Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 121: Preseason-so-Far Takeaways

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

This episode discusses takeaways from the team's first three of four preseason games. ...

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back, everybody here listening to Drive Into the Basket, part of the Basketball Podcast Network. I am Mike, your host, coming out of your date with a solo episode. And the subject of today's episode is going to be a preseason so far of you. And I'll be honest with you, I had planned to do this episode for some time, obviously, this being the major topic at hand for the Pistons. And then I sat down tonight after the game to outline for it and realized that, hey, this is preseason. We really can't take a tremendous amount away from preseason. Of course, it's preseason, but there are some things we can take away from it.
Starting point is 00:00:50 So we'll go over those. The upshot of it is that this may end up being a short of the unusual episode, but let's head right into it. So the Pistons are three games in now, preseason. I've lost all three. You know, that is what it is. Don't really care if the Pistons win preseason games or not. Preseason is a time to experiment and throw whatever lineups out there.
Starting point is 00:01:12 and let players try whatever stuff. I would say the only way in which it is likely to reflect the season as a whole is this isn't a roster that is likely to win a lot of games. I don't think it's going to be worse than last season's roster or that of the season before, of course, and tanking in the late season came into the ultimate records of both of those teams. But this is still a team that's very much more about upside than about immediate talent. and it's a team with a lot of things to figure out. And it's not really a complete roster for the sake of winning.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Now, of course, people could surprise. I mean, Kate could have an all-star season. Ivy could be rookie to year. A bunch of guys could get it together. You know, Killian, Bagley, Hamadu, whoever else. And things could just come together to such a degree that this team is much more than some of its parts. And, you know, maybe the Pistons make the play in tournament.
Starting point is 00:02:06 And, you know, who knows, maybe in that situation, you know, maybe even make the playoffs, but I think that's kind of an unlikely situation. So, yeah, the way in which this preseason may presage, if I pronounce that were correctly, predict, we'll go with that. The season is that, you know, that this team is likely to be near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, I would say. I'll maybe finish 12th. I went over this with, you know, a few episodes ago in a Central Division preview,
Starting point is 00:02:35 actually, whatever the case. So lost against the Knicks. lost against the Pelicans in what was, for me, an excruciating game to watch, thanks to a combination of league pass being really, really bad sometimes, and it being a constant parade at the free throw line. I just didn't find it a particularly enjoyable game. And a little bit better against the Thunder, but the Pistons were playing with kind of a truncated lineup.
Starting point is 00:03:01 In any case, enough rambling. Let's go over what I think are the takeaways from preseason. In no particular order. So we got Bojan Bogdanovich, didn't play. tonight. I'm recording this on Tuesday night. What can we takeaway from Bojan? Well, I say that this is a preseason takeaway because we know exactly what we're going to get out of Bojan. And that's going to be a borderline elite three-point shooter who can do maybe a little bit of attacking off the dribble on closeouts and against really immobile opponents and then plays bad defense on the other end and is fairly
Starting point is 00:03:32 slow. Like we saw in the first game against the Knicks when the Pistons fielded that lineup of Cade, Ivy, Bay, Bojean and Stewart, how, like that sort of nightmare lineup, the nightmare situation I've talked about, well, not nightmare, but very disadvantageous of having way too little athleticism on the floor and really nobody you can play above the rim. And Bojan is definitely a markedly below average NBA athlete. There's no doubt of that. I mean, he's got his strengths. That's definitely not one of them. And so he's really beaten very easily. not very easily, but certainly handily, I'll put it that way. Like, he's not a pylon, a traffic cone, whatever you want to call it.
Starting point is 00:04:15 But he's pretty easily beaten by guys who are considerably faster than he is, and his defensive instincts are not good. So we saw Bojan doing what he does, which is being a guy who can hit threes and can hit difficult threes and provides really high caliber spacing on one end, and is kind of a liability on the other end. And we also saw what's likely to happen if you feel he and Sadiq Bay and Isaiah Stewart at the same time. And it's a definite downside.
Starting point is 00:04:44 But, you know, Bojan is what he is. We can really expect him to contribute at a high level for the Pistons as a four-spacer. As an overall scorer, like I said in the episode, I did about the Bojohn trade, I think was two weeks ago. I would not expect him to be an 18 to 20 point per game score with the Pistons. I mean, he's going to be playing in a month. much less potent offense than he played in Utah. Utah had a very good offense in a perennial basis. So moving on, I'll mention this. I don't think Cade really, the one put it this way, the one takeaway I think there was for Cade, who has had a very unimpressive preseason, like shooting
Starting point is 00:05:24 30% from the field, 20% from 3. I'm not feeling very concerned. I think he'll turn it on once the season begins. I don't think he's being lazy, but I think you don't see the same sort of it factor. from him in the regular season that we saw from him in the regular season last year. The one takeaway I would bring out of Cade, and this is not a good one, is that the careless turnovers continue. And I'm not talking the cases
Starting point is 00:05:47 in which sometimes he dribbles in the double or triple coverage and just loses the ball. I'm talking the instances in which he just makes a bad pass. You know, he passes into a lane that because it's the NBA closes very quickly and he ends up turning, just turning the ball over. So I don't
Starting point is 00:06:04 take that as a particularly encouraging sign. Again, it's something for him to work on as you go into the season. And Cade handling the ball as much as he is and making as many passes as he is. And Will is going to probably turn the ball over a decent amount just because those are the odds. I mean, not everybody is Chris Paul and can handle the ball in enormous volume and not turn the ball over a bunch and, you know, not be taking the ball into the interior a ton and not turning over the ball. And, you know, Luca Donchurch, for example, of course, we know Luca is Luca, but even he turns over the ball. quite a bit. Anybody who's operating in this fairly ball-dominant role is going to have a certain
Starting point is 00:06:42 number of turnovers. But you really hope that Kate can cut down on the really, I'm not going to call them lazy, but very unwise passes that he makes, particularly in the half court, that there's just passes that aren't going to get through in the NBA. And it's kind of an issue that he makes them and that they end up being turnovers. I mean, so that's merely my only takeaway for him. We move on, to who's probably the most popular subject. That's Killian Hayes. So Killian had two very poor games and one, I would say, quite good game tonight against the Thunder. He had a lot of threes. So here's what I'll say about Killian. He's definitely looking more assertive and more confident. And that in itself is not going to be enough, but it's obviously, but it's a pre-right
Starting point is 00:07:26 was it absolutely you have to go out there and play with confidence. And Killian in his first two seasons often played scared, particularly last season. And that's a rest of the rest of, to be for struggles. So the confidence is absolutely a good thing. He really struggled from the field in the first two games. It was just missing, you know, missed most, well, more than most. He missed almost all of his threes. And he was still struggling from the interior. Tonight, he managed to hit a bunch of threes. That was good. He finished a couple shots in the interior, too, which is nice. So here's the thing about Killian. Number one, he needs to hit the threes. I mean, that's non-negotiable. my opinion on Killian is that he's not going to stay in the league with the Pistons or anybody else long term unless he can hit his threes.
Starting point is 00:08:11 And if he can hit his threes, he probably has a long-term voice in the league. You couple that with his defense, which is certainly good. And his basketball IQ tends to make the right play, high caliber passer. So if he can hit his three, it's great. He's got a future with the Pistons. If it's not with the Pistons, you trade him to somebody else. Now, what Killian needs on top of that to do to really, I would say take his game to the next level, but also just to be a lead guard, to really be a point guard.
Starting point is 00:08:37 He has to be able to penetrate. So aside from what I think was one instance tonight, in which he actually made it successfully to the rim and scored there. I don't think he, I think he did it once in three games, to put it that way. This has been a persistent struggle for Killian, even if he's willing to take on contact, and he seems to be more willing to take on contact now,
Starting point is 00:08:56 to accept contact, which he was very averse to for much of last season. And it's also continued to be averse to a degree in the preseason, and like you see him settle for a lot of floaters, you know, a few mid-range jumpers. Those are not high-percented shots for basically anyone. So accepting contact or not, I mean, well, he has to accept contact. He has to be able to get into the restricted area, not only because that's really high-percentred scoring area, you know, whether you're scoring at the rim or drawing free throws, but also because you have to be able to get there to really break down defense.
Starting point is 00:09:28 As you see a lot of short drives by killing him, you know, maybe he's drawn the rim protection alongside his defender, but he has not broken on the defense anywhere near enough to really make a dent in it. He can make the pass, but often his, the man he's passing to is, we're somewhat covered,
Starting point is 00:09:47 and this doesn't lead to a high percentage opportunity, and it doesn't unhinge the defense. I'd like to bring up, like, the heat, for example, or a great example of this, finally got to unhinged the defense, and then it's, like, kick and kick and kick and just kick it around until somebody inevitably. ideally for them one of the really high percentage three-point shooters,
Starting point is 00:10:07 finds an open three-point look, or find a driving lane in there. So he can drive in, make a short drive-in, and he can make the pass and get it to somebody who might be open in the corner. But if he really wants to be able to break down defenses, and if he really wants to be really a true playmaker and generate those high percentage chances, he has to be able to penetrate on a consistent basis. What he's doing right now isn't really going to cut it.
Starting point is 00:10:32 that's not very effective. It's not a great use of shot clock. It's not a great use of a possession. So that's something he needs to work on. If the three-point shooting is there, fantastic. In that case, he can just be a guard on the team period. Maybe kind of like a, I hate to use this because I think it's a lazy comparison, but play a sort of onzo ball role as just really a three-indie guard
Starting point is 00:10:53 who does good passing and transition and play strong defense. Well, of course, of course, plays strong defense. I mean, I just called him the three-inds-ind guard. But, you know, if he wants to be more than that, yeah, that penetration's got to come along. He's got to be able to break down defenses. In order to be a stronger score, he's got to be able to score at the basket, at the rim. These interior shots, he takes instead. Floaters, that's tough to make that shot efficient.
Starting point is 00:11:24 It's nowhere near as efficient also as scoring at the rim. And those mid-range jumpers, even more difficult to make efficient. So if he's settling for those, he's unlikely to be. be an inefficient score and unlikely to be anything in the realm of a potent interior score. But at least for tonight, seeing him sink a bunch of threes is great, seeing him play with confidence is great, and his defense, as usual, is strong. So that's good. So we've seen progress. Hopefully it carries out on the regular season. We'll see. But obviously hope so. Now moving on, Marvin Bagley. So Bagley, I feel, and I've said this before, obviously it's, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:07 You know, if you've listened to the show for a while, you've heard me probably say this multiple times. I think Bagley's future with the Pistons is likely to power forward. I think he's going to have to find his value as a strong score because he's a poor defender, and I don't think that's likely to change because I think it's a question of just acumen of his defensive IQ. And I don't think he'll ever have it in him as an interior defender at center.
Starting point is 00:12:31 It's one of the reasons I don't think he'll play center. And it is even an impediment to him as a perimeter defender if he's playing power forward. It's just an issue of at the NBA level, and you've got to make, even if you're not playing at the rim protector, even if you're not playing the defensive anchor, whatever you want to call it, even if you're not playing the primary interior defender,
Starting point is 00:12:51 if that's not your role, you still need to be able to make very fast reads and decisions against the best basketball players in the world, really on a split-second basis. And that's something with which I feel Bagley really struggles. So if he's going to be able to, to provide good value to the pistons, he's going to have to find it as a scorer. And he's already a strong score around the restricted area. He's a strong finisher.
Starting point is 00:13:15 And I think it's going to be an absolute necessity for him to be a three-point shooter so that he can shoot the three so he can space the four. And he does a decent job of attacking closeouts. And basically, like, he left the game with an injury tonight. But in the previous two games, it had been pretty ugly. Begley had been able to provide very whittle on offense beyond just that finishing. And needless to say that's not going to cut it. If you have a guy who is a pretty weak defender overall, cannot play defensive center.
Starting point is 00:13:47 And all he provides for you is some finishing and some presence on the role. Not the piston's been using the role very much, but I'll get to that later. I mean, it's only preseason, but I really hope to see more from Bagweed than he's shown. My hope is that he would come back from summer, a more versatile offensive player. and to this point he's just basically you know it's again it's only preseason but he was pretty much just
Starting point is 00:14:11 looked like he did last season and last season i think he looked a lot better than he really was because up to the point when he joined the team the pistons had no strong interior finisher they had no vertical spacer they had no real good role man as troy weaver decided prioritized spacing at the five kelly olinick instead of bringing on an athletic big as the backup center So not the most encouraging outing from Bagley. Of course, the season could start and you could look entirely different. Just something I observed and something that I felt I was a little bit disappointed by. Jalen Duren, again, only got to see him for two games.
Starting point is 00:14:51 And Jalen Duren is a very raw player. That was known when he was entering the draft. You know, it was known on draft. And I'm sure the Pistons drafted him with full awareness that it was going to take some time to work him up. and having Nerland's Noel in the roster allows for that. You know, if Duren needs to not play very many games, while he tries to get used to things, if he doesn't, if they don't want to play in certain situations,
Starting point is 00:15:15 whatever else, I mean, Noel is a quality veteran backup center. And Duren has a ton of physical potential, and I feel like you see the potential there as well as a room protector and as a switch defender. And, you know, he's done an all right job, and the odd cases in which he was forced to switch in the two games he's played so far. you can kind of see that the processing speed, it's not processing speed, the experience isn't there
Starting point is 00:15:38 in terms of what he should do in a given situation, particularly on defense, but also on offense where he's going to find value there. He's tended pretty much just to be floating in the easy areas like around the basket on offense. He's made some nice passes which show off, you know, the fact that, yeah, he can, he's a decent passer and generally does a fairly good idea of when to pass. but yeah on offense you see that he's really still learning and learning more than the average rookie needs to and that is what it is yeah he's coming in a very raw player not only is he the youngest player and the NBA or will be on opening night anyway I don't know I made that distinction I guess he hasn't played a regular season game yet whatever he's the youngest
Starting point is 00:16:23 player in the league so not only that but you know he was raw at memphis too and even by the standards of a freshman in college basketball so I wouldn't be surprised if it takes some time for him to come along, and I'm sure the organization drafted him without understanding. So, okay, so there was Killian, who I said was probably the most talked about. It's probably Jaden Ivy, actually, who's the most talked about. So how has Ivy looked? Definitely has struggled from an efficiency standpoint.
Starting point is 00:16:52 And, again, preseason, guy new to the NBA, not super worried. He has been as advertised in terms of his fire. I mean, he was really into it, even in preseason games. in terms of his athleticism. Obviously, that was out there. He drives in, draws multiple defenders. I mean, his passing has been not half bad. I mean, he goes in, he sees when he's not going to be able to penetrate
Starting point is 00:17:15 or when he's drawn multiple defenders, and he makes a decent pass. Like, he's not a guy who's making, like, great reads, but, you know, he makes the pass he needs to make, which is great. Because that's definitely one of his question marks at the NBA level. Can he make the right reads and passes? And with Ivy, he might just be a pass. a guy who can make the right read in terms of I need to pass the ball and make a decent pass. And he's not going to be like a great playmaker.
Starting point is 00:17:39 And that's fine. That's what I expect. But yeah, it's been good on the drive in terms of how he's operating. He tends to still drive right a lot like he did at Purdue. He needs to do some work in going up the middle. He's been drawing a lot of free throws, which is fantastic. He has not been noticeable on defense, which is nice because that's a question mark for him. I feel like if you're noticing Ivy
Starting point is 00:18:05 and he has had a couple of nice blocks that was cool. I mean, it's more just eye candy. I don't think that's something we're going to get from him on a regular basis. But if you're not, if you're noticing Ivy on defense, just given his profile. I think he's not a strong defender. So if you're noticing him, then he's probably doing a bad job. And I don't feel like he has been noticed at all.
Starting point is 00:18:24 He's just, he's worked hard. He's done a decent enough job and fantastic. But it's been great just to see how hard he works even in a preseason game. I mean, the passion is there. Absolutely, the fire is there. And like Duren, but to a lesser extent, I mean, I feel like you're seeing that Ivy is still, he's still got some things to work on in terms of, I think, for him adapting to the NBA, because in the NCAA, I mean, he could really just burn guys, but there's excellent athleticism in a way that's not going to be quite as possible in the NBA.
Starting point is 00:18:56 We've got to work on shot selection a bit as well. So what I'm hoping, one thing I'm hoping for Ivy, it's like dude like spot up at the three point line stop spotting up like two or three feet behind the three point line it makes a shot considerably more difficult it's something he did in college and he's continuing to do it at the the further away three point line in the NBA and my hope is that ivy will end and will eventually not eventually like immediately be put on a healthier shot died more spot ups like right on the line he's been attempting quite a few pull-ups as well that's a difficult shot. I imagine he'll be given the green light to continue taking it, though. And for me, that's about it for player takeaways. I mean, you've seen Isaiah Stewart attempt a
Starting point is 00:19:39 decent amount of threes and sink some of them. I mean, he's only synced three threes and three games. This average 2.7 attempts. But, yeah, 2.7 attempts, man, I have to do that math in my head. But, yeah, he's attempted eight threes, and he's hit three of them. So pretty good, you know, 37 and a half percent. And maybe I got that math completely wrong. I'm sorry, I'm recording this fairly late at night. But I have faith in Stewart's shot, and hopefully it comes along. And Bay is just, you know, trying things, as he did to start last season. Hopefully that doesn't continue in quite the same way. He too has struggled from the field. A lot of guys have struggled from the field. But I don't have too much to say about
Starting point is 00:20:23 Sadiq, though it's been nice that he's gotten the line quite a bit. And speaking of getting to line. I mean, Ivy actually had, just going back to Ivy briefly, he had some issues in the NCAA from the free throw line. And thus far, at least, well, through three games preseason, he shot about 94%. So hopefully that's something he had worked on in the offseason. And I mean, I don't anticipate anybody shooting 94% on the free throw line. But if he can be a high 80 shooter, you know, fantastic. That's great because it's something at which he was very inconsistent in the NCAA. And before we get into bigger picture stuff. Let's first hear a quick word from our sponsor. The NFL action is in full swing at Drafking Sportsbook, an official sports betting part in the NFL.
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Starting point is 00:21:32 That's code TBPN, only a drive-king sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure details. Okay, so just some bigger picture takeaways and just talk a little bit about the offense and about the defense. And it's possible that these won't persist into next season, excuse me, into the regular season, though I suspect that they probably will for the most part. Now, I think there's something that Bear is saying, bears mentioning about Dwayne Casey.
Starting point is 00:22:00 He's a good developmental coach. I think he's proven that, at least in my opinion, and he has. He's certainly proven that to me. He's done a really good job of keeping a good locker room through very difficult times. The young players love him. He seems to put a lot of emphasis on helping them grow and so on and so forth. I talked a lot about that with Omari Sancova, who was on the podcast for my last episode.
Starting point is 00:22:28 And so in that area, he's very strong. As an on-court coach, I think he's pretty weak. He is a poor offensive mind, for one. And though he's better at defense, he's not very adaptive. He doesn't make the necessary changes. And you could say, like, okay, maybe with these young players, you've got to play in certain ways, you know, in simpler ways. Maybe there's some merit to that.
Starting point is 00:22:53 but my opinion is the fact is that Dwayne Casey is, I'd say, considerably below average as an on-court coach in the NBA. So let's talk to the offense. The offense, what struck out to me, I mean, it's very much a motion offense that focuses on generating open three-point attempts. I mean, the piscenceons have taken a ton of threes in preseason. What's conspicuously absent for me is much playing a pick and roll at all for Killian Hayes, for Jaden Ivy, for Kate Cunningham, the first and third of those of whom rather spent a ton of time in the pick and roll last season. Killian Hayes has always been a pick and roll guard. Cade has, lives in the high pick and roll. And you'd expect to see more of that, but there's been very
Starting point is 00:23:39 little focus on that. I mean, that's my chief takeaway from the offense. It's just, yeah, I mean, everybody works on opening up those, just looking to generate open threes, but it's definitely been a particular emphasis on it. I wanted to say almost to an extreme, but yeah, just the persons haven't been running any pick and roll, which is strange. And is that a sign of what's to come in the regular season? Hard to say. Now, if you get the starting lineup that we got in the first preseason game, I would say that's probably going to continue, because you have no role man in that lineup. And while you have one in the second unit, second unit has problems of its own, you know, if Bojan is starting and Bay is starting. I mean, if you have that
Starting point is 00:24:23 starting five of Cade, Ivy, Bojan, Bay, and Stewart, then you don't really have much means to run the pick and rule. And in the starting one-up, you just have to hope to have five shooters in the four and open up lanes that way. And then your bench, like even if Killian can shoot, I mean, you're fielding at least two non-shooters there. So that could get a little bit ugly. On defense, this has been brought up by a lot of people. Just the switch everything scheme. and I mean, I would say that, I mean, Casey has come out and said, okay, we're not just going to switch everything, but, you know, that that'll be a big component. And maybe that's just an easier defense to run with young players.
Starting point is 00:25:02 I don't think so. I think that's just something that Casey really likes to do. But we saw particularly in the game against the Pelicans, the dangers of that. Like you end up with Valanchunis switched on to somebody. It's like, okay, Valentunus is a very strong post score. He's going to score. He's very likely to score on somebody who's significantly. smaller than he is. You can point to Zion. Zion's going to be a mismatch for just about anybody,
Starting point is 00:25:24 but hey, you switch a small guy into Zion. You're probably in trouble. You can have an even lesser chance of stopping him. And so on and so forth. I mean, it's just, if you're running a switch everything scheme, especially if, you know, you're fielding at times fairly small lineups like the pistons are, like if Stewart is your center, who's six, seven and a half without shoes, if you have Stewart is your center, he's the tallest guy in the floor, you've got a short lineup, maybe a long lineup, but it's a fairly small lineup, we'll put it that way. And that opens up opportunities for other teams to take advantage of it. If they know you're going to switch, then that makes it very, very easy for them to get advantageous
Starting point is 00:26:00 matchups. And we saw the Pelicans do it, definitely. The Thunder just have a whole lot less talent. So they don't really have the means to punish anyone nearly as well. But the average team will. And the final takeaway for me, or this is more of just a question coming out of preseason, is going to be the front court rotation, particularly where it concerns Stuart, Bagley, Noel, and Duren.
Starting point is 00:26:25 So it's entirely possible that Duren won't really see much time in the early stages of the season, barring an injury. Because, to my eyes, it looks like he's really not ideally suited to be playing NBA basketball at this point. So I don't know if one end up in the G-League, but I think that you'll probably start out as a healthy scratch. I could be wrong. I mean, to be happy to be wrong,
Starting point is 00:26:47 because it's fun to watch these young players play. But even if you cut out Duren, you've got those other three. You've got Noel, Stewart, and Bagley. Stewart might be able to shoot. But, you know, if you can do that, great. I mean, I think that's going to be a necessity for him in the NBA, period, in order for him to be a non-minus on defense. But then you've got the other two.
Starting point is 00:27:08 If Bagley can't shoot, you start to wonder where he can really play his role. I've said before that I think the likely starting lineup, though became less likely with Bojan on the four. Excuse me, after Bojan joined the team, was playing Bagley at power forward, basically center on offense and power forward on defense. And, you know, if you can do that, cool. I think that's a fine lineup.
Starting point is 00:27:32 If Stewart can shoot his threes, I don't think Stewart's ever going to be ideal as a power forward, but if Stewart can shoot his three is fantastic. You know, at least you can run that lineup this season as sort of a stop gap. But if you have Bojan in the picture and he ends up star, which I think is likely than not at this point. Then where do you realistically plug baguie in there?
Starting point is 00:27:53 Like you've got, I mean, do you have additional questions? Like, yeah, I mean, you're plugging him, are you going to play them at center? And for the back, you know, for the second unit. I don't think you want to play Sid Bagley at center on defense for any unit, period. I mean, that is just asking for trouble. You know, you don't want him on the floor defending at center. So if you have him power forward instead and he can't shoot,
Starting point is 00:28:12 you put him on the floor with Dura and you put him on the floor with Noel. Okay, now you've got twin towers who can't shoot. that's far from ideal even for a rebuilding team. I mean, that's really bad spacing. So if Bagley can't shoot, I mean, I'd say in general if Bagley can't shoot, you've got to be wondering where is this place really going to be in the rotation so that he's not really destroying spacing on offense. And so that if he's destroying spacing on offense
Starting point is 00:28:38 and just providing bad defense, then it's a rebuilding season, but that has an impact upon the other players as well. All right, and to end the episode, going to the episode, to answer a few listeners submitted questions, first of which is, would you start Bagley at Center? I think I just went over that. No, I've definitely not start Bagley at Center. Even on a team that's aiming to lose, I mean, if you're trying to develop other players on defense, I mean, Bagley at Center is enough to unhinge your defense. We saw it last season on those few occasions on which he started at Center.
Starting point is 00:29:09 He cannot make the proper reads as an interior defender in the half court, even in transition. He struggles to make the right decision. so you put him out there at center, your defense is almost guaranteed to struggle, even if he's out there with really high caliber perimeter defenders and the best he's not going to be. Now, I've gone on and on about what I believe is the importance of having a vertical spacer, a strong finish, or strong roller man out there. But if I had to pick between starting Stewart and starting Bagley at center, I would, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:39 if it was just going to be one of them, I'm not talking like a duo in the front court, with like Stewart of power forward on offense and center on defense and Bagley vice versa. If I just had to start one of the two of them, I would still go with Stewart just because I feel like Bagley's impact upon the defense would be so ruinous if you're starting at center. And second question. Do you think these pisons will be remembered as similar to the early 2000s clippers? Those were Elton Brands, Corey McGettie, Quentin Richardson, and so on and so forth. No, I certainly hope not. If these pistons ultimately do end up being remembered that way,
Starting point is 00:30:18 then a lot has gone catastrophically wrong because those Clippers teams never won anything. I mean, those early 2000s Clippers teams never even made the playoffs. They made it in 2006. But that was after almost nine, I think nine years of not making the playoffs. So I think that Kate has a superstar stealing. I think that Ivy has a star season. ceiling. I think that there's a lot of solid young talent in the team. I think that the Pistons
Starting point is 00:30:46 will need to add another major piece in the draft or in free agency in order to really become a contender. But no, I don't think that's going, I don't think they're going to be anything like those early 2000s clippers unless just everything goes wrong. And finally, what would the Rodney McGruder have on it if it was a McDonald's sandwich? I haven't eaten at McDonald's for a long time, so I'm not sure if I'm very well-equipped to answer this question. But knowing what we've heard about Magruder and his very, very positive impact upon his teammates, probably something that would be healthy.
Starting point is 00:31:20 And I don't really know how you would pull that off at McDonald's. Like, you know, what I'm thinking is, like, a really lean chicken sandwich with, like, vegetables and fruit and, I don't know, maybe some goat cheese, but you'd never find that within, like, 50 miles of a McDonald's. So, yeah, I really don't know. That's a difficult question. All right, folks.
Starting point is 00:31:45 So that is going to be it for this episode. As always, thank you all for listening. Catch you next time.

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