Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 112: 2021-2022 Season in Review - Killian Hayes and (very briefly) Cory Joseph

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

This episode recaps the 2021-2022 seasons of Killian Hayes and (very briefly) Cory Joseph.

Welcome back, everybody. You're listening to Drive into the Basket, part of the Basketball Podcast Network. I am Mike coming at you today with another solo episode, part of a series of player retrospectives on the 2021-2020 season. Today will be Killian Hayes and everybody's favorite piston, Corey Joseph. Reasonably speaking, I think the guy has gotten a bad rap he doesn't deserve. But whatever the case, let's launch right into it with Killian. So Killian Hayes, drafted by the Pist and Seventh overall, in the 2020 NBA draft was thought of at the time, and I would imagine projected by the organization or at least hoped for to be the point guard of the future, of course, that went away the moment

the Pistons had the opportunity to draft Kate Cunningham. I doubt that Killian, even if Killian had not had a really difficult rookie season, fraught with injury, but also he didn't play well when he was in. Like even if that hadn't been the case, I doubt that, well, maybe if he'd been like elite as a rookie, like elite elite, it might have influenced the, decision on the part of Troy Weaver and company of whom to draft. You still draftcade. I doubt it, but who knows, it's kind of a mood point. Whatever the case, played a few games early on in his rookie season and then sustained a torn hip labrum, which fortunately did not need surgery for because an injury to the hip labrum is severe enough to require surgery

is often a career ender. So came back after his injury. It was a injury. It was a injury. It was a absolutely awful. Whatever. Pistons were trying to lose. You know, he'd barely played any games before that. It was the NBA. He came in after an offseason in which there was no training camp, no Summer League, whatever else. So coming into this last season, there were some expectations that he would come in and look more like an NBA player. Billy struggled at Summer League in 2021 and came in and had a rough season with Bistons, like a pretty darn rough season. Now, let's talk about what the vision of Killian Hayes is, like what he could be. So I would imagine that what the front office, I'd imagine, excuse me, that their vision for him when he was coming into the NBA,

was of a tall point guard, six five's good size with a point card, who has excellent passing IQ, like just excellent offensive IQ, you know, great court vision. He's a very good passer, you know, more with his left hand than with his right. And, you know, too flashed some, some good pull shooting in Europe who showed some signs of having that step back three. And, you know, if Killian Hayes were a guy who could make that step back three, was a good three-point shooter who had a solid in-between game. And, yeah, if you put those things together and then hopefully some more ability off the drive, then you've got a guy who could be, I would think, on the lower end of the top 10 amongst NBA point guards. You know, that's the idealized vision of Killian, which we really

haven't gotten. To this stage in his MBA career, Killian has struggled tremendously off the drive. Like in terms of his ability to get to the basket and also his willingness to drive into the interior, into the paints, and accept contact. His shooting has been terrible, like legitimately, just absolutely awful from the perimeter. His interior shooting, like his pull-up shooting, his mid-range has been terrible. He defaults far too much to a floater, which he still really struggles. Still has issues going left. He's only played 90-something games. He's still early in his NBA career.

And, you know, there's always that hope for improvement. And there are positives to what we've seen so far. But let's go into this last season in depth. So on the season for Killian, 66 games played, averaged 25 minutes on the dot, 38% from the field, 26% from 3, shot 45% from 2-point range, 77% from the free throw line,

averaged about four assists, three rebounds and the steal per game against about two turnovers and three fouls. A fact of a field goal percentage of about 43% and true shooting, 46%. Both of those ranked in bottom five in the NBA amongst all players who averaged at least five field goal attempts per game and played in at least 30 games. That really, really struggled from the field again, not quite as much as they did in this rookie season in which we're talking 42% true shooting, which was just horrendously bad. but yeah so when it came to just the the way that the season moved along so of course he was

started alongside kate well not started alongside kate kate missed the first few games the season and then took a little bit of time to get going so kylian really got his shot to show what he could do at the outset of the season he was the primary handler it's like okay cool let's see what see what the guy can do hopefully he'll show us some good stuff as a handler he was terrible like it's absolutely and it's completely awful it was he fell flat in his face as the primary handler for the starting unit he was awful at scoring i mean but just leave it at this you know you'd make exclusive of his scoring he was just a terrible handler i know i just said it he could not penetrate into the interior or rather when he did penetrate into the interior he refused to accept contact

he would just throw up a floater or he would give up the ball in a manner that didn't help the team at all because he hadn't broken down the defense at all, or he would legitimately just dribble away. And other teams wised up to it quickly, and they just started confronting him with the rim protector, and that was that because they knew that killing would never actually drive into the restricted area and take contact. So he was not breaking down defenses.

He was really doing nothing but wasting shock luck. And so gradually, Kate Cunningham, of course, took on more of the handling duties. I mean, I feel like at the beginning of the season, the Pistons, the organization, and I know this was, this was confirmed, I believe it was said by one of the beatwriters that they just wanted to see what they had with Hayes and with Cade and makes sense that they would want to see that.

I've got to think that they really didn't believe that there was likely to be much there and given that Cabe was going to be at his best on the ball. Killian is going to be at his best on the ball. In terms of athleticism, you've got if it's Cade and Caelian, the least athletic back court in the league, Cate's more kind of like an average NBA athlete. Killian is a below average NBA athlete, just in terms of his burst, in terms of his top speed, in terms of his verticality. His first step isn't very good for getting past guys, elevating at the rim. Yeah, it's not really a strong suit. Yeah, they put him together.

You know, when there were those four guys in the lineup, Cade, Bay, Hayes, and Stewart, it got a little bit ugly on the athleticism side of things. This was a slow-moving lineup. I still have bad memories of that first game against the Cavaliers in which the Cavs who have a very athletic lineup were running circles around the pistons on both ends. So, well, can't really run circles around somebody on defense, but let's just say that they had no trouble making proper rotations and so on and so forth. So it just didn't seem like there was much to pairing from the beginning. It was tried.

They finally gave up on it around sort of after game 43, at which point Killian went to the bench. It was a much better place for him. And it was a much better place for him in the sense that he got to play against easier competition. he got to be the weed handler. Of course, he'd done terribly as the weed handler in the starting lineup, but it's still a better role for him than to play off the ball because so much of what Kowling can provide is on the ball.

Like his primary assets are his court vision, his passing, and his IQ. He hasn't gotten to a point where you can really unlock those because he can't break down defenses, but he's always, in my opinion, always going to be at his best on the ball. So things have proved for him for a big, it there, just playing against considerably easier competition on opposing benches. Still struggled, but he had a better time than he'd had in the starting lineup. He had a period early in the season in which he was less bad from three, but was still

very inconsistent. And that ended, he jammed his thumb, I believe, at some points. I think it was in October. And from then on, he was just bad the rest of the season. The jammed thumb, I doubt, was really impacting his shooting all that much. like I said, he'd been very inconsistent, and it sunk threes on mobile volume prior to that. And for the rest of the season, continued to struggle from three. He did overall see some improvement in the last 10 games of the season,

that in which his splits, whatever, his raw stats, improved to about 11 points per game, about four assists, four rebounds, better efficiency, shot close to 30% from three. Still not good, but better, better than it was. I have 46, about 47% from 3 overall, which is shooting on much higher volume. True shooting of about 52%, which is still poor, but much better than he'd been managed the rest of the season. And that was good to see. He was playing more confidently.

He was more willing to drive into the restricted area, though still not really willing to accept contact in a way that he's just going to have to, and that the rest of his teammates were completely willing to. And, yeah, confidence is an issue for Killian. I mean, when he's playing more, when he's not playing confidently, it's just, it's awful to see, and he's just terrible. He's just, he's completely ineffective. I've mentioned this before. I got to sit courtside for part of a game between the pistons and the nuggets at Ball Arena back in January. And I got to see Killian up close, you know, about six or seven feet away.

When he was running the offense, he just legitimately looked scared, you know, at the very least very tentative, not much decisiveness there and did not do well. When he's playing more confidently, great. You know, that's, it's important for any player. You've got to be confident in the NBA. If you're tentative, if you're unsure of yourself against the best basketball players in the world, you're unlikely to do well, very unlikely. So that confidence would be a big thing for Killian. Is his confidence the difference between him being awful and him being a decent NBA player?

I'd say it's more just a component of that improvements. There are other things he's going to have to do, too. So, yeah, did better on that span. That was good to see. He was playing against some pretty darn. easy teams through that stretch at times rather, not all of them, I suppose. But, you know, credit where credits do, he improved. I'd say he still wasn't a particularly good NBA player, but he did improve. And this is something that I'll call Killian context is that, you know,

in terms of talking about this season, you've got to put it in the proper context, which is that he started at a really, really, really, really low baseline. And when it came to early in this last season and it's the end of his rookie season. I mean, he was bad, like, legitimately, like, one of the, yeah, just really bad. Up to, you know, up to that last portion of the season in this last season, he was one of the worst offensive players in the NBA. I mean, no buts there, like, legitimately terrible. You know, just an incredibly inefficient score. I could not break down defenses enough to really bring his passing to bear. And it was just a gaping minus. improved in that last 10 games.

So where was Killian strong this last season? You know, aside from those last two games on offense, 10 games on offense rather, which again, I would say he was more just kind of getting closer to being somewhat decent rather than actually good. Yeah, that big game against Oklahoma City. OKC was fielding effectively a G-League team. I mean, this is a Thunder roster that waived a player,

almost certainly because he was playing too well down the stretch. And Killian scored 26 points. he did it on 25 opportunities against a pretty, against a terrible team, like just legitimately terrible team. I was still settling for a lot of floaters. This is another thing, like even down the stretch of the season, he was more willing to drive in an accept contact. He was still not particularly willing.

Like in those last 10 games, he attempted nine free throws in 10 games, which is just an indication of, you know, how it just is continued insufficient willingness to take that contact. I don't know if it's because of his hip injury or what, but he's got to be willing to take that contact, not only because he's got to be willing to risk it in order to drive into that restricted area and get that high percentage offense at the rim,

but also because you take that contact, you get the free throws. That's very high percentage offense. But finally, it's just you've got to be willing to risk it so that you can do your job, so you can go down and down in there and break down defenses. I may know ifs and Sands or Butts. And I think based on what I've seen of Killian, tape in Europe, which isn't extensive.

He just didn't really need to deal with contact in that environment. I mean, he could make his way to be played in a system that absolutely catered to him. And he could generally just on the basis of his physical gifts and his skill gets the basket without needing to run into anybody, but that's not going to hold in the NBA. And if Killian does not become more, well, not just more able, but entirely willing to drive into the paint and risk that contact, then I don't see. him ever realistically being an effective offensive player at the NBA level. Now you might say, well, Wanzo Ball does it. Okay, it's true that Wanzo, who pretty much refuses to drive in and accept

contact, is an effective NBA player. There are a couple other things about WANZOZE. I mean, number one, he's an elite three-point shooter on high volume, like period, an elite three-point shooter. And that's a necessary part of him being effective despite his general refusal to drive into the interior. Number two is that Wanzo is very context dependent. So he's only likely to function well in your offense if he's being played alongside a couple of creators who free him from really needing to do much as a score other than just shoot open threes. And you can say, okay, well, the Pistons have Kate Cunningham and hopefully Jaden Avi will pan out that way. Okay. Now your issue there is that if you put Killian into the starting lineup,

then you're basically dooming yourself to a relatively unathletic starting lineup by default, which is far from preferable. And if you play him off the bench, and it's like, okay, you've got to have him still playing next to creators there because he's not going to do it for himself. Wanzo is a 3-and-D point guard, more or less play shooting guard.

I mean, it's a very unusual niche, and it takes certain things to make it work. Yeah, like in Chicago, he was playing with Marta Rosen and Zach Levine, both, like, super athletic creators. In New Orleans he was playing with Zion and with Brandon Ingram, you know, pretty athletic guys, strong creators themselves. He's got to have that proper fit.

So, like, I guess I can revise that, like, maybe killing can be an effective offensive player if he can't, you know, if he can't or refuses to penetrate into the pains. But it would be a waste. And also things are really going to have to cut right with his development as a shooter. And we're talking elite, not just pretty good. because he's not going to be doing much other than shooting open threes and Alonzo rule. All right, well, let's move on to what Killian did well last season.

There wasn't a lot of it, but there was some. Now, his strong area, obvious strong area was his defense. So give it to Killian, he's a strong defender, absolutely. I don't think that should be denied. He's really a bulldog. He works hard. He's physical. He's smart.

He just generally knows what to do the right decision to make. and that's good. And against certain, you know, against most other guards, he did well. You know, he was able to play very good defense, for example, against Trey Young, and was able to handle himself against larger players as well. No, you know, he's fairly strong despite the fact that I think at this point he's still less than 200 pounds. He's able to hold his ground positionally. He's able to poke the ball out when he's posted up and so on and so forth.

So, yeah, definite defense of potential. where he does struggle and where he did struggle last season was against those explosive guards. John Morant, for example, Russell Westbrook, I mean, when he was attacked in the pick and roll, even when he was attacked in isolation by those guys, he struggled. Killian's got a poor first step on both sides, both ends, rather. So he's got a poor defensive first step. If somebody is going to explode past him or is just going to run him around to pick, he's going to have a lot of trouble keeping up. And yeah, a lot of players have trouble with those explosive guards. But with Killian, it's like, you know, if you're going to get

eaten in isolation, but more if on the pick and roll you're run into a pick and then suddenly you're five feet behind your man, then it's trouble. There was one game against the Grizzlies in which this is back when Killiam is still starting next to Cade. And Casey put him on Morant for about five minutes before taking him off and putting Cade on Moran for the rest of the game because Killiam was getting put in the pick and roll. It's smash into Adams and that would be it. So that's something he's going to have to work on because that's going to be a big incompleteness, so to speak, in his defense. It's like, okay, you know, you're a strong defender overall, but there are certain guys who can just buzz saw you. That's going to be a problem. But overall on defense,

good. Would I say, would I say elite? No, I would say if he could handle those explosive guys, if he can grow to be able to do that. And one thing he can do is stop running completely upright when he's trying to navigate picks because, yeah, the biomechanics of that are far from ideal, then sure, you know, maybe you might have a high level defensive guard and that's helpful. Now, is it enough? You know, that's okay. He can play high level defense in that case and you can make some passes. I would say absolutely, you know, almost certainly not because in that situation, you are still a substantial minus on offense. Not only a minus, not only is there an opportunity cost for fielding you because you're nothing as a scorer and you're a spacing liability

and so on, but also you're playing, and not only in that way are you just creating problems for your teammates also, but you are also playing when another player who is not a major offensive minus could be playing instead. So let's move on to what Killian needs to do better. Now, as I said, we did see some progress offensively last season, starting from a very, very low point, but he did show some progress by the end of the season. So what does Killian need in order to be an effective bench guard in the NBA? Because even playing as he did wait in the season, this is a guy who would be very unlikely to see any minutes on a playoff team. Like almost vanishingly, I'm likely to see minutes in a playoff team because he was still a very unreliable shooter.

It still was really not sufficiently breaking into the interior to break down defenses and so on and so forth. So if Killing can develop himself a reliable three-point shot, we're not talking like 34%. We're talking like pretty high up there, like a solid 37-38 percent reliably. when left open. Okay, then, cool. In that case, Killian probably carved himself out in NBA career. It might not be a very good career if that's all he can offer. But, you know, a guy who can make some good perimeter passes who's going to make the right decisions on offense more often than not, because his offensive IQ is very, very high. And, you know, you can space the floor in that case, and he can play good defense. It's like, cool. Then you've got a decent bench guard,

and you've got a high likelihood of staying in the NBA. Now, in order for Killian to be, an actual good lead handler for the bench unit of any team. I see it in that case. Three point shot. Still need that. Like, no butts. Unless you're absolutely incredible on the ball and have an offense basically built around you, like Janus, for example, you have to be able to shoot as perimeter player.

Like Jimmy Butler also gets away with it, Jimmy Butler, at least in the postseason, as a superstar caliber player who's generally surrounded by shooters and also gets to play under Eric Spolstra, who can compensate for things that basically no other coach can compensate for. I mean, the guy is just, in my opinion, an absolutely amazing coach. But yeah, Bubler still, just an on-ball superstar, particularly in the postseason. And again, yeah, generally has shooters all around. Maybe not at center, but Bamadabio has his own sort of spacing that he provides, whatever. That's a different discussion.

So got to have the three-point shot in any case. If he wants to be a good backup point guard for a good team, got to be able to drive into the interior, got to be willing to drive into the interior, got to be able to score in the restricted area at a high percentage. Now, Killian did actually score at a pretty high percentage, or a respectable percentage, about 61% in the restricted area last season, which looks good until you look further in the stats

and see that he was actually pretty awful when he was creating offense than into the restricted area. He finished a lot of offense in the restricted area that was created for him by others. So, yeah, it's got to be able to drive in and score at a decent percentage of the restricted area on decent volume. Be breaking down defenses enough that he can bring that excellent basketball IQ, that excellent court vision, that excellent passing of his to bear. And improve a shot selection, which to this point has been awful. It just takes way too many floaters again because I think he just doesn't want to drive in. It takes a lot of mid-range jumpers, which he is absolutely awful.

Not sure what happened in between a Euro Cup and the NBA in that capacity because he was actually a fairly good pull. up shooter in Eurocup and pull-up shooting is a skill that should translate. But in any case, so got to be able to do that. Have to become better with your left hand, or excuse me, with your right hand, of course. I mean, this is one of the main concerns with Killian coming into the league. And it should be noted that Troy Weaver thought that Killian was going to be readier in the NBA than Stewart, then Bay, then saving Lee for what it's worth when he was giving his press conference after the 2020 draft. He said, that's something that he affected. effect of, I'm just paraphrasing, I put it that way, of I think Killian may be, you know,

maybe further along in his development or maybe more ready because he's already been a professional for a long time. That turned out not to be the case. But Killiam was not considered a project player from day one. But in any case, so driving in, scoring the restricted area, shooting threes that are a restrictable percentage. And for reference, Killiam was well below 30% on, I think he was like, well, if we consider 28.5% well below, I believe that's what he was at on wide open threes last season, something 26% on mostly open threes and so on. So got to be able to hit those at a high percentage. Don't take stupid shots. Be a more efficient player, take efficient shots. I mean, I know that sounds like it's a lot to ask, but this is what

any good backup point guard is going to be able to do, you know, drive in, score at the rim, get fouled, you know, take free throws, break down defenses, you know, pass to your teammates. You know, as a result of defense is being broken down. You know, yeah, past your teammates, be able to space the floor when you're not on the ball. That sort of thing. So, or not that sort of thing. I mean, those are just necessary skills for a point guard in this league. And you obviously want Killian as your backup to also be able to step in and be your starting point guard if necessary.

That's not okay for him to just be kind of barely good enough at the things that are necessary. for him to do in order to be a point guard in this league. He's got to be able to step in and do a decent job if, you know, if, uh, Cade, for example, who's, of course, basically the effective starting point, or point guard of the starting lineup, whatever lead ball handler is injured, then you have Killian probably is going to need to step in. He's got to be able to perform it at a good level in the starting lineup too, not at a start a level, but at a good level. So in some, which you're looking at with Killian. Saw some improvement last season, especially toward the end. Great to see. Still has a long way to go if he's going to be like a legitimately good rotation player,

like a solid backup point guard on a playoff caliber team, like let alone a contender. So long way to go. Good to see progress. We need to see more progress. Like quite a bit more progress this season. Now is it a make or break season for him? What about hard to say? I think that Killian will get until the trade deadline of his fourth season before the team does anything with him, you know, if he's still performing badly. And the fact is that right now he has hardly any trade value. If he performs poorly next season, he's still going to have hardly any trade value. It doesn't really make sense to sell low in that capacity just to get a guy off your roster. You know, unless you really want that cap space and you can just dump him, but I don't think that's likely

to be the case for the pistons who are going to have a gigantic amount of cap space next offseason anyway, and an offseason in which there's going to be very little realistically attainable start talent available anyway. But that's a different story. And cap space is useful for other things too. You know, you take on bad contracts. You are able to send no salary back in a trade and so on and so forth. In any case, I would say that even if the pistons were to hold on to him after a bad third season, which again, I think that they would do, his position of the organization would become a lot less secure. At this stage, Killian is the defective backup point guard. He's got that spot. The team is playing him there. And if he's bad,

this season, then, you know, come the summer, you know, come free agency, even come the draft. Maybe the Pistons don't consider him at all in that situation. And if I were them, I wouldn't. So I don't think that it will be the end of him with the Pistons if he doesn't perform well, or if he doesn't show a great deal of progress next season. But I do think that he'll go on, I don't know, you could call it double secret probation, you know, to use a figure of speech. Like he will base his future with the organization will be on Den Ice. and he also just won't be guaranteed the opportunities he has right now. So I have confidence in Killian, if you can have confidence in himself and work on his three-point shooting

and work on using his right hand properly because he's still incredibly left-hand dominant and that's going to be a big problem for him in the NBA if he can't fix it. And yeah, work on that scoring at the rim and continue honing your defense. Cool. Yeah, I mean, there's a good NBA player in there. He's just got to make it work. Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. Of course. All right.

Moving on to a very, very short review of Corey Joseph, the man, whom I believe was unfairly pilloried last season. But first, a quick word from our sponsor. The action never ends at drafting sports book, especially this summer. With tons of waste, bed on all your favorite sports, you can fuel your fandom and feel the heat of the season like never before. Plus, right now, drafting sportsbook is giving new customers a risk-free bet up to $1,000. That's right.

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and under major eligibility restriction supplies. You show notes for details. All right, so the stats. played 65 games, started in 39 of them, right after Killian, went off to the bench. It was Corey Joseph who replaced him in the starting lineup. Average eight points, three and a half assists, about three rebounds. Only turned the ball over about less than one and a half times per game. Corey's always been very, very safe with the ball. And, yeah, averaged about 24 and a half minutes.

Shot 44.5% from the field, 41% from three. He was the team's best spacer by percentage. aside from Rodney McGruder who really didn't play very much. And, you know, 58% true shooting, so on and so forth. So am I saying that Corey Joseph was a legitimately good NBA player last season? No. He was starting a shooting guard for one of the worst teams in the league. Corey was a stopgap.

And there was a reason he was in the starting lineup. I know that there was, you know, he was a subject of a lot of criticism because it's like, why is Corey Joseph in the starting lineup for this team? The reason that's Corey Joseph was in the starting lineup for this team was at number one, he was a qualified handler. You know, he can handle the ball at the NBA level. He's dependable in that capacity. He pounds the ball a lot.

And I remember looking at the stats about that the NBA has about touches. And I think that his ratio of dribbles per possession, dribbles per touch rather, to points per touch. It might have been the worst in the entire NBA amongst high volume handlers. But he can handle the ball, which nobody else in this team, but Cade could do effectively. Killing couldn't do it. Saving Lee, of course, couldn't do it.

I'll talk about Saban in another episode. He had a really bad season. And so putting Corey in the starting lineup meant that Cade was not required to handle the ball on every single possession. He had some help. He wasn't being driven to exhaustion. And it was an asset for him. Beyond that, Corey's a veteran. He's a steady, dependable presence.

He generally makes the right decision. That's helpful again. For Cade in particular, it's helpful to have a guy like that next to him in the back cord who can handle the ball. And number three, and I mean, I mean, Corey would have been the starting lineup regardless, but he actually was an effective floor spacer last season. On small volume, you know, he only averaged about one three per game, but he shot them at upwards of 40%.

So what was Corey? Just an effective veteran to have in the lineup last season. Is he a good NBA player at the stage of his career? I'd say he's a below-average backup caliber player. He's got just this one season left on his contract, but he's also, by all accounts, a veteran leader. His teammates will love him. he's a super hard worker

and that's the value that Corey Joseph brings and that's the value he brought last season and presumably the value he'll continue to bring he might not actually see any minutes this season and I'm not even going to go into a section of what can Corey Joseph do to improve because it's very unlikely

he's going to improve at this stage. He probably is what he is. Who knows, maybe he'll keep up his three-point shooting in which case, you know, if he's a 40% plus three-point shooter coming off the bench then maybe he sticks around in the NBA after this as prior to this last season that was kind of endowed, aside from as a depth player. I mean, Corey Joseph could stay in the NBA as a minimum salary player for a long time.

But would he actually have, you know, a place in the rotation for a decent team? If he can shoot threes at Delbert's a 40%, maybe. But I'm not even going to go into what he can improve in. I mean, he's there next season. He might not play very much. He's a third string point guard. It's now a crowded rotation. He's a guy whom I think would be likely as to see time in case of injuries or in case of

the pistons just desperately needing shooting, which is not an entirely impossible situation to envision. If Killian continues to be bad, if Hamadu is bad, if Marvin Bagley continues to be bad, who knows, I mean, if Corey Joseph can make those shots, then putting him in there for the sake of fielding a functional offense may be worthwhile. On the other hand, he may just see very few minutes at all if everybody is healthy and if that particular sector of his skill set, isn't needed. And also, who knows, there's no guarantee he'd be able to replicate that because this was his best shooting performance in the NBA by a substantial margin. Whatever happens, I think we can be confident that he'll provide the same brands of

veteran leadership and example setting and mentorship and so on that he's provided at this stage. And I don't think he really particularly cares, well, I wouldn't say that he doesn't particularly care, but I think he fully understands what his role on this team is and would not be super upset if he doesn't receive minutes. I think that there, as far as I could tell, there was a game last season in which Saban Lee was playing really well. And I think that Cory Joseph actually in that situation went to Duane Casey and said, you know, just sit me. I don't need, you know, let Saban play. He's have any great game. I think that's the sort of character that Corey Joseph brings to the table. Anyway, folks, that'll be it for today's episode. As always, want to thank you all for listening.

Catch you next time.