Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks on divergent paths entering 2024 NBA trade deadline

Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks on divergent paths entering 2024 NBA trade deadline

Hey this is Omari Sanko for the second Pistons beat rer for the Detroit Free Press and I’m joined here by my man Jim uh he covers the Milwaukee B bucks for the Milwaukee General sitting the Jim how’s it going man I’m good it’s good to be in Detroit for a few days yeah

Football little hockey yeah topping it it was a good weekend to come in right good weekend to come in with the lions taking over the city um and we’re just here we’re going to recap I guess the seasons thus far for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons uh as they

Prepare to play for the second time in 3 days uh tonight uh the first game was a pretty back and forth game actually for the most part uh Pistons stuck with Milwaukee down the stretch they they traded runs Detroit fell short took a a huge night for Damen Lillard and you

Know Giannis who had a near triple double to put him away Jim just from that game what’s stood out to you about the Pistons and did they seem like a 4- win team you know just given how they performed in that one uh no not necessarily and look that the the the

Pistons the way they play and with younger players to be quite honest so like they those are teams that the Bucks kind of have a hard time with regardless of of record or perceived Talent level like teams that with younger players who who move who want to play hard for 48

Minutes it’s just the the Bucks this year have had their issues with those teams both in half court and transition defense settings um so on one hand it wasn’t a surprise um that the Pistons put up that many points I think maybe um what was a little different was the the

Three-point shooting from the bench unit yeah these bucks had not seen Danilo G galinari excuse me with Mike muscala Alec Burks Al together um I’m curious to see how that changes but Jay Navy buam mdov um you know those starters that the Bucks kind of game plan for looked like

You know there was an emphasis there bucks made them work but then yet here’s this other part of this Pistons team that hey they got into it right um and even though those were older guys I just mentioned I think they still ran the floor they still played hard they still

Um put stress on that bucks defense which frankly has not been very good this year no doubt uh the pists were definitely feisty in that game I think we’ve seen their effort e and flow over the course of the year I think it’s been a lot better since they got past that 28

Game losing streak just to get that monkey off of your back you know monkey that gets heavier as it piles up and now you’re knocking on history’s door uh but what really stood out in that game was just at the Pistons I think they were 20

Of 33 from three and you know that’s like an outlier night for most teams but especially for the Pistons who are averaging about 11 makes from three uh per game which I think is the second lowest in the NBA so a huge outlier night there but also just looking at how

Many guys really scored the ball well uh you know tonight they probably just need to push the the tempo more and hope threes continue to fall cuz you’re probably not going to get 20 to fall again right uh so just what’s I mean our teams are on opposite ends of the

Spectrum Milwaukee is all in on the championship hunt the Pistons of course are they have four wins and they’re trying not to be the worst team of all time essentially not over past the halfway point um just what has the season been like for you being able to

Not Only You Know cover two superstars and Dame and Giannis but just the expectations that come with that and how the team has responded to that so far yeah it’s interesting look we we you and I have spoken about expectations and obviously for the Pistons coming into

This year was going to be different than Milwaukee but it’s still expectation and how do you handle that when things maybe don’t go right and it’s funny to say the Bucks are 16 uh 16 games over 500 top of the east or or one of those teams but

Yet it hasn’t been the smoothest sale yeah for them first year head coach Adrian Griffin kind of had to scrap his almost entire defensive plan a week and a half into the season um Damen Lillard for as great as he is is going through a major adjustment from 11 years in

Portland as the primary ball handler the primary scorer everything runs through him to a albeit Hall of Fame but still a supporting player to Janis kumbo um you know they’re they’re the ancillary pieces around those guys also have changed and they’re not as good defensively so they’re playing with a

Different expectation 16 games over 500 is on paper good yeah um but yet they feel that it’s not good enough sometimes and maybe that’s the levels right where they they feel that they should be 20 games over or doing different things but playing that expectation is difficult

Regardless of what end of the spectrum you’re on the Buck’s Talent level however at least is allowing them to win games as they figure stuff out yeah no doubt I mean yeah of course the Pistons have been uh at the bottom where you have moretin at the top and Freddy Trey

It’s just a lot of things have spiral this season you know I think you have awkward fitting pieces on the roster you have a lot of young guys who have not won you got a lot of veterans who uh were hurt you have a new head coach

Who’s adjusting to the roster and but even with that you look at four wins and it’s like you know all teams have different forms of adversity but this is a little bit beyond the norm uh so the Pistons will have an interesting trade deadline uh for the Milwaukee Bucks are

You expecting any moves or since they already kind of cast in with Dame are they just going to see the rest of the season through yeah it’s uh yeah there’s there’s not much to deal that’s for sure um I think John horse is always looking his his big moves are always in the

Offseason yeah um the inseason moves have been Jay Crowder nitic um look PJ Tucker was a great ad but I don’t you know PJ’s not like a star superstar no fence P you see this but like it’s you know he knows his role right and and like Javon Carter Etc so I

Do think he’s going to work the edges we’ll just see though in a very unique year with cap space or lack thereof lack of picks what he can actually make happen no doubt yeah the Pistons have been in a unique position where their owner uh like a month ago goes on the

Record and says yeah we need change clearly and they were still in the midst of that losing streak at the time and they made a deal a week ago uh to bring in Mike m scin andilo galinari who uh really kind of thrusted the Pistons uh to shoot and hit 23 pointers exactly

Against the Bucks especially with scalin I think he was 4 or four from three and that trade really it was for just the additional cap room to get off of the Marvin baggley contract and now you have 60 million where maybe you can get two impact players I think that’s what

They’re looking at doing but just from a roster standpoint to get two more adults in the room guys who have been in winning situations winning locker rooms and could also space the floor and I think our just much better fits for the roster and for Monty Williams’s scheme

Uh we’ve seen the Pistons play some some competitive games so they were competitive against Washington although they didn’t have their new players at that point but uh then they played Minnesota pretty well you know Minnesota’s been dominant of course and then they played Milwaukee pretty well

And it’s you know like it’s it sounds weird to say this but last week b v the Pistons best week since the first week of the season when it started off two and one and you are seeing some of those signs of growth so from here I think the

Question is how do you turn this thing around what can you do before the deadline that can really change the trajectory of this rebuild or is it better to even wait and just ride the season out cuz you don’t want to set that record so they have a lot that

They’re um you know they’re yeah like they have a lot that they’re weighing here do you want to really sacrifice any assets just to like not set the record or do you just write it out at this point but one way or another they’re going to make some big moves this season

I think the question is just would it happen now or would they have to wait till afterward right exactly you know you’re right and and honestly teams like Detroit and the SP spot they’re in might set you know have to be the first dominoes to fall and honestly when I a

New league where no teams have cap room like eight teams have all the picks you’ve got stars who maybe at some point need to be moved from their respective teams because of onerous contracts so you’re right Detroit uh could could be a a sort of a center of of NBA basketball

Either be this February or this summer yeah especially with the contracts they have that are expiring you got bogy burs they’ both been good this season uh Scala galinari I don’t think they’re going to trade those guys they’re expiring and if scy keep shooting like he did Saturday maybe his value goes up

You you can get something so we will see but hey Jim thanks for joining me and we’ll see what happens tonight all right sounds good thank you

Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press and Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discuss the present and futures of the Pistons and Bucks, Jan. 22, 2024 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. #detroitpistons #milwaukeebucks #nba