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podcast would not be possible without them. Let's start talking hoops, though,
so we'll go into the NBA Finals first. Some of you may be listening
to this on a Friday, some of you may not be. This is
I think it's still evergreen because the Miami Heat just have some things they have
to deal with. And after Game one, the biggest topic really was the
Gore and Dragets injury. He has a torn plantar in his left foot and
he has not given up hope of returning apparently. But that's like an injury.
I know, you're in the finals, and so I guess just talk
yourself into playing if you can. But that's not an injury that I think
you can bank on him coming back from. He's thirty four, and that
stuff is painful. I even WinCE just talking about it. As Bobby Marks
of ESPN noted, Joe Johnson suffered a similar injury during Game two of the
twenty thirteen first round matchup with the Chicago Bulls, and while he did get
injections in his foot before each game, he was struggling and he just really
wasn't that effective. Shott ended up shooting two fourteen in a Game seven loss,
again all per ESPNS Bobby Marks. So when you lose Goren, drag
like that is huge, and I would declare this series over. I don't
want to say it's a sweep. The Heat are scrappy. They've gotten here
just because they have this obsessive focus and intensity and execution that only gets you
so far, though, and you're growing up against top end talent in Los
Angeles, and I promise I won't solely dilute this argument down to that,
but they have the two best players in the series, with Anthony Davis and
Lebron James. You're already kind of had a disadvantage there, and I think
you could come into this series like I did, where I considered picking Lakers
in five. I ultimately picked Lakers in six just because of how well the
Heat have played so far. But we're getting to a point where even when
the people you think on Los Angeles in terms of their supporting cast, don't
have the games that you want them to, someone else will. Even when
Roger Rondo isn't hitting his shots like, he's still making an impact as an
extra ball handler now, and we've seen him a little bit more engaged on
defense. The Alex Caruso minutes are just absolutely huge for the Lakers, and
that's not a fluke, like it never was a fluke, but like we're
well past the whole Alex Caruso as novelty thing. It's been known that he's
fairly good for a while. Even Dwight Howard doesn't have the best game,
but you know, he didn't score, but made some okay plays on the
defensive end. Then he comes out, the Lakers are going smaller, and
then that's when they destroy the heat. After Miami jump out to that thirteen
point lead in Game one, it's just without drag that all just becomes even
more overwhelming because the Lakers were well on their way to winning that game.
And again, enter really as heavy favors to begin with, but in Drag,
I don't Without him, I don't see how Miami's half court offense really
functions or gets to the level of solvency. And it's exacerbated by the fact
that bam Adebayo, as I record this is listed as doubtful four game to
do the next strain that he suffered, and just looking at Draggage's absence,
though specifically Miami's half court offense has absolutely plummeted inefficiency when he's been off the
floor during the postseason. And look, if you have Bam, I think
he really helps you. And in fact, he has the Heat's biggest among
rotation players half court offensive rating differential on the team. At the same time,
like he's just not that traditional prober someone who's going to face up and
put pressure on set defenses or you know, you're not gonna look at drags
to draw a ton of fouls or even necessarily get to the rim. But
he has the pull up jumper in his arsenal. He's slippery when he's driving
inside the arc, and he is there. You know, he's driving over
fourteen times per game during the playoff, which is the second most on the
Heat, shooting better than fifty percent on those looks. So having that in
between options, someone who's gonna be able to fire up off the drib a
little bit more, Bam just gives you more of that facilitation. And he
might need to be in more stand still positions in a lot of this than
than drags. And so not having him, like it feels like it's going
to be absolute, really crippling for Miami's offense, you still have Jimmy Butler.
Tyler hero has played well overall in the postseason, but how much can
you actually count on him to pick up this kind of slack when a lot
of this stuff. Look, he's had his games, and he's been better
at getting through traffic and like finishing through contact than I ever would have imagined
in this postseason. A lot of his success though, like what happens when
defenses aren't Keaton on both drag At Gen Butler, and they only have to
worry about one of those two. And the other thing is is like some
of Miami's lineups without drag Its just have not been good offensively. Their most
used one, which has been good offensively, but it's still nets in the
playoffs almost a minus seven points per one hundred possessions. The fact of the
matter after that is too, there's no there's no lineup without draggas that had
logged up to fifty possessions aside from one of them entering Game one. And
so now you're dealing with all these small samples when you have to tink of
your rotation. And look, it's good to get Kendrick Nunn in there,
I tend to default to him just being overrated at this point. It's not
even just a matter of if people are saying he came out of nowhere when
he really didn't. It's just I don't know that I trust someone who's so
much better with the ball in his hands and seems like he's a little bit
uncomfortable playing off the ball. That being said, someone who's a legitimate threat
pulling up off the dribble from three and he got some minutes, got the
chance to run some pick and rolls in Game one that could end up being
huge for the heat, just to getting him him acclimated, and if he
can do, you know, he's not going to replace druggish playmaking. I
don't think he ends up really replacing even the pressure that Draggers puts on defense
when the balls in his hands, but he might come close. And he's
obviously their best option because you know you're already playing Tyler hero a bunch.
Replacing Bam is arguably harder. Just Miami is not a team like they can
do okay if you need a limit looks at the rim, but like when
it comes to actually protecting the rim and the paint, like they've been crucified
their all season essentially, and definitely, you know, post January first,
post December first, however you want to look at that, and nin your
options are probably played Kelly Olinic a bunch of minutes because the Andre Goodalla's backup
center while lineup that definitely intrigues me and worked in the conference finals, isn't
gonna fly even when you're going up against the Lakers with an Anthony Davis at
center. And it might even be more untenable if the Lakers are going with
dual biggs, having Dwight and Davis on the floor at the same time,
and there's just all of these problems one on top of the other, and
looking defensively, just at the matchups in general, Miami switched a bunch in
the first game, and I don't know, I don't know how sustainable that
is because it didn't look sustainable in that game. And if you're really worried
about having Jimmy Butler go up against Lebron for too many possessions, like then
just use Andre Goodala on him and maybe try and find ways to get Jay
Crowder more reps against him, because there can't be situation where he's just going
up against Tyler Hero and he didn't even shoot her. The data against Tyler
Hero specifically, but Miami was basically as a team on the possessions in which
Hero at least partially defended Lebron James Los Angeles, excuse me, as a
team was averaging around two points per possession. And so like, just those
situations, whether it's Kendrick None, whether it's Tyler Hero, like, it
just can't happen. And so I don't necessarily I won't say I know what
the answer is, But can you get away with saying that one of these
guys between Davis and Lebron is going to eat and so rather than switching,
rather than playing man, rather than even trying to get back to his own
can you just throw more doubles, more traps at Lebron just because he's the
primary ball hand there enforced Anthony Davis to beat you, obviously not on open
looks, but to the point where he's done fantastic of hitting these unassisted shots
during the playoffs, Like, just continue to force him to make those shots,
even giving up the occasional catch and shoot three opportunity wide open or not.
That has to be fine too, because those were shots that he was
fairly shaky on during the regular season. He's shooting about forty percent on them
though in the playoffs, like you can live with that. I'm not even
sure if it works though, just because now you're talking about, well,
what do you do with Anthony Davis anyway, Like we're just gonna say,
oh, you can go for forty points. And he's even shown that when
he's going to run into traffic, he's done a pretty good job of passing
out of it. It feels like a no win proposition there, and it
gets easier if you have BAM, because I would just say, like,
look, BAM needs to see more time on Anthony Davis than Jay Cratter,
Like that would just be have BAM, just like stick with him and track
him everywhere. If your rim protection is not great to begin with, and
especially if they're the lineups where Davis is going to be at the five anyway,
and you don't have to worry about a Dwight Howard, just go that
route. I'm sure sp Welsh has something up his sleeve. I don't know
how accurate a referendum game two will be on their approach, just because if
they don't have Bam, he's someone you expect to return this series, whereas
Dragets just feels it feels unlikely. I'm not saying this like because I have
any information or because I'm a doctor. It just you know, porn plantars
nothing to really screw around with, and I know these are the NBA Finals.
I know to just go for it. Still it feels just I'd be
I'd be surprised if he comes back, and if he does come back,
I'd be surprised if he has a huge, net positive impact on Miami in
general. I don't want to be two down on the Heat, though,
if you can get to a point where, look, they did a good
job, like if the Lakers supporting cast, if you're gonna have contavious call
of Pope shoot three of ten from the floor, if you're gonna have Ray
John Rondo, I think he was two of seven or something, and it
was one of five from three like that. Those nights can happen from Los
Angeles supporting cast, and that's encouraging. The other encouraging thing would be they
were the Heat were a minus twelve points in the three point battle. That's
not going to happen every single night. Even if you don't want to write
the Lakers performance in Game one off as a fluke, Miami shot just a
disastrous percentage on wide open threes. They were four or fifteen in that in
that game, twenty six point seven percent compared to LA's eight point five percent,
which is actually right around where they should be. I think where the
biggest difference was is that when you've put any sort of pressure on Los Angeles
shooters, they really haven't performed all that well. They're averaging under one three
point make per game when defenders within two to four feet. They were three
or five on those looks in Game one, and so you were moving in
two of those, and that differential is sort of cut in half. Bamy
can kind of look to that is I don't know if you would call it
a controllable, but there's gonna be regression and progression to the mean there where
the heat are going to shoot better from three. They were a nightmare from
above the break in this game specifically, I had this jotted down. There
were four twenty four on above the break threes. That's sixteen point seven percent.
They were the second best or the absolute best above the break three point
shooting team during the regular season. They've been not as good in the playoffs,
which is or they've been the best above the break three point shooting team
in the playoffs, excuse me. And during the regular season they were second
in above the break three point percentage, So like that's going to normalize for
them, and I think that ends up being just just a monster deal.
So the other thing that I think you could probably look at is fourteen free
throws for them is not enough. I don't know how controllable necessarily that is.
And I need to do another makol Ba here because I'm a windows surfing.
The Heat were first in above the break three point percentage during the regular
season. They hit thirty eight point five percent of their above the break threes.
In the postseason they have ranked lower. They are safe with thirty five
point seven percent. Even though that's not great, that's with their perform their
performance in Game one caked in there. They've been much higher after that.
That's still a way higher percentage than sixteen point seven percent, So that's something
that's going to normalize for them. The other the actual question I would have
is you could say that there will be a progression to the mean here,
gorn Jockage isn't necessarily someone who they depend on to generate free throw looked,
But will they go up from the number of fourteen that they had in Game
one? Because you can't lose that battle as egregiously as you did during that
first game where you only have those fourteen free throws. You were they were
third in three throw tenth three in the postseason entering Wednesday night, and so
to drop off that substantially, you would imagine that it will it will go
back up again. And someone like a you know you could you point immediately
saying we'll dragics. She isn't going to have zero free throw attempt in most
games, but you're not going to have go on draggit. And so how
do you put more pressure on defenses in the interior that a lot of that's
going to fall to Kendrick Nunn, where if he's playing twenty minutes, like,
you can't have him just not attempting three throws at all, particularly when
Las out there and they're attempting twenty seven to year fourteen. And that's like,
it doesn't thirteen free throws doesn't necessarily feel like a huge difference for some
reason. But when you look at it, the Lakers looking at points scored
were a plus fourteen from the found line, and like, that's just absolutely
monstrous. So can you figure out a way to generate more free throw at
temps? Jimmy Butler is going to be a huge part of that. Five
free throw temps feels low for him. I think the issue would be,
you know, Bam, you kind of rely on for some of that as
well, and if he's not in Game two, you're not going to get
that from Mikelly Olenick. You're not going to get it from a Meyers Leonard.
And perhaps that's the appeal of like playing smaller, because you could have
Andre Godalo with the ball in his hands and it's just a smart player and
maybe he can do that for you, just put that little extra pressure on
the Lakers interior defense. I'm really just spitballing here, and so that's another
thing. Then, as I'm talking myself into it, that just really doesn't
feel like Miami's necessarily in control of You've lost your Bam and Bio is the
second highest free throw tempt rate among the Heat in the playoffs, so he's
gone, you can expect more from Jimmy Butler. I think that helps.
Kelly Olyncks is actually fourth in free throw tempt rate for this team during the
playoffs. And then you also have Derek Jones jing where if you can get
him going downhill, like you maybe run some picking rolls with him as a
screener. But then the Lakers aren't there. You know, they're not going
to fear his jumper in those situations, So those are just a little bit
more easier to defend. Can you just then plan on getting out in transition
more? Something that I might consider is like, can you just run wing
wing picking rolls to death with a Jimmy Butler Jay Crowder just effectively two shooters.
There's is that Tyler hero and Jay Crowder situation. And yes, I'm
calling Jay Crowder a shooter here, even though his splits from deep have just
been absolutely wild thirty five point seven percent for the playoffs, did shoot it
materially better after a very poor Conference Finals. In Game one against the Lakers,
he was four or seven from beyond the arc. Those are things that
they can maybe try again. I'm not given thought to this, but I'm
also sort of just spitballing in real time, because that's how hopeless this situation
feels right now. I don't want to count out the heat. There's that
level of stop underestimating Miami, you dumb ass, like that's absolutely there.
At the same time, no Dragic not having them at a Bio, just
knowing that the Lakers were probably better to begin not probably they were better to
begin with him. Look, you couldn't even argue that Lebron James just has
a more pronounced performance. In Game two, he threw up twenty five thirteen
and nine. He only took seventeen shots. It feels like he could take
a great deal more. It feels like he could get going downhill even more,
particularly if bam Ata Baio isn't going to be in this game. So
Miami's best hope, aside from that three point discrepancy normalizing, aside from getting
to the to the line more, is to probably hope that the supporting cast
for the Lakers continues to struggle offensively, because if the Lakers on most nights
get what they do out of Rondo again two of seven, Kuzma one of
seven, Contavious Coo Hope three of ten, you should technically be in a
better situation. But because Lebron James and the Davis were so good, because
you know you're getting great minutes from from Alex Caruso, even just getting serviceable
minutes from from Markief Morris, there's I don't know what the answer is,
Like, it's not just cross your fingers. If you can get the three
point stuff can normalize and get to the full one more, that's probably your
best bet. And just maybe you get really freaky with the rotation. Are
we going to see a bunch more of Solomon Hill? And how much does
that help? He was oz four from three in game one? How much
more bandwidth does Andre Goodala half twenty five plus minutes in game one? And
looks for the record, you can't read too much into single game plus minus,
but Tyler Hero was a minus thirty five in a game Miami lost by
eighteen. And look, the game just wasn't that closed even when you were
watching it, so that accounts for some of it. But he was a
minus thirty at halftime. Igadala was a minus twenty five there, and maybe
that's also something you look at, is Tyler Hero specifically is going to have
better game six of eighteen from the floor, two of eight from three the
Lakers can put you know, they have a lot of athleticism to throw at
him, but he's also shown that he can hit some difficult shots during the
playoffs, and so a few of these things, like it's again, I
want to stress it's not a matter of crossing your fingers that you can get
more free throws. But some of these things are going to normalize in the
Heat's favor. It's just that you have to look at the Lakers and wonder
is there gonna be enough regression to the mean or are they going to have
enough struggles for the Heat to really be in a position to win. And
if you miss Bam for more than this game too, because we're assuming the
Heat are going to be down to oh and if they're not, look kudos
to them. If you miss him for more than a game, then it's
just absolutely hilariously, hopelessly futile for them. That's just how it feels.
And so that's where I'm at with this. The Draga chapps since right now
and then whether he comes back, that just feels like a blow that even
the Heat are not going to be able to withstand. You've counted on restaurants.
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five dollars off your first order with door Dash. Two more topics that we
definitely need to jump into is Doc Rivers was hired by the Philadelphia seventy six
ers to be their next head coach. He signed a five year deal per
Woge. That was something that happened very quickly. He left the Clippers basically
seventy two hours but before the announcement. And I've said this multiple times on
the podcast, I'm reticent to comment too heavily on head coaching hires and just
critiquing them because they just know even the worst NBA head coach just can see
and read and think the game so much better than I can. This feels
like an okay fit, an interesting fit, one that could really work out
in Philly's favor. I'm still just sort of like on it because you look
at what happened with the Clippers. You have the athletics report that there was
strife in the locker room and he didn't really do much to unite it.
We've seen the Clippers blow three to one leads in the past. We know
that the dynamic during the Lob City era was fractious, particularly towards the end,
and that players weren't necessarily happy with how Doc Rivers handled it. And
so while he means so much to the game, and just with this social
justice stuff, the things he said after the Donald Sterling racism debacle with the
Clippers, like he's absolutely important and he's a great coach, as people pointed
out, you know, him coaching Ben Simmons after having Blake Griffin, a
crafty big and then Rondo sort of this non shooting guard at that time.
Is he able to unlock something in Ben Simmons? Is he able just able
to quote something more out of Ben Simmons. It seems like if he wanted
outside volume from Simmons at all. You would have gone with a Tylo or
Mike D'Antoni there, And I'm just knowing that there's issues. This was per
Keith Poppy of the Philadelphia Inquired or like stated this, and it's just sort
of this open secret that some Sixers fans do seem like they refuse to admit
the dynamic between Joel Embead and Ben Simmons, not just functionally but emotionally psychologically
doesn't seem like it's the greatest. And so is he the guy Doc Rivers
to take you through this, I honestly don't know. I don't think you
could guarantee that Mike D'Antoni would have been any better. Maybe he gets a
little bit more inventive on offense, but some of the stuff that the Clippers
team did, particularly before this Kauai Paul George's era, like that was great
that last season Clippers team, And so Doc Rivers, I'm not trying to
box him in anywhere. And I think that's I mentioned this on Salmon Ali's
podcast he hosts Red Nation Hoops also Bluelyar podcast that I feel, particularly among
black head coaches that we coten them into these stereotypes where it's there these raw
rock coaches, there are these predominant leaders. And I do think that Doc
Rivers can be a good leader. And I would say this about tylu who
I would think would even be more of just a galvanizing presence here. But
with Rivers specifically, I almost worry about the opposite. It's he's this coach
who's kind of I don't want to say hung back. We's coached so many
veteran teams. He's not someone who's gonna force shoot around. It's not going
to force practices during the middle of the season. I'm not sure if that's
what this Philly team needs. They feel like they might need a level of
forced A caliber accountability a little bit more rather than this independence. And maybe
Doc Rivers can adapt what he was doing for the past few versions of this
Clippers team, and perhaps the twenty eighteen twenty nineteen season is just proof of
that, where they went through some turnover, they weren't even really expected to
make the playoffs. They didn't have that conventional superstar, and yet Tobias Harris
played so well, Daniela Gallinari played so well, Jekyl as Alexander had played
so well for them, and that's like, that's that's where I'm That's what
I'm getting at here is I don't want to box Doc Rivers and to say
he can't handle this situation. I just feel like we haven't seen him in
anything resembling it most most certainly in the near like past, but even even
in the distant past going back. But on the flip side of that,
he's also coming off of coaching Tobias Harris through his best season essentially in twenty
eighteen twenty nineteen for at least most and a half of it. Anyway,
is there something he can on the lock there? I would remain skeptical a
little bit of that, like maybe more a little bit more of the postseason.
But he was never even at the peak of his parents in LA.
Peak of his power is not parent parents in LA. Wasn't someone that you
could on to be that the Jimmy Butler type in crunch time, Like,
yeah, there's a level of shop creation there. There's not the same table
setting, there's not the same pressure being put on the rim. And that's
why I think for this team, like that's what's going to to find this
Doc Rivers higher, and maybe it was any coaching higher. Is the personnel
actually more so than the coach? And so I'm looking at this through the
lens of, well, well, Doc Rivers change this team enough as currently
constructed for it to be a success, And that's probably not the way to
actually look at it. It's can they do enough on the margins to make
this team a better fit together on the court, Like forget about the off
the court stuff, like maybe that's where the main concern is for Doc Rivers,
But on the court like this, no matter who's coaching, I don't
know that this team is a great fit for one another. It's not trade
Joel or Ben Simmons just yet. That's just been The Sixers aren't going to
go that way. ESPN Tim Montents reported this a while ago after they were
eliminated. I believe. But can you move I'm assuming that Rivers would want
to keep Harris, but can you figure out a way to move Horford?
Like, what do you do to sweeten that deal? And if you don't
like, does Doc Rivers empower these players in any different of a way?
Does he like throw out some different lineups? Does he have more of the
cache than Brett Brown and be like, hey, Al, you're coming off
the bench like hardcore. It's not even a matter of you'll still play starters
minutes, but we're gonna pay you all this money. You're gonna play fourteen
fifteen minutes per game and that'll be that. I honestly don't know. They
still feel like they need to make moves on the margins to open up everything,
and whether if that's not trading Al Horford or even at Tobias Harris or
finding a smaller scale move to you know, they can step ladder some stuff
because they have Mike Scott, they have that Year Smith. So you're looking
at a combined almost eight million dollars in salary there, I believe, and
so you can do things to move up from that. Is there any just
like free agent move that they can make to add another layer of shooting and
ball handling? Does doct Rivers unlock something in shake Milton like, is he
going to be the real deal for a full season? There? IM not
gonna go too much longer on this because we do have a Sixers look Ahead
podcast coming to you. We were waiting for the head coaching higher and I
believe it'll be up on Monday. If you're listening to this on a Friday,
so get ex for that. The final note, I will say,
Josh Richardson kind of feels like a doc Rivers player, and I'm interested to
see how he does under him. Next up, and finally, some Kyrie
Irving talk, because because why not, we haven't done that on this podcast.
And in a minute two of his quotes from a podcast with Kevin Durant
are making the rounds now. This transcript is comes from CBS Sports and he's
referencing the nets is higher of Steve Nash. I don't really see us having
a head coach. Irving said, Kadie could be a head coach. I
could be a head coach some days. Durant agreed with this in the sense
that he called in a collaborative effort in Brooklyn, and like that's not too
spicy. Everything in the NBA's a collaborative effort. The coaches defer to their
stars. Steve Nash is also new to this, so you have to lean
on your stars. Irving's comment is just more curious to say, I don't
really see us as having a head coach. What does that even mean?
Like, just what does that even mean? I know it's Steve Nash,
skip the line, and that's a fact as well. He's still is the
head coach of the Nets. I don't like you have to. Maybe this
is a discussion I've already had with Steve Nash. Maybe it's just a matter
of, you know, a weird comment. Speaking in the moment. I
totally get that. I just don't even really know what to make of it.
It just seems like that's not something you say off the cuff, would
be my guest. The other thing that he said is this for the New
York Post one thing I've always been comfortable with. I felt like I was
the best option on every team I played for down the stretch. Irving said
on the Etcas with Kevin Durant podcast, this is the first time in my
career I've looked it down and be like that motherfucker can make that shot too,
and I'll probably do it a lot easier now. Everyone was quick to
point out that Kyrie Irving played with Lebron James for three seasons, which is
a fair thing to point out after a comment like that. Some of us
went as far as to post graphics of Kevin Durants like crunch time efficiency for
his career versus Lebron's, and Lebron outstripped him clearly. Irving, of course,
he came out with a to it and on social media and he basically
said that this was a yep, a media driven thing from clickbait society.
Clickbait society was his words. He also said again for The New York Post,
why must it always be brother against brother? Why if I'm addressing anyone,
I'll say their name. Come on, y'all, don't listen to the
false narratives. Let people live their lives. It's just a game. Talk
about the art, talk about the sport. We talk openly, we talk
freely, but because we live in a clickbait society, it becomes something bigger.
I kind of get that sentiment a little bit, and there are narratives
that people jump on. There's a level of Again he's speaking, is it
off the cuff, and he's just really trying to build up Durant at the
same time, like, dude, come on, you can't expect people not
to read into those comments. Given the circumstances under which you left Cleveland,
and you want a title in Cleveland playing with Lebron is not just something that
you forget. And so this at best was just poorly phrased. And I
don't think we need to put pitt NBA players against each other, like I
just don't. I know that people are gonna take sound bites, small pieces
of them and just run with it. Like I get that part of it.
And there can be a level of, you know, a level a
lack of accountability to it all, and myself on this podcast can be guilty
of perpetuating it at points. This is just like I don't understand it with
Kyrie is he's clearly smart. Like if you're gonna say something like this,
whether it's an accident or not, it's gonna be interpreted as something. Don't
blame the media or fans for looking at it verbatim quote and wondering why you
said it in that it framed it in that way, like just come out
and say I didn't mean it like that. I'm not saying even always it
to us that if you really don't care, then don't then don't say anything
like don't don't acknowledge it. But he said these words. It's just such
a curious case and I've look I've said on this podcast as someone who will
make jokes about the Kyrie situation, it does feel that certain coverage of him
is on and like we went through it with the Disney bubble for the NBA
and when the players were deciding if they wanted to go or not, like
he made actual great points and they were dismissing them because of the source.
It was Kyrie. That's really unfair. I don't know how culpable he is
in that framing, just because things like this happened and he's had, you
know, you look at his Instagram or things that he says. It feels
like he's trying to be too philosophical, too intuitive, introspective, whatever.
But I also I don't know what's going through his mind. But I do
know that he said this, like he said, this is the first time
in my career I've looked it down and been like, that motherfucker can make
that shot too. So I don't know if he thought and he also said
it and he'll probably do it a lot easier. Maybe he just thought it'd
be more difficult for Lebron. Did you think that Lebron's didnt thinks it's a
pass first anyway where Kevin Durant's not going to feel like that. Maybe he
can explain that, or he doesn't have to. He doesn't. Oh it's
anything, but he said this. So the Kyrie every stuff, this NET
situation, it was always combustible following to Kevin Durant injury. Knowing how injury
prone Kyrie Irving is, You've added another layer of combustibility to it by rolling
with not only a first time head coach, but someone who's apparently not even
a real head coach. According to Kyrie, that's mostly a joke there.
And now I'm just what's going to happen in the offseason. Joe Harris is
a free agent, will they resign him? If they resign him, or
they used their mid level? Is there a trade to be made? Durant
said, karath Lvert can be their third star, but are they still going
to go after someone else? And how many games does Durant play next year?
How many games is Kyrie Irving play? Where does Durant look like post
achilles injury? So many questions with this team, not the least of which
is just at the top with Kyrie Irving. Just are there going to be
too many distractions, whether he means to create them or not. Like the
media can say, he can take something relatively innocuous that he says, run
with it, turn it into something it's not. It feels like that might
often happen in Brooklyn, and I'm also curious to see it's like this is
going to be a leaky Fawcett situation where things aren't great off the bat.
Are guys in the locker room gonna be talking like we saw at the Clippers
with the Clippers earlier this year and then after the season even really just at
any point with the Clippers, or we'll just be sort of self sabotage where
they're making these open comments and nets. The level of combustibility there is absolutely
tantalizing, polarizing. I won't be able to look away as we lead into
next year. But enough of this, Let's get into some Detroit Pistons talk,
trades, free agency, draft, Christian Would, the development of lu
Konar, Bruce Brown, all of it, Blake Griffin, Derek Rose,
what's going on with this team with Lazarus Jackson of the Detroit bad Boys and
also the host of the Everybody Versus Pistons podcast, The Weight is finally over.
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experts. Last, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.
It's been way too long. I didn't anticipate it being this long, but
apparently you know we're at a point we're going to have like an NBA season
play out every one point five years at this point. I guess hopefully it
changes soon. But but how are you doing? I'm doing great, Dan,
My team hasn't played for quite some time, So I've just beenking kind
of like in the wilderness, wondering the individual group bubbles for the teams who
didn't make the big bubble. The national NBA bubble in Florida have started a
couple of weeks, and so that's been just like a steady, like slight
drip of content that's helped out. But yeah, man, like think things
have been Things have been kind of dry out here in Pistons Land. What
are you doing? Oh, I'm no complaints over here. I am I
have not run into the same problem as you, since I'm not covering one
specific team, But I am curious, though, like what happens during this
time? Are you do you end up like because I'm sure there's a ton
of overthinking here, but do you end up kind of talking yourself more into
like the Pistons situation, or are you like lower on them than you might
normally be, just because you've had so much time to think, rethink and
then overthink your rethink about this team. I think the overthinking, rethinking,
unthinking rethinking happened a lot around the draft, but as far as like the
direction and orientation and personnel of this team. I feel like that's pretty that's
pretty standard, right, Like we it's tougher to say what the team.
It's easy to say what the team needs, it's tougher to say exactly how
they will address those needs until you know this season actually ends for everybody,
right and that that hasn't happened yet, and so you can go out,
you can identify targets and everything, but the targets are going to stay the
same in you know, June or September. So yeah, I mean,
look, the draft targets I feel like could change on a whim with them
being at at number seven before I kind of get through the draft. Though,
this was the as I'm like doing these primers I try in especially because
it's been so long since I like was watching the Pistons and look just fully
to confess, like, you know, when you're getting into the heat of
the playoff race, like you know what the Pistons are not at the time,
I wouldn't have watched us either. Yeah, so it's like I had
to go back and like kind of like remind myself of stuff. Like I
know, I feel like I'm very versed in Christian Wood because I've given a
lot of thought about free agency. But I'm going back and I'm I'm looking
at like their cab sheet, like their roster, like what these players have
done, the contract situations, both both long term and like immediately, and
I can't I don't have a feel like for their future. And so my
question to you to start is like it's it's like you know, ten piece
layered, is are they rebuilding? Because I feel like nationally the perception was,
oh, they traded Andre Drummonds, so they must be. But like
at the time, I was kind of like, I feel like this might
say just more that they don't want to pay Andre Drummonds because you still have
like Derek Rose, and I know that he could be moved easily, but
Blake Griffin cannot be moved easily. And if he's healthy, and you decide
to keep him, and you decide to keep Luke Kenard, and you know,
say coo like makes a mini jump, and like you still have Bruce
Brown and you signed someone in free agency, and Christian Ward's back, and
you still have Tony Snell, Like you could probably pretty easily talk yourself with
relative health for the Pistons into contending for one of those lower rung playoffs seeds
in the Eastern Conference. And so I'm my question to you is just are
they rebuilding? Like? What are they doing? The Detroit Pistons are in
fact rebuilding, don't They don't want to tell you that because they would like
to sell season tickets and they would like not to tell you that because I
think the association of tanking and a lot of fans minds is like the full
of any six Ers style rebuild, tear down where you win, you know,
thirteen games a year and everyone's miserable all the time. But they are
rebuilding. When Troy Weaver, the new general manager of the Detroit Pistons,
was hired, the word he used was restoration. So that is what we
were calling. It is not a rebuilding. We're not taking it is a
restoration of the team. But a restoration by any other name is thirty wins.
So it is It's going to be what it is. But I do
think this team does not, you know, want to win you know,
fewer than like twenty games, right. I think that they would like to
establish good habits among some of their younger players, and good habits are easier
to build when you like win occasionally when you go you know, you know,
only two weeks instead of a month between wins. I do think that
they want to show veteran players that if you come to Detroit, like,
we will value you properly, and we will use you to the extent of
your abilities, and uh, like we we have a home for you.
And so I do think that, like, despite the fact that you know,
Derrick Rose hasn't been offloaded and they haven't shipped Blake Griffin out of town,
that those guys are going to be there to help instruct and help them
and help them compete in a night in a night out basis. But I
don't think those guys are going to play, you know, eighty two games
if we have if we even have eighty two games, right, of those
guys are gonna play eighty two games this season, right, I mean those
are guys that even if you gave them the option of playing eighty two games,
they're probably not playing, right and uh and uh, you know a
lot of other stuff feeds into that, right, Like the Pistons do have
a lot of cap space. But I don't think like there's been a persistent
like undercurrent. There's always been a rumor that like Fred van Fleet is a
guy that the Pistons' targeted. I think that was more true earlier this season
when they were trying to compete for one of those lower tier playoff spots.
I don't think that's as true now. I think now they're going to look
towards the draft or the lower ends of free agency for a point guard to
kind of handle that situation. I do think they would like to bring Christian
Wood back, but I were and we're going to talk about Christian Wood admit
it anyway, so let me not spoil that. But yeah, this team,
this team is definitely rebuilding. I think they would like to try and
pull off a lot of what the Charlotte Hornets did this past season though,
where they were very clearly rebuilding, but they were playing their young guys a
lot, still managing to compete on most nights. You know, DeVante Graham
was the most improved player candidate. I think they would love to see that
kind of a jump from one of their young guys. And if my memory
serves, the Hornets won like twenty eight twenty nine games, and we're on
pace to you know, win in like the thirty four thirty five range,
and because of the flattened lottery odds, right like, they were still able
to accomplish that and get the number three overall pick. So I think that
that's kind of what the plan is for Detroit. You know, Pete night
end night out, when you know between thirty and thirty five games and you
know, let the lottery odds that are a little bit flatter kind of go
as they do. Yeah, Charlotte was on face win like twenty nine thirty
games, and I think though, well, you touched on a key point
just because of the I don't know that the lottery format has completely dissuaded tanking,
but like we've seen where teams can jump up, particularly I mean like
the Knicks have gotten screwed in both of the past two lotteries basically, and
then like just last year, looking at what happened when the Lakers jumped to
number four and then that kind of determined like the Anthy Davis trade. Basically,
it doesn't like it's still it can pay to tank, but like so
much like it was never really bankable and now it's just even less so because
the flattened odds at the top and then just like you know, those six,
seven, eight nine teams, like just having substantially higher odds than they
did to begin with. What I find sort of interesting is so like,
if they are rebuilding, I would think, I know you mentioned that Derrick
Rose would contribute. If he's still there, I would almost wouldn't the inkling
be like, wouldn't you be kind of surprised if he started the season in
Detroit or at least like finished it by the time the trade deadline is,
which might be in the spring at this point whenever the heck, like the
schedule ends up being, so that would be one. And then just the
follow up is like, do you see any scenario in which Blake Griffin is
not on this team to finish next year? Because if you're rebuilding, he's
not a guy to have. But when you just look at what he's owed
on his contract, like prime break, when Blake Griffin is healthy, like
he's all NBA caliber, we saw it the season before this one, but
two years seventy five point eight million for someone who's having like these knee problems,
you probably do need to include a sweetener or take back like really crappy
money. And I don't know, like if you're rebuilding, like you definitely
shouldn't be including anything degrees the wheels of a trade. And then I don't
the other thing that's kind of difficult. I don't look at a team that
said and say, like, oh, they're like if Blake Griffin's healthy,
like he would make them so good. And so even if they're sending back
like a minimal asset or no asset or just like a like a contract spot,
basically I don't necessarily see the fit anywhere. Yeah, I think the
part you bring up that like nobody is a Blake Griffin away from winning a
title. I think that is the thing that keeps Blake in Detroit in the
long term. I don't think that there is a there's not a big need
to trade Blake Griffin, right, Like, by himself, he is an
all NBA player, But I still don't think I think he's more in like
the Bradley Beal territory where he's not going to make you good enough to make
the playoffs on his own, and he's also like not going to play as
often as Bradley Beale. Right, Like, even under the best of circumstances,
you want Blake to be properly load managed, and so like, I'm
not you know, I'm not worried that Blake's gonna play and we're gonna win
forty games by accident. That that's not a concern. So I think both
Blake and Derek start the year in Detroit. I think only Blake finishes the
year in Detroit. We'll see what the Pistons end up doing in free agency
in the draft, but Derek Rose as an expiring deal for like a little
bit less in the mid level if I'm remembering correctly, that's exactly the type
of thing you you flip at the deadline for some second round picks in order
to you know, further the restoration Detroit we were talked about, and Derrick
Rose has been a model citizen in Detroit. Right there, you could tell
that he was out and he was he was very effective when he was on
the floor. The team took great pains to keep him healthy at the start
of the season. I'm limiting his minutes, like very extremely, not playing
him back to backs, things like that, I'm bringing him off the bench.
I do think that if he were to start the year in Detroit,
I think he would be the starter. I think it'd be too difficult to
keep him out of the starting lineup, and and he was starting by the
end of the season anyway, And yeah, I think that the it really
just depends on like the what who is a Derrick Rose away from from winning
a title? Because it's much easier to fit Derrick Rose into a lot different
scenarios than it is to fit Blake Griffin right from a money perspective and from
like a play style and and you know, bench scoring situation right, And
I mean, like you mentioned, the money is just so cheap, and
I almost wonder if they can't get like a lower end first for him,
just because the point guard free agent market is like brutal. There's I mean,
after Fred van Fleet, you're like, you're talking about dragics. Is
good? You have Jeff t and Jordan Clarkson is even a point guard?
Like how excited did those names get you? And I mean even the more
intriguing like Chris Dunn and danfi Melton restricted free agent names like those guys are
defense first for someone if you're looking for scoring and a little bit passing.
And the thing that I found fascinating too is even though Rose played under thirteen
hundred minutes last season, he was still seventh I believe now, yes,
seventh in a corner three pointers assisted on and so, like, I feel
like he could bring value to a team that maybe swings and misses on a
point guard and freeency one more likely. You know, they can't address that
in free agency and so. And it's like if they need another shot creative,
like would if Dallas is just all twenty twenty one everything with their cap
space and they don't want to make any major moves, like, it feels
like Derek Rose would be an interesting name there. He was mentioned with the
Lakers a bunch of times leading into the trade deadline. You would know better
than I whether they would like consider strongly moving him before the season started,
but I would almost expect like a frothier trade market for him this summer then
we saw leading into this past trade deadline. Yeah, I think once the
season gets started and we see how teams kind of play out wherever they're at,
especially since like we don't know a lot of the structure of what next
season is going to look like it'll be, it'll be once we actually start
playing basketball. For the twenty one twenty two season. I think it'll be
uh, I think you'll see a frothier trade market. I think you'll see
like teams figure out like what what they're like backup point guard needs are,
like who is actually closer to like that that playoff high tier calendar, like
if you like, if you look at the playoff teams like right now,
like nobody really needs a backup point guard right like the Nuggets are set,
the Lakers. We mentioned like Derek Rose being linked to the Lakers, and
like that is one intriguing possibility the Clippers, it remains to be seen,
like what happens with with that entire team right after after their ignominous playoff exit.
The Celtics don't really need another like point guard sized initiator. And so
yeah, yeah, I'm not I'm not. I'm not overly concerned with like
where Derek Rose like ends up, but I do think he'll be traded before
the end of the twenty twenty one twenty two season. I guess at least
into the season. You just hope that he remains obviously plays well enough.
But normally when he's been healthy, he's played well, So it's yes,
can he remained healthy enough to keep that trade value up. So two names
that I'm going to be fascinated by since we like we're saying that the Pistons
are rebuilding. I'll start with Christian Wood because he's a free agent. He
I think freshly turns was twenty five, so he's still like, uh,
he's still young, and so it's not like a matter of all, we
can have this guy for the next four years because he runs counter to our
timeline and I don't really think necessarily that teams give that much credence as much
as fans or you know, want to be analysts like myself, I'm just
I really like Christian Wood, and just the season he turned in, Like
the things he can do on offense, it feels like he can score twenty
something points entirely within the flow of the offense, and yet like he has
a little bit of a like more more nuanced to his game where it's like,
yeah, he's okay, like putting putting the ball down, and like
he can even make some moves in traffic, going going baseline. And so
I really like him, and I think he can end up being a better
defender than people have talked about, Like he covers a lot of ground.
It seems like in the half court where maybe it's not maybe it's like frenetic
ground I would call or chaotic ground, where does it mean anything? So
maybe I'm off on that. That's just me like watching him. But a
lot of people have been like, well, you know, if they can
get him for like a little bit more than the they have cap space,
so it doesn't matter like his early bird rights are whatever, like, so
they can basically pay him whatever he's going to get. But I actually think
that even though there are so a scant few teams with cap space, I
actually feel like he's going to get noticeably more than the mid level, which
is going to be like somewhere between nine point two and nine point seven I
would guess, depending on where the cap ends up. And so if you're
the Pistons, like I mean, one, how high are you specifically on
Christian Wood? And then two like what is the number where you look at
it and go, you know what? Like you have fun in like Charlotte
where you know where you go, you go join that shit show in New
York or something. Right, So I wrote a piece titled something like the
Pistons don't have to retain Christian Wood at all costs, and fans like reacted
like I like cut off their heads, and so like, I think I
think Piston's fans are like really truly excited about Chris bringing Christian Wood back.
I think the team is also like fairly excited about Christian would coming back.
But there is a line, right, I do think it's higher than the
mid level that nine million figure you mentioned. I would say like it's somewhere
in like the nine to twelve thirteen million dollars range. When we got the
report that Montrezl Harrold was going to make like twelve million dollars that he was
seeking like a twelve million dollars a year free agency deal, and that was
like, yes, absolutely. If if my the sixth man of the year
is only getting twelve million, like, bring Christian Wood back for sure.
But if you know, the Knicks come out Day one and they're like,
hey, Christian Wood, here's eighty million dollars over four years, it's like,
yep, okay, Nope, have fun with that, because like I
we like, we can't match that. Christian Wood's real a really good player.
It's it's interesting to me that, uh, you know, Pistons fans
are you know, classically obsessed with with defense and rebounding, and yet they
let Christian Wood like so readily into their hearts. A guy who does not
really defend either position fairly well and and well, he does rebound the crap
out of the ball. I'll give him that, But it's really tricky to
construct the envision like how the Pistons are going to be constructed, Like with
Blake, Griffin and Christian would right, like those are two not super great
defenders. If you play those two guys together, you could ask Blake to
guard centers, but then that's that's putting Blake in a lot of like one
five actions that I wouldn't want to do. Yeah, and that's also like
asking Christian to like drop properly and then learn to use his length a little
bit better. Christian was much better as like a weak side help defender,
a guy who could like read and react to the drive. The guy who,
like, if you, if you managed to slow down the perimeter defenders
like as Bruce Brown like often managed to do, could come by and like
give you a lot of like weak side help. And a guy who got
a lot of his blocks that way, but as like a point of attack
defender, as a guy who's like operating as the fulcrum and like a drop
screen, a drop a drop scheme allaw. Like Brick Lopez, he was
not very good, just point blank, and so like you know, he's
a he has very clearly defined strengths and weaknesses, and his strengths are very
very valuable, and his weaknesses, you know, aren't really that bad for
a team that's not gonna win a whole bunch of games. And so like,
yeah, I think I would be interested in bringing Christian Wood back at
like you know, three years forty million, right like that that sounds perfect
sure. But again, like if you know, the Knicks or Charlotte or
somebody else like wants to pay him like you know, eighteen nineteen twenty million
dollars a year, you like say thank you, and then you point to
other free agents like, hey, like look what we did for Christian Wood.
We can do that for you, right, Like come on down,
Harry Giles, like we got him. Look at your paid man. What
would if it's like four and sixty because it's almost easier to go higher on
the dollars if it's three years like if you can go shorter term and it's
higher, But like I feel like four and sixty is where it might start
to get like uncomfortable for me at least where I look at it and go
for the team because I'm pro players getting as much as they can. I
love that, you know, I've mentioned this a bunch of the podcast,
Like Trevor Rees is basically gone wherever he's gotten the most money and then figured
out how to get to another team like later on in the season. I
respect that, Like I want players to get paid, so but from a
team perspective, like I feel like four sixties where it starts to get like,
oh, like what do we do here? Yeah? Four sixties where
you start being like, well, will you take a team option on the
last year or you're well like partial guarantee or something, right, it's like,
well will you take it decreasing so you make like twenty million this year
and like twelve million in the final year. That's when you start getting like,
let's do some accounting tricks type of stuff. But but yeah, that's
not that's not unreasonable from from a contract perspective, what's that that's fifteen Yeah,
yeah, that's that's not bad, like yet I have no feel for
the market, I think because if I'm not a big like Tress guy,
I feel like you can approximate his value rather cheaply. So if he got
like twelve million a year, I don't know if that would be a bromer
for Christian would but I I guess would certainly be encouraging overall. But this
this summer is just so twisted because of the lack of cap space and then
also because like how many teams are going to be like a little bit twitchy
when it comes to spending money at all because of the gate revenue and overall
revenue they lost this season, and then they're going to lose something next season,
Like it's either going to be shortened or they're just not going to have
fans in the stadiums. For I would hazard, you know, at least
a portion of it, if not all of it. And so I'm wondering
how much that ends up factoring in, because my gut would say, like,
even in this limited market, I think would probably gets like fourteen plus.
But then again, I'm like, I have zero idea what to expect
in free agency at this point. Yeah, I think if there were,
if there if this was a better like free in class overall, right,
if there were, if there were a lot of bigs who were better than
Christian would and he was a lot of people's like see or d plan and
that they felt like, okay, like we have to like break the glass
on Christian Wood or else, like we're gonna we're gonna end up with nothing.
I think it'd be I think it'd be more in that arena. But
with the way free agency currently stands now, right, like he's competing with
like you know, it's like him and like Jeremy Grant and like uh and
like Bobby Portis and like some other guys out there says like he's the he's
the number one option for teams, but I think teams are also aware that
he's not, you know, your classic free agent overpay right, Yeah,
I think I think that's a great point. The other player that interests me
for this team now, and it's he's younger. So Luconard twenty four and
was having a hell of a season before his knee tendonitis really became an issue.
Six basically sixteen points, four assists, shot almost thirty eight shot over
thirty seven percent excuse me, on pull up three pointers and was at thirty
nine point nine percent from three point range. Overall, shooters tend to be
valuable anyway. He's a career forty percent three point shooter. But the fact
that he kind of turned into like this, I don't want to say secondary,
but like, you know, tertiary or third dairy if we want to
put it that way, like playmaker and could hit more of those complicated jump
shots. It feels like it could really up his value. But then at
the same time, it's like, well, he's coming off a season in
which he played twenty eight games, and then you know, the other person
on my shoulders like, well, that might be a nice opportunity to extend
him, Like maybe he wants to bag the lor term security more than ride
it into twenty twenty one restricted free agency, where there will be or should
be more cap space available, But you also don't know where the salary cap
lands, and so where do you ultimately land on him? Is one is
he still a part of do you think they're long term future? And two
would you expect them to aggressively pursue an extension with him if he is or
is that something they just let ride out until twenty and twenty one. At
this point, I don't think. I don't think the team or him,
he and his representation are extremely interested in an extension at this time. I
don't. There were there were a lot of like smoke and rumors that he
could have returned earlier from the knee tendonitis but didn't for whatever reason. I
mentioned this in almost like every podcast I do about about the Pistons. But
there was like a very infamous blow up in Sacramento with Lukenard and the coaching
staff his sec Yeah, second year, I think that, you know,
he started the year on the bench, like there was a he was doing
a lot of his damage against bench lineups, and the bench lineup of Luke
Canard and Derrick Rose was like absolutely shredding teams earlier in the year, and
so that was fun to see. But you know, as a guy who
would like to get paid, you know, I'm sure he would love to
start for a team, you know, I'm sure he would love to start
ahead of Bruce Brown, right, just just to be Frank and so and
with a brand new GM and who you know has no prior allegiance to Lukenard
and with a brand new front office who like you know, hasn't really taken
a deep scout on him. I do think that they are using the this
is like, this is one of the real benefits of the organized team activities
of the like the mini camps, is to like for the new front office
to like see, like, okay, like what do we have in a
guy like Lukenard before the draft, before free agency? And you know,
Luke was in trade rumors, uh, you know, way back in February
when when the season was still going on. And so I don't think that
I don't think that the team is I think the team looks at Luke is
like a value proposition, right like if if the market is it turns out
to be like super duper bearish or super super duper bearish, and you know,
no one's offering anyone anything. You can go to Luke and say like,
hey, like here's four for sixty and the same kind of Christian would
range like and he has to actually legitimately consider it like that, I think
that's a win for the team. But you know, conversely, yeah,
I'm sure Aaron Mintz is like saying like, hey, like Buddy hell makes
like twenty three million dollars a year, right, Like Luke's that good?
It is like a guy as a point and so and so, Yeah,
I I really struggle with with what to do with Lucanard. My my personal
thing has just been like if you if you really don't want to extend him,
and you really don't think he's conduced to a rebuild, you know,
pull off the trade with Phoenix that you talked about at the deadline. Now
that we know exactly where Phoenix is picking in the lottery, you can figure
out, like is that protection worth it or not? That dead deal I
think got bogged down because of the pick protections. And so now that Phoenix
is picking tenth, you can do like the tenth pick one of the excess
Phoenix guards for Lucanard, like yes or no? Right, And and if
that's the if that works, like you move forward with a younger a younger
player out of this year's draft. And if it doesn't work, you know
you Lukenard is still a really good player that you're happy to You're happy to
have on your team, happy to have his restrictive free agency writes for So
do you do if you're the Pistons, and I think I would do it
speaking on behalf of the Suns. Their fans might be outraged by this,
but I think I would do something like I would, I would do number
ten and something for Luconard. I still think it's not going to be a
Bridges or a Johnson, but like applied Jerome, like taking that flyer unless
you know, unless you think that you're going to really go all in on
a Chris Paul trade or something. And I wouldn't say that you should give
up that same value for Paul because the money he makes. But unless you're
gonna take a bigger swing, I would think like Luconar's like a solid double
for them if he's healthy, and then you can focus on because he's so
cheap, and if that doesn't really cost you too much, like then you
focus on in free agency or via other trade avenues of like just beefing up
that that four spot in the rotation. Yeah, if I if I was
Detroit and you offered me, you know, Javon Carter and ten for Luconard,
like I would very much seriously consider that. Yeah, absolutely, that
might be a deal breaker from me. If I'm Phoenix Javonne Carter. It's
like his alarm goes off and he's already picking up people on defense. I
feel like Javon card is a classic Detroit Piston, which is kind why,
kind of why I want him. So my next question here is about the
rookie. So this is like kind of deviating. We know that he's supposed
to be a part of their future, and it's been so long since I
really, like, you know, was watching say Hu Damboya, and so
I went back and watched some stuff, and I want to know what your
impressions are of him. The one thing that I was just going to note
like beforehand, is he seems like way more confident on offense then I feel
like I remember watching in real time, but that I ever would have expected.
And so like he just took some shots where he looked okay when he
was moving off the dribble, but he just sort of took some shots and
maybe his takeoff points were just weird and seemed too early, but like he
just it looked like he felt so sure of himself. And I was torn
between like impressed and then almost concerned with his shot selection, if that makes
any sense. No, that makes total sense sake, we had a very
uneven year, right, there was a I think his the first he spent
the first part of the year in Grand Rapids in the G League, just
like playing basketball. I think that and I think that was really helpful for
him. I think the coaching staff, led by Donnie Tendall, who was
no longer a part of that Grand Rapids Drive staff, I think that was
a really beneficial coaching staff for him. They really looked to put him in
advantage situations. I think that was great for him personally. Then he joined
the Pistons, you know Blake Griffin. After Blake Griffin's injury, he was
kind of thrown into the rotation and for the first twelve games he played really
well. He was he was making his open shots. He was a really
intelligent off ball cutter, which is like an element of Wayne play the Pistons
haven't had in a very long time, and so it was extremely noticeable.
It was like, oh, hey, like this dude cuts bassline, Like
he got lebron on like a bassline cut, and that made you like,
oh, okay, that's really like that, Pops. But it was like,
I know, he played better defensive year, but it was also a
regular season Lebron. Yes, and it's also like it's like Wednesday night,
the Pistons are in town Lebron. So yeah, it's like, I don't
I don't think he was I don't think he was fully engaged, but it
was still it was still noticeable that a rookie could get Lebron like that.
You know, he had he had his highlight play of the year, like
the big dunk over Tristan Thompson that I got, like they got like literally
like the jump talking about it, which at the point he was like,
oh, okay, like that that's really cool, and then he just kind
of fell off a cliff right, lost a lot of confidence. Like the
coaching, like dway Casey talked openly about how they wanted to send him back
down to the G League to get his confidence back in a shot looked very
aimless on on offense at times. To be fair, the offense, the
motion offense doesn't really didn't really give him a lot of opportunity to like handle
with the ball on his hands or do anything but like staying in the corner
or attacking transition, and so like, I think both sides kind of deserve
some blame for that, but he didn't make a supreme effort to get himself
engaged in the offense either. And you know, as eighteen nineteen year old
wokies tend to be, he was super bad on defense, just like just
like really not good on defense multiple times, like even in the G League
level. I'm just like looking at the screen, is like he doesn't know
where he is, Like he literally just like does not know where he is
defensively. That's pretty bad. And so I think that there is and like
I say, even saying that, like I hold a ton of optimism around
Seku Duboya for this team just because of the simple fact that like he's nineteen,
right like he and he's nineteen, and he didn't completely embarrass himself at
the NBA level during his rookie year, right Like Okay, sure he's not
Jason Tatum and he's like you know, starting an Eastern Conference finals game at
nineteen Like sure, okay, whatever, but but he looks to be good.
There's definite, there's definitely like a lot of things there. The comparison
a lot of you see, a lot of analysts make is to Pascal Siakam
and like you look at Pascal Siakam didn't even get to the league I think
until like twenty two, right, and his development curve is just like the
stuff of legends to the point where like I think he was getting, like,
you know, he was making giant leaps every off season. I think
it's unfair to kind of place that type of expectation on to say, Ku,
I don't think he's going to I don't think he's gonna get like,
you know, eighty percent better every off season for the next five years.
But I do think that, you know, if he's starting from a point
that's a little bit higher than Siakam and has a little bit more linear development
curve, I do think there's a possibility he ends up kind of like in
that range where he's like a very clear all star, like a really great
secondary option. A guy who's just like an absolute terror in transition, can
make his own shot in the half court, not really create for others.
But that's okay because you're you're happy with the quality of looks he creates and
gets to a place where he's like a really effective defender. Dwayne Casey has
talked about how good he's looked physically in training camp, so like that's a
big bonus. He did look like very winded at times last season, and
that was a that was a criticism of him during the pre draft process,
was that he wasn't always like fully engaged and and everything, and so like
he's addressed that. I think that's a little bit good. I think he
really needed to see like what it took to compete for eighty two games at
the at an NBA level in order to like understand like where he needed to
be, and now he's on the process of getting there. So I will
hold a lot of optimism for sake of Nuboya, with the like, you
know, expectation that he's not going to light the world on fire next year
or anything. One of the things that I like about him is I feel
like he should pretty easily be able to if he improves, like overall defensively
play at the four without it feeling like they're going like downsizing. I know
six eight isn't really like a downsizing for a four line up, but he
was a little bit better at rebounding that I thought he was gonna be.
I am curious though, like how when you flip to the other side of
the floor like, how hopeful are you that he'll develop like more of a
feel for the game from the from the perimeter, because I feel like looking
at like when he was driving to the basket or even getting through traffic,
like I feel like that's going to be okay. I'm just wondering, like
what he's going to look like if he's getting to his spots in like the
mid range or like the super short mid range like can float range, or
if you think he's ever gonna be like have you seen the stroke or just
anything that would make you think that he can be like a lee average shooter
from beyond the arc one day. I think that once he gets the lower
half of his body like a little bit stronger, I think that will help
his shot immensely. He has a little like a double like wrist flick at
the top of his shot that I think if his lower half like isn't aligned
properly and not strong enough, can cause like real problems going like left or
right instead of like longer short, and so I think getting that ironed out
will be huge for a shot. And I think like as he develops physically,
you also get like less concerned about the defensive end as well, right,
Like if he's you know, as he learns to play NBA defense and
he obviously like has the frame to defend you know, both forward positions,
and like you know, with the way the league is trending, like you
can throw him at the five, you can throw him on five's four stretches.
Maybe he doesn't only pay your audience. I am endless lobbyists for small
ball fives. Yeah, so you can you can throw him on five,
so he's not playing five. But like you know, like in a similar
way to the way the Celtics like through Jaln Brown on bam amount of Baio
in the Eastern Conference finals, you hope to be able to do that with
Seku like in time, right, And so yeah, there's definitely, uh,
there's definitely. I definitely envisioned world and like where he works out on
both ends, sticking with just some players on the roster, and there's so
many different directions I could take. But who intrigues you more long term for
this team. Is it Bruce Brown who kind of just seems like he is
a special place in Piston's hearts, Or is it is it Fee where it's
like, oh, that guy can shoot and I feel like he should be
worse defensively, but he's not. And so they're both on your cheap o'deals
non guaranteed that will be guaranteed for sure of one point seven million next season.
And so I'm wondering if one of them is more tantalizing to you,
if you're the Pistons long term, than the other. It's it's You're This
is a bad question for me because I'm a big fan of Bruce Brown.
I'm driving the Bruce Brown bandwagon, and so yeah, for me, it's
it's Bruce just because of like the strides he made as a passer this year
were so unexpected, you know, coming out of school, he was viewed
as like a combo guard, like really athletic, and then it came to
his rookie year and it turned out his calling card was like really great on
ball defense, right, or like really great, really great defensively, to
the point where he started like fifty games because the team felt like they needed
his defense, you know, that badly. And then we get to a
second year and a bunch of injuries happened and the team likes to keep you
know, Derek Rose coming off the bench playing in twenty five ish minutes a
night, and so all of a sudden, Bruce Brown is You're starting point
guard and that sounds terrible, but he was actually like not bad at it,
right, like he he it was very simple, right, like very
uh it's like not like doing anything crazy, but you know, using his
explosive first step to attack defenses, especially in drop coverage, using a lot
of jump passes to full defenses and get the ball to shooters and big men.
And as the season went on, he did a much better job of
like getting into the chest of big men and then dropping off passes to his
bigs. So you saw a lot of passes get to Christian Wood that way.
You saw he'd he'd take like two dribbles kind of you know, look
the big in the eyes and then like pets passed too, like a cutting
saku, right and so, and he even like busted out a floater,
like a really nice floater, which is something you wouldn't expect from like the
six five like athletic guy, but he had he has a good touch on
the floater. So it is what it is. So yeah, I really
enjoy the like Smorgas board of like what Bruce Brown offers, I don't know
if he's ever like good enough to be your starting point guard or good enough
to be like you're starting shooting guard, unless he's a much better shooter from
three. So this is this is like the market smart path, right,
where like if you go from like twenty nine percent from three to like thirty
six percent from three with the occasional like I make five threes and a half,
and like your coach tears your hair out, like that's the supremely and
like you make pick and roll reads, and you have great on ball defense,
and you like make plays happen, Like that's a really valuable proposition.
But if his shooting, which was and he shot better from three this year,
but a lot of it was limited to the corners. He was he
shot in most of his threes from the corners, and he shot better percentage
from the corners than on the wing, and so and it was all catch
and shoot threes, right, No, nothing off the dribble. And so
if you ever get him to a point where he's comfortable taking off the dribble
wing threes and hitting them at even like a thirty four percent clip like that,
that like opens up an entire world of possibilities for Bruce brown SVI and
like SPI, on the other hand, there is a like much more like
limited set of possibilities, right, Like sp is like you, He's a
really great shooter who can pass a little bit if you close out on and
too hard, and that's kind of who he is. But as we've seen,
like that's that's extremely valuable role player, right, especially if that guy
is not terrible on defense, which uh, spe managed to elevate his defense
to that level this season, which was like the really pleasant surprise, right,
Like there were times when see would you would there were times when Svie
was preferable to the coaching staff to Luke just because they offered a lot of
the same things. But Spee was just a much much better defender. And
so yeah, like you know, you hope that Spee turns out to be
Duncan Robinson, which I feel this is this is a little unfair because I
feel like every white dude who can shoot is going to get compared to Duncan
Robinson for like the next three years. But like the in this case is
actually kind of apt. I mean, if we want to be kind of
we could call him like Wayne Ellington with a little bit of defense, like
if that's a little bit better of a one. He's a little bit taller
than Ellington. When Ellington was six four, I think, and he's we're
six three, maybe he's sixty seven. I did not realize he was that
big. He's he's got a negative wingspan. He's a t rex. So
that that doesn't help him defensively. I think it helps the shot a lot,
though I struggled with this one when I was trying to think about it
myself, and when I was looking at the numbers, like you see,
Bruce Brown's passing numbers stood out to me, and just he turned the ball
over so often early on in the pick and roll and was at twenty percent
on turnovers in the pick and roll possessions for the season, and then yet
he was like drawing fouls out of the pick and roll more than I realized
when I was looking at the numbers, and so I think I would default
to him, but you made me look this up while you were talking.
I didn't realize he shot like twenty two percent on above the break threes and
he was at thirty five point six percent on catching shoot threes overall, so
it was like encouraging but not encouraging if that's like so heavy on the corners.
I don't know that there were enough, like any evidence that he would
hit any off the dribble threes like Marcus Smart would, because even when Smart
was shooting like you know, negative percentage from beyond the arc, he was
still taking those off the dribble threes, and just haven't seen that from Bruce
Brown yet. But I think because he's probably he has more proven commodities than
Spie, I think I think I would side with you, just because with
the Ladder, you know that he can shoot, but then it's like everything
else is kind of up in question. And then with Bruce Brown, it's
like, well, you know that he could defend and that he can check
certain number one options long periods of time, and then if he's also going
to be, you know, a pretty good passer and he can you know,
defenses are still going to give him like the I don't even know what
treatment do we call, like the Rondo treatment at this point where they just
like even if he's hitting his threes, they're not going to care, but
that's still fine. And so I think i'd be I'd be with you,
but I don't know, especially now that I know that Spi is six seven,
I'm almost like want to be leaning towards him. Yeah, well the
other thing, okay, I'm gonna give you to two other things. In
Bruce Brown's favor. After Andre Drummond was traded, he was the team's best
rebounder. Like I am, I am not kidding. He was averaging like
eight rebounds a game or something insane. And the you look at it his
turnover numbers, I think if okay, I'm doing this off at the top
of my head, I did not look this up. I think like a
full like twenty percent of his turnovers for the year came in the first two
weeks he turned he had he I don't know what was happening earlier in the
year, but he was turning the ball over like crazy for the first couple
of games and then he settled down. And so I'm not I'm less concerned
about like, if he's your if he's one of your long term like backcourt
options, is he just a turnover machine? Like No, I'm not.
I'm not as worried about that. The pull up shooting, like you mentioned
where he's not even taking them like that is a much bigger concern of mine.
Yeah, you sold me, I'm sold. I mean why choose might
be my especially if if you have thirty million dollars gaps bring both those guys
back to that point. So I don't really know where the cap is going
to end up, but I have the Pistons at If Tony snow picks up
his player option and they what you will, yeah, I mean I would
assume he would unless there's like a I don't know who's paying, like Tony
Snell, like a three year deal where he makes substantially more. So,
assuming he picks up his player option and they I'm assuming they just renounce,
than they'll probably I would think that they'll obviously you'll have Brun Brown Spee.
I'm assuming they'll just leave Thomas's money on the books, like I have them
at basically thirty million, Like it's like right, It's like I haven't at
like twenty nine point six or something. Are there any free agents aside from
Wood And that's his cap holds included here, which is that's just so convenient
one point seven million dollars cap hold. By the way, that's just great
for them. Are there any free agents or even trade targets where they can
soak up at money attached to assets that you've given thought about that you'd like
to see them go after with all this money that they have, because I
think they there's Atlanta, and then if we're assuming that New York like doesn't
guarantee any of the deals that they have, like, those are the only
two teams that are slated to have more cap space than Detroit right now.
I believe Miami could get there, but I think Jay Crowder and Dragics have
played their way into some pretty lucrative one year deals. Yeah. No,
absolutely, I think you have. You have the situation flipped a little bit.
Unfortunately. I think the team will bring back Thon and not bring back
Kyrie Thomas. I think that's how that makes zero sense to me. Is
that Dwayne Casey driven. I'm still good years right now. I agree with
you, that doesn't make much sense to me. But yes, that's Dwyane
Casey driven. Dwayne Casey loves Thons energy on a consistent basis, which is
fair for and you know, he plays hard, which is important for a
young team. But that's like all he does, and so like we were
talking about this off air, but like like I was really looking forward to
Justin Patton just like demolishing Thon and training camp. So like Troy Weaver could
be like, no, I'm taking away your pacifier, Like you can't have
this dude who like just plays hard. I'm sorry, Dwayne, but like
now he's hurt. And so like don gets to go up against like Adam
Woodberry for the entire training camp and it's like okay, sure, like of
course he's going to make the team next year anyway. I mean, I
guess it helps that, like you know, was his fourth I can't remember
if his team option was declined. Like no, he's supposed to be restricted.
It's like I don't even know who's giving him, Like they shouldn't even
be tendering him a qualifying offer. Who's giving him four point nine million dollars?
Is that his qualifying offer? Yeah? I mean he was picked tie
because the Bucks swung. I think, wasn't he number ten? I believe
he was a mistaken. Yeah he's ten, But like, yeah, I
didn't I didn't think his qualifying offer it would be five million dollars. That's
based on what you know, I said before we recording, I'm completely biased.
But you get Justin Patton healthy and you give him the minutes that you're
going to give though on that's what should happen exactly that that's my plan as
well. But to answer your your initial question about cap space, I do
there are like a lot of bad contracts. There are a surprising number of
bad contracts out there, considering all the bad deals that we're signed in twenty
sixteen are coming to an end. And so like that was my initial concerns,
like, oh crap, like all these like sour sixteens or whatever aren't
going to be out there. We can't get any draft picks. I think
the Twins like the lone Wolf out there signed in twenty sixteen that's still on
the books, and it's like oh hey, like you know, Al Horford
sucks. Now, It's like all right, like yes, let's do this.
It's like I'll take I'll take Al Horford, but like you gotta give
me like a bunch of picks, Like sure, I don't care, Like
you wouldn't do it for justyb I mean like thy Bill end some picks.
Wow, that's like the thing like I'm like still like, if you include
thy Bill, the picks obviously get worse. But like is like, and
you also got to think about the roster, right, Like can you ever
play thy Ball and Bruce Brown at the same time? I mean, do
you care about how many bricks are related? It's like if you like to
score points, the answer is no. But like, I think my problem
with that one I don't know. I honestly don't know what, Like Philly
would give up to Grease the Wheels for now Horford trade, But if you're
the Pistons, Like, I'm actually still pretty I think he's a terrible fit
in Philly, But like, if he's healthy, Al Horford is still good.
And if you have Al Horford and Blake Griffin and they both stay healthy,
like that might be the way that you stumble into thirty five ways.
That's fair, But I feel like I feel like at that point, if
you if you rehab Horford's value to like that point, it's like maybe you
could flip him again. It's like, or if you rehab Blake Griffin's value
to that point, you can flip Blake because at that point there will only
be what like another year and a half of Blake Steel. True, it's
it's much easier to be like, oh, we'll pay Blake eighteen for eighteen
months instead of for twenty four months. I don't you know. That's that's
GM math. Don't ask me to explain it, you know. So Al
Horford's one guy. Eric Gordon is another guy. I was going to ask
you about him. I have no idea what Houston's gonna look like in six
months. Their owner is like going out of business or whatever. They they
are extremely limited and basically like they built a Mike D'Antoni team and then fired
Mike D'Antoni. So like if you need a head coach, like, I
don't know who would take that job. I don't know who would be a
good fit for that job. Houston is just a really confusing situation to me.
And so the problem there is that they don't have any picks, right,
they already traded all their picks well, and so they can sneakily unless
I'm reading this wrong and I've tried to triple check it, they can move
their twenty twenty two first rounder, and so the sort of like poop poop
platter of sweeteners. I've thrown out. There is Daniel House Junior, and
that pick there has to be some protection on it because there's a chance that
Houston's just got awful by then, Like I could see his near where James
harn just wants out, and so would you do that? Like those two
plus Eric Gordon like, is that a deal that you'd be willing to accept?
I like, that's I'm willing to look at my options right, like
if that's the only way I can get another future first round pick, like
sure, but like that, I'm not immediately like taking that deal. It's
an intriguing pick though, because I'm I think I look at it as like
I've viewed like the that Lakers twenty twenty four pick that New Orleans has that
can be optionized to twenty and twenty five, I see does like a highly
valuable asset just because Lebron will be like eighty at that point. He might
have left in free agency or whatever. But like gms like don't have that
type of lifespan. But in like Detroit, like twenty twenty two is close
enough where if you're Troy Reaver, it's like, well I just got here,
I'm still gonna be here. I'm gonna be the one using that pick,
So if he wanted to roll the dice like that might be a situation
where it's okay. And look, if the protections are like top three or
top five or something, I think I would do it because it doesn't seem
as you mentioned a lot with Tilman for Tita. And then look the James
Harden stuff. He's gonna be a free agent in two years two and then
who knows how Russell Westbrook is going to age the deal certainly is not aged
well at all. PJ. Tucker is going to be a free agent after
next year, Robert Covington will be a free agent, and in uh,
well, I guess twenty twenty two, so that doesn't matter. But if
they want to move him when he's an expiring contract, I think I make
if I'm a franchise, if I'm in front office that believes that even if
I miss, I'm still going to be there in twenty twenty two, I'm
rolling the dice. If Houston's giving up it's twenty twenty two pick, Yeah,
I would. And then you also add on the fact that you like
immediately flip House for another like top forty pick it's like okay, like now,
like I can see that absolutely, but I'm thinking of there's another guy
I'm thinking of, and that's Harrison Barnes, right. Like I again,
I don't really know what Sacramento is doing, but I do know that they
would like to like keep that team together in the form it currently is.
But like, Harrison Barnes is like not really a long term piece there,
And sneakily, he doesn't make that much money. I think he only makes
like twenty one million. Yeah, he's a first of all, he's the
king of entering agency at the right time, and so like he gets there
in twenty and sixteen and he's able to decline his player option and signs another
four year deal, where it's like, yeah, he's making slightly less money
I think when he reslated to in his player option, but he got four
guaranteed years. I think it what was it eighty it's eighty five million,
and it's on a the If you're the Pistons, though, you look at
it and you're like, well, it's on a declining scale. So the
final year is eighteen point four. No, that doesn't seem like a bad
deal to eat at all. No, yeah, and that enables them to
resign boy On right, Bovich, Yeah, damn it, Boggden, and
I enables them to resign Boggden, Bogdanovitch. You know, I don't know
what they're new front off, who did they hired somebody as their GM?
Right? I think I don't know. If I thought they were still looking
and I was not mistaken, I'm going to be that'll be a really bad
miss by me. It's a Joe Dumars. Yeah, we're supposed to be.
Joe Dumars is leading the search for the news. He's like kind of
sort of leading the search. I think, was it Monte McNair is now
like, oh no, they did. They hired mods McNair as their general
manager. Okay, Okay, there there we go. They Okay, So
I don't know. So I don't know. So if I if I didn't
know that they have a GM, like, I definitely don't know what money
McNair like wants to do with that team. Maybe he's not even that attached
to Bogdanovich. And so it's like like that, you know, getting money
off the books to make sure he can keep him long term isn't an issue,
and it's not even next season, like they can do it under the
tax pretty handedly, like unless he costs something like absurd. But I think
it's in future seasons where you're talking about Fox, like getting his MAX extension
kicking in, that's the issue. Yeah, you gotta pay dear In Fox
in two years, and then you got to pay Marvin Bagley the year after
that. Somehow, I'm like wondering if they're even going to pick up Marvin
Bagley's fourth year team option at this point the way things were going out there,
Yeah, that's a if you know, if you could get you know,
if you get that guy as a as a second draft guy and be
like hey, like well, well, it's like you guys don't really like
Marvin Bagley anymore, Like we'll take him in the Harrison Barnes deal, Like
no problem, you only have to attach like a future second now instead of
like some future first. It's like, I'll take a look at Marvin Bagley.
Him and Christian Wood are basically the same player, right, better than
one. Uh yeah, Marvin Bagley eleven point three million in his fourth year.
Like the rookie scales are getting like sneaky expensive for the players who are
drafted higher. That's that's that's a lot of money. But yeah, no,
I'd still take a look at Bagley though. So yeah, those are
my that's my three guys, Harrison Barnes, Al Horford and Eric Gordon.
If you have any more, I would absolutely love to hear them. This
is this is exactly what the Pistons should be doing, is renting out their
cap space for picks, and so sure, give me, give me some
more options. Yeah. So, while I was first going to say,
like, there's no like actual free agents you've looked at that you actually want
them to sign, I think it's it's pretty clear that they shouldn't be like
throwing the bag at Fred van Fleet. But it feels like if you have
some money to play around with, like, do you go after like one
of the younger guy like youngish guys like a doesn't Malique Beasley just not appeal
Do you try and go after Josh Jackson is like a third draft guy,
if you want to call him that. At this point, I like that
third draft. I think all the guys that I'd be interested in would come
in at like the mid level are less and so I'm less worried about the
use of cap space for those guys, right, Like I have some interest
in d'y Anthony Milton, but but I don't know that d'y Anthony Melton is
going to get like more than the mini mid level from anybody. I have
some interest in Nerland's Noel, but you know Neryland's Noel and and Harry Giles.
So I think the King's declined his fourth year options. He's an unrestricted
free agent. But both of those guys are, you know, our backup
big men in a league where backup big men are not very valuable. Neither
of one of those guys is going to break the bank. I have,
you know, some interest in Chris Dunn, you know, all defense,
all NBA defensive candidate like Chris Dunn, but like that, but defense makes
you less money than offense. And so like I again, i'd think he'd
be in like the d Anthony Melton like minim mid level range. Who else
there was? There's a couple other guys. Malik Beasley is like, he's
not the same player as Luke Kennard, but like, you know, three
point shooting two guards who don't defend, Like I'm you know, I don't
want two of those guys, and so I'm don't I used to have a
lot of interests in Malik Beasley back when he was like playing defense and now
not so much. Yeah, I'm yeah, just like this, this team
needs to tinker around the edges, and so like, sure, like a
Josh Jackson for the minimum, why not you look at like bringing in like
a Dj Augustine to be like a mentor to the draft, to the point
guard you draft, Like sure, and you're assuming that like Derek Rose is
gone and what would normally be February, Like sure, you want an old
head point guard around, Like, I have no problem with that if if
you you want an old head big man around, right, Like, you
can always find a guy like a like a Duane Deamond, right Or is
Aaron Bain's is an option rights he's a straight on free agent? Okay?
I would yeah, I would like I'd take Aaron Bain's back in a heartbeat
to teach than Maker. And don't remember what stan Van Gunn he was like,
yeah, we're not gonna be able to keep him. It's like he
was so open that season about Bains and I think that was the KCP free
agency year two. I loved the sound bites coming from him. Sorry,
that was a random asside. No is no. The worst thing that reminded
me that he paid Boban seven million, that he's a third string center is
just like, why so many unforced errors? That's the story of the stampaink
in the air. Just unfortunate head coach of the Clippers. That's actually not
going to happen. But I think, Oh, I hadn't thought about that,
But I like that a lot. Actually, the names I had given
to like not free agents, like looking at trade targets is I sort of
wondered most of because I'm not sure, like what the the actual salary dumping
market is gonna be ahead of last guy, Like you do this same thing
as everybody else where. You'd like slap a four year max in front of
back brandon Ingram. Let the Pelicans match, and like you don't care about
the cap space since whatever, but like on the like two percent chance you
could get brandon Ingram to come here, like you absolutely like try for it.
Yeah, some teams should do that. And if it's Detroit where like
you're not anxious to use your cap space and you just want to tie it
up for forty eight hours. I think it now is like do it.
I'm one hundred percent and to do it. The actual free agent one of
the free agents I thought about for them was west of wand from Orlando.
He's restricted and like he's not the greatest shooter, but he showed that he
could hit some stuff off the dribble and he gives you a lot of positional
range on defense. I've named him as like teams like as a target for
teams that even have like the mid level, just because I think Orlando really
likes him, probably more so than ever with the following me. He seems
like the perfect Orlando player. Says like, I don't know if they'd be
willing to let him go, just as like a guy who like is long
and athletic and plays defense, it doesn't really shoot, Like sorry, arrange
you wing with a question. Jumper has Sam Presty written all over it.
Well that's a good point. Actually, yeah, I actually have him.
I think I feel like the Pacers might make a run at him. But
that's the free agent stuff is like it's sort of like if they can take
get like those type of gambles. And you mentioned someone already like they're either
cheap or like the younger guys. I don't think you throw an offer at
Malik Beasley. He's probably too expensive to poach. But like if you know
the Kings are gonna match like Bogey, like I would absolutely just try and
drive up the price on him. That's a risky game because if you end
up with him, yeah, that's a problem. And this isn't This isn't
the climate like where the nets were, like, yeah, we're gonna give
whatever to Otto Porter Junior and Tyler Johnson and Alan Krab and then we're gonna
end up with two of those three guys. Anyway in the future. I
look forward to Otto Porter Junior getting to Brooklyn at some point, so there's
probably risk there. Brandon Ingram's like a no brainer, but after him,
it's kind of like, you know, if you try to drive up the
price text I'm restricted free agents, you might end up with that restricted free
agent, right or like even like unrestarched guys like like sure, we'd call
up Joe Harris and be like, hey, Joe, like do you want
to like be the like best version of Steve mccailu possible for you know,
twelve million dollars a year, and it's like, yeah, we could absolutely
do that, but like, what what's the marginal difference for that from this
team? And it's not it's just not very high. And so yeah,
like it's it's it's kind of tough playing the free agency game for the Pistons.
This is part of why content for the Pistons is so hard. It's
just because like, oh, we can't even do anything sexy. It was
like, oh, man, like let's let's bring in Netherlands Noel. It's
like that's that's the clickbait. Yeah, yeah, that's that can probably only
generate so many eyes. I've thought more along the lines of like can they
latch on as like a third party in a trade or is there a team
that's out there that that's kind of looking to create cap space? And the
one that I kind of zeroed in on this would be more so for just
strative cap space, is like Dallas has the potential to get cap space even
if Tim Hardaway Junior opts in, should they be able to like dump some
of their like middle rung price deals and so, like you look at a
Dwight Powell and Adlon right like what kind of compensation do you need to take
on those sorts of deals or are you like kind of involved as the third
party facilitator in a bigger deal where it's like I feel like, you know,
in a Golden State deal, Like I don't know what type of compensation
you would need to take on and Andrew Wiggins. But like let's say I'm
Milwaukee where there's like an Eric Bletsoe and you end up with him, Like
what type of compensation would you be looking for in those types of situations?
And just as like a so Dwight Powell has three years and thirty three point
two million left and he's coming off and Achilles injury. The Lawn Right,
who's like a quality player, has two years and seventeen point five left.
Yeah, I would be interested in Delon Right for sure? Is that someone
you'd take on without like needing real compensation? For you would need like some
I think if I'm if I'm remembering correctly, Dallas owns like a future Piston
second, and so I'd probably try and get that back. But like what
I need like a first to take on Delan Right? Like no, I
can you know you could do? You could do some seconds. You could
do a fake second, like one of those top fifty five protected seconds that
like don't ever actually turn into anything. They have states twenty second. I
don't, but number thirty one seems like that might be. Yeah, that's
that seems like a high price. You probably asked for that, but but
don't end up getting it. As far as Eric Blitzo goes, I've talked
to my dear friend Ty Windish about Eric bledso multiple times. Eric Blitzo would
join the long long list of Milwaukee Bucks to Detroit pistons the Highway pipeline,
joining luminaries like Thon Maker Tony Snell. Let me see if I can do
this off. Top man Justin Patton was actually in the He played for the
Bucks G League team. A Brandon Knight played for both teams. Brandon Jennings
played for both teams. Uh, come on, orson Iliosova, Uh,
I can Chris Middleton, that's the big one. Uh, There's there's more.
Uh. But yeah, there's there's a long history of of a Milwaukee
to Detroit connection. But for to take bledsoe he is at he has three
years and fifty four point four, but the final year is like three point
nine guaranteed, so he's really at like two years and it's sub forty.
Yeah, I would. I would still get first, just because not necessarily
because like Bledsoe's an objectly terrible player or anything, but because like you're doing
a division rival of favor? Are you doing a championship contender of favor?
It's like you like, no, I want the broncton first. Right,
they have a first from Indiana this year. I think that's top twenty.
You'd want that. I think that becomes helpful. Like if they want to
go after Chris Paul and okay se he doesn't want to take on long term
money, and they're like, well, we already have a trullion first round
picks. Anyway, if you're willing to find a home for Eric Bledsoe and
like they don't want Like if they're like that first round pick, let's say
the Bucks are giving up another one, like a twenty twenty four first round
picker. They're also giving up Donte DiVincenzo. Okay, so he might be
able to talk to them into like, yeah, just give us like your
poopoo pladder of expiring contracts and then find another home for Eric Bledsoe and so
yeah, or you mean like you could do something like hey, like you
know, okay, see like we'll send its, like we'll send you the
final year of Tony Snell's deal and sorry, he's too good of a shooter
for okay, or like you you give us like the one of the like
four first you got for Paul George, right, like one of the like
the the like Miami twenty twenty one first or whatever, right, like never
when that was considered like one of the tastiest trade chips in the league and
now it's like, oh, that pick is gonna suck. Yeah yeah,
but like yeah, so I would I'd be I wouldn't be mad at something
like that. Uh, your last guy was Wiggins. Wiggins. It was
kind of like a reluctance because I don't know, like when you think of
Warriors trade package, like yes, they have the trade exception, but like
if you want to get like a real player or something that's you know,
if they're gonna go like big blockbuster and dangle both Minnesota's pick and this year's
number two pick, Like it's not just you're not getting back a player that
just fits to that trade exception. Or even step laddering it. And so
that's where Andrew wiggins salary gets so interesting. Like what if they want to
pull off a mega deals and want to keep throwing out like they can try
and get Oladipo and Miles Turner from Indiana because you just have those two ridiculously
high picks and you have the ability to match money. But it's like Indiana
could probably talk themselves and like building up Wiggins because they do that with every
single wing that they get, apparently. But at the same time, it's
like Andrew Wiggins is owed three years and like ninety four million dollars I believe
is the number. I'll double check that to make sure I'm not wrong,
but he's at three years and ninety four point seven million. Yeah, I
don't it'd be really weird to take Andrew Wiggins, because I really wonder like
if you could flip Wiggins again later down the road. You know, he's
still only whatt like twenty five six, and so you're like eleven or something
that's obviously wrong exactly, but but he's a known quantity, but he's going
to be entering what will be his athletic prime, and so like I've seen
some very odd scenarios, right, You've seen like, oh, like you
trade Blake to you know, Golden State. I don't know how that would
work with Draymond, but like sure, like you know that that's how they
get another like all NBA player in there. I would I would be interested
in taking on Wiggins, but like it would come because of the money in
the years, it would come at a very heavy price. It wouldn't necessarily
be this uh this number this year's like number two pick, but like that
Minnesota first for sure. Uh yeah, I don't know if they would ever
be in a position where they'd offload it like straight. I mean I would
agree from the Pistons perspective, if you're eating that much, if it was
a straight cap space or something you obviously need something like that, I would
rather the Minnesota pick. I think that's actually the more valuable asset than the
number two pick. But I don't even know what Golden State's like thinking in
that regard. So I think the first two names for me, and then
I had Eric Gordon listed, but you already talked about him. But I
agree with you. I think that's what the Pistons should be looking to do
with their cap space. I'm just curious to see how aggressively teams are looking
to dump contracts this summer. Yeah, and you know, with with the
global pandemic, with a lot of teams, with a lot of owners who
are facing you know, various levels of economic uncertainty. I do think there
there's like a big possibility that we see some contracts dumped. And luckily Tom
Course's money is not in anything tangible. I think, yeah, he does,
like he's like a he does real estate and some other like less uh
shady stuff that we don't we've actually we've actually talked about on the site.
But but yeah, like he's not hurting for money, right, Like he's
not in He's not in like you know, physical locations in the way they're
like Tillman, Furtita or Herb Simon are and so like, I don't think
Tom cors is gonna be hurting for money anytime soon. They bought a G
League team like during all this, so it's like, okay, yeah,
Tom Course is fine. Shout out to the Suns, by the way,
definitely makes sense to sell your G League team. So I think this is
the question that's probably just most interesting to Pistons fends. Maybe they're tired of
it at this point. Who, like, what is the ideal scenario for
the team at number seven? So the ideal scenario for the team at number
seven is Killian Hayes. That's the easy answer, but it's also the correct
answer. I think you're I know he's been like a favorite of like the
Pistons Twitter, but I think you've been pretty like thoroughly and aggressively driving his
bandwag. I get If I'm not mistaken, that would be correct. Okay,
I've been I've been driving his bandwagon since uh, you know, since
last season when he was playing for Shelle. But like, you look at
a guy with his profile, a six five left handed three levels score at
the point guard position, who is also not who was also a good defender
with the potential to be like a great team defender, who shot you know,
eighty nine percent from the line, who also comes with like a prepackaged
elite level skill in his passing ability. Like, I don't understand why that
guy would drop to seven, especially in this year's draft, but it looks
like he might, and so if he's available, you should absolutely take him
right after Killy and Hayes. Things get a little dicier. There is a
segment of Pistons fans that would, you know, grab the sure thing and
like a a Anyeka, a Kongu or an Obi Toppin, right, like
guys that you know are going to be effective players at the NBA level,
probably not stars, but effective players. There's a segment of Pistons fans that
would really like to swing for a home run. Right. These are the
guys who want like Patrick Williams out of Florida State or Pokashevski, Alexei Pokashevski.
Right. I think that's how you say is I'm going to trust you
because I'm only like I'll say, shin deep in draft coverage at this point.
Right now, right, there's uh and then Troy Weavers. That's something
interesting during his introductory press conference, but obviously he was getting asked about,
like his draft philosophy since he's known as like this uh, this master draft
from his time in OKAC. He said, we draft, we draft people,
not players. So he's looking for, you know, good human beings.
And so when you look at like excellent human beings like Tyrese Haliburton and
Isaaca Coral like those guys are like just a one human beings. There's been
you can find. There's like a report and there's a piece in the Athletic
about how like ty Haliburton could be like the mayor, like the governor Wisconsin,
like if he wanted to be like later in his career, very much
like a Malcolm Brondon type, not necessarily like in on court skill, but
in justin like the way he handles himself and the way he's like appreciated in
the locker room and the positive vibes he brings to to wherever he's at.
And so there's there's a lot of and I like I have heard from people
who would know things that the Pistons like are looking very deeply like at a
Tyrese Haliburton, and so like you know, there there are a lot of
picks. But Killian Hayes is the guy who's always stood out to me.
But the Pistons will have a lot of options at seven, you know,
they'd have more options if they were at five like they were supposed to be.
But what it is, what it is, right, Yeah, the
Killian Hayes from just what I've known and the preliminary, very little research I've
done. His like shooting splits like kind of scare the crap out of me,
just the based off. I know he's you know, he's still young,
but like the like his three professional seasons, like you know, shoots
barely doesn't shoot threes his first years at nineteen point two percent in a second
and thirty nine percent in his third, which is certainly encouraging, but he
just still wasn't taking them at like this huge clip. So I'm yeah,
I think it was it was actually lower, right, Like the thirty nine
is from EuroLeague, right, that's only which was only ten games. Yeah,
and so when he played in the BBL, I think he shot like
a lower like in the twenty nine, like thirty one range. But the
splits are what's interesting with Killian. He's a very good all off the dribble
shooter, which is the more valuable skill. Obviously, it's like the most
I feel like the off the maybe it's like three point specific, but the
off the dribble jumper feels like the most important shot in the league right now,
especially for a point guard. Right, yeah, for sure, question,
Yeah, but he's a really terrible catch and shoot three point shooter,
and like for a variety of reasons, right, like his rhythms all off,
he shoots off the hops, sometimes he shoots off the one two.
Sometimes he doesn't like hold his follow through all the way. Sometimes it's just
like it's it's it's things you know that you know, with time and like
with a good shooting coach, like you can improve upon. And so like
I am really bullish on him figuring out like the catch and shoot thing.
But that's also that like a deal breaker for me because I don't really want
my point guard taking a lot of catch and shoot threes anyway. I want
my point guard like dribbling and attacking and and doing all the things that Killing
Hayes is actually really good at. And so like that's why that's why I'm
like less afraid of like what Killing Hayes has to offer instead of like you
know, you know, you compare him to Tyrese Halibert, and I do
that very often because those are the two guys who are kind of like mocked
as like those the second and third best like point guards available in this year's
draft. Haliburton was an extremely good catch and shoot three point shooter for a
point guard, which is like again like not as valuable and just like a
really poor off the dribble shooter in general. For his career at Iowa State
and Haliburton, I think had like a he was he was the point guard,
but he had like a sub twenty or close to twenty usage rate on
the season and like he was like I alway, stay, it's like only
good player and so like I'm I'm very dubious of like how effective like he's
going to actually be at the NBA level, especially for a team who needs
playmaking and ball handling like the like the Pistons do. But you know,
like if he's an excellent if he's an excellent like human being and an excellent
role player, maybe he helps facilitate like you bringing in a non point guard
star and like that kick starts things. So you know, you don't know,
but yeah, I would go with Killiana. I'm gonna do that a
bunch of this conversation. I'm gonna say a bunch of nice things about people
in the new circle back to like I would rather have Killian. Well,
so the final thing I have to ask you, and I've already kept you
way longer than I thought I would, which is I feel like a repeat
phrase from me whenever I have a guest on what's one thing something that's like
misinformed about this team, undercovered, underappreciated, underrepresentative, or what's just something
you'd like to talk about that I did not ask you that I should have
asked you. I think something that like only people would like we hinted at
it a little bit earlier, but something that I think only like people in
Detroit like really noticed and cared about was the G League team, right,
Like I spent a lot of time like watching the G League team this year
because of of uh Seku Dabuya's development and how he spent the first part of
his year in Grand Rapids. I grew enamored with the professional coaching staff and
uh like the way that they were utilizing the talent that they were given.
The Pistons, you know, had a couple of two way guys and Jordan
Bone and Lewis King that I think deserve rotation shots next year. It's like
that's really intriguing and you have to have give again, Donnie Tendall a lot
of credit for those guys' development and h you know, like I said,
Tom Gores bought a G League team, right like the Pistons. G League
team is going to move to downtown Detroit, just like the team in two
thy twenty one, twenty two. There have There hasn't been any any delays
or anything on that front because of COVID. I think they're still constructing the
brand new arena. It's a very small arena downtown and and so the G
League team will no longer be in Grand Rapids. I think that's really big
for development, especially a team that's going to be you know, rebuilding,
as the Pistons are. It's really easy for a guy, like for a
future guy like say Kudmboya to like, you know, practice with the with
the G League team then you know, right across the street essentially and like
dress for an NBA game or you know, you get in multiple practices right
like you the NBA. The NBA doesn't practices often. You're able to go
practice with the G League team and work on your skills that way, and
so like, I think that's a that's an underrated aspect of like what a
rebuilding team needs. I think it's something that Dwayne Casey especially knows the value
of from the development success that that is and continues to be Raptors nine oh
five, and so that's something that I'm just kind of keeping my eye on,
like, uh, you know, and having said all that, like
is there going to be a G League season next year? Like, I
don't know. G League is a loss leader for the NBA, right they
was like will the owners want to pony up for something that doesn't want to
doesn't make them any money and then nobody watches and that they can't even have
fans and arenas for Like I don't know, but like it's something that vastly
improves the product, So like are they going to do it? It remains
to be seen, But like, yeah, the Gelie team I think is
as an underrated aspect of what this Pistons franchise has going. Yeah, I
think the one thing you mentioned that I just love is just being able to
you could play in the league games and then just just be like go to
practice with the ProTeam or just be back with them. And like the Nets
have done that with like some of their higher like they haven't had these like
higher profile young guys, but they've done it with a lot of their younger
guys. But like that was like a normal for like Nicholas Claxton to do
that or even like a clue Roots or Mussa did that as well, and
so having that, look, having the option is better than not having the
option Phoenix as well, I'm saying exactly. Pistons fans were wondering if like
it's like, hey, we bought the Gelie team, do we get Jalen
the queue. No, you do not get jlen Leque. Sadly, the
G League is weird with stuff like that, where you just have like players
that are but they're like playing with other G League affiliates, but they're not
like members of those G League affiliates. That whole thing is it's less confusing
now because so many teams have G League squads, but it's still like kind
of into the weeds stuff. Yeah, it's it remains amazing to me that
like teams don't value development as much as you think they should, especially since
like the cost is so cheap, right, Like they bought the G League
team for I think like like less than ten million dollars, and so it
was like you could you could pay the last year of Tony Snell Snell's deal
or you could have a GI league. That seems like a really easy decision
to me, right well, I mean when you put it in those terms
like that's a no brainer. Yeah, well, last thank you so much
for this. For anyone who does not already follow you on Twitter, they
need to remedy that immediately follow him at last chance. That's at La z
h A n c E. He is an editor for Detroit Bad Boys.
He is also the host of the Pistons Versus Everybody podcast, a fellow Blueyer
podcasts. Follow that podcast on Twitter at Pistons Versus Pod spelled exactly as it
sounds. Las. Thank you again so much for giving me a bunch of
your time and rest assured, whether you like it or not, I will
be pestering you again down the line. No, Dan, I would be
happy to have you pestered me down down the line. Sometime. You are
taking me away from the fact that you know the Aces are losing terribly right
now, so I appreciate it. Anything I could do to help. I
will talk to you soon. Thanks again, Thanks Dan, Sugar, Ray,
Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvelous, Marvin Hagler, and Thomas Hearns Legends
whose four way rivalry define one of the greatest errors in boxing history. Relive
their decade of dominance the new Showtime Sports documentary The Kings, a four parts
series premiering Sunday, June sixth, only on Showtime