even if the salaries are eye-watering. That is a future problem, but their decisions solved a current one. Now, with a 2-10 record at the time of this writing and still with glaring holes on the roster, Detroit is in a familiar position to the past few seasons. The Rockets, meanwhile, are 6-3 and appear to have turned a corner as a franchise. For organizations that faced similar issues, challenges, hiccups, and failures, throughout their simultaneous rebuilds, they do seem very far apart now. One is looking toward a playoff birth, exposing their young stars to the bright lights of the postseason. The other seems destined for another soul-searching, mirror staring contest after the season ends wondering where to go from here. Source: https://palaceofpistons.com/2023/11/16/ ... -rebuilds/