Detroit Pistons Free Agency Reactions With Lazarus Jackson | Pistons Talk Podcast
hey guys welcome back to Pistons Talk podcast I have a very special firsttime guest larus Jackson Pistons Dina Pistons Twitter which I I was actually talking to Sean Corp about bringing back the Pistons Twitter Awards yeah we were talking about someone’s said what happened to Motown Noah and the Luke gard and the Blake Griffin thing that was wild like I don’t know they should bring it back um but welcome to the show man I’ve been wanting to have you on the the show for a while you’re so intelligent and so smart and like when I read your tweets I was like wow like maybe I’m a dumbass but welcome to the show man no thank thank you for having me uh it’s a very it’s a very nice compliment very that’s a very nice thing to say but like again like I had kilan ha number one on my board so we all make mistakes right I mean hey man I was a hell Henry Ellen and truther for the longest time so we’ve all had our uh guys that we’ve fallen in love with I know the chat gives me like [ __ ] every time I mention Henry Ellison like Henry Ellison really was a bust really was yeah um yeah some offseason stuff has happened it it definitely has um before uh we kind of get into that I wanted to kind of get your perspective of the draft um what did you kind of think of like Ron Holland and trading up for Bobby clitman so I I really liked the pick I was a big fan of Holland going after like doing my like research going into the draft I thought Holland had the best mix of like upside and impact that the Pistons would be willing to get I thought uh that as a as a long rangey wing with athleticism I thought he would be the type of player traan langon and the uh New Orleans Pelicans have targeted in the draft previously um I did have people tell me that he uh that Langan like wasn’t a fan of Holland um I had those same people be like I’m just as surprised as you are when they actually made the pick uh but I I was pretty excited I was pretty excited I don’t think that um like I saw who I saw who they were mocked uh to like I didn’t really love buis obviously lots of teams were scared about Dalton connect who’s like currently like lighting up the summer league already um and the only other guy I really thought of in that way was Steph Castle um and obviously he would I figured he wouldn’t be on the board by the time the Pistons made their selection and so like I’m I’m a big fan I’m in favor of it I do think it causes not it doesn’t cause like roster issues but like yeah him and assar are duplicative and figuring out if those two guys can work together and play together will be like Paramount in the next coming Seasons but the but like if you can make it work like all of a sudden you have these two big wings like and that’s really seems like the direction of where the league is going it it really does like um with the draft I thought like Cody Williams or uh Ryan was going to be the pick kind of like given know Tran’s like draft history with the Pelicans and you know liking those big wings he’s like I don’t mean to slander Troy Weaver but he’s like anti-t Troy Weaver like he likes wings and Troy likes bigs yeah like it it’s so weird to like because we have like no wings last year it was like Kevin Knox and Isaiah they brought back Kevin Knox in like November because they needed him and I was just like oh my God yeah yeah Wing dep has been an issue for years for sure um I do like the the Bobby uh clitman pick too saw that he was uh working at John stfo yesterday which was kind of cool yeah I don’t know much about him I you I generally like don’t know much about manyi second round guys um because I don’t watch that much college basketball and when I’m doing like lottery or I’m doing draft prep stuff it’s usually like Lottery talents because the Pistons are usually yeah in the lottery uh so I I’m I’m excited to see what uh is it Bobby or Bobby I want to say Bobby because we need a new Toby and Boby version in 2024 so yeah I’m I’ll be excited to watch Boby in Las Vegas in a couple of days actually it’s coming yeah same here hopefully the Pistons like uh do announce their uh summer league roster because I keep seeing all all the other NBA teams like release their roster and like we we still don’t have like a head coach like is it going to be Jr Jack again run it back like I I don’t know yeah yeah I like I gotta presume with like the with the bicker staff hire they’re like in the process of figuring out like who’s gonna do all that stuff right I mean they gotta make a decision pretty soon because uh their their first game is I believe the ninth I want to say or the 10th so I mean we’ll see man we’ll see yeah got speed it up well let’s transition over to free agency so one of the first signings that the Pistons made was to buy Harris and I wanted to get kind of your reactions to the signing do you think this was a good value signing for the type of contract that they gave him over a two-year period I think it’s really hard to have a bad two-year contract um and so do I think that Tobias Harris is worth you know $30 million on the open market like probably not um but I do think the Pistons had a glut of cap space needed to use it on someone and I think Tobias is a fairly good candidate uh he really fits on the roster like we we talked about Wing depth right he obviously adds to that um he’s not like a primary ball handler but as like a a second side guy who can generate offense he’s averaged like he’s averaged 16 points points a game at least for like the last like five or so years and so you expect to have like a nice scoring Baseline coming from the wing position which is something I didn’t really have last year um yeah and like it is only a two-year deal right like sure sure he’s overpaid but um I don’t think that like his contract is going to really really like delarius to the Pistons like in the long term like it it it’s really like again it’s just really bad to have it’s really hard to have a bad twoyear deal and he should still be a helpful player right I mean um he’s been a been a fairly consistent um fairly durable player this is something like James has pointed out a bunch or James Edwards the third at the athletic has pointed out a bunch that like all of L A lot of langan’s Acquisitions like actually play and don’t get injured which uh which is nice um and yeah I just think he’ll be useful um yeah I I I I think the understand I think the people see is like you know people saw the obviously struggled a lot in the playoffs over the years for the Sixers and that gives a big like negative impression of him to people but the the Pistons don’t need him to play perform in the playoffs they need to get to the playoffs he should help them do that yeah baby steps you guys baby steps yeah um we we’ll get there but I mean I thought for the contract I always said like between 15 to 25 I thought was kind of like the the r range that he could possibly get I know I saw a lot of people on Twitter overreacting saying oh like why do we go after a guy we already had which to your point at 16 and seven durable like I pulled up the numbers because it’s off season and I have way too much time on my hands played 70 games last year and Joe Harris and Monte Morris combined played 22 and that was a bulk of your cap space last year man Joe Harris was here remember that yeah and like not that and like the they use the bulk of their cap space on not even uh in Joe Harris and Monte Morris like guys that you hope could play uh Joe Harris in particular was just like so confusing to me because like I thought he I he looked pretty done um the last I had seen him play um but like Tobias is not like oh I hope he can play Tobias is like oh like he can start right like we know we’re going to be able to rely on this guy for production and I think that’s really valuable for a team that uh had a lot of uh uncertainty coming into or you know going through last year um yeah yeah I mean I I like the signing I I don’t think it’s a signing where you know I I know how Pistons litter is I know how they overreact to like every little thing but I I think it’s a good signing and you kind of need those bigger contracts if you want to attract some of those stars out there like 26 million and then you throw a 10 million and a five million there maybe you can you know possibly trade for a max player down the road you never really know yeah I do think that like a lot of it too is just like people feel like the opportunity cost of spending that money elsewhere is now gone Pistons only have it’s like 20 million in cap space right after the Beasley signing um it’s like oh well we got like we didn’t really we had 60 million in space and all we have to show for it is like Tobias Harris and it’s like that that I understand I understand like why on its face that’s kind of frustrating but like on the other hand like I don’t know if uh some of the other names that people were talking about like right like Brandon Ingram Zack LaVine like I think again like those are those are longer term commitments uh and this P this piston steam is still kind of rebuilding and I don’t know if you want to I don’t know if you know with a new head guy with a new head coach I don’t know if you want to make a long-term commitment to a Bren Ingram or Zack LaVine um like and that’s like the best way to be moving forward with the team and so I like yeah just having a short deal like gives you flexibility uh this year or next and it um and like again Tobias can still play and be consistent and be productive and uh and be healthy yeah I mean that I I think the the health part is actually like work the contract because you last year you used to bulk your cap space on guys that think you said Joe Harris was like on a really serious calf injury and it had like no lift whatsoever I mean um I might have more lift and I’m way out of shape and I haven’t played basketball in probably 10 years um and then the Monte Morris thing was weird like it was healthy and he wasn’t healthy then they wouldn’t clear him then he was traded and I was like wow like that what a roller coaster but uh happy for him uh in Phoenix actually have a a point guard now so they might be able to do something at come play out time you never know but yeah that was that was a really good signing by them I like that signing for for Phoenix yeah same here same here um I I did want to uh shift over to Malik Beasley and kind of the same question like what were your thoughts on the signing and were you surprised that the Pistons got him for under 10 million a year I was surprised the Pistons I’m so my thing was like after the Tim Hardway Junior trade uh which I we’re like not doing it in order um I was surprised that the Pistons won another of this type of guy right like a heavy catch and shoot guy um playing like you know small shooting guard or small forward but uh not an amazing Defender um somebody who can be attacked defensively but like a really useful offensive utility piece um they’ve been rumored to be in like the Buddy heeled sweep Stakes obviously um I think the situation that buddy chose is a little bit better than Detroit um so I can see why they wanted and you can see why they want to put more spacing around Kade Cunningham and use that to be to figure out if he’s going to be um someone someone you build everything around um for the next couple of years um was I surprised he got like less than 10 million like no not really um Beasley is like Beasley is a very one-dimensional player uh he was very helpful and useful for the uh bucks last year um but he also like he’s had stretches during his career in which he goes cold shooting from three and if he’s not making threes like there’s not really a lot he’s offering you um and so I understand why a one-dimensional piece and player like that like would not be very heavily valued um the other thing I’ll say is like not a lot of teams had cap space uh with with the new CBA with the new second apron thing like uh his talent I think are more suited to a contender right as just like a guy who comes in and like you know what he does and he’s consistent with it and we’ve seen him play that role for uh quite a few contending teams over the last couple of years um but so I think in him signing a very short a one-year deal that’s very very tradable I think it’s entirely possible that he’s like flipped at the deadline if you performs um and if he doesn’t then like it was just a one-year deal um he can get back he can go back on the market and the Pistons like don’t have to force themselves to play him right it’s not like oh we handed this guy5 million we we we gotta play him I like no you know um he can if he’s not if he’s not fulfilling his role like there are other directions the team has to go in so yeah I’m I’m a fan but I like I like the move um I like Beasley as a piece I understand what he does it it was just it just uh surprised me when like I first saw the news I was kind of surprised because I I saw the hoopsy like uh report MH and it’s like yeah the Pistons want to you know Target Beasley but they also want to go in like a the the market for a trade to absorb cap space then like six hours later it’s like you get the uh Shams uh tweet I’m like oh okay so we’re getting him cool um I like I like him offensively to your point like he’s an elite three-point shooter he’s a sharpshooter uh one thing that is really weird about him and I don’t know if it’s like a a consistency thing like you look at his free throw numbers he’s either like 80% or 60% there’s no in between it it’s like the weirdest thing I just like he just like flips a coin one year like okay I’m gonna be 80% 3o shooter I think he shot like 70ish uh last year with the bucks but to your point I think you could flip it because it’s only six million it’s a one-year rental if it works cool if it doesn’t it’s not like that big um I think I think it’s kind of telling too with Langan and you know black stone of just these one to you know two-year deals like they’re not really committing longterm money on this roster which I think is smart because you don’t really know what you have yet but yeah you you are putting more you know perimeter spacing around Kate I know you mentioned Tim Hardway Jr Milik Beasley and this is just a question I thought off of the top of my head do you think that they got guys like that to try to help Jade iy because he when Jade iy you know hit his shots it’s great but when he’s not hitting three-point shots it’s really glaring out there yeah I don’t know I don’t know what the expected role for Jaden Ivy like is for this season um I don’t expect him to play Summer League or anything obviously um but with the way the roster is currently set up I kind of wonder if he’s the uh like day one sixthman like backup point guard just because like we we have seen he is more effective with the ball in his hands infamously like it took Monty Williams like five months to figure that out uh but at the same time like if he has the ball um and he’s not always he’s not always the most efficient player he struggles to finish at the rim and the shooting his shooting like varies very heavily right he’ll have like the was he he was like remember that week like that Sacramento Portland back toback where he made like 13 straight threes or something and then uh that that but that like elevated his like yearly percentages for like six weeks um so yeah I I do wonder what the role for Jaden Ivy is going to be uh moving forward and I would hope that we get some clarity about that when they actually have the bigger staff presser which I is is coming but yeah the way the roster set up like it looks like they want to do like Cade heavy shooter and then like Wing players and Jaden iy is not a heavy shooter and he’s not a wing player so that that leads me to believe like he might be the backup but we we haven’t had that clearly like stated or said so we’ll see and they also like don’t have a backup Point cart right now either so yeah it’s it’s so weird because like before the Beasley signing I was like okay maybe they run you know a Kade Ivy back court and I was just like well maybe they run Kade Tim Hardway Jr Kade Michael Beasley yeah and maybe to your point they’re not signing a backup point guard because I see a lot of people in the chat and even like group test that we have everyone’s like on the tus Jones tra right now go get tus Jones go get him as backup tus Jones for the record has like openly stated he wants to be a starter and so like I don’t think he’s coming to Detroit I think he’s he’s gonna look for a situation in which like he can play a heavy minutes and be a starter so I like I don’t know where that’s gonna be because I like him but like I don’t think he’s like a pretty uh pretty like Baseline level starting NBA point guard so like I don’t know who needs that per se but um yeah I I would be very surprised if uh he were to come to Detroit yeah same here even though like there there is that Duke connection there so you never know but um to your point I think you could use C IB as like that six-man or backup point guard role because I think he he thrives better when he has the ball in his hands and you know running a second unit I I think would suit him better than trying to like you know share the ball with Kate and not to say that they can’t play together I think they can it just kind of seems like him playing off ball seems unnatural to him that that’s just the way I see it I mean you look at the you look at like the explosion like Cody white uh made in his career right and a lot of that was him getting comfortable in a bench roll uh two seasons ago only to like finally uh like uh like build on that confidence moving forward start a bunch of games for the Bulls and like have a year uh last year it’s like maybe that’s the maybe that’s the path for Jaden um come off come off the bench for a year uh figure out how to play like be productive but also like use that time to figure out how to play off the ball a little bit and then uh start off stronger the in two seasons um it’s also possible that like we’re wrong they signed some backup point guard somewhere uh start Kad Ivy together and and prioritize figuring that out as a point of development um yeah and the other thing is like bicker staff did a very hard stagger of Garland and Mitchell in Cleveland and I don’t know if that was a uh like a coaching policy thing I don’t know if that was something uh that like he wanted to do because it was what was best I don’t know if that’s something he’s married to like the two bigs that he used in Cleveland or if it’s just like this is what the talent we have like this is what we’re going to do and so I’ll be curious to see if like uh if like if they are started like are are Kaden and Ivy starting together but heavily staggered or is Jaden like coming off the bench right was he doing that while robbio was still there too or was that after he kind of like retired that was uh they they like hoped he could start this season and uh he retired um so I remember like they had like Craig Porter Jr for a hot second was was playing big minutes for them um but yeah and then like Garland injured his SP and everything and so they they’ve they they’ve had a bunch of uh injuries to stuff in Cleveland but I do think there was also something they were planning on doing uh two seasons ago as well so I mean you could stagger him that that that could work that’s just kind of like I’ve been thinking about it it’s like okay you got two shooting guards and then you you drafted IB a couple seasons ago you’re just gonna transition and to a point we point guard but I guess we’re gonna have to wait and see what happens I mean free agent I think today’s the last day of free agency isn’t it uh today’s the you can make stuff official okay okay uh starting yesterday at like yesterday night I think so I think that that’s what helps spur like the D rozan trade I’ve seen um like the uh like the the Mel Bridges trade is official now um so yeah so and you know obviously you can sign guys like all the way up until the season starts so we’ll see yeah we will see um we have to hear from our sponsors over at game time and then we will be right back you guys you guys I have to tell you about today’s sponsor the game time ticket app how exciting would it be to attend a major league baseball game this summer game time is the authorized ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the gain Time app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch with CLE last minute deals all in prices views from receips and their lowest price guaranteed game time takes the guest bre out of buying MLB tickets one of my favorite features within this app is the views from your seeds featured this allows you and shows you how close you’re getting to the action before you buy your tickets to the event you’re trying to go to if you guys go over download the game time app create an account and use the code CNS you’re going to get $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem the code clns for $20 off your first purchase download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed and we’re back appreciate game time for sponsoring today’s podcast and shout out to cnls Media for sponsoring today’s podcast but wanted to kind of get back into free agency and the Pistons resigned a guy that they traded for last year in Simone feko and I I kind of wanted to get your take on this the number seemed kind of low for me like two for 16 two years for $16 million I I feel like if you know Tre was here it would have been like two for 35 yeah it does seem like the previous regime placed a high priority on uh fono and like what he brought to the team and I really I really like the way he played last year I really liked the the way like again just as like a wing guy who could shoot like that was something the pist desperately needed um I was also surprised I was more surprised by the length of the deal than the number um Simone is obviously a um an older like a young like a rookie or not like he’s a he was still very restrictive free agent so like very early in his NBA career but I think he’s 27 right now and like that’s that’s an unusual circumstance so I I wondered if it was a way for him to um be on the piston but like still go back into the market in a couple years when the cap is going to be really big and so like that that 8 million right now might be the same as like 15 or 16 in a couple years so uh so yeah but I I love the signing um he was a guy I wanted to bring back um I again like I did think he played really well with Cade and he fit really well with the team it’s very easy to imagine uh the kind of role he will play even on like this team like uh again as as we talk about uh building a team with shooting around Cade like he accomplishes that he’s a better Defender than like the Beasley and the Tim Hardway Juniors that we’ve talked about already um he’s got a little bit more size he’s he’s a little bit more like athletic and fluid than I thought he was um coming into this or coming into the season and so yeah I’m I was I was pretty happy with it but yeah like you I was surprised that it was like just eight mil a year and just two years yeah I’m uh I’m 100% happy that I was wrong because I did a podcast earlier with h Pistons thoughts and me and him really really at maybe 20 million a year like we were way off because like I I thought that’s like the type of bag he could command because he’s a really under underrated player and to your point like he’s sneaky athletic like he doesn’t seem like a guy that could just you know put the ball on the floor and dunk on your head like you look at him you’re like oh it’s just a spot up shooter he’s not gonna not gonna do anything but I was happy with like how how cheap the deal was but to your point maybe you know the two years is just kind of dipping his toll in the water and maybe he wants to sign with a contender in two years you never know yeah I mean and again like as a restricted free agent uh like it’s a whole complicated process to get him to go to another team and so even if he’s like hey like I want to be in Detroit but I also want the opportunity to be a you know unrestricted free I want to be able to pick where I’ve go in a couple years maybe that’s Detroit Detroit maybe Detroit’s a great situation to be in two years from now but um like for now like if I’m going to be here like let let’s make it a short-term deal it’s like okay it’s like I hope that works for him I hope you I hope he has a lot of success here in Detroit because like that that will mean good things right even as we talk about uh like Ron Holland and assar like he’s a guy who should be playing over those guys like right now right and in two years you you hope Ron Holland is like in that in that lineup like doing what a lot of uh or playing playing a lot of those minutes probably not doing the exact same stuff Simone does but playing playing minutes for the team we because I’ve seen this debate across Twitter I know this is kind of like kind of going off subject do you see him more Off the Bench as a second unit player or do you think they just put him in the starting lineup to provide more spacing for Gade I would start him I would start something along the lines of like Cade Beasley Simone uh Tobias and then um and then like durren that that like that’s that’s what I would go with I understand the um I understand the idea of splitting up like essentially like splitting up Simone and Tobias to allow you to play like one of assar and Ron and like not have two non- shooting Wings on the floor at the same time or if you have you know multiple Wings on the floor like one of them can’t shoot but one of them can um but I think if if the point again is to just like put as much spacing around Kade as possible like that to me means playing Simone like with Kade and um I I presume like assar will play I don’t assume like Ron Holland is gonna play right away he’s one of the youngest guys in this year’s draft I think he just turned 19 so like I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t really see Ron Holland like in the rotation featured heavily until like January or February right yeah I mean to your point I think assar defensively offers more as of right now mhm um but to your point maybe they kind of bring Holland off slower because they don’t really need him to start like right now like you can kind of you know watch learn go up against second unit guys and just develop that way yeah and and I think it’s been I don’t know it’s been Sinker swim for a lot of the Pistons rookies over the last couple of years especially as they’ve been bad it’s like okay well let’s run these guys out and see what they got and I think that like I think that was like a little bit of what Monty was trying to do they’re like hey like we want you to earn the opportunities and play well enough they just like didn’t have the talent to block some of these guys from playing um but Simone like like Simone right now is a much is a much more complete NBA player than Ron Holland is like you you expect Ron Holland to get there but like again he’s 19 he’s not going to come for him right away um Malik Beasley is a much more a like we know what Malik Beasley brings to an offense and if he’s shooting the ball well it’s like that’s a dimension we need perhaps like more than Jaden iy’s like ball handling like in the starting lineup like next to Kade right and so yeah it’s like there’s gonna be lots of uh there’s uh you can play guys and you can know what they bring but guys so the young guys will have to earn their minutes but it’s also uh these are short term commitments right like Beasley’s here for one year Simone’s here for two years it’s like there’s a clear Runway there’s a clear path for guys like Ron Holland uh to play it’s just like not right away right yeah which I think is the right approach like you don’t want to just throw them out in the fire kind of like how like you look back to like the 2020 Draft when they just like threw like Isaiah Stewart and killy and all those guys and sadique out there and like I guess that’s I guess it’s a different philosophy I guess if you ask coaches like because some coaches will will just throw them out there and let them develop and you know learn their mistakes but other coaches will kind of like have them play but if you make a mistake you’re like sitting out like I vividly remember van gy like ripping out Stanley Johnson every time he missed a defensive assignment maybe Baker staff could kind of be like a similar type of philosophy in terms of like not developing bad habits with like you know mishaps and stuff like that but we’re gonna have to wait and see um sticking with free agency and this isn’t Pistons related this is just like free agent related what was one free agent signing that surprised you the most that surprised me the most the demard de rosan Saga of him going to Sacramento that was definitely very surprising is not surprising that the Bulls want to be worse um I had forgotten I was just like reminded they owe their 2025 first to San Antonio and so I was like you you probably want to be able to keep that pick if you can because this year’s draft looks pretty good um and so yeah D and I knew I knew D rozan like wouldn’t be a like first off the board uh like signing but I did think I did think he would want to go to some place that I think of a little bit more highly in terms of contending than Sacramento but he seems really he’s like he seems enthusiastic about it so that’s good um John Hollinger had a was it Hollinger somebody atic had like a nice piece about how um this is like a floor raising move for Sacramento rather than like a move that really raises their ceiling but because the West is so competitive that like they might have needed to raise their floor like just to keep Pace with everyone else and so like in that way was good for them um so yeah and like it it cost them really like not that much like some second round picks Harrison Barnes Chris DTE who like man I remember Sam Vini was so high on Chris DTE and now he’s been traded twice and it’s like I guys just like disappeared Into The Ether um but yeah that like that was the one that really surprised me like I thought D rozan would be headed to the Lakers on a like shortterm uh like small money deal um just because like again like as another ball handler like I think he would uh like that would be really good for them or the Clippers obviously like Clippers are losing Russ they signed Chris Dunn to like be the Russ replacement but Chris Dunn like doesn’t generate offense like that and obviously the Clippers like lost Paul George um so like they needed another guy who can probably create their own offense a little bit and so I thought D rozen would be a good situation for them um Philly obviously like had a whole bunch of money but like they used it all so I wasn’t surprised like Rosen didn’t end up there um and so like you saw some of the other teams he was linked to right like Miami like I don’t I don’t know how he was supposed to get any money to play in Miami Miami seems kind of kind of stuck right now unfortunately for them like they lost Caleb Martin which was wow yeah yeah um so yeah the demard de rzan um like protracted sign and trade like Saga I think was the thing that surprised me the most what about you what what uh what move surprised you the most yonis fell and Tunis to Washington and I I hate like people gonna think this is like an anti-tr Weaver podcast it’s not but like I was kind of looking like they still have Marvin Bagley and I believe they signed ran Holmes they did yeah and Yas fail and Tunis so I think the ran Holmes thing was like they were doing like everybody there was doing each other a favor somehow like um he he had a player option and they basically just like gave him another year like based off of the player option it’s like okay cool I guess but yeah that was uh Troy Weaver does like centers but like they drafted SAR and part of the reason it was it seemed to be reported that part of the reason like SAR like really didn’t want to go to Atlanta was because like he wanted to be on the ball more and he didn’t want to be like a center right he thinks of himself more as like um one of these like new like new h4s um and now he doesn’t have to be right they got lots of centers for him to play next to which is like okay good for him like that if that’s the that’s the development mode like he wants to follow like they set up the team to do that like that’s good yeah like I didn’t think JV was gonna go first cheap as he went but I was really surprised when I saw Washington I was like really Washington I mean like they did like start Marvin baggley right and like we know pretty intimately that Marvin Bagley is not like a like Baseline level starting NBA Center he’s a below average starting NBA Center so they did probably need somebody in that role and you know after if you’re not gonna get hardenstein you’re not gonna get Claxton like JV was the next guy off the board they got to make good money like you mentioned so it’s like it kind of works it kind of works but yeah I’m I’m we don’t have to justify Troy Weaver’s actions anymore that’s that is a little bit Rel no I mean I I found the the old clip because it was like during covid when like uh reporters couldn’t be there it was like uh via Zoom he’s like oh yeah I love bigs and I was just like like that that clip started getting retweeted out like during free agency I was like oh God I said why do I have plus 20 un foter right now I was just like oh they found it I was like oh wow that the Naji Marshall signing with Dallas I was just like damn like Dallas Dallas had a good offseason yeah yeah they really did um to be fair I like I liked klay’s very Klay was very up and down for the Warriors last year part of the reason he’s not in Golden State anymore and it does kind of seem like they promised him he would start there’s like a there’s a nonzero chance that like Naji Marshall like helps you win a little bit more than clay right now uh so I’ll be I’ll be curious to see how that that plays out but yeah Dallas had a well between like last year’s trade deadline and this offseason like yeah Dallas has had a really nice run over the last couple of uh last couple months yeah I mean getting Quinton Grimes Naji Marshall clay and then you still have you know Kyrie and Luca like yeah they might uh run it back you never know I uh I was disappointed that uh Quinn Grimes like didn’t want to be here I thought this was this would have been a good opportunity for him to uh like really show what he had this year and like get paid and restrict to Fe agency next year um but I uh I also understand why like if he didn’t want to be here like why the Pistons like didn’t want to prioritize like him being here either so yeah was that like reported because I I saw like a kind of rumbling on Twitter that he didn’t want to be here was that kind of like a reported thing uh I’ve seen it on I saw it mostly on Twitter um but it like it tracks right yeah yeah he he got traded here midseason like immediately like couldn’t play and has been hurt like I understand like why he would be unhappy here yeah I mean I I didn’t know he was injured until there’s like an athletic reporting they say oh yeah he’s like needs surgery on his leg I was like oh so we traded for an injured player that’s the most we could get for boan and ell Burks sweet cool could even get her pick back okay let’s let’s let’s go that that was tough that was tough and to be fair like you know Burks and Buon like didn’t help the Knicks as much as everybody kind of thought they would um and it does kind of seem like we again Troy Weaver like missed an opportunity two seasons ago to trade Buon at like the the height of his asking price um but again like we we don’t have to justify Troy Weaver’s decisions no not anymore um I I I think Tim Hardway Jr will he’ll surprise people because I think he’s it it seems like every time the Pistons trade for someone they just have like career numbers would not surprised me if he just had career numbers whatsoever because he’s gonna have way more opportunities here than he did in Dallas yeah yeah he he if he can stay healthy because that’s been the other thing with toaru like he he’s been a little brittle but like if he can play he will get up some threes and he will make a bunch bunch of them and the Pistons needed guys who could do that yeah I mean we might take 43s at uh a game this season we got the shooters to do it finally yeah oh man that’s that’s just that’s that’s really funny honestly U just kind of like reflecting back um one of the questions I I did want to ask you was uh was there a free agent Target that you wanted to piss since a Target and they they just they missed the boat on it um I still think they need a rim protecting Center uh once the numbers like Nick Claxton at like 25 million was like a pretty poorly kept secret um and with the like new legal tamper tampering period for your own free agents like I’m not surprised to see him come back to Brooklyn um I thought they might want to tear it down a little bit more thoroughly but I also see how having a guy like Nick Laxton um makes you like Baseline competent on defense which is good for like developing like young guys um and then obviously Isaiah hartenstein was uh was the other like bigname Center on the market um he got a lot of money from OKC and so that’s that’s a that’s more money than like I would have been prepared to give him if I were Trent Lon and B Oklahoma City is a much more better is a much better basketball situation than Detroit and so it totally makes sense like why he wouldn’t come here um and so yeah I I’m I still want the Pistons to try and get um some sort of Rim protection but like now I’m thinking like very much on the cheap now it’s like hey uh what’s is like norleans no kind of hat it here but like would he want to come back like um like uh I know the the Spurs let go of Dominic Barlo made him an unders free agent he’s not really a wi protector but that’s always kind of a guy that’s always a guy I’ve kind of liked um I’ll be curious to see what bigs they bring into summer league like maybe one of those guys really pops um and they’ll able like to move forward with that but yeah I still was I still wanted the Pistons to go after some form of uh RI protection that could play in case like again like we talked about making guys earn minutes I think Jaylen Duren is like absolutely there offensively uh he’s already think uh he’s already like eclipsed what I thought he would be capable of this early in his career on offense but after the ankle injuries and especially like late in the year on defense it just seemed like he wasn’t giving his best effort and so I would want and like that that had a huge trickle down effect on on the rest of the defense and so if if at all possible like it’d be nice to have a guy who could close the games uh for the Pistons on defense that wasn’t like 68 69ine like Isaiah Stewart is yeah I was I don’t know why I thought of him probably because I covered the G game I was like oh what’s johnce Porter doing I was like oh wait never oh oh yeah that’s right yeah that guy under Federal indictment yeah yeah uh I mean he he was actually pretty good in the cruise but U uh is funny because you can’t because you can’t bet on Gag games you can’t maybe that’s why he was doing so well in the G why did they get out so he get called up but that’s hilarious I didn’t even think about that yeah oh man um yeah to your point I I do think we need a a rim protection Center a veteran Center if you will um nin’s Noel thing I actually have a funny story because an assistant coach actually reached out to me about him which was like why wild never talked to this this coach before he was like on Casey staff for like several years he’s like yeah he’s like nland just didn’t want to be here he’s just like Casey called him to come into a game and he ordered Wing Stop in the back and he was eating chicken wings in the back and he would not come out to check into the game he’s like yeah man he he was a bum he didn’t want to be here I was like bro that’s wild oh man that’s like that’s old school like 80s 90s NBA I need I need more stories like that yeah like I hope he doesn’t mind me telling that story but he probably wants to think get out there because like nland was kind of capping on IG yeah he probably fine but yeah like even like I’m looking at the list of free agent centers now and it’s like it’s it’s kind of rough when you’re looking at like the guaranteed Rim protection like Department like javil McGee is GNA be 37 and is like maybe the most like classic rim protector guy available still Moses Brown is huge he’s like very tall he’s a deterrent but I don’t know if he has like the timing and positioning down to actually like be a uh what you would like think of as like a rim protector so like yeah like really like striking out on claxon and hearten or not not even like striking out because again like why those guys signed elsewhere like makes a lot of sense but like not not being able to go into the season with like that kind that base kind of covered does make me a little a little nervous I know a lot of people in the chat right now say and Paul Reed because he did get waved which I think makes a lot of sense if you want to go that route yeah Paul Reed’s not really a rim protector but like as a like good useful third big to have like I wouldn’t mind it for sure he’s a good player yeah I I I thought there were really gonna go after Xavier Tillman I thought like that was just a all the Boston guys were like yeah this is great I’m coming back yeah honestly man would love to have him kind of like under the radar guy but maybe they they go the trade route maybe you call Atlanta see what they want for a capella or know they do still have a like very suspiciously sized capella amount of cap space left maybe Walker kler I don’t know but danyan probably hoard you for picks I don’t know yeah that that was so weird to me that like the because that was an actual report from I think it was Jake fiser at Yahoo that like there was some coach uh struggles which is like the reason why they would want to even like give up on Walker Kessler and it’s like man it’s like I know it’s probably because they just want to play five out the entire time and Walker kler like very clearly like not a five out type of player but like he was he was really effective and if you you can’t find a way to make that work like that that seems like a kind of a failure on your part in my mind yeah I I I remember reading the same report in a whole article about it that their head coach didn’t like playing him because he couldn’t stretch the floor which I was like okay like Utah like for what it’s worth has had really good drafts like Taylor Hendricks a couple years ago Walker Kessler keante George who I absolutely wanted the Pistons the draft even though they had a lot of guards like really like his game but um I I would at least call like that that’s a guy that I think you could pair with durren because I don’t know how you feel about Stu playing that backup center SP I think that’s probably man so like back on the Detroit Bad Boys podcast days me and Ben used to talk so much about like how our evaluations of Stew just like fluctuated wildly because he was never like exactly what we needed in the center and his limitations on offense before he could like really start stretching the floor were always really apparent but the team always played so much worse when he wasn’t on the floor so it’s just like I don’t know like this guy just works and if we got somebody better it would work better but like he’s what we got so I guess we got him um see I think Stu as a backup center is like probably good for him I liked the experiment of him at the four philosophically um but it became pretty clear as the year went on that like he would do like one like really nice drive uh like every like three games and that’s not sustainable from an offensive perspective right you need a little bit more ball handling you need like a little bit more um Stu can shoot teams didn’t guard him like he would shoot and so you need someone teams guard like a shooter out there at the four um and so his uh that just kind of again like added to the spacing problems but I think Stu is a very good player again like the Pistons play well when Stew’s on the floor he’s just very funky for for lack of a better word yeah I was talking with uh Zar about this zic um and he’s like they just focus on him shooting threes and that’s the only thing he does when he could kind of you know Bing down Lo the post a little bit I was was like yeah I don’t know if you could play him fulltime as a backup center and get away with it like every game like every night like to your point I think they they need to get like a rim protection Center and I I kind of think that the trade market is probably the only any way they do it and I I so I looked at teams today I just like I just came up with like capella maybe uh Wendell Carter from the magic I don’t know what they’re doing there but yeah I’ve I’ve heard W Carter is gonna be a pelican like I’ve seen I’ve seen a bunch of reports about like the Pelicans having very heavy interest in him and the magic like brought back three of their centers and so it’s like okay yeah maybe maybe they don’t really want Wendell Carter Jr either um so yeah yeah well look I was a really big uh Clare fan like during the pre-draft evaluation I was just like maybe you go get him and he had a monster game today yeah saw yeah I like wow um but yeah we gonna have to wait and see man like free agency I I thought was kind of underwhelming but as it as the week progressed it kind of picked up on the Ros and stuff I was just like oh wow where that come from like got people reporting out that like some some radio station in michig said oh yeah the Pistons are interested in Lonzo ball and Zack LaVine they’re trying to get them both I’m like what did you hear that from yeah it’s like can Lonzo play like that’s a legitimate question like I haven’t seen Lonzo like run on an NBA court in two years so like if if you want to trade for that guy like you might want to figure that out first right the Bulls are such a weird team like their roster makes no sense I will say like after the Tim Hardway Jr and Beasley like acquisitions like you would see why LaVine as just like a way way way better version of that type of player yeah would fit on this team but again like I like I spoke before that’s like that’s a big money long-term commitment when you don’t know exactly what you have on this team and so like if you trade for him like like he brings stability in some areas but like you also like you can’t adjust off of that right like you’re I’m pretty sure like if you trade for Zack LaVine like he’s going to be here for like at least another two years and so yeah I don’t know how if you how you feel about that probably like makes you feel better or worse about like actually acquiring Zack line but I will say like if you gave me like like if it’s Tim Hardway Jr at 16 million or Zack LaVine at 40 million like I know which guy i’ would rather have and it’s Zack LaVine so yeah I mean then like Cade’s extension and you would have like 45 million a cade and then like 40 6 48 million at Zach and it’s just like okay so eight seed let’s go yeah playoff push this G reminded me of a little bit but I I like Zach as a player it’s just the contract makes him just like really undesirable for me anyways yeah I agree I agree 100 per. uh I I did have a question because I I did see your your Tweet about Malik Beasley and kind of like defense so kind of given like where the Pistons uh use their money in free agency do you think fans should be concerned with the defense this upcoming season absolutely absolutely uh just like looking at the Personnel again like you’ve uh Simone is a like good Team Defender but like what game was I think that was against the Clippers they like had him guarding Kawai and I was like oh no this is this is still not it um Tobias Harris similarly like big frame big body like again like not an elite level Defender we’ve we just got done talking about the need for them to add Rim protection um and then again like if if if you any of Ivy or Beasley or Tim hard Jr starting like that’s going to be a weakness uh defensively and so like yeah I I absolutely think the teams should be the Pistons fans should be concerned with how the defense like plays out this season but like I was talking to my friends about this uh not even on social media this is like group chat guys and what they reminded me is like the Pistons are again are like trying to find regular season success and offense wins in the regular season right without the uh defense wins in the playoffs again because like with a more focused scouting department and you know you play the same opponent multiple times you get more familiar with like what people are trying to do offensively so what you can accomplished defensively like matters more but like during the NBA season you’re playing three games a week you’re you’re flying crosss fry like uh guys get hot there’s not as much like you instill defensive principles but there’s not really time to like drill down and focus on like what teams are like specifically trying to execute uh you it’s like it’s really noticeable when you see someone like give that effort uh on a defensive level or like when you uh when you see like a coaching staff like uh make a defensive like strategy adjustment like during a regular season game um and so like yeah if the Pistons want to win more like just just being good on offense as like a or being trying to be like pretty good on offense is a good way to get them to win more games right which is I think which is the stated and like unstated goal of the season right like maybe it’s like maybe they make the play in they probably don’t make the play in it’s like but we are not winning like less than 20 games right like that that seems to be the goal of this offseason so like kind of before the Pacers got Pascal where they would just like score 130 but give up 140 like they’re like we’re we’re cool if you if uh you guys can’t keep up with us offensively but we’re just going to score we’re not even going to play defense you kind of think like that’s the philosophy they’re they’re trying to go with yeah I don’t think the I don’t think they’ll play stylistically like the Pacers I don’t think they’ll play that fast but I think of it more like the Hawks right okay it’s like we have like we have this really great pick and roll level creat um it’s like we are going to try to outscore you on a night toight basis and um we’re we’re going to let our guy like beat your guy pretty much doing what he likes to do and building a team around him obviously the Hawks uh didn’t really have a lot of success doing that this year but they have had success doing it in the past right so we’ll see yeah I mean we’ll see if they keep Trey young it’s kind of a just a weird situation with TR they traded Deon I think they’re going to keep try that’s just such a weird situation like drafting ret and then I don’t know man I thought they were gonna trade that pick honestly I I don’t like I think it would have been it would have been really nice for Atlanta to be like yeah we’ll trade you the number one pick San Antonio for like not even four and eight but like our picks like back like or like hey we’ll trade you de Jon Murray to get our picks back because you need a point guard but um yeah it really just seems like Alena is in the spot where now where it’s like all right we got dejonte Murray out of here we we’ve got some more wings um we’re g to try and find some of the magic we had a couple seasons ago like just putting the ball in tre’s hands and letting him cook and then that way the pick we give to the Spurs won’t be the first overall pick right it’ll be like somewhere in the teens it’s like I can see how they think that might work the Eastern Conference in particular is like not very strong um if you’re not the Hornets or the Pistons or the Wizards and so I can easily see a scenario in which the Hawks are like yeah we can be the seven seed like why not and like it could totally work yeah I mean that that trade for Deon Murray when I saw like what they got back I was like that was really underwhelming I thought he would have went for way more it seems like uh so like Dyson Daniels can actually play yeah he’s a good player is like a is a little bit of like the OJ and anobi thing where it’s like I think they wanted again if you’re if you’re trying to win games I think Atlanta wanted guys who could play a little bit more than they wanted like five first round picks or whatever right yeah I mean unless you got a Defender to high trade with a high Trey young with because know but again like they’re it’s like we score 145 you score 140 and we win right like that’s how it’s gon go honestly I know we were talking about wins and I I think this is a perfect segment to uh transition into so I was looking at the Las Vegas wi totals and they have the Pistons set at 28 and a half wins are you taking the under or the over I would probably go under even even if I believe that this team uh is like going to be better than last year from a roster perspective from a coaching perspective 29 wins is asking them to double their win total from last year and I don’t I don’t think that’s realistic I think like a you can easily see like a a 10 game jump which but would still like put them under the number right yeah I think what I’m G to do because I’ve been betting the over for the past four years I’m gonna take the under and I’ll let fate make me lose money and then they hit that over because I that’s just that’s the type of energy on feel it right now I’m going to take the under because I need them to win 28 games because doubling your win total I think would get the fan base out of the dumps not so depressing like you saw someone on Twitter saying like yeah no one wanted to buy his hairs don’t want him to Le be like the Pistons had the payout I was like oh my God like go outside it’s nice out like what’s your problem yeah yeah I think um I think emotionally hedging the under is like definitely the way to go right it’s like o they won 30 games like I’m happy they won 30 games like screw that 50 bucks I lost right versus like uh I don’t know I’ve been I’ve been doing with this with this with the Tigers I’ve just been like emotionally hedging the Tigers offense for like the last like two weeks because they would score like no runs and be a miserable experience it’s like all right like if I have to watch this like I’m it might as well be profitable for me and like they slowly like kind of work themselves out of it but uh that’s the baseball podcast that I’m not equipped to like actually do but yeah emotionally hedging with the Pistons under I think is definitely the move I would do that yeah I think I’m gonna do that I should do that I should I should pull up the MGM app now and just do that yeah I mean I I I had to search this was like uh I think Vegas Vegas odds.com because like the only thing you bet on is like Championship odds right now which I was just like okay like 28 and a half I I’ll I’m going to take the uh the over on that and just or the under I should say because I I kind of want to get that negative Juju out of the air and I want the Pistons to be around that because if they double their win total man like I I think the fans would just be extremely happy with the direction they’re going in I mean if the Pistons win 25 games but look like a but like have a cohesive plan on offense and defense and you see like Cade’s numbers improve you see um the piece that they brought in this year like Play and play well and like play um according to what like people expected them to if you see like a more clearly defined role for jadeen Ivy whether that’s starting whether that’s Off the Bench um like if you see concrete improvements in things but still only win like 25 games I think people will be happy right it’s just the a lot of last season was just like what are they doing what are they doing what are they doing it’s like oh the game’s over and they lost and so it’s just like yeah yeah that’s not fun losing and looking like you have no plan is definitely not the move I was tex texting with uh one of my buddies in my group chat and he’s like you know why they won 14 games last year I was like no why he’s like they brought back the teal I tried telling you that Jersey is cursed cursed yeah you went from 17 to 14 you thought I was kidding that Jersey is so cursed like I told you that that that teal curse is real I was like you know what I think you’re right man like they look cool but maybe we should bring them back for a while yeah my my hope is that like we don’t have another black alternate right like I like black alternates like philosophically um the like the Ravens and the Lions black alternates are great the Eagles that also have a black alternate that’s great but like the Pistons between the I forget what the names for the stupid jerseys are but like the the black with the like red and blue lacing stripes and then the Bad Boys jerseys and then they had the the from the Andre Blake era they had the black jerseys with like the Chrome racing down the middle that were like also supposed to be a bad boys tribute it’s just like I’m I’m burnt out on black jerseys can we just get like some nice red white and blue jerseys that like don’t make me want to throw up please iest the Grays stupid Grays I hate the Grays so much the the Chrome kcps were puke they were so bad no the the Grays but the the the Grays with like the blue lettering with like the red tracing oh yeah yeah yeah thought you’re talking about like the the Chrome ones I absolutely hated the Chrome ones they were so bad I kind of like the Chrome ones um but like that was the Chrome ones were a lot cooler when they wore them less right yeah yeah yeah man kind of wish they would bring back the red ones it was like uh before they brought back the teal was like a red and then it kind of had a little bit of teal like the like little lightning bolts like those were actually pretty cool the the Cade rookie year Reds like I like those I like those those were pretty nice yeah we’ll see what uh bing Shan is cooking up this year but hey you never know might have some restrictions I really lik the St Sicilia jerseys the verer jerseys loved them loved them bring those back like I I know for like basket or from like business e perspective like licensing stuff they like can’t run those uniforms back but like I really liked those those were great I think they should change the rule like they should go by like Jersey sale like if they sell out of them like let them like still wear them on the court it’s basically what they did with like the Miami Vice uniforms it’s like these are hot like we’re gonna keep making them oh what did I see this week Hornets fans were losing their [ __ ] it was like a lamelo ball email for his new Pumas and it says lamelo to Miami and all Hornets fans thought he was getting traded to Miami but they were like Miami Vice themed like lamelo ball shoeses and like Hornets fans Hornets Twi like what the hell is he getting traded like what is this Puma that’s awesome for some reason I have a lot of hornets Twitter followers probably could have talk a lot of [ __ ] about the Hornets but I like I like what they’re doing I like what they’re doing uh I did see that um I I tweeted out that clip of like Charles Lee like running a practice it’s like oh man like maybe he would have been a good head coach Choice like [ __ ] we kind maybe we blew that one honestly man like I it’ll be interesting to see I’d keep an eye on Charlotte to see how they do I know like coaching wise they’ve kind of had a like a you know revolving door with like Steve Clifford coming back because Kenny Akin said no thanks and then um bgo going back to New Orleans but it’ll be interesting to see I think Charles Lee is gonna be a good coach in this league yeah yeah I hope so too so speaking of coaches I don’t I don’t know if you saw this Dwayne Casey I wanted to get your your kind of your opinion on this what are your thoughts about him turning down his assistant jobs so he was a blls assistant job under Donovan and then the Lakers job under JJ reick um I think it was who had uh I think that was a Hoops hype report where uh like it was a Hoops hype report it’s like the Lakers are looking for obviously like experienced guys who have had coach experience to back up JJ who doesn’t have head coach experience um and it was like it’s like Alvin Gentry and Dwayne Casey like both love being in the front office and like not having to coach every day anymore it’s like yeah like I get it both those guys are very experienced been in the league a long time like you you obviously like want them in the building contributing um like decision- making but like they’re old man like I understand like like coaching day-to-day is like a grind like I understand like not wanting to do that and just wanting to wanting to contribute at a level you’re comfortable with and a level that you’ve earned doing like a 30-year career in the NBA right like yeah so I’m not surprised uh and uh I think James has like spoken about this like Dwayne really likes the area right um he’s grown to really like Detroit again like he didn’t have to take a front office job like when they fired him or when they uh I guess technically they like elevated him to the front office like they didn’t have to do that he it seems like his opinion is still valued and so yeah I understand why he why he would stay around um but and like Lakers got Lakers got two guys who I’m like oh I don’t know how that’s gonna go and Scott Brooks and Nate McMillan like Nate McMillan’s been run out of like town by his players like three different times so it’s like hey man like we’re gonna see it’s funny because his son Jamal is is the coach of of the Cru yeah that’s right about that and I kept seeing Nate at Cruise games on the sideline I was like is he coaching the cruise right now like what’s going on like uh but he I think Jamal had uh his firstborn child I think that’s why Nate was in town so much but Jamal did up I know it’s like completely off topic he did a hell of a job coaching that uh that Cru team take it over for DJ Baker but yeah I’m I’m moving to Detroit in the not in future I’m pretty excited to like come to some Cruise games right like that’s that seems like a really cool thing to do like on a random Wednesday right just like show up watch the basketball and like be in it because G League Arenas are pretty pretty small yeah I think on Thursdays they had like two it was like a$2 like $ two beers $2 hot dogs on Thursdays hell yeah and I was just like I I went to one of them I was like bro like that was the best damn hot dog I’ve ever had at Wayne State like let’s go I’m like they’re like uh it’s it’s just a fun experience honestly like I like going to Cruz games and pistons games but it’s cool you’re moving back to the city man I think you’ll enjoy it it’s a lot of fun yeah I’m excited I’m looking forward to it but yeah but like I’m also like I wasn’t shocked that Dwayne Casey like turned down assistant jobs like like for who for what like why I mean the one time I I met him when he was still the coach and when I tell you this man almost broke my hand shaking it he almost broke it last like his grip on his handshake like I know he he’s up there in age man but I swear he could probably like kick some people’s ass in the chat like I’m not even like exaggerating he almost broke my damn hand I was damn yeah man Casey Casey’s a basketball lifer man yeah he he really is I see him walking in Birmingham when I’m in when I uh used to work at UH Woodward Sports I would see him like walking in Birmingham like from time to time like I run into him and Ronnie McGruder like all the time just like like Rodney was like so like Rodney just like shoe shopping the entire time he was in Detro he had like his hoodie up and it’s like 90 degrees with sweatpants I was like oh that man’s got to be baked like there’s no way Rodney was a cool guy though he he always took the time to like just like take a picture talk and he’s like oh yeah man we’re gonna make the playoffs this year I’m like yeah he’s like yeah I’m like okay okay let’s go uh so I I have one more segment and it’s it’s another coaching question I thought this would be a fun question it’s about JB bicker staff so I want to know which player do you think will benefit the most under JB this is a really really good question H I haven’t thought I haven’t thought about it like this but this yeah this is a really really good question so we what we know about JB is that I think he’s a guy who’s always done a good job of getting his teams to play um like a high level of like b a baseline like good NBA basketball um I know he kind of got I I personally feel like he kind of got a little unfairly maligned in Cleveland part of that was the um the it seemed like situation like Donathan Mitchell like was kind of just sick of listening to him he’s like that happens right but that doesn’t make him a bad coach um he kept that team afloat like when Garland got hurt when Mitchell got hurt when Allen got hurt when Moby got hurt um they still managed to play like a competent brand of basketball like every night and I think he should be like really commended for that um he also like after the beine thing uh which was like f which is like six years ago at this point a wild um he helped build that team into a like almost a 50- win team and a team that people were slightly like disappointed they didn’t make it farther in the playoffs and so he built it to a team that had expectations which is a good place that for I think the the Piston to eventually be in like three to four years um and so I think I think he’s a good coach I know it was like a little bit of a surprise to to everyone like when he was announced um and I know like I had friends like texting me and being like wait I thought we were getting bgo bgo like what happened like why what um or like why isn’t Sean Sweeney like a a thing but uh they openly stated about uh their preference to get a new head coach that had prior head coach experience I totally understand that and I think that like JB can still operate as a good like developmental head coach while also like helping them be better and like win more games and do some tactical stuff so but to answer your question I I think the answer might be Jaylen durran um they’re bringing back cydney low who I believe is the big man coach uh and he was previously the big man coach in Detroit he’s done a really great job of helping Jared Allen and Evan Moy um learn how to Coexist on the court but also like they’ve done a good job I think like slowly expanding Evan Mo’s like offensive responsibilities um in a way that’s been good for him and my hope is that like I know we talked about Jaylen dur like not being a rim protector but my hope is that like if he’s coached better or they can they can help Foster his development in that area like that would solve a lot of problems for them and you know between the work he’s done with um like jiren Jackson Jr and um and Moy and uh Jared Allen you would think that like bicker staff can impart some defensive lessons like on on the JD that would be beneficial for him and the team so I’m I’m gonna say Jaylen Duren but I this is a really good question this is something I hadn’t like thought about all that much I I probably thought about this all day and I was like maybe it’s AAR because Isaac okuro kind of had like a like a huge kind of like defensively I was like no maybe not AAR maybe Ivy because you know Darius Carlin developed quite a bit but I don’t I don’t know if that’s just because Darius Carlin’s a good player and he puts the time in as I’m not that tuned in and not locked in with Cavs games because they’re centr of the division rival and I don’t like the Cavs but I I was thinking Ivy but the more I thought about it I honestly think the the one player that might benefit the most is Stu H because I think Stu is so versatile as a Defender that I think they’re going to use him in a bunch of different roles like maybe they decide you know we’re we’re playing a bigger team in the front Court well we’re gonna play you know you know D and Stu tonight versus like a Tobias and Stu I think STS uh this upcoming season I think he’ll take another leap I’m not going to say he’s going to be like an All-Star like you know some people um think he’s going to be I’m not one of those people but I think he’s gonna take another leap and I I think this season you’re I think his passing is going to be much improved because I don’t really think we got to see a lot of his passing but he started to see it towards the end of the season with a little bit of the dhos that he was doing um for me I think it’s going to be stew but to your point I I think what you said it wouldn’t surprise me at all either yeah now that would that like that would be cool too yeah I do I do wonder about like what Stu’s role is gonna be for this team like again I think he’s I think he’s gonna be the backup center but I would be really curious to see like how he’ll be used uh offensively because like as the like as a like kind of stretch big but again like teams weren’t guarding him um like I think that there’s an opportunity to pair him with like assar or Iran to have lineups where uh assar or Ron is like the only non-shooter in a bench lineup in a way that I think would be good for them um and Ste again like what you said about like we’re playing somebody bigger we want to go like two to uh we G play Stu and dur at the same time like I definitely think that’s a look that um they’ll leverage sometimes so like yeah that I think Stu’s a totally fine answer as well yeah I was like I was trying to think of like fun questions I was just like who would benefit on under JB because I know we haven’t even had this press conference we’ll probably get it sometime next week maybe um maybe they won’t hit traffic too and it’ll be on time I’m hoping that uh yeah doesn’t have to suffer through any hugs and traffic and’ll be he’ll be golden but uh yeah man I I’m I’m excited for JB I think to your point like what you said he he kind of established a culture in Cleveland and like kind of got a raw deal because Cleveland like I don’t want to say they choked in the playoffs but they kind of underperformed kind of given like the talent that they did have but I was listening to an old podcast uh for anyone watching and listening definitely check it out Kevin Love was on JJ’s podcast JJ reck’s podcast old man the three and he talks really highly about JB like really highly it’s just like kind of like a connector a leader like really good communicator and I was just like that’s something they didn’t really have last season in my opinion anyway it’s just from like watching the games because man would like draw up a play and you got players like waving to the fans like while you’re out to the game so like not even paying attention to like the plays that he’s drawing up it’s just oh wow they’re tuned out yeah yeah I’m I’m I’m hopeful that like this team is definitely going to be better coached than they were last season I was seeing some stuff on Twitter about too uh because of the roster that Cleveland’s had like uh two seasons ago uh they are like they a couple like more film heavy guys said they liked the way that JB uh around having a team with like multiple not Shooters offensively um and so that’s a that would be nice if you want to play like a sar and another non-shooter you want play SAR and Duran together or something like that like it’d be nice to still find ways to score the basketball with a clogged paint and in less spacing some off ball movement stuff I do like fonio will be like really good for uh fonio and thj who I think will be good for like more off ball movement stuff um to help like get the defense in rotation and make decisions easier on the guards um so yeah I I think I I I remain really hopeful that JB’s gonna be a better Coach uh for the team this year someone asked a question and we’ll do one more question we could wrap it up um did you see the video of Lonzo ball talking about Fred Vincent no so he said that I think it was a podcast with like himim and Trey young he’s like it’s three weeks until the season starts and he comes to me he said yeah we’re going to change your jump shot before the season starts like completely reworked it so someone in the chat was asking do you think he would do the same thing with the SAR because when you look at AAR shot not saying it’s bad but like the mechanics of It kind of just give me anxiety because I was like uh maybe you can kind of rework it do you think maybe Fred Vincent sits down with him and maybe they try to rework a shot that’s a little bit more fluid I I definitely hope so like that’s a big part of why I was excited about Fred vinon being um the thing with AAR was so funny right lots of people notice this I’m not the only person who said this but when he took like those like sub 10 foot mid-range jumpers his form looked a lot more natural and clean and he looked comfortable doing it when he took free throws or when he took threes or like catch and shoot three you could see mentally him like working through the process of taking the shot in a way that um probably not great if you’re trying to like do stuff at like live action so I definitely think there’s an opportunity there for that shot to be reworked in a way that uh is both like fluid and comfortable for SAR but like also like is makes him a somewhat accurate uh shooter I would be I don’t think you’ll ever get to assar being like Malik Beasley like I don’t think that’s in the cards but like the I would really hope to fix assar free throw shooting he was a really it’s a below average free throw shooter and he is the type of player the the his style of play he could get fouled a lot um and so it’d be it’d be really beneficial to fix his free throw form and or fix his free throw stroke before uh before anything else I like yeah well they’ll they’ll figure that out though I do think that’s a bit a large part of the reason why they brought Fred Vincent in yeah I mean in a group chat I was talko with some people and they were like well like what’s the difference between Ron and assar like Ron Allen shots ter in the G League I was like well Ron’s form there’s less to work with there and it’s there’s more fluidity fluidity in it well couldn’t not say that word holy crap uh there’s more to work with there to where I think if you work with him over like the next year or so who’s to say he’s not like 30 to 32 from three but thear kind of like to your point like when he’s like those like turnaround like mid-range jumpers they look really pure and they don’t look forc um and when he’s shooting a three it’s like kind of sideways or his feet aren’t straight or shoulders like twisted and this his free throws bother the crap out of me because he doesn’t bounce the ball before he shoots it I know it’s probably the like the stupidest thing to complain about but watching like he doesn’t dribble the ball it gives me anxiety I was like dude dribble the ball what are you doing yeah so I want to give uh Matt we who used to write for us at Detroit Bad Boys and now is just like a good uh Pistons follow um he tweeted something out that like really resonated with me he says uh he he found it really interesting that people assumed that like Ron Holland was a terrible shooter because he shot a low percentage from free on a very low number of attempts um but like people thought people were skeptical of Cody Williams because he shot really well from three again on a low number of attempts and so it’s like one of those things where it’s like okay Ron makes two more threes over the course of a season and like all of a sudden he’s a 30% three-point shooter instead of a 27% three-point shooter and people are a lot more like uh interested in it especially because like like you mentioned like Ron Holland’s shot doesn’t look broken right it looks like he can shoot it just looks like he like needs some work and I will say like the uh that was also the case for buelles who shot worse than Holland from three in the g- league but is like the the adjustment from the high school line to the NBA line which the g- league uses is a really big difference for 18 19 year olds and so you would think that like you know couple offseasons of strength training and just being able to get more comfortable uh with with like the distance of the shot and like those guys would develop any better shooters that was one thing I remember like Bruce Brown saying is that like after his rookie year he was like yo I never realized how far the NBA three-point line was until you’re just like out there like trying to Chuck it from 23 feet I saw the W and you mentioned Bruce Brown it made me think of a NBA University chart I saw like Bruce is like Elite from the right corner but like completely terrible from the left corner I was like wow how does that happen like that’s crazy yeah um but yeah to your point like I I think it’s it’s a fair point with like Collins like I I think when you watch his jump shot it there’s more to work with there and it’s a little bit more fluid with the SARS I think you know from a good five to 10 feet it’s natural anything you know past that it seems like he’s really has to like put his chest or his shoulder into it to even like hit the rim but towards the end of the year I think he was shooting like close to 28% from three before he had to sit out with blood clot so you know he was developing he did seem to shoot a little bit better because he had like um had the facial fracture right he got elbow in the face um and he sh it seemed like after he like got the mask off from that he got more comfortable with like taking some of those shots I’ve been watching like a bunch of Kade highlights because that’s what I do during the offseason and uh you can see like um you can see the his assists to assar are like you see assar like just like looking slightly more comfortable than he did at the beginning of the season um the the Knicks game that they infamously lost because assar got tackled and they didn’t call the foul you could see like uh like Kate you remember Kate had really great game that night um and assar hit like a late three and you could they like hear the disbelief in Mike Breen’s voice he’s like assar Thompson like from the corner like what like the the bangy had was just like thank like he was this he didn’t want to say it it’s like wow oh man like honestly I I think it’s very in intriguing to see if he does rework his jump shot I think a lot of players will benefit from Fred vincon honestly I mean they haven’t really had a the shooting coach that’s like what David hoopla under van gundi staff so we’ll see um okay I thought it lost you for a second but my computer my computer’s just like yeah let’s do a virus protection uh thing right now I’m like no go away do would you like to use AI to help you do whatever you’re about to be doing oh man I’m AI scares the crap out of me literally like now you got like AI on Facebook post and saying this is what people are saying I’m like I don’t care what people are saying we should all know less about each other literally I don’t I don’t care that you went out drinking with the boys and you don’t know your cell phone is no I don’t I don’t I don’t really care that’s that’s cool do you have time for uh like maybe one or two Q&A questions because there are some people I think we have like almost 1,700 people in here right now just watching um let’s see if there are any Q&A questions I did see a question about let’s see Holland’s only oh Holland’s 19 actually turned 19 today so happy birthday to him I can’t find the question but it was about Mitchell Robinson do you think that would be kind of like a a realistic uh Target for them to trade for you think New York is kind of like oh now we need a center like we don’t want another Center like leaving us yeah I think after losing hartenstein they probably want to hold on to Mitchell Robinson pretty tightly um a name so saying Mitchell Robinson that reminded me that like Robert Williams as uh Portland has eaten inter drafted kingan um Robert Williams is a guy who if healthy was like obviously a very was an elite level rim protector um but like has always had problems staying healthy and so I think uh but he also makes like less than 20 million so you can just trade him into cap space um and so and but land obviously they’re also rebuilding they would want some picks and some stuff so like that’s probably the sticking point but that would be a good addition if the Pistons could swing it Portland’s roster is weird because you got like Jeremy Grant DeAndre Aon but then you drafted kingan it’s just like okay so are we gonna like if we’re winning like 30 40 games we push for the plan we’re not mad but like if we lose we get another draft pick we’re not mad either so it’s kind of it’s kind of like confusing with like the whole port roster I think Jeremy is like the Lakers like Plan F so we’ll see if like Jeremy like is actually like on the trbl lasers to to start the season but yeah between like because they’re definitely like doing a youth movement but also like drafting clinging is not a huge like vote of confidence in DeAndre Aton so it’s also like okay well where are you gonna trade DeAndre Aton then because I don’t know how that’s going but yeah so I I I remain like interested with what’s going on in Portland I don’t think they’ll be terrible yeah I don’t know I know a lot of fans were hoping Chanty got fired so he could be the business coach like it’s just like such a Pistons like fandom thing which I was like yo you guys you guys need to stop doing this I I like chony as a player too but chill yeah I don’t know if like is chony a good head coach like I know the the roster has not been set up for him to have success from like a wins and losses perspective in Portland but they’ve never struck me as like particularly well coached under chony either so like I I don’t know I don’t know if CH is a good head coach or not so that’s one of those things they fired his brother but kept him which if I was Shanty and they fired my brother it kind of feels some kind like type of way like yo like what am I getting fired or like what’s going I think it’s definitely on the table that he’s like gone within the next couple of Seasons yeah for sure okay now people I swear people just like have this playing and they’re not listening and then you get like all these questions just bombarded soon as soon as we said hey like we’re doing questions um okay some of these I cannot answer and you guys know that these are just like wildly inappropriate I’m not even gonna answer it like good Lord not gonna talk I’m happy I can’t see the chat yeah I mean someone’s just like because we have a a Pistons group chat on bunches and someone found JB step’s phone number and they texted him oh yeah that’s not good yeah and like talk about someone’s like leak JB’s number like no I’m not leaking his number like no he probably has a new phone number by now because you guys have been texting him like all week oh man I swear I don’t know how fans find this like I I don’t I don’t understand it yeah the who had the was that James who had the article about like the autograph Seekers who like are devising like uh invasion of Normandy level strategies to like bump into players in order to get their autographs and it’s was just like like this is wild man like you like what do you people doing but yeah yeah uh we’ll do just this one question and wrap it up uh you guys think the organization on this free agency made Kate happy this time I think so I think so I think Kate was frustrated with um the lack of shooting around him uh did I think I think Beasley and uh Tim Hardway Jr got like the Ashton like tweet which is like The Unofficial Cade seal of approval um and so yeah I think I think that surrounding Kade with Shooters will make him happy and the Pistons did a good job adding shooting to the roster this offseason so yeah Ashton had a funny tweet he’s like Lion went ow and 16 and other Super Bowl contenders why not us and I was like Ashton love the positivity man sometimes he will be in here from time to time which always throws me off like his his family is so tapped into Detroit that I absolutely love it like um my old podcast host Lance karosi he had said something and like Ashton’s cousins like oh that’s how it is you guys are suckers I was like oh damn what what what it’s like damn I didn’t say it I I do I do really like that like Cade seems to understand the responsibility of like being the number one overall pick and like how he’s supposed to like lead A team out of the Wilderness and you could just see like obviously everybody’s got the memes and stuff but like I think last year was like probably pretty hard on him right and so obviously uh now that a lot of the people who were responsible for last year are gone like I I do think that there’s a you you come into things with a sense of optimism right things are it’s like I don’t you can hope things are going to be better but they’re damn sure going to be different right yeah I mean at least there’s more floor spacers I mean at least you’re not like saying like hey Kade uh Killian Hayes is gonna play shooting guard Versus Jade Ivy and we think it’s going to work this time we we we think this is this is the year like you know he had this stretch last he had a one month stretch where he shot like average from three so we think um it’s going to work this time and he’s like all right but to your point I never saw like Cade criming crying memes so much I mean I saw the the memes last year where people were making him fat like this time of year where he he went he went to Turks or whatever or some Caribbean island and they made him like all fat to the point where like he had to like get on social media say yo y’all crazy y crazy what the hell yeah um yeah Stephen silos has to be gone yeah I’m not like someone asked like what about Stephen silos yeah I’m pretty I am pretty sure he’s gone yeah there’d be very little reason for like bicker to keep him around someone said everyone blames him M but if you look at Stephen silos track record he’s been on the worst teams in NBA history he’s the real culprit so like rocket fans were like legit being like yo Stephen Silas is the worst head coach is like the worst coach I’ve ever seen in my entire life it’s just like I I didn’t know I don’t know I’ve never paid attention to any of his teams so I don’t understand like how he engenders like that level of uh like fan hatred it’s like but but but I also like I can’t argue with the results like yeah he’s been on a bunch of bad teams I don’t know like what is he doing what is he not doing like I don’t know when I watched the bench he was always smiling when we were down by 40 and like one of my friends is like why is that [ __ ] smiling we’re down 40 I was like I don’t know man he’s got a job like he’s happy I don’t know maybe that’s it right like maybe you need guy who is like a little bit more of a ass kicker like that’s what it is honestly I can’t answer half of these questions because you guys are just out of control I can’t even answer these in the group chat that we have because I’m pretty sure FCC would like uh flag some of these questions but um I do want to give you the opportunity to plug yourself anything you’re working on social media anything like that sure yeah no uh you can find me on Twitter at the handle that’s like right underneath my name right uh there there we go um uh that’s that’s the main way to reach out to me again like I am moving so I do hope to be like more accessible in person um like maybe do some like I don’t know if I’m gonna start up a new podcast or not probably not my life is very complicated right now um but like I do want people to be like like if I go to Pistons games or if I’m at Cruise games and stuff like and you see me like I want people to feel comfortable being like hey what’s up up like I you know I love your Twitter account I would think that was really cool so yeah just follow me on Twitter um and obviously like I don’t do too much work for Detroit Bad Boys anymore but I do still want to shout out the team at Detroit Bad Boys uh West avort and Blake Silverman had did a great job uh hosting the pend down um in my stad uh Sean Corp does a great time does a great job like rallying the troops and getting everything out for people in site and then um yeah just check out betro badboy.com for sure I mean I I feel like if you don’t know who Detroit Bad Boys are you live under a rock because some of the articles that they put out like the the breakdowns like I I read Sean it was a article that sea wrote about Tim Hardway I read it like three times because it was so damn good I was like man Sean’s the best he’s so he’s so good at just articulating stuff that I was like okay I feel a little bit more confident now and I know the Pistons used his question in like a video and I feel so bad because fistance fans got mad at this question he asked Tran I was like I thought it was a good question like I don’t I don’t know why they got mad like I know he’s personally been pumped to do more like inperson press stuff to get like that level of access and I think that’s been really cool yeah I think I met him one time at a like a back when I worked at Woodworth sports for like two years I met him at a draft party and like he he was like you could tell like he he I don’t know if he was like uncomfortable because it was wward sports or it was just like yeah like cool because like they were kind of like asking him to like retweet their stuff I like to retweet your [ __ ] like but I don’t know he seems like a really nice guy I I did try to get him on the podcast but I know he’s probably extremely busy but I appreciate you coming on because again like I said I read your tweets makes me feel um I don’t want to say I’m dumb but like you’re you’re very intell the way you you articulate stuff but yeah I get what you mean and you know thank me thank you for uh for having me like I was I was surprised not like not like oh I expected to be invited on but you were like yeah this is your first time I was like oh yeah this is my first time like yeah huh okay yeah I feel like I’ve done every Pistons podcast there is to do at this point and my DMs are open right like if you if you got a pod and you want me to come like yeah sure I’ll talk about I’ll talk about Pistons of anybody it’s it’s so crazy I know this is like completely random but like when I first started on YouTube there was like maybe one other Pistons YouTuber and that was like everything King like he was like probably like he’s like the OG of like just YouTube now everyone has like a a podcast like a visual podcast now on um on YouTube My Brain just like went completely like brain fart um that’s what happens when you get like two hours of sleep um but it it’s crazy man like see like Wes and Blake do it I mean Bry Omari have theirs I mean you have um there there’s just so many that I’m probably forgetting cou like how how can I forget cou doing it five days a week like I don’t I don’t know how he does a podcast I have no idea how he does it I I don’t understand it that guy deserves a raise a metal a key to the city like what the like who’s the best man um but we do have your Twitter down below I have it linked so people can straight follow you and I’ll put it on the uh the podcast side too and uh later on Instagram if if you have one if not it’s all good I’ll could just link it to Twitter but do appreciate you coming on and make of the time I I really do appreciate it no no again thanks for having me all right you guys we’ll see you uh next week take care peace
Pistons Talk Podcast Is powered by Gametime download the Gametime ticket app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase 👇
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gametime-last-minute-tickets/id630687854
Anthony will be joined by Lazarus Jackson dean of Pistons Twitter & Editor of Detroit Bad Boys to talk about the recent Detroit Pistons free agent moves.
Lazarus Jackson Twitter:
https://x.com/lazchance
#detroitpistons #detroitbasketball #nba
4 Comments
Paul Reed is available! 👀👀
How many wins do you two think the Pistons get this year?
The Pistons are about to be decent at the wrong time lol Not saying they shouldn't compete but there might be some franchise changing players in the upcoming draft and that might be the only way to change the franchise for a decade or more.
Brandon Clarke