PISTONS SLO-MO MONTY WILLIAMS DECISION! IS TADJANE SALAUN AN OPTION AT #5? MORE ON TRAJAN LANGDON!

PISTONS SLO-MO MONTY WILLIAMS DECISION! IS TADJANE SALAUN AN OPTION AT #5? MORE ON TRAJAN LANGDON!

welcome to the Piston fanatic I’m your host Dave Dalton and I’m excited to share my passion and perspective of R Detroit Pistons I’ve been a dieh hard Pistons pan since the days of Dave Bing and Bob laner I’ve also been the varsity basketball coach of a very successful program in northern Michigan thank you very much for listening I really appreciate it please subscribe and like well piston fans I’ve been waiting I’ve been waiting a week I’ve been watching my phone checking my Twitter account constantly waiting to hear whether Monty is going to get fired or whether they’re going to retain him and it’s been driving me nuts and I thought why would I do a podcast when that that should be happening any day and the the Pistons are the Kyle Anderson of the MBA his nickname is slow-mo so that’s how the Piston organization and the ownership operates when they do a hiring when they hire a new general manager when they hire a new coach it’s like slowo where some teams like the Suns you know they fired their coach and they had they had their new coach hired like the next day and other teams are you know mve along faster but it is so frustrating I just don’t understand how long does it take to evaluate Monty Williams and I hope that trasan didn’t doesn’t get uh persuaded by somebody that has I mean the I know the coach at um at the Pelicans the current coach they have is good friends with Monty best buddies and that they try to pull on his emotional strings but Monty proved that he is not a good coach and he he was very unsuccessful he was successful when he had a stack team you know he had miles Bridges and he had um Chris Paul you know he had he had a loaded team Devin Booker and all those guys and and so he won a lot of games with those guys and some people say oh yeah Monty is the coach for with experienced teams and not without experienced teams well he coached New Orleans and they weren’t very good with him and you know he’s been around the league a while so anyway but he just proved this year and if if Tran really gets a chance to evaluate I don’t know how you exactly do it unless you can find somebody who can honestly tell you what took place during the Piston season you know I guess you can go back and watch games but just if you could see his decision making and his evaluation Ian I talked about this multiple times about his evaluation of players you know playing Isaiah livers over assar and playing Killian over uh ivy and just constantly decisions his poor decisions with you know fiveman lineups that were horrendous you know if the fiveman lineup was had any success at all but we would get destroyed when he played his fiveman lineup so he would never stagger you know his indecision about like you know all the Piston fans know that he would come on at a press conference and say he’s going to do something and then the next day he would do the opposite and then again I have talked about his um handling of end the game situ situations we were the worst team by far you know in the last uh five minutes of games we lost more games by far than anybody our record was worse when we were close within five points in the last five minutes and so he you know he just is not a good coach and it obviously we we need to have a change and so I’m just hoping that that happens but I’m getting more and more nervous by the day you know why don’t they make the decision so and why isn’t traan land Landon have his um in press conference he hasn’t had the press conference they the Pistons sent out a release saying that he was hired and there’s been even stuff information about different guys that he’s hired to add to a staff but he hasn’t they usually have a thing for the media where all the beat writers sit down and they can ask him questions and the owner there with him and they present him like Troy was last year and with um when they hired Monty and so I I don’t know I don’t get it I don’t know what’s wait what what they’re waiting on but I’m thinking they want the decision to hire Monty or not to hire Monty done before then but again it just concerns me that they’ve taken this long and you I’m not so concerned about who we might not get I’ve talked about there’s coaches out there that are available right now that I would like but what about Dan Hurley to the Lakers man he’s going to get he’s GNA get a boatload of money if he decides to take that job and I think he’s get a long contract for as much or more than Troy got or Monty got so that’s in the works and so we’ll see who I still like Johnny Bryant and jiren Collins and um there’s other guys out there that I really like so um let’s see what happens and I like I said I’ll jump on and do a podcast I’ve been just waiting for this I’ve had some stuff to talk about but I wanted to hold off today we’re g to talk about should the Pistons draft taian salon and I mean he’s a huge swing home run swing and we’re we’re going to talk about that and we’re also going to talk a bunch about Tran and some more stuff by I I think he was a great hire that’s just again you don’t know we don’t know we won’t know one see till we see him actually do the job but based on a lot of Intel that I’m going to talk about we know that pretty much but first let’s talk about Tan Salon that I’m I’m sure I’m not pronouncing his name right I’ve heard it pronounced different ways I listen to a lot of podcasts and it messes me up because one guy pronounces it one way another guy pronounces it another way Salon or Saloon I put it both ways but he is uh 610 with his shoes on and he’s from France and he is got a 72 wingspan and he plays his butt off he plays really hard with lots of energy which is a great thing and he works you know according to all reports his work ethic is phenomenal that he wants to be great and so he puts in lots of time and hard work so but here’s my thing somebody I’ve heard draft experts say that he is not going to fall past the number eight pick so that he would be a good pick for somebody at number eight or nine or 10 that he would be a great pick at that point but why is he not a good pick at five if he’s a good pick and if he’s going to be a good player it shouldn’t matter but he has the archetype that we need we need you know I’ve said 68 to 610 61 guys that can play defense and shoot he has shot pretty well you know his shot he he’s only like 18 years old so that’s another thing I I talked about you know a couple years ago when like when during the ivy draft iy went to back for a second year of college so did Keegan Murray and so um did a bunch of guys and they really improved from their freshman year they wouldn’t have been lottery picks and then their the next year their sophomore year they became lottery picks ma Benedict mathan those guys all got way better um even Jaylen Williams that plays for OKC he I think he might have gone through his junior year before he you know ended up being really good so guys that are younger there there’s more room that he can improve and so he’s again he’s real active he’s ay pretty good athlete but he you know there’s no guys here’s the problem and I I again I feel hypocritical because I we we do not we’re not at a place where we want to swing for the fences and take a chance and work get a player that might be a developmental player we’re not we we need players that can play right now so last year cam Whitmore was my guy that I wanted my second choice if Cam Whitmore was going to be picked before the Pistons which he wasn’t I wanted us to take Taylor Hendricks now Taylor Hendricks is still not proven how good he’s going to be but he was 69 could shoot 40% on thre you know and a consistently he shot really well he could block shots and so he he you know he’s playing for Utah now they started out him in the G league and then they brought him along at the end of the year and they traded some guys at the trade deadlines so they open up some minutes for him and he you know they had him guard the toughest guy on the other team a lot of nights and so we’ll see how good he ends up being but I would take him with a fifth pick this year if I could because we need those guys that are 69ine that can shoot and they’re rare and they’re hard to find fascinating thing is traan langden you know everybody says oh yeah he he hires he drafts these certain kinds of players well we don’t always know if he had the final say on the decisions we actually know that he didn’t have the final say but we we know that he probably had a lot of input into it so when he he you know got herb Jones and Trey Murphy so everybody says oh yeah he hire he gets these three and D wings and that’s what he likes because he hire he drafted herb Jones and Trey Murphy well there’s not really anybody else he got I mean they did get my guy niji marshel that I want us to sign as a free agent they picked him up off the street off waivers or something or not you know he was a free agent so they just signed him and he’s a six7 guy that’s turned into a you know a lot better player but it’s going to be interesting to see on salon so here’s when I what perked my ears up and you know last year I I didn’t I I mentioned GG Jackson in my draft coverage and how I thought he was had a big potential for to be you know a steel you know a big sleeper and and he ended up being he ended up making the first team all rookie and he didn’t even play the first half of the season in the NBA but he had lots of talent he skipped his senior year of college or of high school and went to South Carolina and he had lots of problems there didn’t play particularly well but he he was the number one kid in his class so we’ve seen that before where guys that are ranked high they end up being good players even though at somewhere along the line they maybe weren’t doing so well um even uh Derek lively that’s tearing it up for the Mavs he was ranked really high in his class and then he went to Duke and average like five a game and everybody said oh you know he’s not that good and then the Mavs drafted him and he’s been amazing so but here’s Yahoo sports um had their their um mock draft and they had Rish first and he’s still probably who my first choice for the Pistons would be but he’s probably going to be gone by number five um sour they had that second castle third Shephard re Shepherd four and salon at five to the Pistons and so that caught my attention and then they had uh buellis six and then they had um kingan and Holland and connect and Dillingham so those were their top 10 picks so No Ceilings they do a mock draft and so they they have a whole bunch of guys I don’t know if they have 10 guys that work at No Ceilings or eight guys or six guys I’m not sure but they they do a composite mock draft where they everybody puts in who they think in a certain order so they get so many points for whatever pick they’re given and they they determined it so they had SAR number one kingham number two so that’s the thing I I’m not going to be opposed if the Pistons take him at number five and it still you know it depends on if R’s there I would never take him at five but he has a lot of potential a lot of people think that he will be gone by five so that’s going to be interesting but we have Duren and you know there is always the big jayen dur question that you know it sounds more and more that people are down on him you know I I like him because he’s a piston and he watched him play for two years and he’s you know he plays so hard on offense he rebounds plays so hard rebounding but how can the coaches not teach him how can they not just sit him and show him film daily and then break it down into drills and have they they have individual coaches for every player and so someone needs to do it I and you know I was a coach for over 40 years I still coaching some and and some players have the Natural Instincts you know for help side defense and for Rim protection they just have it innately and so obviously he doesn’t have it but it still seems to me that he should accidentally be able to block more shots you know he blocks less than one shot a game and I think he was0 eight blocks a game per game this year and he was 0. n his first year and so he’s like regressed and so understandably so people are you know really down on him that but I mean when a guy averages 14 points a game and um 12 rebounds a game that’s pretty good when they shoot 60% so I just don’t know why he doesn’t get better coaching so but and you still can take kingham klingman but you can’t you know and then what do you do with Stu so you you can play two centers and even if they both can’t shoot threes although it is hard if you’re going to play a s to have one of those guys out there that can’t shoot so anyway we’ll that remains to see what happens but anyway Salon is the guy that has the most upside in my opinion in the draft of those guys that are um the high 610 that size and again he has a amazing motor and he likes to play defense he’s not a great defender yet but he he tries really hard on defense and and so that you know I still think I’d roll a dice if he’s the the guy that’s available but we’ll see what Trac langon does we’ll see how he decides what to do with that but anyway so I didn’t finish so with um with No Ceilings and so again those guys they spend their whole life studying the draft year round and they had again s kingham Shephard at three orish at four Connect number five so they I don’t think these are necessarily drafting for the particular team they just rank their order of who they think is best player available and then they put it into composits they had Stephen castle at six buella seven Topic at 8 Dillingham at nine and Cody Williams at 10 Holland at 11 they had salon at 19 so that’s the draft it’s insane so know they have one draft has Salan going to number five to the Pistons and the No Ceilings has them at 19 so it’s going to be a crazy night and again we still could obviously trade the pick but that topic topic and that’s another name that I’ve heard it topic or topic and so he is he partially tore his ACL and he’s had a history of knee injuries so there’s a lot of speculation that he’s going to drop and that’s a very disappointing thing to me because I was very confident that he would be along with SAR those were the only two guys that I would was going to say would be for sure drafted before the Pistons pick and so that would be great because that’s neither one of those are really a high need for the Pistons so that would make somebody available that we wanted so but I I think that he’ll probably most likely Fall the number eight to the Spurs that’s my prediction for that him but anyway let’s talk the Detroit shock the I had season tickets the first year that the wmba existed the Pistons or the Detroit had a their WNBA team called the Detroit shock they won championships and I had season tickets for the first season of their existence and so it was really cool and I went to a lot of games and I my best friend who passed away God bless him and he he um had courtside seats to every shot game through for their whole history from the first season to the last season they were there but so there’s talk about the Pistons or Detroit trying to get a team back into Detroit and I would just love that for the people of Michigan and for especially all the girls basketball players that I care about so um let’s talk about traan langon a little bit more so he you know he’s been the one thing about it is you know we were worried we’re not when we weren’t hiring somebody that we weren’t going to be prepared for the draft well obviously when he was still employed by the Pelicans he was constantly working on the draft and so that was something well here’s the thing I don’t know if you know Amari Sova he writes the beat writer for the Detroit Free Press that covers the Pistons and he has uh the Piston pulse a really good podcast and so he the other day on his podcast he said um that P some piston fans are said to him that um well we should just tank this year and get a shot at getting Cooper flag and he’s a prospect in next year’s draft that’s supposed to be phenomenal and so um Amari said but he won’t be a ailable at 5 so what does it matter and so that was funny joke Amari so he was saying that the Pistons even if they had the worst record they’re going to still fall the five and so we would never have a chance to get him one thing I will say about next year’s draft um is Ace Bailey’s in it too those two guys Cooper flag and Ace Bailey but there’s two other guys who are just phenomenal so there’s there’s at least four guys that are projected to be way better than anybody that’s in this draft and so my My Hope for the Pistons is that they win like 30 games and um end up getting like the fifth worst record and then they jump people like we’ve been jumped and get the first pick or second pick or third pick you know and then we get a high pick and we get to get one of those really good players and then we’re on our way but anyway when the Pelicans uh hire David Griffin who’s are now their president team president they also interviewed Tran for that job and they were so impressed and they loved him so much that they hired him for the general manager and they even overpaid him for that job for that position they gave him more for a guy that was going to be second in command because they just were so impressed and he’s you know he’s credited with making trades for picks and he’s done a real good job you know working that out with the Pelicans and I you know again for my research for this podcast I listen to other team’s podcast so I went and listened to the Pelicans podcast and the guys that you they follow the team every day for the last 10 years and they you know they do a podcast five days a week and they love him they loved him they thought he was tremendous and one thing they it’s interesting thing though they said the the fact that Tron came to Detroit that was a bad thing for them because that would mean they probably would not the Pistons probably would not be TR for Brandon Ingram so my only take about that is what they’re really saying is that since Tron was there every day he would know that uh Brandon Ingram’s not a guy that you would want to get and so that I found that fascinating so they they said the same thing with Cleveland so if one of their guys um get hired away to Cleveland then they think that they might not pick him so we’ll see see what happens oh brego if brego goes to Cleveland and he’s one of the top Runners for that position he James Breo he’s been the assistant for the pelan assistant coach and so they think that if he goes there they they might the Cavs are rumored to trade for Ingram also but that they wouldn’t take him so that makes me not want Brandon Ingram because if they’re if the people from the lockdown Pelicans think that the guys that follow him are with him every day uh don’t want him then it’s probably not a good deal again I I will say that I you know I love Naji Marshall but nobody’s going to know better if we would want to sign him and how much we he we value him than uh traan Langdon because he was there with him so you know they and they said he’s a Hands-On leader an effective Communicator connects with people and you know he motivates the front office and he delivers results and so there you know there’s all positive things about him of course that happen everybody’s praised when they first get hired but that’s is from people around the organization he’s universally praised and respected around the league very articulate and thoughtful well we know Monty Williams was the opposite of articulate and not not saying that he not a smart guy but his communication skills were were mediocre at best and so um yeah when he he was terrible at public speaking so and and you know the gor thinks he has a detailed plan to create a cultural winning and of course everybody does but I I love Bobby marks who you know covers the MBA in front office St front offices for um for the for ESPN and he also was in worked with the Nets when Tran was there and he thinks that he evaluates Talent at a lot of different levels and that he’s great and his connect he connects with people people really well and players and staff and ownership and what you know he’s just really good and he really valued him so Treon was with the general manager assistant general manager with the Nets when they got those guys you know when they had that real they they got rid of all their stars and they had all these guys that were like late draft picks and and they they end up shocking the league you know they had dangelo Russell and some guys but they Darius SC Not Darius Scotland but they had they had a bunch of guys were like no-name players and they far exceeded their expectations and so um they also said um that he reshaped the Pelicans medical staff and that really perked me up and you know he always wanted to know more about players and preparing them physically and we certainly need that we’ve had way too many injuries and even just the lack of communication on and like I said just P te didn’t get his toe surgery until last week and he heard it like with over a month left in the season and what what did they wait so long for so that it makes no sense so I think he’ll be really Hands-On with the medical staff and trying to create you know a better thing with them so um a lot of people think he’s he’s very bright and you know that’s not something you would just say about everything but here’s the thing that caught my the most important thing that caught my ear is that he long time ago he was done with his NBA career and he was out shooting with Kenny Atkinson who is now in the you know running for a coach he’s assistant coach for uh Golden State and so they were in the gym and they were doing a workout they were both no longer playing anymore and he said Tran said let’s let’s do a shooting workout and he said Tran proceeded to put him through the hardest workout he’d ever been in his life and that he almost collapsed and he said the guy’s retired but he had the specific routine perfect technique he did all these drills and he said that guy is locked in and so that’s what we need the other thing I am excited about is their developmental C staff at the Pelicans has been tremendous and they have again a great shooting coach but they have Tran who watched it experienced the development at the Nets he was also you know with uh the Spurs and they have a good developmental staff and so he’s got to witness it and he is a perfectionist and he you know has specific workouts and techniques and so he’s got to see all that stuff and so I just think that he’s going to help bring that over if he can’t bring the shooting coach from the Pelicans over he at least knows what they did he was in the gym watching those guys you know work out and try to improve po so anyway I going away this weekend take my daughter she’s going down to right State they invited her to come to the uh their school it’s down in Dayton so I’m going to be taking her down there and probably that’s when they’ll announce that Monty’s hired or fired so I I just thought for sure they were going to do it today Friday I just you know that’s when they announced the hiring if trean and I just thought that that’s what would happen a lot of a lot of people Dum dumped their things on Friday evening for some reason so but I thought I thought they were going to do it earlier this week but I’m sorry I you know I waited to do this podcast but we got a lot of things to look at see what happens especially that that the first Domino that’s got to fall is the decision on Monty and then the draft is right around the corner again it’s just really Helter Skelter what what the Pistons best should do I said there’s lots of guys that that could be there I still you know I love shephard I love the way he plays he’s an unbelievable shooter and he competes defens I ly and he’s got a great vertical but just look around the NBA and you named for me all the six2 guys who are really good big difference makers in the NBA there there’s just not very many that even play a lot so clingham I think you know again he’s a good pick but if we have Stu and Duran what is going to happen there so one of those guys would have to go if we drafted him I would think so um Holland has lots of potential but hard to be sure connect is uh Dalton connect is a great shooter and you know he you know again I if they valued him and they see that he’s a guy he’s older than everybody else in the draft but we need shooting so he is an amazing shooter I mean he shoots shots when he’s not open and he can make him at a high percentage so anyway we’ll talk more about the draft and we’ll hopefully have a decision reached on Monty soon but thank you very much for listening I’m excited for the upcoming off season and all the things that are going to happen and be the reason that somebody feels cared for and go Pistons

Why is it taking the Pistons so long to reach a decision on Monty? Should the Pistons take abig swing and draft Salaun? How will Trajan help revive the Pistons?