Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 127: Something Positive

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

This episode analyzes the positive for each of the team's young players, in a fashion that is hopefully somewhat uplifting.   (Recorded on 12/17 for posting on 12/21; hopefully nothing outdates it before it's posted.)

Welcome back, everybody. You're listening to another episode of Drive Into the Basket, part of the basketball podcast network. I am Mike, your host, and I'm actually going to do something a little bit different in this episode than I had planned. As I said, last week, my original plan had been to do a, you know, what can each of the young players improve sort of episode. I'm going to pivot a bit from that and just talk about all the improvements that they have made

positive things about these young players. So it would just, I suppose, I felt it would be good. for me to do an episode that's all about what's going on that's positive. I try to focus on everything that's going on. I don't really see myself as a negative Nancy. I just try to give the analysis as I see it. For me, as I said in the last episode, this has been a bit of a difficult season in terms of enjoyment. So I figured maybe a good time to just focus on the positive. Now, I don't say any of this to sound as if there's anything wrong of discussing the negatives of the distance. I feel that all discussion of any team should include really what's going on.

The goods, the bads. Sometimes there's more of one than the other. Certainly for the pistons over the last, I don't know, like 15 years at this point, close to it, no, 14. And certainly throughout my time following the team closely, which has been from partway into the 2014-2015 season onward. Unfortunately, there has been more bad than good. Of course, is more cause for excitement these days than there, in my opinion, and there has been in a long time, just in terms of the direction of the team. So I digress, whatever. I just say, I don't know why I feel obligated to note this. It's just like, I think that every discussion should be open to the good and the bad. I really dislike the notion that that criticism of team is bad, that that argument with a

positive narrative that may not be necessarily factually, 100% factually grounded is wrong. I feel like we should just be able to discuss the Pistons, just discuss the Pistons, discuss any sports team. Now, if you'd ask me about this, about, I don't know, 15 years ago, I would have disagreed and just said support your team, don't do anything bad about it. I would imagine the people I was discussing sports with back then, probably pretty insufferable, and I look back and cringe a little bit at how I conducted myself in discussion back then. Anyway, let's get into it. So I'm going to discuss these players in no particular order, and I'm just going to focus on

young players here, you know, as well as Blayana has been playing and, you know, as well as as Alec Berks has been playing for the Pistons. And I always have, you know, a few positive things to say about Corey Joseph just because I really like him. Not just sir, I don't think he's a particularly good NBA player, but, you know, somebody's, I'm not going to say somebody's got to stick up with the guy. I like, I like Cory Joseph. I don't think he's a long-term piece with his team, but I think he's useful in the present. But, you know, depending on how long this episode goes, maybe I'll get to the, to the veterans at some point toward the end. So obviously the player of most note over the last, I would say about three weeks is Killian Hayes.

So I'll start with him. You've been listening to this show for a while. You know that I've had a lot of criticism for Killian. I've never used the B word. The B word, of course, being bust. You know, young players are young players. It's always been my opinion that it makes, has made perfect sense for the team to keep Killian and continue giving him opportunities to improve.

You know, when they picked up his fourth year option, you pick up a, you pick up a, But for players on rookie contracts who have options, and that's all first round picks have options on the third and fourth seasons, you pick up these options a year in advance rather than just in the offseason beforehand, which is how it is with player options outside of that context, outside of first round rookie contracts. So at that point, he said that, you know, absolutely this is a developing team, makes 100% sense to continue, you know, to give him that year

and hope that he continues to improve. You know, you have a lot to potentially gain. and you have very little to lose. So I've been pretty unhappy with how he's played throughout the vast majority of his time with the Pistons just because, I mean, in addition to being really bad, he's always shied away from contact, refused to drive into the interior,

do certain things, particularly that, which would help his team, which would help him. He's still not necessarily doing that, but of course he's improved drastically in other areas. So if you look over the last 10 games, you know, I feel like he really came online from the Cleveland Cowan-Cabwears game onward. You know, he's averaged about 13 points at seven assists on, like, 46% from the field,

37-5% from three. And just playing very, very differently than he has to had to that point with the pistons. Just playing with a great deal more confidence, hitting, of course, a great deal more shots. You know, that's important. The goodness knows that there are plenty of players in the NBA who are extremely confident in themselves, and they're just extremely bad shooters. but yeah, so one kind of has to go with the other for it to be, you know, for it to be a positive, but it's definitely been a positive for Killian, both of those things.

He hits some tough shots. He takes a lot of pull-up twos, and he's been doing pretty darn good on those over those 10 games, 18 to 36 percent from two. I've said it many times. If you can make that shot, you know, fantastic. That's a great weapon to have. And he's just been attempting a lot of unassisted offense in general. His true shooting, 54%, not great, you know, decent, respectable.

and a massive improvement for him. I mean, that's something I think just should be highlighted here. Killian Hayes throughout his tenure in the NBA up to this point, you know, in his very, very truncated rookie season and his sophomore season. And then throughout the first, like, you know, close to 20-ish, 15 to 20 games of this season, was very much in the running for worst, you know, at pretty much at all times, one of the worst players in the entire league. So this has been a huge improvement for him.

and I think it should be contextualized in that he improved from like absolutely not really horrible to, you know, around decent. You know, still has his warts. But he's looking like a genuine NBA caliber rotation player at this point, which was almost unthinkable like six weeks ago. So I'm really happy to see it. I've always thought that there is a good player in there in killing his body and minds. I mean, he's very smart. He's a very gifted passer. And, you know, he's not the most athletic player in the world.

But you can get away with that. that if you, you know, if you're smart, you have a solid handle. He does have a solid handle, without a doubt. And, you know, when I was high on him coming in to the league in terms of going into the 2020 draft, as I have noted, I was, I believe, quite a bit too high on him. Because, yeah, I ranked him above, for example, Tyrese Halliburton and above a Lamello ball. You know, it's because I had questions about Lamello and I just felt like the Pistons really needed a floor general. So I put him above Halliburton, whom I wrongly judged to be more likely just a role player at shooting guard. And then Halliburton, of course, now is, I think, that's very much an all-start trajectory.

And, you know, certainly, I'd say be a top 10 point guard for a long time, unless, you know, barring injuries or any of those sorts of unexpected things that can happen. But, you know, Killian, when he was coming into the league, he, of course, he had those, the smartest basketball, like you, there were questions about his left-hand dominant. his shooting, perimeter shooting was kind of in question, though shooting, perimeter shooting can often correlate, not always, but often correlate strongly with free throw shooting. And he was always a very strong free throw shooter coming into the league. So there were positive indicators there. And he was a good pull-up shooter coming into, also like in his final season in Euro Cup, which had kind of disappeared until recent days. But all in all, I thought that he could be a point guard and basically in the bottom end of the top 10 of starting point cards, if everything came together.

If he could shoot his threes, if he could be shifting up in the way of the basket, if he had a solid in-between game. Do I think that he's on that trajectory? No, I'd be absolutely thrilled to be proven wrong. I think that Killian at this point is on his way to being either a solid backup point guard, or it appears to be. I mean, he's still got some improvements to make, particularly in the area of getting to the rim, being willing and able to do that. but I'll talk about that next episode where I'll talk about what I think the youth each should needs to do in order to the most important areas of improvement for them. But, you know, Killian Hayes even, if he's on trajectory to be a good backup point guard or a solid backup point guard for irrespectable or even a good team, that's not what you were hoping for when he's coming out. You know, number seven in the first draft of the rebuilt era, such as we can call it, that's still like a universe better than when he was looking like. two months ago, or even six weeks ago. So it's been great to see just back to what he's been doing.

He's been doing really well as a handler, but seven assists per game versus only two turnovers that assists the turnover among that span. Again, it's only 10 games, but this is for Killian. Again, an enormous improvement in general. You know, I'm just saying that, yeah, you can always look at 10 game samples and they're a bit cherry-picked, but this is just such a huge improvement. So, but, you know, among that span and take up the grain of salt, because who knows if this will, you know, this will continue, and it is a small sample size, but I think, I think this Killian is here to stay, you know, at least to a great degree, again, just an enormous amount better than he was. So over that span, assist to turn over fourth among starting guards, assists for game 11th overall,

just, and he's just been doing pretty well. And it's on a bad team, and he gets down on the ball a ton, whatever. I'm just happy to see the improvement. So hopefully we see it continue. And, you know, if Killian can, I don't think he's the, I still don't think, and who knows me about kind of looking like an idiot, I still don't think he's like the point guard of the future. I think that ended the minute Cade came out of the team, I think Cade is pretty much just more gifted in almost every way. But if Killian can be a solid backup point guard for this team going forward, which I think he still has work to do to get there, you know, as this team moves forward and hopefully being a

contender, then sweet, that's a massive win, really. And him being an NBA caliber rotation player is a massive win based on, you know, on how his career had been to this point. So we'll see how things continue to develop for him. Part of me is like, okay, if he can keep this up, if he can increase his volume from three and still be strong from there, you know, maybe he can, you know, be a complimentary starter. On this team, who knows, you know, that would really require him

either of the pistons to kick K to small forward, which I don't think they really want to do because you're giving up a size advantage there. And, you know, if you're having Kate and Ivy and Hayes and on the floor at the same time. That's three guys who want the ball. And that's not really likely to work, but I'm getting way ahead of myself. All right.

So that's Killian. Really happy to see. And I hope he continues to improve, of course. But it's for me, in terms of my watching experience, I still get a little bit frustrated when he's not, I mean, this is a, I don't know why I'm putting in a qualification first. I do still get a little bit frustrated when he just won't take the ball into the interior.

He does it sometimes, but most times he does not. But my viewing experience of Killian has more from, perpetual frustration to actually enjoying watching and play. So on a personal note, just in terms of watching the Pistons play, that's also not quite as important to me. But relevant. I'm happy about that too. Isaiah Stewart. So I'm pretty open that I believe Isaiah Stewart is likely to be a role playing going forward. And also that I'm perfectly fine with Isaiah Stewart being a role player going forward. Most players are role players. So I'm not going to get into what I, it's basically, I'll just summarize. I think it's his physical shortcomings that are likely to keep them there.

just pretty below average NBA athletes, undersized, and, you know, that sort of thing. You can go back. I recorded an episode with Jack, with Jack Kelly around, I think it was toward the end of September. We talked a lot about Isaiah Stewart. I weighed up my opinions on him and his future there. So Isaiah is a role player who's just, you know, who's great in terms of his character and the example he sets and how hard he works. I mean, it's a valuable player.

So there are questions about his position. You know, he's got issues that, you know, his physical issues are problematic at center. His physical issues are problematic at Power Forward. He's been playing Power Forward lately. I still don't really know if I'm sold on him as the long-term power forward. But whatever the case, let's get to how he improved. He's improved because he has improved. Now, of course, number one thing is his three-point shooting.

He started terribly, terribly, terribly in like the first five games. And I don't know why I emphasize that so much. It's only five games. But first five games, he attempted a lot of three. and he was just awful. And I've always believed in Isaiah Stewart's shooting. That didn't really scare me all that much. I believed in it since he came into the league.

But, you know, and ever since, ever since those five games, he's shot about 44% in four per game. Of course, it's a fantastic percentage. Some of it is inflated by garbage time threes in one particular game. I don't think he's likely to stay at that level. I would be thrilled if he does, but that's 44% is pretty darned high by any standards. I mean, not many players are going to do that on, you know, even four threes per game. but he's always had good mechanics.

He's got a good stroke. He's very confident. He can catch it high and shoot it. He can relocate and shoot, you know, with not much time to set himself. And that's great. I mean, this is something not only is a valuable. I've felt for a long time like Isaiah has to be able to do this, even to be able to be like a non-negative player on offense.

So this was kind of more of just a necessity. And the reason that this is a necessity is that Stewart has his struggles as an interior score. It's his combination of poor size, poor verticality, and just kind of average touch. Now, the fact that he's got poor size and poor verticality means that he has to score from below the rim. And scoring from below the rim as a big is a pretty substantial disadvantage. One that can only really be compensated for if you've got genuinely good touch around the rim. And I say this is more kind of like average. So we saw last season the effects of his, again, relatively poor ability to score around the rim,

a season in which he was a massive negative because, I mean, not only was he one of the least efficient scores in a restricted area among starting centers, but as I've gone over him probably a few too many times already, also poor role man just doesn't really have a lot going for him in the interior. So the fact that he can, just the ability to shoot three is at a good percentage is very, very, very important for him. Now, we've seen some other improvements from Isaiah lately as well, just some diversification of his ability, in terms of ability to attack off the dribble. Like we've seen his little, you know, curling kind of hooks from a few feet away. Those are nice. We've seen just him able to handle the ball with a little bit more confidence, where he had really struggled to do so in the past. We had not seen him, for example, do much in the way of attack and close outs, which is still a work in progress.

He can only sometimes get to the rim. He knocks people over a lot and takes charges. I really would hate to be the person in the past. path of Isaiah Stewart. You know, you got to be a brave, brave man to take a charge from that guy when he's going to full speed. Nonetheless, he's showing a tighter handle than he had had in the past, which is nice. How far will that go? Who knows? It's also an improvement from poor to kind of like below average. It's still good to have. And, you know, the hope is, I mean, if he's going to play a significant amount of power forward, that he's got more to his game than just solely shooting spot-up

threes, which would be a very, very limited repertoire for, you know, for a forward. It's, it's not enough, I would say, especially since Stewart, you know, doesn't really have a ton going for him in the way of court vision and passing and just the ability to see plays developing and so on and so forth. So it's been encouraging to see him do some attacking off the dribble. He did some good stuff in the game against the Hornets recently. I mean, granted the Hornets, it should be set over a very bad defense. But, is good to see him do that against anybody. And there are additional things that we, if he could do,

I don't think this will happen under Casey. I know this is meant to be a something positive episode. You know how I feel about Casey. He's not going to get the most out of his players. But you can make, for example, Stuart more, and this is something I like to see more valuable in the interior, by having him, like Stewart participates in a lot of interior hand-up way, sets off all screens, gets the ball, hands it off to somebody else.

if you give him, for example, the green might to shoot those spotted mid-range jumpers in those situations, which he has done in the past, and he's good at them. He's got really good touch on those. If you can shoot them around 50%, that's another thing that the defense has to account for, and so they can't really give you space in the interior either.

That makes it easier for Isaiah to be a passer. It just gives more space to his teammates. Of course, you don't want to be spotting up in the interior. You want this to be as part of a play. But, yeah, in that case, you can't give Isaiah space in the interior or on the perimeter. And right now, defenses are still giving him space on the perimeter, which I would look to, I believe we'll see that end pretty soon if he continues shooting well, because it doesn't really make any sense to leave a player who can shoot, you know, any player who can shoot like in the high 30s on open 3s open at the perimeter.

It's still happening. And the pistons are benefiting from that. But I'm thinking that defenses will start playing him properly in relatively short order. I'll always say this about Isaiah. I love him just as a basketball player, not necessarily. I'm not, when I say a basketball player, I'm not, I love him as a sportsman. That's a better way of putting it. He's super hardworking. He just sets a great example. He's a very high character and he's just an consummate teammate. And who knows if this is really in the great teammate bold of things. But he has drastically altered his role this season. To the point, like his three point attempt rate, you know, the percentage of his shots that are attempted from three point range was 15% in his rookie season and 9% last season and it's 50% this season. And that's actually done great things for his efficiency. In his rookie season, I mean, he was reasonably efficient.

Like, I think high 50s and through shooting. He also wasn't taking many shots. And he was playing against bench players. He didn't start many games. In his sophomore season, he really struggled. He, like I mentioned, was really, really, he had a difficult time finishing in the interior. He had had much to offer either in general. I used to call his pick and roll the pick and clog.

And this season, because he's shooting a lot of three, is and he's doing it at high percentage. His true shooting is in the 60s, you know, low 60s, which has been very good for him. Whatever the case, say it again, I think he'll be a valuable role player for the Pistons for a long time. And he's the kind of player, I hope, is with the pistons for the rest of his career, whether that, you know, in part because, you know, the guy, if you want to say, you know, we're looking at the players who embody Detroit basketball.

Obviously, Stewart is one of those, but he's just a model sportsman. And, you know, on the court, and those are players always going to think very high. highly of. Now a quick work from our sponsors. The NBA season is heating up and there's still so many unknowns. For example, who is going to make the postseason from each conference? Some good teams are going to miss it. If you're looking to get it on to the action, bet with Drafking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NBA. New customers can bet just $5 per game and pre-game money line and any NBA team to win and get $150 of free bets if they do. Right now everyone can earn up to a 100% boost. Drifking stepped up same game parlay.

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That's code TBPN, only a trafficking sportsbook. Miner-Mage, all security restrictions apply, see show notes for details. So let's move on to Sadiq. Sadiq has been a bit of an afterthought this season for a couple of reasons. Number one, he's really struggling at what his bread and butter was prior to the season, which is shooting threes. Number two, he's ended up on the bench. and I agree with the decision to send him to the bench.

He and Boyan have a lot of overlap, excuse me, and the pistons really needed an athletic big out there. So it made sense to me that, and also Boyan has been excellent. I mean, you obviously not going to take that guy out of the starting lineup. So where's Bay improved? The positives for Bay, his ability to attack off the dribble inside the ark. So he's actually improved dramatically doing that. he's doing, he's attempting like vastly more unassisted two-point offense than he has in the past,

about two-thirds of his two-point attempts are unassisted. He's shot about 58% on driving layup so far. He is just using, well, let's put it this way. Sidic Bay is not going to beat anybody with an explosive first step. He's got a poor first step. He's got a relatively poor top speed. He's not a good leaper. What he is doing now in terms of attacking the basket, he is doing by parlaying his, his strength, and he's got a lot of that, with some kind of sneaky, shifty agility. So a Sadiq is very, very strong, of course. Greg Kelser said, I believe, on air that Sadiq had told him that he's actually $2.30, and he's using every bit of that strength to get to the basket.

And he's also using, when I say agility, spins, Euro steps, and he's getting himself into position to score from below the rim off the drive, which isn't necessarily easy, but he's finding those openings. And that's great. I mean, do I think that he's going to be like an elite creator? No, but this is an excellent skill to have. And it's a skill that he didn't have. Like, despite the fact that he's creating a great deal more of his offense in the interior,

his two-point percentage is actually significantly higher than it was back when he really wasn't doing much of that. Though I suppose in the early stages of last season, he was trying a lot of that very unsuccessfully, whatever the case, despite the, the fact that he's creating a lot of his own offense there and they're difficult attempts. He's shooting about 50% from two, which is about 5% higher than what he had managed in his rookie and a second season. So that's good to see.

So even if Sadiq is a bench player and, you know, my opinion has always been that, you know, maybe he could be the fourth best player in a championship team and that I think that still think that would be a great outcome. But if he's a player off the bench and he can get his three-point shooting back, is a player off the bench who can do some creating from inside the arc, creating from the perimeter for the most part on in, and then can shoot, get back to shooting his previous percentage from three on volume. I mean, that's a valuable score off the bench.

You got to hope his defense recovers to where it was. In my opinion, he was a solid defender until this season. I'm not sure what happened. But, yeah, that's a valuable player. As far as this three-point shooting goes, my observation has been that him sort of being in creator mode, you know, that creator mind. set has not been the greatest thing. And the instances in which he has just played within the flow of the offense and just

reverted to perimeter shooting is his typical catch and shoot shooting. He's actually done fine. But when he's on the fore and he's of a mind that he should be attacking off the dribble, he gets the ball, either he'll hesitate, he'll sidestep and take a three, we'll take a pull-up three. And so there's got to be some way to find a happy medium between those two things. But once he finds that, I mean, I see no reason why his three-point. percentage won't return to a respectable number. I mean, he was an elite shooter in college.

He was a very good shooter his first two seasons in the NBA. It hasn't gone away. So I'm confident that we'll come back. But as far as his two-point offense goes, yep, good stuff for Sadiq. I'm glad to see it. Let's move on to Kevin Knox. So Kevin Knox, of all people, did not expect to be talking about him at this stage of the season. I thought that Kevin Knox would be buried in the rotation. I figured that he would be a player who would really only see the court. Well, I guess he would only sit the court in case of a bunch of injuries, which is partially true. It's because of injuries and because he beat out some other guys, well, particularly Hamad Udiala, who also more or less beat himself. He was terrible in the time that he's played. But Kevin Knox also just played better

and got those minutes. Isaiah Livers, so another injury. And of course, Cade's injury kind of propagates down the lineup, the consequences of that rather propagate down the lineup. Whatever the case, Knox came in. He took advantage of the fact that he was getting minutes and he has been a solid rotation player for the last month or so. I don't think he's going to keep up these percentages. He's shooting about 57% from the field and 49% from three over the last month, a little bit less than a month. But even if he regresses down to like high 30s from three, he's still a solid rotation player in that case, runs the floor well, shoots well from the perimeter, does some basket cuts that occasionally produce something. And he's a super hard worker, uses his length well.

On defense, he makes some mistakes, but he's also just highly athletic and long and they're generally not awful mistakes. Occasionally on a play, he would just see him completely screw up. But for the most part, he holds his own to a respectable degree. Now, what's really positive about Kevin Knox is that right now he's looking like a decent, possibly NBA rotation player on a good team. He would just be sort of end of the rotation guy who might play 15 minutes a game. And probably unless he continues to, oh, I don't know, it's hard to say continue to improve

for Kevin Knox because he was terrible in his first four seasons in the league. He was horrible with the Knicks. And then he was traded over to Atlanta, I believe midseason last season, whatever the case. He really didn't catch on over there either. I might be screwing out my timeline here. But it seems like a good dude. I'm happy to see him succeed. And, you know, if he can manage to continue, like the guy clearly has talent, you know,

has raw talent. If he can continue to capitalize on that, who knows? Maybe he can play himself into the capacity of an NBA rotation player who sees to significant minutes. And, you know, I'll reiterate his strengths. Again, like he's highly athletic. He's long. At this point, he can shoot threes. He could conceivably be a vertical spacer. Obviously, there's no need to get ahead of ourselves in terms of what he's ultimately going to be. I'll just, I'll just put it this way. I'm happy for Kevin Knox that he's finally seeing some success in the NBA, even if it's only been a short time. And it seems like he's absolutely intent on making the most of

this opportunity. Marvin Bagley. So Bagley, Bagley, as far as what he has been doing positively, he's been pretty strong at scoring around the basket. And a lot of that has not just been simple finishing. The offense often gets him the ball down low, just shovels him the ball and he has to do something with it. He's done a pretty good job of that lately, whether it's those typical lefty hooks.

We've seen some turnaround jumpers, not many. But, I mean, Marvin Bagley is a strong score. I mean, the guy has good touch. He's a talented score. And, you know, he's given the piston some good points. So just some good points scoring through difficult coverage or on the basket, whether that's finishing or otherwise. So that is always good to see. At this point, 71% of the restricted area in the season, not as good as he did last season with the Pistons.

But last season, he was just basically being fed the ball. This season, he's actually being asked to create. And also, I've seen recently some improved defense from him, at least in drop coverage or just in simple coverage on opposing centers in the paint. He's moving his feet well. He's using his length well. and he's blocked some shots. I mean, we'll put this in perspective. I mean, Marvin Bagley is still a struggle as a great deal as a rim protector,

and he's still a complete disaster on switch defense, but improvement is improvement, you know, and that's been good to see. All right, so Jaylen Duren. He's now a starter, which surprises me a little bit, that I'd usually consider Dwayne Casey to be pretty predictable, and I did not see this coming. I thought that it was just going to be Marvin Bagley. For a significant term, at least,

maybe that Jaywin Durham would take over later in the season. So that was a surprise because with Bagley and Stewart, basically you had Stewart playing center on defense and you had a Bagley, yeah, Bagley playing center on offense. And now the model is basically just Stewart playing power forward on both ends while Durham plays center on both ends. So what have I liked about Durham? Okay, since the beginning of the season, I've liked how Durham looks on defense. I mean, I've talked about how I feel like his defensive ceiling is very high. I think he'll be a very low variance defender between drop defense and switch defense. And he's got great length. He moves his feet well. He's able on switches to stay in a low stance while still keeping up with his assignments and generally has a solid chance of blocking the shot and almost invariably of contesting it. You know, he's still got work to do, of course, in that capacity in terms of learning. But the physical gifts are there, and I think the defensive acumen is there. His rebounding has been excellent. This is something that was a concern back in Summer League, because in Summer League, he seemed to be just trying to fall back solely on his height, his length,

in his athleticism, which really didn't work for him. He really wasn't fighting for position. That has been very different in the NBA. He uses his strength, his height, his length, his athleticism, and then just good, honest, hard work to get himself in position to grab rebounds. He's been an excellent contested rebounder, and he's been good on both ends. I mean, it seems to be making full use of the physical gifts that he has and working hard. So that's been great the C2. He's just, he's worked hard. He's working hard on the court in general. I mean, he's, he's highly engaged. He's always, he's always moving on both ends. You can see him communicating very actively with his teammates. He seems to try to be playing his role to lead the defense,

calling out switches. And of course, the entire defense's switches, but nonetheless, we've seen a security as a help side defender, and including a recovery defender, whether it's somebody he gets past him or gets past a teammate. You can easily come flying into either contest a shot with his athleticism in his length or outright block it. I love his two arm contest. And that's a skill. I mean, it's biomechanically speaking.

It's a skill that to be able to just extend one's arms fully above one's head and still get good lift. I mean, that's not easy. So he's still got his warts. I mean, the guy came into the league very, very raw. And I think the example of Charlotte is illustrative. They had the 13th and the 15th and the first. 15 picks. They decided to go with Williams over Duren. They drafted Williams at 15 because

he'd cost less than they would have if they draft him in number 13. That's what a piss and he's got 13 instead of 15. They drafted Williams because as has always been the case, another Hornets, with Michael Jordan as the owner, they were in compete mode. And by all accounts, they wanted a center whom they considered to be game ready. And Mark Williams, I'm not sure whether or not playing him at this point, to be honest. But Mark Williams was coming as a guy who could do a cell job at protecting the rim. You're going to do respect. job on switches, though he's below average in that respect. Still, that was probably, it would be just much more of an issue for him in the postseason and the regular season,

because if you can't switch in the postseason, you get punished. But he could score it. He's an excellent finish in the NCAA. No reason to think that wouldn't transfer into the NBA, solid vertical spacer. And the starting center was Mason Plumley. We all know Mason Plumley, hard worker, good dude, a bad starting center. So whatever the case, that's Mark Williams, whereas Durham was very raw. I mean, he was coming out of Memphis, very raw. He's got great physical gift, and he's got a lot of upside. But he was coming out of there with a lot of growing to do both, you know, in terms of a skill set, you know, on both offense and defense. And you see it on both ends.

Like on defense, I think he's much stronger at this point. He still has his issues in terms of reading the game at the NBA level, making the right reads, making the right movements, which, you know, makes perfect sense. I mean, Jalen Duren, you know, part of it is Ami B. his age, Jalen Duren, if he had not reclassified, would be playing his freshman year of high school, excuse me, his freshman year of college right now. And, well, how much of it is age is up, as anybody's guess. But he just, he'll need time in order to develop the proper acumen at the NBA level. So is he, has he been, like, genuinely playing well? I'm not sure if I would say that. As there have been a lot to be, to be positive about, you know, a lot to be encouraged by,

I'd say definitely. And I view Jalen Duren as a player with all defensive potential. I think it's really going to be the offense that decides just how good he is at the NBA level. And that's something I can talk about next week's episode. And so, you know, note that I didn't say anything about Jaden Ivy as far as the positives go. That is not to put a damper on this episode. That's because I feel like he's really been struggling lately. He started out of the season actually fairly strong.

but he's had a lot of troubles. I'd say over the last month or so, things have been pretty difficult for him. And some of that I may weigh at the feet of Dwayne Casey, just because Casey's not very good at playing two handlers together. It's killing Hayes who's getting the reps right now. And Ivy's kind of left on the periphery and not really given much shot and much chance to attack from within the flow of the offense.

He's also just making pretty poor decisions. And one thing that's positive for me, with Ivy is that what he's struggling with. These are all concerns that I had before he came onto the team. It's not surprising to see me struggle. I still think he's got probably what I would say is like a top two ceiling in the draft between him and Boncaro, who has been much better than I expected him to be. But I think that it's going to take Ivy some time to get there.

So we're seeing a lot of his struggles transfer over from Purdue. His issues with consistency in shooting threes in which he has struggled. at Purdue, he would go through horrible cold stretches. My opinion is that his form needs to be redone pretty extensively. His issues with refinement and attacking the basket, because he can't do what he did at Purdue, just basically just turn on the afterburners and turn the corner on an NCAA defender and then score at the rim before a health defense can get there. He's going to have to refine his driving.

I'm not sure about how well he's been doing with his left hand, say almost certainly he's doing worse than he's doing with his right, and that was something that he had to work, that he had trouble with at Purdue as well. And then just making those right reads and passes and just good decisions in the floor. I mean, he's a willing passer, but he still makes some bad passes and his difficulty just reading when he needs to pass rather than continuing to drive. So these are all issues that they add Purdue. These are issues I expected to carry in at least initially to the NBA. And I think that there are issues that he can work on.

So that's almost a positive for me because it's not unexpected. and I think that he may not, we may not really see Jaden Ivy in his kind of NBA form until next season, or maybe late this season. I think he's going to take some time to get there. So that's it for this episode. Also, should note, I'm recording this a little bit ahead of time. I think typically I'd record on Monday or Tuesday night.

I'm recording this on Saturday night. Things are going to get a little bit busy for me closer to the holidays, so decided to record this a little bit more ahead of time. And speaking of the holidays, I'd like to wish all of you the happiest, of holiday seasons. So thank you as always for listening. Catch you in the next episode.