PART 1: James Edwards III Joins To Discuss Monty Williams Future, Impact Of Free Agency Decisions

PART 1: James Edwards III Joins To Discuss Monty Williams Future, Impact Of Free Agency Decisions

in today’s episode of lockon Pistons podcast we are joined by James Edwards II to talk about the Detroit Pistons off season some head coaching stuff free agency trades we’re going to talk about it all in today’s episode of the lockon Pistons podcast you are locked on Pistons your daily Detroit Pistons podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday what’s the deal welcome back to another episode of the lock on Pistons podcast per usual I’m your host K Hill you can find me over on Twitter at CA Hill I want to thank you guys make lock on Pistons your first list of every single day we’re free available on your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the YouTube channel at lockon Pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a five star review whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on that’s another great way to support the podcast and today’s episode is brought to you by prize picks the easiest most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prix.com loock innba and use code all lowercase locked innba for our first deposit match up to $100 you hear more about price picks a little bit later but we are joined by James Edwards II Detroit Pistons beat rider for the athletic James appreciate you coming on man I know you’re always busy uh but I appreciate you carving out some time to come on here and let’s talk some Pistons basketball and some offseason stuff um me and James spent some time talking before the podcast so he knows where we’re going with this let’s start with actually I’ll let you choose you want start like you know what’s going on like around like the community like I’ll let you pick like do you want to start with the free agency stuff you wrote about do you want to start with the coaching stuff that’s going on what do you want to start with um first of all thank you for having me second of all I know last time I did this show I I gave you a little bit of I can’t curse on here right I mean can I say [ __ ] oh Sor I gave you I gave you a little bit of stuff I see the diamonds dancing a little bit more but feel me you see it those earrings look a little bit even louder those earrings are a little bit more dancier than last timeing up man we level it up man there was another one that broke someone broke it at work bro I had a third one a third chain and they broke it at work I was pissed you got deboed no not not like a customer like snatched it off me but like I was doing some work at work and like snatched it no bro someone it got stuck on something then like it got yanked off I was pissed but okay okay some someone ain’t taking my let’s not go into that ain’t no one no CH will all right all right but yeah I’m doing good uh let’s just I mean everybody wants to talk about coaching things so let’s just let’s get that out of the way all right so let’s okay let’s go to it then all right so obviously Monty Williams as of right now you wrote a few days ago that they are currently evaluating his future with the team I think everyone expected that to be something that would you know obviously end up happening um a lot of people believe that he was he would be fired after this past season um we’re now recording this on June 7th he has not been fired yet and he hasn’t been told he’s returning either like we don’t know what’s going on um there’s a lot of stuff you know you see a lot of Pistons fan I mean even in the in the Tweet we sent out asking people to ask us some questions a lot of people asking for JJ reic as a coach they want to see if the Pistons will go after JJ if they do move on for Monty uh is there other guys that they are looking at uh just where do you feel like the Pistons stand with Monty because a lot of fans are you know getting ahead of themselves and looking at other candidates already I’d be lying I said I wasn’t looking at candid already as well but like where do where do you feel like the Pistons stand right now with Monty Williams what can you share with everybody uh I mean it’s kind of what I said the other day I think to my knowledge and um from people I’ve talked to there’s still no decision yet on his future and I know that for for a lot of people that the process seems very long and longer than it should and that’s understandable but I think when you put it into context and first of all I want to say I’ve been listening to your pod a lot this off season uh and you do a really good job the only thing that you said recently I disagree with and we can talk about it here and we talked about it we were texting and I and I mentioned it to you obviously everybody I think more I think you’re saying I think you’re couching you want this to hurry up because you just want it to hurry up as opposed to coaches need to get in and get going I think it should be clear that like the Pistons don’t if they were let me make C if they were to move on from Monty they don’t really need to have coaching in place until shortly before summer league um so when you’re if you’re Tran who also they obviously did a super due diligence in that process took about a month from the season ending to get that done then if you’re Trent and you’re president of basketball operations you’re going to fill out your front office first you need to you obviously let a lot of people go most notably Troy and you got to fill that out first then you privot to coaching and and and evaluate what’s going on there what I will say is this I think I’d be curious to know if the Hurley news throws a monkey wrench into anything because I do wonder if again if the Pistons were to move on for Monty I believe not reporting this it’s just what I believe that any candidate that they would be interested in assum again assuming Hurley gets the lake Akers I think any candidate okay well let me preface with this if Hurley gets the Lakers and Kenny ainson gets Cleveland I think any coach I think the coaches that they would go after would be available like I don’t think they’re missing out on their guys by prolonging the search I think Tran has a lot on his plate um I think getting that front office together which I think is going to be pretty expansive um I think that’s of of great priority preparing for the draft is of great priority and because like I said if they were to move on for Monty I do believe that the candidates he would be interested in would be available assuming Hurley and that monkey wrench happens and Kenny ainson gets Cleveland all right so I let me respond to the to first of all thank you for checking out the podcast uh but let me respond to thank you for the shout out you routinely give me that that means a lot of course absolutely you used to hate n come on bro I’m just I’m joking I’m joking I’m joking let’s let’s go I’m messing with you um so I’ll just quickly respond to if the Pistons I feel like they have the fifth pick in this upcoming draft I feel like you would want a coach there before that pick is made at least I that’s how I feel about it now if the Pistons were to be like if if Tran feels like they’re gonna move off the pick if Tran does you know if that’s something that could happen then fair enough but I mean I think you’d at least want it before like I mean I feel like the coach should have something maybe not input but at least you’d like to know who your head coach is when you’re heading into free agency and what kind of team you’re building and what kind of team like I don’t know that it’ll be done by then but you have to remember summer league is the second week in July so I I would imagine that by the end of I think well before the end of June there will be an answer either way um I’m just saying like I don’t think it’s impacting anything right now um in terms of that because for one I’m sorry to cut you off but just to give some inside baseball to people who might know not not know might not know first of off there’s not a lot of players in town so it’s not like um the coaches are this is their down period right now like they’re out golfing um I think very few are like on The Scouting circuit with their front office like it’s not a that’s not an I don’t think that’s a normal thing um if players are at the facility Monty is still the coach and his assistants are still there so if guys need to get workouts in there’s people there to work them out um I also would say that if if you’re going to keep the coach or move on I guess I’ll ask you this if you were the head of basketball operations would K khil are you I know you you’re drafting who you want to draft yes you might be nice and ask the coach you’re not come on you’re picking who you want to draft but okay so fair I would I’m picking who I want but then I’m also I’m making sure I have a coach and play that I know will utilize said player that I’m picking to the best of his abilities I want to make sure I have that guy in house so I think I I not necessarily have input on drafting but I feel like having that guy in place that you know is going to best utilize your pieces that’s fair yeah is is important as well but I do want to say this I mean this happened right before we recorded the podcast and we kind of hit on it a little bit before we start recording I don’t feel like we can ignore this this I mean we it’s the elephant in the room we kind of have to mention it um your former co-host nick uh just came out and shout out to Nick absolutely so I hope you’re doing well buddy reach out to pist Pistons talk just put out a video on Twitter Pistons talk put out a video from his his YouTube channel or podcast I don’t know which one is but it’s from his from his pocket or YouTube channel and he put out saying that there are three candidates he knows who the three candidates are he was told who the three candidates are for if the Pistons were to move on from Monty uh and he mentioned uh Chris Quinn JJ reick and James bgo um he also said it within that I only saw the the short clip that Pistons talk tweeted out it was like a two-minute clip um and oh yeah by the way for everybody this is probably going to be a two-part episode so just stay tuned it’s it’s gonna be a long one um but uh he also mentioned within there that he Monty’s basically gone uh that it was decided back in March internally that they were gonna get move on from him this is what this is not me this is what Nick’s saying so and this obviously is now we’re I mean at least me is having people send it to me they’re they’re dming me hey what’s this what’s going on blah blah so I feel like we kind of have to address it so what can you say to can you say anything to that or what do you want to say to uh that that speculation um with all due respect to Nick I’m not saying that he’s not wrong or right I’m not saying that he’s not wrong or right all I can know all I know is as somebody who covers a team every day and has um very reliable sources I was told less than 24 hours ago that there is no decision made on Monty so can I infer that on how this process is playing out how certain things have happened like can I infer that maybe there’s a chance he’s gone of course I was told no decision is made I’m not going to go as far to say that I know he’s gone for a fact because I don’t um i’ like I said as somebody who’s been covering this team every day for seven years and has very reliable sources the last I heard was there’s no decision yet so uh not going to speculate on that until I hear otherwise prize picks is America’s number one fantasy sports app with more than five million members it is the most fun exciting way to get in on the action while you watch your favorite sports and players you just pick more or less on two or more player stats for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash with price piigs you can turn $10 into ,000 in a single game watching your favorite sports this summer you can make a price picks lineup in as little as 60 seconds you just need to pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and you’re locked in price picks America’s number one fantasy sports have with over 5 million active members get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the priz community today the finals mean more on price picks and so do the star players you get boosted payouts on selected basketball stars that you won’t find anywhere else also there’s always action on priz picks and there’s the perfect time to try it out something new as basketball is winding down make sure to try out Esports this month because for every Wednesday and Sun Saturday I should say in June if your lamp doesn’t win you’ll get an entry feed back choose from counter- Strike 2 Call of Duty League of Legends and more so again Go download the app today and use code Lockton NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 again that’s download the app today and use code lockon NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 pick more pick less it’s that easy with prize picks um in terms of the names I’ll say this I think that if they were to change coaches I think there are more names um I think three I think three of those names definitely I think those three names would definitely be of interest but I think there are one or two more too um and I think if the Pistons were to move on for Monty I think they would operate under a search that would help them find either a young coach that could obviously help grow with this young team or a more X’s and O’s offensive creative mind um I think that’s where people when you hear James bergo and people are like why do they want James bero again like because people remember what happened in New Orleans but I think it’s I think you should remember about bargo’s time in New Orleans he had a pretty I’m sorry I keep saying New Orleans Charlotte yeah you’re good he had a like I think a 43 win season there um and then if I’m not mistaken they just got killed by injuries was one of the the next two years uh but if you talk to people around the league like he’s very much considered one of the brighter offensive Minds um and I think JJ we don’t know what he’ll be as a coach but we know he’s young and we’ve all listened to his podcast and we all know he sounds like he knows what the hell he’s talking about and that he could bring some offensive creativity so I don’t want to jump as far ahead to say right now at this point in time like who they would um go after if Monty is gone because Monty is still the head coach today as I’ve been told so this is Cahill speaking this is this is this is nothing else this is this is just kahill speaking here now I have said on this podcast numerous times throughout the last few weeks um I honestly going back to the end of the year I have heard you know I just question how many fans does Monty actually how many people are actually fans of Monty at this point that’s that’s what I’ve set on the pockets a few times and also if you just follow logically for me you get a new G or new president Bas operations in he moves on from the front office guy you usually get your own guy in you usually want to get your own guys in there that’s usually how it goes especially when that coach is the coach of a team that just won 14 games the worst season in franchise history I mean it just kind of makes sense that you would then move on to get your own guy in there um along with the fact that it’s been talked about and reported by yourself um I I had been talking about in the podcast for a few weeks as well that money is not going to determine this if they decide that Monty is not the coach for this team money is not going to stop them from doing that can you like I’ve had a few listen I mean I’ve said this probably like 20 times in the podcast but I still have some people say of course money’s playing a part you’re just being naive can you can you confirm that that if they do decide that Monty is not you know the coach they want that it’s not going to be the money that stops them from doing it I reported this the morning before the final game of the regular season from sources with direct knowledge of Tom gorus is thinking that if whoever got hired which at the time was whoever now it’s Tran wanted to bring in their own people that money would be no object I was told that in early April end of March what are we in now June May I’ve been told that the whole time um and even to that logic listen first of all gorus is rich rich rich he owns an NBA team not saying that anybody no matter how much money they have wants to just hand somebody x amount of dollars right but what’s the difference between 60 million and like 73 million or what does money have left he did he has 60 million left what’s the difference between 60 million and 40 7 million if you’re writing the check like I don’t does that I yeah you’re saving I got listen I I’m talking as if I have billions of dollars trust there’s G to be some people that clip this and are like you’re making you I can see it now I can already see it I guess what I guess what I’m saying is if you’re willing to write the check at 47 say that it’s it doesn’t go well and there’s a in another year it doesn’t go well he still owed 47 if you’re willing to cut the check at 47 you’re probably willing to cut the check at 60 like I don’t know like we’re not talking about like 20 and 40 or like 15 and 40 47 and 60 like I I don’t know um but yeah I mean I think that when you have 14 wins everybody and everything should be evaluated um I don’t I don’t prescribe to the they paid him a boatload of money like he give him like he should for sure get another year nobody should care about the money that coaches get except the owner the general manager not even the general manager well maybe the general manager because if the coach makes significantly more like you worry about who has more power but the coach the general manager and the coaches fans shouldn’t care because that doesn’t count towards any cap space or anything like that if Gores is willing to do whatever he needs to do to if he feels like he needs to refresh I that I’ve been told he’ll do that um with that said I also could understand how Tran would want to give Monty another year I think we all agree that the roster was not very good for Christ’s sake 31 players played this year NBA record you funny about that yeah just the 31 players I asked some people I I’m not going to name but I’ve asked some I’ve met some people like can you name all 31 players I haven’t had one person be able to do it I’m not going to relate who it is but I’ve had I’ve had I’ve asked people can you name all 31 players that suited up this year and the most they’ve gotten to is like 25 26 do we have time can I do it no it take you like 30 minutes no it wouldn’t I had to yes I could do it get to 31 I could do it in five minutes we’ll save it for the end of the podcast all right deal fair enough you have to remember I’ve I I I covered all of them all all there might be one or two I’ll stumble on because there’s a lot of but to my back I digress I have been told from the beginning money is not an object um so then people may ask like why isn’t it just getting done for the same reason that people want want there to be a straight line of uh accountability and a straight line of um who’s running the show right because part of hiring a president basketball operations was pressing reset and saying hey this person is running the show so the person now running the show has a lot to do the coaching thing can wait a little bit well in in in comparison to like a week or two ago right like it it didn’t that wasn’t the I don’t think the first to do and then also maybe scour the market if you’re deciding if again if they decide to move on see who’s available maybe somebody they don’t like maybe there’s nobody they like that’s available and they’re like Monty didn’t have the best roster even though everybody’s to blame for what happened last year let’s give him another shot that’s like totally plausible right of course but I also don’t think that as I said at the top of the show I don’t think anybody if they were to change coaches and assuming Hurley gets the Lakers I think anybody that they would be interested in would still be available for the most part all right fair enough I I think we can wrap up the coaching stuff there that was I mean we spent about 20 minutes talking about the coaches so I think we can that was I think we can wrap it up yeah 20 minutes I think we can wrap it up there I I mean I’ll say it right now I I think I I’ll tell you guys right now I don’t think Monty’s back I don’t think he should be back I said that before but I don’t think he will be back we’ll see what happens though um we’ll see what happens all right so like I said this is going to be like a two-part episode so might be 20 minutes per you know we might have to cut it off in the middle of one of these segments you guys are gonna be mad but stay tuned for part two you guys were you gotta keep you on the edge of the seat but anyways we get through free agency stuff quick we can get through the free agency stff in 10 minutes okay let’s let’s do free agency next then so you wrote in one of your recent articles that the Pistons were uh I I believe the word you use was heavily well heavily um well I said I could I said I could I would I wouldn’t be S I wouldn’t be surprised if they heavily went after there you go uh Nick Claxton Malik Monk and Gary Harris those were just three of the names you mentioned obviously I don’t think that’s the entirety of their free agent list but like that’s three of the names um this is where I want to go with it because I think we’ve talked about Nick claxon on the podcast before I’ve talked about mik monk in the podcast before I’ve talked about I’ve mentioned Gary Harris in the podcast before where I want to go with is this I know there’s going to be a few people that are upset about this because they get there’s a few people that get upset anytime we talk about the young Corp um so what is let I we’ll go back and forth with this with the Nick Claxton stuff and obviously Claxton is playing the position of durren like right like he plays Five um Gary Harris and um Malik monk plays like what would be Jay and Ivy’s position with that said where do you believe of right now and James don’t give me the PC answer don’t don’t don’t don’t give me like I don’t I don’t give you the PC when it comes to reporting stuff I’m not I I because of the Hat I wear I’m not just gonna throw random stuff you can ask my opinion on something I’ll give it to yeah okay okay so what do you think where do you stand personally like I said not asking you to report anything but just where do you stand with the young guys this off seon like I know you there was an article you wrote a few few weeks ago I think maybe even a month ago talking about like the most viable assets and who would be traded You’ put out quite a few articles um doing fake trades involving multiple of the young guys um so I’ve I’ve taken away on the podcast numerous I mean I’ve said this numerous times that I think one of the young guys is going to go with the guys that they’re being mentioned be interested in the numbers crunch the type of offseason they’re in that they have to be have to improve along with the fact that I’m seeing you know credible people like yourself make articles with fake tra involving the young guys it seems like it’s something the organization is at least considering like it’s something that’s going to be considered what do you think about that do you think I’m off Bas in in thinking that with with one of the young guys like a Jane Ivy or a Jaylen durren or an Isaiah Stewart if those are the guys they’re interested in getting that are obviously playing their position I don’t think it’s off base to say that they’re considering it I will I obviously know that people come to me because they they want answers that they otherwise can’t get unless they’re speaking directly to the people I’m not going to sit here and act like I know what Tran’s thinking because the guy just got hired and I haven’t met him so I don’t want to pass that off as that you hear stuff about uh you hear stuff through the grape vine um but obviously I don’t I can only name two or three people that tran tran plus two people that he’s hired so far in his front office it’s so fresh and so new I don’t I haven’t met him yet I think that’s something that we get the press conference we’ll learn more about his vision and I think that answer will be uh hopefully if he answers it will be prevalent um would be one of the first things I ask I think that’s the most important question after the depending on what happens with the coach what I will say is I don’t think the Pistons can afford to rely so heavily on that many young players again now does that mean that they should trade them all no but the reason I think that a trade is possible is because as soon as you maybe move one or two of them to the bench you maybe I do think they need to make uh quicker evaluations than they had hoped to because of how bad last season was but I will say they can bring Claxton and and Harris or Claxton and monk in and still keep Ivy and Duran I think it I think we would all sit here and say it’s I know people have their favorite players and there are people who think that players get better if they’re starting and getting more minutes well clearly that’s not the case in this situation right so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with limiting their roles and allowing them to develop with two guys um ahead of them who are proven NBA players and have skill sets that the team needs right now and you maybe cut those minutes to 20 to 24 minutes game as opposed to 28 to 35 minutes a game right um I think it’s important to recognize that both Ivy and durran have great potential um and I would be afraid to move one of them with that said this team has to turn a corner next year so whether or not they think that benching one or two of them lowers their value that they have to have that conversation like is it better off if we move one of them now or do we bench them and does that hurt the chances if if they have another uh so so season uh I think those are all things that need to be considered for me I just you can’t go in to the season with that many young guys who need that many minutes again it’s just like we’ve seen what that looks like for the last two years so so James Edwards if so so in James Edwards perspective like you just you an asked the question I’ve said on the podcast numerous times I think they need to ask this question to themselves and they need to get the answer to the question you just asked of if we move them to the bench do they provide more value for us off the bench or will they provide us more value in a trade because like you mentioned if you move them to the bench there is there is a incredible High there is a I would say a high chance but a good chance I would say that the value May lower for sure the value May lower on those guys especially if they struggle exactly so if if it’s James Edwards not tran it’s James Edwards what would what is your answer to that question do you would you trade not all of them I’m not saying trade all of them where do you stand with that do you think that they should move off of one of them then in that scenario answering that question I would not be opposed to moving on from one of them if I knew what I was getting it’s hard to know without knowing what I’m getting back so I’m I’m trying I’m not trying to cop out but but like if one of them and five got me Brandon Ingram yeah I would do I would strongly consider that if one of them got me DeAndre Hunter no not doing that uh I think that I think one thing that fans should consider if they’re worried about either one of them maybe going and again who says who’s to say they’re coming off the bench this is just based on what we just watched that they clearly have to make if they’re coming off the bench they’re unserious if they’re not coming off the bench they’re unserious franchise I’ll I’ll say that James is not saying that I’ll say it they’re unserious Fran that they do that so my question to you I think one thing that people need to realize is say they signed Claxton to a three-year deal okay and I think I wrote it in the piece or if not I said it on the PO I can’t remember if they sign CLX into a three-year deal by the end of that deal duren’s only 23 maybe he’s maybe he’s improved in the areas that the team needs him to improve in by then and he’s totally ready to be a starting Elite level NBA Center and in the meantime is able to develop um against other teams second centers or whatever the case might be Ivy would only be 25 if they signed monk to a three-year deal monk also has played a lot of his career coming off the bench so maybe Ivy something happens in the in in in that process and Ivy finds his footing and his rhythm and he ends up replacing Monk and monk is the sixth man I think it’s fair to say that I just think not just those two all of these young guys have been thrown into the fire so young and it hasn’t necessarily been beneficial and I don’t think there would be anything wrong with getting more proven players ahead of them to limit their to one help build a bit more balanced roster two l the things that are on their shoulders and their responsibilities let them kind of exhale a little bit and three just because you sign someone over them doesn’t mean like their future is resolved right like I said Duran will be 23 if they signed another Center to a a three-year contract that’s not even close to his prime um so I don’t necessarily think that they need to trade any of the young guys I think that they if they don’t they need to to um grab veterans who can who are ready to go and know who they are as players and can help the team win and let those guys develop at a more slower Pace than they have been given the opportunity to as starters uh but what I will say is the reason I’ve talked about trade stuff so much and it’s something that you’ve talked about and we’ve talked about the fear of losing out on the value so you have to decide if you think that this person is worth that risking um and that’s something that they have to figure out I think sooner rather than than they had hoped [Music]

James Edwards III of The Athletic joins us to discuss Monty Williams’ future with the Detroit Pistons. Also, what could impact some of the decisions the Pistons make in free agency?

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