Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 131: Mailbag!

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

This somewhat-meandering mailbag answers listener-submitted questions.   Sorry for the lack of an episode last week; some difficult things were going on.

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 back after a week's hiatus without getting too much into the reasons. It was for some, excuse me, missed recording because of some real-life happenings. It wasn't due to the absolute and utter miserable mess that this season has turned into. But we're going to be talking about that today. So just one small thing I want to get into, and I don't spend too much time on Twitter.

Social media has just never been my thing. I've on and off thought about just having more of a presence on Twitter, but for some reason, and maybe I will, but for some reason, social media just kind of sets me on edge a little bit. It's nothing against anybody on there, but a phenomenon I have become aware of, and we've seen this in some recent seasons as well, and this is just something that happens on the Internet, and there are bad apples on social media. You know, that's just how it is, and the vast majority of people will not do this, but I just want to send out, I suppose a few words of support to the Pistons beat writers. Often during times when the team is really struggling, the beat writers,

people who write about the team can become very, whatever, they can become kind of targets of abuse for people who are, for some people. Again, these are just a group of bad apples who are feeling agitated about the course of the season. And I suspect just want perhaps these writers to just go full force and just completely an absolutely attack and castigate the team, which is obviously not going to happen. It's just not something that writers for a team are going to do, nor should they. Whatever the case, I think that perhaps for all of us, the kind of golf created by the internet, the fact that we're interacting with somebody through a computer screen can make it easy

to forget that these are real people and that being attacked constantly, even by people you don't know, is going to be a difficult experience. So again, I just wanted to put out just a brief word of support for them. And what I have no doubt has become a pretty difficult season for them, both in terms of how the season is gone, and also in terms of what some of the fan reaction to them has been. All right, so now on the immediate episode, I have decided it's actually been a while since they did this on a mailbag episode.

So put out a call for questions. This was to the Pistons Discord community. Check it out if you haven't. Just search for Detroit Pistons Discord on Google, and it'll be the first thing that comes up. So I want to thank everybody who help me out by submitting questions. Just the first, a couple of general questions I want to get to that I've seen all over the place. Number one is do we fire Dwayne Casey this season.

And everybody who listens to the show knows that I do not have a high opinion of Dwayne Casey as an on-court coach. I think he is a very, very below average on-court coach. I think that that has been the case for a long time. I think he got away with it in Toronto because, you know, for the most part, like during his last four or five seasons there, he had Wowery and DeRosen, who were basically elite, give you the ball and score guys, and he really relied upon that. And when it didn't work in the playoffs,

he pretty much fell apart. And I think, I mean, I remember watching Game 4 of that first round upset sweep in 2015, the Wizards beat the Raptors, and just watching Game 4, just them absolutely plastered the Raptors and thinking, man, you know, Duane Casey was a good floor raiser for this team, but they got to get rid of him if they want to win.

in the event, he limped on for another three seasons before he got fired and brought on by the Pistons. I think it bears remembering to win games. This was when we still had this Griffin, Drummond Jackson trio with a complete and utter mess of a roster aside from that. And they brought in Dwayne Casey to win games, Dwayne Casey, who is not a coach who's going to win games in today's NBA. I think that not only does he have his inherent flaws, which I believe that he's very unimaginative. He's a very below average offensive coach, and he's very bad at adapting to circumstances. These are all things that were ruinous falls in the playoffs. And we even saw it a little bit for the Pistons and the sweep at the hands of the Bucks, and the Pistons, we're going to lose that

series anyway, badly, probably, even if Griffin had been playing all four games. But you see Dwayne Casey trot out in game on a lineup of Reggie Jackson, Wayne Ellington, Bruce Brown, Thonmaker, and Andre Drummond, that is three non-shooters. At a lineup, I suppose, that maybe he believed would be able to compete on defense, excuse me, but had no hope of, but they weren't going to compete on defense for the bucks in any case, but they had also had absolutely no hope of being a solid offensive line.

I mean, they were going to fall behind on offense to matter what. You have, like, Luke Canard, for example, who's your best beer shooter. Wanted to start him. It took Dwayne Casey until game two to make some very simple decisions in terms of the lineup. And, like, sure, that was some adaptation. but you like go into game one.

You can't just throw a playoff game because you want to make bad decisions at game one. Whatever. I'm getting sidetracked. So, yeah, Dwayne Casey, I think very below average coach on the offense, excuse me, on, in terms of in game operations, particularly on offense. I think he makes bad decisions. I think his rotations are suspect. I think he doesn't adapt. I think his offense is just painful to watch.

He's terrible in the late game. And would I fire, you know, if I were in charge of, if I were Troy Weaver, despite all that I, I've said, would I fire Dwayne Casey? And despite all that I have said about Dwayne Casey throughout his entire 10 years coach, would I fire Dwayne Casey mid-season? Where we are right now, my answer is no. And here's my reason. So I say what you will about Dwayne Casey.

Well, I've certainly said plenty about Dwayne Casey as an on-court coach. He does have some strengths. He's a decent developmental coach, not in all situations. Like, for example, I have some doubts as far as how he's handling Ivy this season. But I know I just said decent, but I'll call him a solid defensive. a solid developmental coach, rather, given his track record. And he also runs a good locker room. He has managed to, his players like him, he has managed to keep the locker room together.

I mean, keep problems from erupting at all. We have not heard a single thing about discontent or difficulties in the Pistons locker room over the last two and a half seasons. The worst that we've seen was Hamidu Diolo getting a little bit pissed off at him in the early stages of last season. And, you know, but aside from that, it's been two and a half seasons of a grinding rebuild. And we haven't heard anything. He seems to run a very good locker room, and things stay fine despite a lot of losing, like a lot, a lot of losing. And as far as would things improve this season, if you were to replace Casey with a considerably better on-court coach, I would say not substantively, you know, not enough given, well, given two circumstances, really, given number one, the talent that's on the team right now, the roster has some issues.

Needless to say, I mean, this is a roster that can't play defense and does not have enough offensive firepower. So do I think that, I mean, maybe the Pistons squeeze out a few more wins in close games. But, you know, the season, let's put it this way. Like, the Pistons are not going to win substantively more games this season, but might they be a little bit more enjoyable to watch? You know, that's entirely possible if you replace Casey with a pretty good coach. But are they going to win a more, you know, an amount more games that is going to be meaningful? No, and this brings me to point number two, which is that the season has lost. I mean, it is irretrievably lost.

I know that some people were hoping that the Pistons would make the plan. I thought that probably, I think that my preseason projection, but, you know, this was pre-K, getting injured, of course, was the low 30s for wins. I did not think the Pistons, well, this is my opinion, was that the Pistons were not going to make the plan. I did not expect the season to go the way that it has. But whatever the case, the season is lost. You know, for those who may have been hoping that the Pistons were going to make the plans,

that is no longer a possibility of realistically speaking with the roster of the Bistons have. And at this point, it is better for the Pistons to lose games and to maintain those high draft odds. I was hoping that this was not going to be another season in which down the stretch I was going to have to be watching, you know, with just anxiety hoping that the Pistons were going to manage to lose games to get the best possible draft odds as they could. But that's going to be what it's, that's how it's going to be for me. And I think it's going to be the same thing as it was the last three seasons now where you're just hoping that the Pistons lose. So they get the best odds to hopefully get a game changer in the draft. So basically you'd just be disrupting things for no reason at all.

And the rest of the season may well be unpleasant. Keep the continuity. And I don't think Casey, again, I'm not a fan of how he's handling Ivy. I don't think he's doing harm for development. And there's just, I think there's just no reason. I mean, you'd be causing disruption for no gain. And I'll say this about Casey. And this is absolutely an utterly backhanded compliment.

He has actually been a positive for the tank, you know, the last two seasons in that he loses a lot of close, excuse me, I'll put it this way. He helps the pistons lose a lot of close games unintentionally to the fact that he is a dreadful late game coach. He is horrible in late game situations. So I would say, and I'm fairly certain that I would be shocked, like absolutely shocked if Casey were replaced before the end of the season. So, you know, I would say no reason to replace him. And I would say, in any case, he's very, very, very, very overwhelmingly like we could be the coach until the end of the season. But I think absolutely it is time for the Pistons to move on in the off season. Casey seems like a good dude.

And I hope that, as rumored, he transitions to some sort of front office role to which he is suited. Question number two, and this is going to be a much, much, much shorter answer is, has Troy Weaver really screwed things up, like based on the way that this season is gone? And I'll say two things about that. Number one, we don't know how this season would have gone with Cade in the roster. and because losing him really, really undercut the offense. You know, the Pistons probably would have still been a disaster on the defensive end. You kind of lose Cade's leadership as well, though, and that's definitely not helpful. Number two is something I mentioned in a previous episode, which is that this Pistons team,

I mean, they've made a very, very good start on the rebuild in terms of having Cade, in terms of having Ivy, you know, J. Winduron, you know, a couple solid role players in Sadiq Bay and in Isaiah Stewart. You know, Isaiah Stewart, of course, also one of those ultimate character guys who was just, you know, great to have on the team and behind the scenes. You've seen some improvement, Killing and Hayes, hopefully that persists. Whatever the case, the Pistons, just in terms of Kate and hopefully Ivy, have made a great start on the rebuild, but the team in terms of the roster this season remains just dreadfully incomplete.

And that's just sometimes something that happens with the rebuild. The next couple of years, I think, well, let's say the next three years, but we can even go with just two seasons from now. It'll be the real referendum on how Weaver has done. And, of course, two seasons from now, I mean, that'll be his fifth season. And if the Pistons aren't showing, you know, tangible results at that point, then either something has gone drastically wrong or he hasn't, or, you know, drastically wrong, you know, whatever that is with developments or otherwise, or Weaver just hasn't taken the necessary steps. It is possible in the MD to do everything right and not have things go right. But, you know, that's less the case, much less often the case than not.

So I think those would be the true referendum. But I don't think it's rights to judge Troy Weaver on the basis of this season's roster, you know, especially with his, I think we can all agree would unequivocally be his best player. Having only played a very small number of games and having played those games injured, is the roster a mess? Yes, the same time, this is still a rebuilding season. I think the Pistons, you know, would have been just fine if the roster, you know, the Weaver and everybody else in the front office would have been just fine

if the roster that they had built this season went out and was successful. But I don't think, my guess would be that they didn't count those chances particularly high. and did we ever set this team up to win this season? No. But there's no way he realistically could have done so even if he wanted to. And it really wouldn't have made sense, in my opinion, to go all in on winning this season. This is a team where you want to develop. I mean, this is the bellwether for this season in terms of success. My opinion was always going to be development.

Still very much a rebuilding season. And it's definitely not going to hurt the pistons to get more talent, like top talents. and what's shaping up to be the very strong draft, though it certainly does hurt to watch a third season in which there are a lot of games being lost, and I think in the last episode, Jack Kelly and I talked about this, that it's, you know, it's tiring.

It's tiring to be in season three of a rebuild and still be watching it. You know, it's tough to watch through a protracted rebuild as a fan, and of course this season of them made particularly tough by the fact that the player that we were most excited about, well, like most of us were most excited about, whatever. I don't need to make that qualification. one of the most exciting players in the team.

That was Kate Cunningham, who is the prospect of franchise player, only played a very short time and then just out for the rest of the season. And that was one major thing to be excited about that is gone, and just the team has struggled a lot. I don't think, I would say that Rockets fans have it worse. Of course, that's just comparing really bad and worse. Whatever the case, it sucks the way that the season is gone. And to the real, again, the real referendum on Weavers,

on the job that he has done as general manager will be next season, but very much the season after that. But yeah, this season has been miserable, like very, very miserable. But I don't think that should necessarily be conflated with, you know, with Weaver has done a bad job. You know, we'll see you later on. Later on, not this season, later on in his tenure. All right, so moving on to the questions I've received. And fun fact, I'm actually going to be adding to this episode throughout the day. I put out the call for questions this morning. well it currently is the morning still where I am. So question number one,

and I know this was asked by somebody because he knows how I feel about Stan Van Gundy. So the question, what would have happened if we removed Stan Van Gundy from the front office but Captain Monis coach? The first part of that answer is that my head would have exploded. The second part of that answer is that things, I think, well, we would have had Stan Van Gundy coaching the Drummond Griffin Jackson Trio with a complete mess of a raw. and we all saw how that had gone the season before. I mean, Stan Van Gundy, you can say what you, everybody has their own opinion as far as

how that trade came about. You know, was it forced upon Stan Van Gundy by Tom Gondi, was, did Van Gondy make the Griffin? I'm talking about the Griffin trade. Did he make it because he was desperate to save his job? I think that the answer was the latter. I think he absolutely had a license from Tom Gores, who at that point just didn't. I think he learned the next season that he should stop meddling.

But at that point, was still. very, very meddlesome, had some very wrong ideas about, you know, how to win in the NBA, such as, you know, just, you know, build a winning culture, start winning, and you'll continue winning and getting better. I mean, with no reference at all to how much talent you actually have on the team, which is apparently, you know, what has been said is the reason, that that's the reason that he did not allow the business to rebuild until the 2019, until 2020, really, close to nine years after he had bought the team. And it's a completely broken way of thinking about it.

I mean, you need talent to win in the NBA. I mean, talent wins championships. Obviously, you need to have the team culture as well, but you're not going to put a bunch of guys together who don't have enough talent to win a championship and say, okay, just get to the first round. And, you know, we can build this culture that will enable us to get even better, even though we don't have the talent. It doesn't work that way.

I also think that, you know, he conflated elite talent with winning or maybe or ticket sales, whatever the case. So I think that Van Gundy had the license to make that choice, but I also think that he was fully on board and what was a horrible trade, just in a long-shot efforts to save his job. I mean, this is one of the reasons why you don't want to have, I mean, the coach GM thing is over.

Nobody else. It is no longer a thing in the NBA. There are no longer any guys who are both general manager and coach, unless you count Popovich. And I'm not sure how long he's been involved, how much he has been involved in recent years. I don't know. I just don't know if about that. I also know that he's Greg Popovich, and therefore is, in my opinion, the best, you know, the best NBA coach of all time.

And he's an exception in all things. So whatever the case is with him. In any case, I mean, when you have a guy who is both coach and GM, you give him a lot more power to do things to prevent him being fired. I mean, or actually, I don't know if that's good way putting it. Let me put it differently. If you got fired, you're probably getting fired from both roles. And I know that's funny to say in the context of this question. so, you know, so GM might do things to keep coach from getting fired because he knows the coach gets fired, then GM's getting fired also. In any event, Van Gundy made it very, very clear in his coaching for the remainder of that season that he had absolutely no idea how to play at Griffin and Drummond together.

His adaptation when he brought Griffin in was, oh, hey, Andre, I'm going to start using you as a post-up score again, even though I started, you know, trying to do this in my first season as your coach. And since then, you've been quite possibly the worst post-up big man in the entire league. Well, that's not quite possibly. That's actually the case in terms of guys who are getting volume opportunities from the post. Like, you know, for those who weren't watching back then, I mean, Drummond's who basically had his one post move, he would back down a guy and then throw up a hook. I mean, he was comically inefficient from the post, like to the point where it was actually a gift to the other team that Van Gundy was posting him up. And it's like in Drummond's rookie season, it's like, not rookie season, his first season under Van Gogh.

Gandhi, which I believe was his third season in the league. Yeah, this was 2014, 2015. It's like, okay, give it a shot. And the season after that, it's like, okay, I mean, maybe keep at it. The season after that, it was like, please stop. And then in the fourths, Van Gundy's fourth season, he stopped using Drummond in the post altogether at the beginning of the season. He used him as kind of a secondary playmaker at the top of the paint instead.

Drummond was okay at that. And, you know, just to make it clear, I mean, Drummond, we know, was a player who demanded his touches, and he kind of like obliviously said at beginning of that season, oh, I'm fine, you know, not, you know, being used in the post if, you know, so long as I'd still have the ball on my hands a lot, whatever the case. Yeah, so, I mean, the Pistons opened that season, and that's still the best season that they, best opening to a season that they have had since, like, 2007, 2008, they went 14 and 6. They were pointing against some really good teams. They beat the, I mean, that was a fun start to the season. And that was with the starting lineup of

Jackson, Bradley, Stanley Johnson, Tobias Harris, and Drummond. And, like, they beat the Clippers who had been undefeated. They're just 6-0. They beat the Durant Warriors the next night. They beat the little later on, while this was about a month, more than a month later, the Celtics, who were one of the best teams in the week, whatever the case. It was a good start with a new offense. And by all accounts, that new offense was actually formulated by the assistance.

And based on a lot of suggestions, as far as Drummond went, made by Jeff Van Gundy, so Stan's brother. And when the Pistons made that trade for Griffin, Van Gundy's solution was to say, okay, well, Andre, I'm going to start posting you up again. And that needless to say it was a terrible idea. Drummond should have been taking zero post-ups per game. These two are always going to be an awkward duo and an outdated duo and Drummond. And, yeah, Van Gundy just had absolutely no idea what to do.

And, I mean, we take the fact that the team is arguably, I mean, the roster was arguably even more of a mess the next season. The roster of the Pistons fielded in 2018, 2019 was completely an utterly broken, a mismatch of mismatched parts that really, in my opinion, I'd no hope from the beginning. It really needed an innovator in order to, you know, have any hope of achieving, you know, even a small degree of meaningful success. Instead, the Pistons got Dwayne Casey. And, you know, I was always, also asked this today, and that outside of the context of, of mailbag questions, but, you know, would I prefer Casey or Van Gundy, I would say Casey with not even the slightest bit of hesitation. I think that he shares a lot of Van Gundy's shortcomings, but to a

lesser degree, I also think that he has positive qualities as a coach that Van Gundy absolutely and completely lacks, such as, you know, what I mentioned before, like a coach who is, who is pretty good with development, you know, who is good with young players, whose players like him, none of these things are true of Stan Van Gundy, like none of them, which is one of the reasons. I mean, he was such an absolutely flabbergasting choice to coach that young Pelicans team. And, you know, credit the stand in that capacity. It's not fun to be fired, I'm sure, but he got paid. I remember if it was four or five years worth of salary to coach for one year.

But, you know, jokes aside, he was a coach who was, who I believe had demonstrated in his last two years with the Pistons. I mean, his first two years with the Pistons, he was more just very mediocre. But as the league really evolved from 2015 onward, I think he was. you know, transitions from mediocre to absolutely terrible. And I think that's the evolution. I think he basically proved in those last two seasons, in which in my opinion, he was one of the worst coaches I've ever seen in any sport in those last two seasons. And, you know, aside from, you know, the Pistons had that 14 and 6 start. You know, the thing about that was that Van Gondi refused to adapt. Other teams really caught on what the Pissons were doing on offense. And of course,

Van Gundy, who just called every play, every half court set from just a short list of plays that had absolutely, whether unwillingness or inability to adapt. Yeah, and the season started going downhill, really, after that, after that, that strong start, you know, for that reason and variety of other reasons, I think that can be largely weighed at the feet of his coaching. Until Bridgete Jackson got injured, at that point, the season was going to become a great deal more difficult, but Van Gundy was still, you know, his terrible coaching was not helping things. In any case, in those last two seasons, I think he proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that he has not. not fit to coach in the modern NBA, that the evolution of the NBA absolutely magnified his flaws and left him behind as an effective coach. So it was completely and utterly bizarre to see the Pelicans hire him to both try to win games and develop young players and run hurt on a

young locker room. He is not qualified to do either of those things. So what would have happened? I think we would have been subjected to, I mean, the Pistons went 41 and 41. And we, you know, in a week Eastern conference, lost two, as things actually happened. lost, I think, two-thirds of their games against teams that were 500 or better and just limped into the playoffs and then got obliterated by the ducks in like the worst first round pounding in the history, the modern history of the NBA, or history of the modern NBA history. Or in modern NBA history. Okay, I'm going to move on from that. Now, if Van Gundy had been there, I think, well, me personally, it would have been even more frustrating. But I think that just would have been like another season in which the Pissons had won, you know, low 30s games. And, uh, Yeah, I think that it would have been even worse than what was already a very bad season in which the patients were basically toiling and futility for the sake of what pretty much nothing. They had no hope of meaningful success. So if you'd stayed on, I mean, that would have been, if I remember correctly, yeah, he signed a five-year contract. That would have been the last season of his contract.

He would have been fired at the end of that and say that with a very high degree of certainty. Question the second. In your personal opinion, what's the timeline of an event slash wants to need to occur within the next or through next season? to ensure that we end up on the right track to actual improvement. When needs to be addressed, ideal coaching candidates, et cetera, if that's not too broad of a question. So I'll start with ideal coaching candidates. So, I mean, there are some guys in the league you can look at, like Quinn Snyder, for example, who I believe is currently unemployed. Kenny Atkinson, who is an assistant for the Warriors.

And I really haven't looked at the list yet. Here's the thing that makes it a little bit difficult for me to talk about, you know, which coach are the best entire is that there are always newcomers of the league. There are a ton of retreads. Like, for example, you know, Frank Vogue who got a job at the Lakers, another job at the Lakers and won a championship. Of course, the personnel really helped. Steve Clifford, I believe, is back coaching the Hornets. And there are a lot of retreads out there.

But there are also new guys you bring into the league, and they turn out to be very successful. And I don't know nearly enough about the coaches in the NCAA and the coaches, you know, from elsewhere in the world to say, you know, definitively who should have been. distance higher. Like if, if Dwayne Casey gets fired, that's something I'll do research on. Or if Dwayne Casey is not the coach next season, I'm quite certain the story that we'll be given is that there is a mutual agreement that he was going to move to a front office role. So in terms of through next season, okay, like one thing is development. I mean, the Pistons, this is not negotiable. The Pistons need to see development from Cade. He needs to become that

franchise player, Ivy. And again, I think Ivy's a guy who's going to develop a little bit slowly. And we hope we get to where we want him to see. You know, this is this very dynamic offensive player who, you know, was kind of a nightmare in terms of his ability to slash athletically to the rim. But you really need Cade to develop, to take steps toward developing into the player that we think he, that we think he can be. We need to see development from Ivy. We need to see, you know, development from Durham would be great. So there's Bagley. I don't think Bagley's likely to amount for much. But you need, basically, you put young talent with the potential on a team and you need to see the development from that talent. I mean,

that is the first and most non-negotiable thing. Beyond that, Well, it would be nice to see better defense. I mean, the Pistons need to, I mean, we'll see who the Pistons get in the draft, but putting some better defensive power on the team will be very, very, very nice. You hope that Durn, again, this goes back to development. You hope that Durham will continue to develop. I don't think that the Stewart-Duron front court is the front court of the future. And just to state this, they have not been good on defense.

Like, not at all. You know, the two of them, they play very physically. And, you know, they're an inspiring duo in terms of just how hard they compete out there, but they've been pretty bad. Part of that is due to the fact that Duren is still pretty raw in defense, and part of it is due to Isaiah Stewart transitioning to defending a lot more on the perimeter and outside of his comfort zone, I believe, in some place that I don't think he's really ideally suited to defend. So need to add some defense there. And I feel like I'm rendering this down to just a very, very, very basic answer, which is that you need a defense that's

good enough to compete with good offenses. So the Pistons either need improvement development from the young players in the team or somebody in the draft or they need to like add a strong defensive like 3-and-D wing and those are expensive and they don't grow on trees. And they need guys, you know, they need proper spacing on offense. You know, you got to be able to shoot. You need guys, you know, at least a couple of star scorers. Ideally, you know, like a superstar score. My formula is always like two superstar scores or the superstar and two stars.

You know, like the Lakers, you know, back in 2020 with, with, you know, the Bucs in 2021 with, you know, with Janice, your superstar and Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday, and that was able to overcome, you know, even Mike Boodenhols are being like a pretty poor offensive coach for them in the playoffs. And then the Warriors are the Warriors. So, you know, in terms of winning last year, the Warriors kind of defy classification,

just in terms of the talent they have on the team, the mix of talent they have on the team plus Steve Kerr, really everything came together for the Warriors, you know, from 2014, 2014-2015 onward, getting Durant on the team. That was an abomination. The team should never have been allowed to exist, but that certainly helped things for them also. But then they won again.

You know, I think their last championship was in 2018. And, you know, they won again four years later with almost an almost identical core. Just the three core players plus Andrew Wiggins and all three of their core players who are four years older. I mean, it's just, they just have done remarkable things in Golden State. So, yeah, I'm just putting together basically the list of qualifications. Yeah, you've got to be able to play defense in the playoffs. and anybody who's like a horrible defensive liability in the playoffs will be targeted. So, you know, you can have like, you know, a weak defender, for example.

But, you know, you got to have a decent defense to win in the playoffs as far as, you know, excuse me to win a championship. I do constantly talk about how offense is more important to defense today's NBA. And that's true. I mean, you can get by with a really good offense and a pretty poor defense, whereas the opposite is not accurate in the regular season. Once you get to the postseason, you have to have a solid defense. at the very least. Of course, your offense still needs to be strong. So yeah, on offense,

got to have proper spacing, got to have elite creators. And then a coach, you have to have a guy who maximizes what your team can offer. But in getting to this point in this question, I basically just gotten extremely theoretical. So as far as the pistons go, let's see. So again, we need developments. I would say that if the pistons get like one of the marquee picks, like if you get Victor in this draft and if he remains healthy, then you are a giant, giant step toward being a contender. You know, if Victor is, you know, even 80% of the player that people hope he will be. Otherwise, hopefully, you know, you get another really core piece on offense in this draft,

or you go out, you know, whenever it is, you know, it's really hard, even if you're not Detroit. It's a grab marquee free agents. To grab marquee scores, excuse me, star scores and free agency. Even if simply because they very rarely hit free agency anymore. This is the, you know, this was. I think Zach Lowe, who put it well. This was on a podcast I listened to, occasionally it was another low post.

Zeklo, I've said it before. I'll say it again, I think, is the best in the business as far as analysis goes on the national level. So it was an episode with he and I believe Bobby Marks, who's probably the preeminent cap guy, a salary cap guy, and they were discussing it, that it is the era of extensions. Players will just take big extensions for their team

with the knowledge that if they want out, they can just say, trade me, you know? So, you know, that in that it is. a big reason why you is much much, much less common to see star free agents hit free. Excuse me, the star player, star scorers hit free agency. So then you have the additional wrinkle that Detroit is, you know, the Pistons do not play in Los Angeles or New York or Miami. So if the Pistons really want to add somebody big, then you're looking at a trade. The Pistons cannot trade any first round picks at the moment because of the Steppian rule. You know, eventually that pick will

convey to unless the Pistons get it back somehow via trade. Eventually that pick will convey to the Nix or whoever owns it at that point. It's heavily protected. The Pistons become a playoff team. Yeah, the protections basically gradually decrease from, I believe it's 1 to 16 this year and next year. I could just go look this up. But yeah, the protections will gradually decrease. But at the moment, basically, the Pistons don't own a pick. They don't own their pick until 2027. I believe are 2020. Yeah, so the protections basically, you can't trade a pick that is not at least seven years. Seven years is the maximum pick you can trade in the future.

So when the Pistons made that deal at the 2020 draft, it was protected until 27. If it has not conveyed it by then, I believe it converts into two second round picks. But basically the upshot of this is that the Pistons do not control their pick until 2028. and so they're not at this point they could trade a 2029 draft pick because basically the Stepping rule says you cannot be without a first round draft pick and two consecutive drafts doesn't have to be your pick but you yeah you just you can't be without a second round pick and two future drafts and you can get around this by trading at the draft actually so the pistons could trade a pick at the draft provided that the pick belongs to them how it works right now is that the team

which is now the Knicks basically owns the Pistons pick until the Pistons go into the water and it's definitively demonstrated that the pick is going to fall within the protected range. However, you can get around that in terms of trading future picks because so what you do is you draft for a team and then you trade that draft afterward and the clock gets reset immediately when you draft that player. Now that's considered a past draft and not a future draft. But whatever the case, the Pistons at this point don't have first round picks to trade and they won't until something changes. So that's going to make it hard or hard to trade for a superstar star player. So basically, you look in the draft, hopefully you get into a star player there,

or you make a trade, and then you get a better coach. And I've gone into massive theory here, but that's the only way I not answer to this question. He said, and the question at the end is if it's not, that's not too broad of a question. It's a pretty broad question. There are a lot of moving parts. But I, you know, I hope that was a satisfactory answer to your question. Now a cool court from our sponsor, four NFL teams, two conference championship games, and only a few more shots to win big in the playoffs of driving sports, but an official sports, but any part of the NFL. Counting out of Super Bowl, 57, new customers can bet just $5 and get 200 free bets instantly.

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Question number three, who are some good middle-level wing defenders the business could identify at the summer or at the deadline and is Dorian Finney Smith one of them. I would be surprised to the Pistons make a win now move at the deadline. It's interesting if bring up DFS, so DFS, Dorian Finney Smith, though I think DFS is also a fantasy basketball term. Whatever the case. So during Finney Smith, let's first talk about the situation of the Mavericks find themselves in, which is that they have an absolutely transcendent player in Luca Donchage. I mean, Luca is so good. He's incredible on offense anyway. So they've got him.

The poor Zingas trade fell through. I mean, that was, I think, an absolutely the right decision to make to take that risk. Unfortunately, poor Zingas couldn't stay healthy. And he was never really too happy, apparently, playing behind Wuka, though he definitely has said nothing bad about Dallas since being traded. Now, like the Mavericks,

they traded Porzengis to the Wizards for basically the justification behind this trade. Like, poor Zingis wasn't going to work out for them. And so they wanted to separate this huge, contract out into some smaller contracts that be more easily traded. So the two main pieces they got out of that. I can't remember if there were more, actually, but the pieces that I remember, the major pieces there were Davos Bretons, who sucks, who was on a bad contract from the Wizards. And Spencer Damwitty, who's actually been pretty decent for the Mavericks, but nonetheless, it's a team with an amazing player that has caplocked and it doesn't really have any obvious

routes to get better. And they lost Brunson and the offseason. That hurt. I guess Brunson, even though I don't think he was the greatest fit next to Luca, it was still a pretty darn good contributor for them last year, and they lost him for nothing, which happens. Brunson, I mean, they could have extended him at a very, very affordable price for what would have been an absolute bargain contract, like arguably the best contract in the league if he had gone on to even maintain last season's production, but they didn't, and he plays in New York now.

So Dorian Finney Smith is a strong defensive player, and for the most part, he's also good. three-point shooter. In the last three seasons before this, he shot close to 40% and two of them, and about 37, 38% the season before that. He's in the midst of a very difficult season. It certainly has worse since becoming a starter. He's only shooting about 34.5% from three, and he's just around 40% from the field. So, and yeah, I'm reading all this off a stat sheet. I don't have these stats committed to memory. So here's the thing, though, with the Mavericks, is that they're not going to make a trade that makes them worse.

They're only going to make a trade that makes them better. Like at this point, would you swap Doreen Phine Smith for, and Phiney Smith, it should be noted, based on his production the last three seasons, is on an absolute bargain contract. Like it is a contract that I believe averages like $14 million a year. I mean, and that includes his player option. That is an absolute bargain contract for player like Doreen and Phine Smith, a strong 3-D player.

So would they make that swap? I think that they would probably, yeah, that's a tough one. Because, like, assuming that you're starting Christian Wood, or playing Christian Wood big minutes, you've got Luca in there. Spencer Dimwood is no stalwart on defense. Not there's Luca. I mean, Luca is a below average defender. Christian Wood is not a good defender. Tim Hardaway Jr. is nothing special.

And then Boyan, of course, is butter on defense. He's awful. You've got Jason Kit in there who really had to surprise me as the coach of the Mavericks in terms of his ability to not be the coach that he was in Milwaukee where he was awful. and has the Mavericks playing, you know, pretty strong defense. But at least he did last season. And, yeah, I'm looking at it now again. He has this season. Basically, by replacing DFS with Boyon, you're adding a weapon on offense,

the guy who would be the second best score, you know, next to Luca. And you're giving yourself a massive downgrade on defense. So that's a tough one. And another thing from the Pistons end, however, I mean, Doreen Phine Smith is going to be 30 at the end of the season. So I just don't see it happening At the point where you know You hope that the Pistons are going to be competing next year

Or excuse me, the year after next And once you get to the point where you kind of hope That's like like three seasons from now You hope okay the Pistons will be a contender Dorian Finney Smith is going to be close to 33 years old You know basically about 32 and a half when the season begins So I don't see it even if the Mavericks are interested I don't think the Pistons would be

I think the Pistons will be looking for kind of younger players On either their rookie deals or guys whom they feel that they would be able to extend and or draft picks. And that's actually what they've said they want. Or what would have come out about Boyon is that, you know, a good young player in a first. Or maybe the ask is lowered to just an unprotected first. So the Pistons could, who knows, maybe that's a conceivable trade. I don't know if the Mavericks would be interested.

I'd say the Pistons would definitely not be interested. As far as other players you might look at by trade. I mean, obviously, like, the dream scenario is that the sons go billy up and you manage to trade for Milkel Bridges. the possibility that the Suns will decide to just blow it up, I'd say maybe one in 10,000. So that's why I call it the dream scenario. I'd say it's incredibly, incredibly, incredibly unlikely to happen. Now, dream scenarios aside. Now, Edwana is struggling. They're real questions over there. Do you, like just DeAndre Hunter as a name that comes to mind. Are they likely to make a trade

this season? No, I wouldn't say that. Maybe in the offseason, of course, that's contingent upon the Pistons actually having something to offer them. Hunter's at a strong season. It's likely to staying healthy, who knows, but he has done so this year. But, you know, if the Hawks really feel like they need to shake things up, then maybe they look to trade him again. What are the pissons going to offer? You can offer Boyon. I'm sure he's under contract two more years. That's kind of more of a lateral move for the Suns, arguably makes them worse, because if Hunter, who's who's scoring pretty well right now and is a good defender, you replace him with Boyon who's maybe going to score a little bit more and has a much, much, much worse defender and you put him next

to tray young. Yeah, that's this not happening. I mean, that's just the recipe for for big problems to happen. Young is a horrible defender. Horrible. And so is Boyon, you want two horrible defenders in the starting lineup, I would say no. But for a team, that's already below average defense. But it just keeps coming to mind with the Pistons. Again, what are the Pistons going to offer a team that's already established for a player that's going, that that team is really thinking is going to make them a better team going forward. Like Boyan and Burks are like the two primary trade assets right now. I don't see the Pistons trading Sadiq Bay this season.

And then you have the real principles as far as the youth goes. And that's Duren, that's Ivy, that's Cade. And I don't think any of them are going anywhere. I think it's very, very unlikely in any case. You know, like who knows, maybe you see, like, if the Bistons were to make an absolute blockbuster for like a really, really good player, you might see one of them traded. But you might see one of Ivy or Duren traded.

But it's one of these things where these players are more valuable to the Pistons than they would be to other teams, you know, most likely because, you know, Ivy and Duren, you know, nobody knows what they're going to be. And, well, I guess that distinction becomes lesser when you're looking at a team that's just blowing it up and it's probably going to be tanking. Whatever the case. So I would not think of anybody on like an actual good team as a likely trade target, is a likely trade partner for the Pistons. I would not think of any of those teams as likely trade partners for the Pistons. Again, the Pistons have set to have something to offer them.

Boyan is, you know, getting older. He has his big issues on defense. Burks is like a good bench player. These are not guys with like a high degree of value that a team is going to trade away a good 3-and-D wing for. Three-indy wings do not grow in trees. I said that already. Sorry. Three-ndy wings are very, very valuable and highly valued.

I mean, down the trade list, there's actually, I would say, a decent degree of possibility that the Bulls would consider blowing it up this summer. I mean, that team is really, in my opinion, is that bringing in DeRosen and Wanzo, the poor Lanzo. I mean, that guy is a good NBA player and he's got a bad physical problem there. but even if everybody had stayed healthy, I think that would have been a second round team, you know, tops. You know, De Rosen's getting older. Levine has his issues with injury. I think the ceiling of the team is not high.

And it doesn't help, of course, that you've got quite considered as a bad coach in Billy Donovan, who somehow got an extension, whatever the case. They're not going to blow it up this season because they're on their pick. But it's possible that they could do so in the offseason. And in that case, maybe you look at Alex Caruso, who is definitely a very very very very. very, very solid defender who can shoot threes. He's not really a score, but he's a guy that the

piss, whom the pistons could look at. And again, you got to have things to trade at the Bulls. I don't think the Pistons are really going to be in much of a mood to trade any of their young players. I mean, if it's a team that's blowing it up, then, you know, if they're going to want that kind of player. Who knows, if Isaac Okoro drops out of the, out of the rotation, really, in Cleveland, I don't know. It just comes down to trades. And, you know, it comes down, excuse me, in trades the same thing, in my opinion, that you, you know, you know, you, you know, you you've got to give up something of value in exchange and the pistons don't really have much of that. Who knows?

Maybe the Cavaliers are like, okay, we just, you know, we're looking for more scoring. And Okora is a small member, you know, very, very relatively unimportant member of the rotation. And sure, we'll take on boy on. You know, that's a possibility. Who knows? Again, though, Okora, you're taking a risk because up to this point, he has been a very, very unreliable three-point shooter. Strong defender, extremely athletic. But it was always going to be a three-point shooting.

That was going to be the swing skill, and he has proven nothing yet. And then, hey, here's a fun one. Stanley Johnson, who is playing for the jazz right now and is shooting well from three on very low volume. And Stanley came out and said about his time in Detroit that, you know, he'd love to come back to Detroit, that he was having a really tough time when he was with the business.

His mother died. We were shortly after the draft, and I think he pretty much just said he was never able to get it together. Do I think that Stanley's like an actual option that the business should look into? I mean, maybe if it's, like extremely cheap for basically nothing. He was this weird thing in Detroit because he has all the tools to be a strong defender and he was at times. And then there were other times at which he was absolutely not really horrible. Like the third quarter of that final season he played with the

pistons before he was traded. He was absolutely comically bad on defense and I don't really know why. Of course, on offense, he was always one of the worst players in the league too. But hey, if the guy can shoot threes and the pistons can get him for nothing and, you know, extend him on a really, excuse me, Stanley's not playing for the jazz. He's playing for the spurs. My bet. He got to I traded the jazz in the, in the THD trade that brought Beverly to the Lakers, and then you got waived and signed by the Spurs. And it's funny it is on the Spurs, because back when the Pistons were, you know, there was the talk that he could be traded, like in his second and third seasons, the Spurs were always listed to a team that was interested, that was interested, the team that could really,

that was great at rehabilitating players, you know, whose careers are really taking a downturn. But, you know, hey, yeah, the Spurs want to, want to trade him away for basically nothing. There's, there's an option. Is he like a valuable long-term option? though he's only 26, I would say, no, not unless he's really, really learned to shoot the ball. And, you know, obviously 48.4% on one and a half attempts per game for a really bad shooter in the past. I mean, you know, jury's out there in terms of if you can actually become a shooter. But if he can become a shooter, I'd say he's probably got a career in the NBA ahead of him. Now, when we get to free agency where things become a lot more realistic,

the name at the top of the list, obviously, is Jeremy Grant, which is funny for obvious reasons. Will the Blazers let him go, not unless they decide to blow it up, which I think is unlikely? I mean, they have had definitely a rough season so far. They could conceivably miss the playoffs, though being in the East, excuse me, being in the West, which is now the Wii Conference, that I mean, at 22 and 25, they are two games out of the eighth seed, and they are, you know, two, excuse me, two wins, and there are three wins out of the fifth seed and five wins out of the third seed?

So are they ever going to blow it up, especially because Willard really has no desire, apparently no desire whatsoever to play for another team, and with Anthony Simon's really coming in and, and being a very good player, I would say probably not. And also, the Blazers is somehow not being an absolutely horrible defense despite playing Nurkich and been playing like an absolutely awful defensive backcourt. So they'd be insane to not keep him for the Pistons purposes. I mean, he's going to be 29 this summer.

And players, it seems like an arbitrary cutout, but players often really start to decline in their 30s. But early 30s is still, you know, and we talk about the Pistons timeline. It would have been a little bit of a bitter pill if the Pistons had just extended him because he really served no purpose on the team and a team that was going to continue to really be focused on youth. Of course, the way he was used by Dwayne Casey was not helpful. He's not being used that way by Chanty Billups.

Dwayne Casey loves his veterans. He loves his veteran go-to scorers. And it's like, okay, take the ball and please score. And Grant apparently started playing differently after the All-Star break. I believe it was the end-of-season press conference where Weaver said, you know, I had to talk with Jeremy Grant about just playing more efficiently and Grant played somewhat differently after that. But he's having a very strong season.

He's a number three guy in Portland. He's being utilized more judiciously, kind of in keeping with what his strengths are. He's shooting very well from three, and he is strong on defense. Now, with the Pistons, want to pay a lot of money for a Jeremy Grant. Who knows? It's kind of weird to say this,

but the Pistons might have some trouble actually using this cab space that they're coming up for. They don't need to use it, but it's like this summer you have it, and then you have to start thinking about extensions and who knows, who knows what the Pistons will do as far as extensions like Killian and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, Stedek Bay and Isaiah Stewart are all eligible for extensions in the offseason. You know, who knows how big those will be. But for now, they don't

cut into the cap space, of course, because they're not free agents, so no cap holds. The next season, you think about resigning them. You've got, kind of, let's see, Cade will be extension eligible next summer, and unless something goes drastically wrong, the Pistons, we'll sign him to that extension. Though, again, you can just use your cap space in that situation and then sign him to the extension because you got full bird rights on him. So the piston still could have some cap space or a lot of cap space going into next summer, the summer after next rather. They will have the cap holds for Stewart and Killian and in Bay on the books. Those aren't huge. But again, free agency is kind of like a tough, it's tough to come by elite talent in free agency. You can have an enormous amount

of cap space and not really have much to do with it. So what you think about grant this offseason? Yeah, who knows, maybe, especially pending the outcome of the draft, will the trailblazers let him go? They'd be kind of crazy to do so. He has been eligible for an extension for a couple of months now, the six-month moratorium in which they would really have been limited in what they would have been able to offer him. Though there are still some limits. It has expired, I believe, yeah, because that was at the drive. They was traded just before the draft, so six months, yeah, that expired. in December. But I would imagine he has no interest in taking an extension right now. I want to

state free agency to see what he can get. But that would be a big loss for them if they were to lose him. I don't think it's going to happen. Another guy, Josh Hart, in the same team, you know, decent defender, but not a good three-point shooter. And again, and this is something I meant to say to be into this question. I imagine we're not talking about sacrificing, like, a lot of offense for a strong defensive player. These kind of, like, defensive specialists don't really exist in the NBA anymore. Like, you look at Matisse Stuybal, who's a very strong defender, but is an enormous liability on offense and therefore is of limited value. I mean, if I were the pistons, maybe you take him on as kind of like a reclamation project at a low salary and hope that he can more than to shoot.

But if you do so, you do so knowing that the odds are against it. Cam Reddish, not a big fan of this, but I mean, solid defender. Then you hope he can get a shot together. He's also a bozo. That doesn't help things. You could look into trading for him this season. Then you're going to pay him in the offseason. How much would I pay Cam Reddish? I don't know. Again, the guy's not very smart. and he's got issues on offense. I mean, he can't shoot the ball. This is really a pretty big issue. He's been very, very extremely inconsistent as a shooter.

So you're taking that risk. Again, another reclamation project. You're taking on a guy who, you know, say, well, I hope you work out. If you don't, all right, well, that sucks. So not exactly the kind of guy we're talking about. Grant Williams, definitely rugged defender, can shoot threes. He would be an option. Not the most athletic for a team that's already kind of not the most athletic,

but maybe that's fine at this point. He'll be pricey. And the Celtics, I mean, the Celtics are going to be paying at a heap of tax next season, like a real heap of tax. But so it's possible that he gets to let go in the offseason. But it's kind of a somewhat limited player in terms of what he offers on offense. Pretty much just shoots threes. But I'd say he's probably, well, he does more than that.

He's just not really all that great at it. Oh, he's a strong finisher under the basket. He just has very limited agency. And also just, I mean, if you're looking for a long-term bench player who's, you know, who can definitely play in the postseason, who is a strong defender and, you know, in a good three-point shooter, then Gramboyance is somebody can think about. If you're looking for the starting lineup, then not. Though I think, I'm not sure.

Actually, by this question, you know, I could just ask you, but I'm right in the middle of this answer. But, yeah, for a bench player, that's solid, but you're going to be paying quite a bit money for him. And that brings me to the final name on the list. And that is Bruce Brown. So Bruce Brown has, you know, I always said that, you know, if Bruce could learn to shoot, then he could be certainly a very valuable rotation player in the NBA. Bruce is shooting 40% this season on, you know, about three and a half threes per game. He is definitely a multi-positional defender, you know, a guy who can also, you know, you know, is he

a decent passer. He's just a super hard worker. Like, I always liked Bruce. I didn't like that he was starting for the pistons back in 2018, 2019, because that's two non-shooters in the floor. And the D.D.C. just made life more difficult than everybody else. He has learned to shoot, which I didn't think would happen. And there's one thing I will say about Bruce. He was averaging 11 points this season. And it's good for him. It is extremely, extremely, extraordinarily helpful for him to be playing next to Yokic. Bruce Brown is a very active offball player. He'll get open, whether it's on cuts or at the

three-point line and having like the best interior passer of all time feeding you. I mean, Yokic, I will never be, get bored of talking about Yokic. And I'll say this once again. I mean, the guy is like, it does things as a passer that shouldn't be possible. That just genuinely should not be possible. So you take him out of that situation, you got no Yokch. I mean, you also have Jamal Murray on that team. I mean, Yokic just makes, is enough to make anybody, any offense, a strong offense. I mean, he is a meta-bending player, absolutely defensive bending player. You've got Jamal Murray, who's also having a strong season. You even have KCP in the starting lineup.

KCP is like the best three-point shooter in the league this season, 47% and four and a half. I mean, or one of the best anyway. Alec Berks is up there. But KCP is demanding a lot of attention on the perimeter. Aaron Gordon is shooting well. And another player who's just perfect next to Yokic in terms of just highly athletic, moves very well off the ball. Michael Porter Jr., again, shooting 40% from three. the nuggets are just a, I mean,

the number one on the Western Conference right now, that's a very, very good team. And all this is to say that Bruce Brown has a lot of distractions. I mean, there are a lot of players who are being watched more than he is. I mean, even Bones Island is, I wouldn't say he's been efficient. And I mean, he's been absolute crap from two, but even from three, he's been very strong. So there are a lot of distractions out there.

I mean, if you're playing against Denver, first and foremost, you have to worry about Yokic. And there's very little you can do against Yokic because, like, if you leave him alone, then he's likely to just score on you one-on-one. And if you double-team him, he's going to throw the ball through like a wormhole, and it's just going to magically appear, or even triple-team him. You can throw four guys at him, and the ball is just magically going to appear right

perfectly in the shooting pocket of a guy, I don't know, like 30, you know, basically on the other side of the court. It's absolutely uncanny. So you've got to worry about Yokic first and foremost. Murray is having a good season, averaging 19 points and very good efficiency. You know, and he's a playmaker as well. you have to worry about him off the drive. Excuse me, not very good efficiency.

Murray's been solid, put it that way, 56% true shooting. And you have to worry about Porter, who can shoot over basically anybody because he's like nearly seven feet and his release is pretty high. You got to worry about KCP, who can run around screens and shoot. You got to worry about Gordon, who's very, very strong, and his decent three-point shooter and just around the basket, if he gets a mismatch, he stands a very good chance of scoring over you. And Michael Malone's a decent offensive coach. You've got to worry about all these guys.

and then you have Bruce Brown, who when he's on the four, is almost invariably going to be the bottom priority for, you know, like the fourth most important guy, the very most. And this just makes life enormously easier on him because he doesn't really need to do much. So if you bring him onto the team, or you're going to, like, put him in as you're starting small forward, as they would say no, if you just want kind of like a guy who can provide you a decent amount off the bench,

then cool, he's not a terrible option. But he's just in an awesome situation. for him right now, just like he was in a very good situation with the Nets, where you just, you put him next to multiple week creators and suddenly his inability to really do very much, though, again, he's actually shooting well now, and that's done low volume, but he's definitely shooting well. It becomes much less of an issue. So I'd say he's a very context-dependent player, and he's in the perfect situation for him right now. Would you pay him, be the pistons? I don't think it's worthwhile. So that is my very long minute answer to that question,

and I'll just kind of cap it off by, you know, I will put it, uh, I could have, I guess, summarized it much more effectively by just saying that strong 3&D guys are very, very valuable. It's tough to even find them in free agency. And where the Pistons are right now with that, just in terms of trades, I don't think the assets that they're willing to part with, which is basically like, you know, Boyan and Alec Berks or, you know, maybe you throw Sadiq Bay and therefore like a really good situation are likely to, by a really good situation. again, I think the pistons would much rather just to Dic find his way back to where he was last season and, like, continue to develop. And that's the ideal scenario there. And he's probably not quite that valuable to another team unless they're rebuilding. And then they don't really have these kind of guys to throw at you.

So, yeah, whether it's free agency or in the, or by trade, yeah, I don't really see it for the Pistons right now. But fortunately, you don't need like really strong guys with the Pistons would benefit really from just having kind of solid. defenders, and there are many, many more of them out there. Next question, have you gotten a chance to do any early analysis in the prospect in the upcoming draft? If so, who do you like most of this juncture? I, to be honest, have done no research at all yet. I typically pick up my draft research in, well, last season I did it a little bit earlier. But my plan this season was to pick it up in February or March, and that's when I plan to get started. I don't know, probably mid-February. And next one.

If someone were to ask today, who in this roster could you see starting on a team that won their first playoff series? Now, this is a question that I may have answered differently last season. I may have said that you see Sadiq Bay starting on that team. Bay is just having a completely baffling season in which he's been absolutely just dreadful on defense, even when he's not playing next to Blyon. And, like, just awful. I mean, even if you look at his most basic defensive stats, like go on to Stats on MDA.com and look at his defensive dash.

And that's nothing but just kind of one-on-one stats and how it compare to how those players typically not typically fair in those situations. And of course, that's not going to give you like the full picture for anybody. It's not, you know, nothing is going to give the full picture on defense for anybody unless you're actually watching the player because there are all sorts of things just in terms of how a player operates and how in the context of his team that no defensive metric can tell you. My opinion, if anybody, you know, if somebody would say, Mike, what do you think, which defensive metric should I look at? What's going to tell me how good a player is in

defense? I would say none of them, because there's so much on defense that no metric at all can measure. It's much easier on offense, though even that, even offensive metrics, and any of them can't tell you if a player is more than his stats or less than his stats. Like you look at Al Horford with the Celtics back in like 2017, 2018, I think I'm getting near right, and I think he averaged like 14 points. But he's so much more than his stats, because he could basically score from anywhere and he's an excellent passer and just the super IQ, high IQ guy. And then you look at, I don't know, this just comes up from yesterday. It's really, Rui Hachimura. You know, his score isn't decent efficiency. You know, last season, for example, was a decent three-point shooter. But it's

like a guy who, you know, who rarely gets to the pains. He loves mid-range. He's not very reliable at it. He's a horrible black hole in the way to the basket. He doesn't pass it. It doesn't really operate very much within the full of the offense. It's a bad passer. Some guys are going to be, some guys are going to be, he's a less than a stats player. Some guys are going to be equal to those stats. Roughly, some guys are going to be much more than their stats. Some guys are going to be much less than those stats. But on defense, I mean, those metrics are super unreliable. But nonetheless, I mean, for this, it's, when it comes to Bay, I think it's a decent comparison. And you look between his rookie season, last season and this season, and he is appallingly worse

this season, you know, by that simple metric. So if you'd ask last season, I would have said Bay, like that I didn't necessarily have much confidence that he would grow into that third best guy in a championship team role. But if he could just be that fourth best guy in a championship team caliber player, I mean, that'd be a huge win. And I would have said Sadeek. But this season has been tumultuous for him, to say the least. Ivy remains kind of a wild card. I think Ivy has very high offensive potential. And I'm confident that he will develop.

But not so confident that I would say like in a couple years. Okay, we're talking about winning a playoff series. Okay, so that's still Bay. I kind of get caught on championship. So Bay, I would still call hazy. And Isaiah Stewart, you still got to be a fairly good team to win a playoff series. Your chances of winning a playoff series are higher if you're higher in the standings, of course, because you're playing against worst teams because of seating,

generally speaking anyway. Sometimes a team of the lower seed just had a lot of injuries and they come in strong. But, you know, Stewart, I just don't see him starting a power forward, like in a good team that's going on a playoff series. I don't see him starting at center either just because of his physical deficiencies. Bay is completely hazy at this point. Is Boyon even going to be here when the pistons are in position to win a playoff series? I'd say probably not.

Cade, I would say yes. Kate, I feel very strongly about. Ivy, I'm going to go with yes also because I think you give Ivy time, becomes a better shooter. He becomes more refined in terms of attacking the basket. He becomes like good enough in terms of not. attacking into double teams and just losing the ball or taking a bad shot and just making the making you know being like okay at making the right pass at reading situations and he's playing under a coach who doesn't just say well jaden take the ball and score in isolation or or score in

around a pick while basically everybody else in the team just stand and everybody on the perimeter just stand still i think that i think that i think that ivy will get there um so if we're talking two seasons from now in the business win a playoff series then i would say yes uh durin uh uh I'd say kind of 6733. My opinion right now is that his struggles on defense and his difficulty at the difficulty with the way up, at least his struggles on defense because he's having some issues on defense just in terms of making the right reads and positioning himself properly and contests and whatnot.

It's my opinion that that's just him being raw and that he needs to develop. And if that's the case, then I'm confident he could start at center. Like he's just a guy who, because I think he has very high defensive potential in terms of, you know, physically speaking, his ability to switch, his ability to relocate his length, his, you know, his ability to defend the rim in terms of, in terms of his biomechanics and just as anthropometrics, the thing is the word, they use it. I think that's the word, they use that word in terms of stats, the draft combine, just basically his measurement. I think that if the defensive acumen is actually there, then, you know, it could be a top ten center. And, you know, and his ability

on offense to really dunk the ball a lot in vertically spaced the floor. He's got to work on those layups. So I give him a two-thirds chance of being that player. And elsewhere, on the list, I mean, I'd be thrilled if Isaiah Livers developed at that point. I think he's likely to be a long-term bench player. And then Rodney McGruder. Insert joke about Rodney here. Rodney seems like a cool dude. He's a trooper. His teammates love him. Obviously, he's, you know, 10th man on a rebuilder. So, yeah, that's my answer. K definitely. Ivy, I gave him like an 80, 20 shots, and then Duren kind of like 6733. All right, folks, so that'll be it for this episode.

I hope you enjoyed the format. I hope you're all doing well. It's definitely been a rough season, and it's entirely possible that it's going to continue to be a rough season. But, you know, we can hope that, you know, that better things are coming in future seasons. So, as always, want to thank you for listening. I'll get you in the next episode.