Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 139: Ivey’s Big Night, Where Things Stand, and the New CBA

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

This episode speaks on Jaden Ivey's big night against the Heat, answers some listener-submitted questions about who might stay and who might go in the offseason and about James Wiseman's performance as a Piston so far, and concludes with some analysis of the changes found in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

Welcome back, everybody. You're listening to another episode of Drive Into the Basket. I am Mike, and thank you for tuning in to listen to me to talk about basketball today. So one thing I'd like to touch on before I get started, March 31st was actually the four-year anniversary of the very first episode of this podcast, back when I was a completely amateur podcaster who got started without really even knowing how to put a podcast together that I was going to need hosting or anything of the sort. So four years later, or well before four years later, it really has grown into something that I enjoy a great deal. And I've really all the support and the involvement I've gotten from you, the listeners, over the years, up until this very day, really just means the world to me. So it's just an occasion for gratitude for me, and I'd really like to thank all of you. All right, so moving on. In this episode, we're going to talk about tonight's game against the heat. I'm recording it just afterward. We're going to talk, excuse me, answer some listeners submitted questions,

and then talk about the new collective bargaining agreement, which was agreed to between the players and the NBA last week, thus averting a lockout. Anyway, there's some cool stuff in there that could be of interest in the distance, or will be of interest to the pistons, and resume with the fans as well. So a game against the heat, unfortunately ended in a lot. loss. This was one that I would have really liked to see the Pistons win. They just would have been cool.

Jaden Ivy was really the highway to the night. He gave us a look, and this was the best game I've ever seen him play in the NBA, and he gave us really a look at what he could be and hopefully will be should he bring everything together. Leveraging that excellent athleticism of his to create opportunities for himself and for others. I mean, he's made so much progress as a playmaker. I still think he's probably going to sealing out as a secondary guy, but that's fine. one of my concerns about him going into the draft was, is he going to be a willing passer? And if he is a willing passer, is he going to be able to make the right reads and passes? And he's just really made a great deal of progress toward that.

And he's a very willing passer. And, you know, he can make some pretty sweet passes. He's not the kind of guy who's really looking a few steps ahead. But if you are forced to confront him on the way to the basket, now he can find passes in some pretty small pockets. of course also shot very well and tonight unusually actually made it to the basket a fair number of times

which has been a struggle for him all season long so it's games like tonight and also there was on last week as well I mean the shooting that really looked good tonight pull up shooting I mean that's a huge asset you know for anybody if he can get the motion threes going and we've seen some of those

lately we couple that with his playmaking his ability to attack from on and off the ball. His mid-range game has improved a lot. That was another concern was his in-between game, which is still coming along, but was legitimately not exist in Purdue. He was terrible. In between the three-point line of the basket.

So altogether great game by Jaden, who's also just got such a passion for the game. I mean, the guy is giving 100% on every single possession, still has to ways to go on defense. And just be. It's still quite raw, but he's really given me just a lot to be confident about. And in terms of not just what he can do, but also his fit with Cade Cunningham, like you can just see Cade going around a pick and roll to break down opposing defenses

and hitting Jaden Ivy in full stride on the way to the basket, and Jaden can either score there or make the right pass. You know, Jaden on his own can initiate possessions. I mean, these guys, these two, I think, could really play. well off of each other. I can't remember if I talked about this in the last episode. Probably I did. But when it came to, you know, my pre-draft board, Mathroom is sort of my 1A versus Jaden's 1B. My four concerns about Jaden. Number one, the affirmation question about, you know, is he willing to and able to make the right reads and passes off the drive? And the answer is yes.

Number two was about his in-between game, which I think is coming along. Number three was his shooting. which is headed in the right direction. And number four was refining his drive game, which he still really needs to do. That is, I think, the hole in his game right now. Basically, his move in the NCAA's go-to move was turning on the jets, turning the corner on a bad NCAA defender, and then scoring at the basket before the room protection got there. Obviously, that's not going to happen in the NBA.

Defenders are tremendously better. So that's made it kind of a struggle for him in that he just relied tremendously in as athleticism in college, which was enough in college because he was, he's fricishly athletic by NBA standards in college, you know, a lot of defenders just had absolutely no hope. So that's really the final frontier for him. I think he'll have to do a little bit of work and a shot for him as well, particularly in the catch-and-shoe. But once he gets that drive game together, and I think he will, because he's hardworking enough and athletic enough and agile enough that, you know, he's going to get there. And once that happens, you know, watch out.

I've always subscribed to the notion that you need, at least, you know, either a superstar and a couple of stars, you know, or two superstars to win a championship. And definitely, Ivy has that sort of star potential. And, oh, to get back to what I was saying about Mathrin, my opinion going into the draft was that Ivy had the higher ceiling, but that Mathuron based on fit considerations with Cade, it's going to have the higher chance of providing the same amount of value. I feel really a lot better about Ivy on that end of things. And, you know, the fit with Cave was always going to be important. And again, I think Ivy's likely as to be best suited as a secondary playmaker,

but the fact that he has that skill and that his playmaking has really come along so much at the NBA level is, you know, that's enough. You know, it's enough for him to be a secondary playmaker next decade. So altogether, just a great game by Ivy. It was a joy to watch. Unfortunately, the heat started throwing double teams at him late in the game and a combination of his teammates just being non-threats as spacers and Dwayne Casey making no adaptations in the face of adjustments by Eric Spolster, who was a fantastic top-notch coach. Unfortunately, made the fourth quarter pretty difficult for Ivy. He checked in around seven minutes and it was a struggle for him from there.

But just super encouraging and a lot of fun to watch. So let's move on to some talk of the big picture. I don't know if I included this in my episode outline, but today we had this letter to the fans from Troy Weaver, pretty much acknowledging that things are difficult right now, but we're on the right track. And, you know, it's nice to hear from the organization in situations like this. A lot of other, I mean, you look at the Knicks, for example, with James Dolan, who basically, the fans are unhappy, and, you know, through all those years of failures, and he could be cared of West, matter for his general managers have cared less.

So the accountability and the outreach is nice. It is a little bit funny to see him say, we're all disappointed with our record this season because the record, like, you know, one win in the last 22 games is in part due to the team strategically sitting players. Nonetheless, it's like, you know, we're confident we're on the right path of success.

We appreciate your patience, trust, and loyal support is making the journey together and so on and so forth. So what we've heard from, you know, what has been reported, rather, is that the Pistons are really hoping to turn a corner next season. Well, they will turn a corner in one way that they're going to be focusing on winning games rather than focusing on development.

We haven't heard Dwayne Casey come out recently and say, next season, we're not going to allow players to play through the mistakes. And whether that's just because Troy Weaver feels like it's time or Tom Gores has gotten a little bit antsy and impatient, looks like that's what's going to be the case next year. And when it comes to Weaver, yeah, it's been a long time. You know, this is the end of the third season, rebuilding under his tenure. We had a half season before that, you know, before he was brought on

in the COVID shortened season, excuse me. And my opinion on Weaver, as I have enumerated in previous episodes, for example, I reported an episode a few weeks ago about, that was basically reviewing every move Troy Weaver has made. I don't really recommend listening to it. It's one of the least favorite episodes of mine that I've ever posted. But my general feeling on Troy Weaver is that we're going to see his true caliber in the next two, maybe three seasons. That's the point of which we're going to see if the rebuild was really a success or not. So I'm going to reserve judgment until then. But one thing for next season, I mean, if the Pistons are serious about pivoting into a direction

in which they are going to try to win games, you can't have Dwayne Casey. You can't have Dwayne Casey. He is basically antithetical. Having him as coach is antithetical to the notion of, you know, to the plan of winning games because Dway is a proven loser as a coach in the modern NBA. Like if we're talking to modern NBA, you can say that it started in like 2016. I mean, the Warriors had really done things to pioneer it in the 2015 playoffs. But you really got into the thick of the spacing era starting in about 2016.

And, yeah, Casey had strong regular season teams in the two remaining seasons that he coached in Toronto. But, I mean, even prior to that, I mean, his teams had always underperformed, his flaws had always come out in the playoffs of just rigidity, lack of creativity, a complete inability to make the proper adjustments in a timely fashion. I mean, it's not like the regular season when he just may lose a couple of games and, you know, and then it's fine. I mean, in the playoffs, if you don't make the proper adaptations in one game, it can mean losing a series. we saw it in his only playoff series of the Pissons as well in which he, like, fielded one of the worst, most horrible, awful starting lineups I've ever seen in a playoff game in game one, which was Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Wayne Ellington, Bruce Brown, Thonmaker, and Andrade Drummond, it's like, what are you hoping to do? Like, win on defense, you can't do that

in the league these days, even if this lineup could win on defense, which you can't. You're going to have trouble winning these games, but you're definitely shooting yourself in the foot. And he made adjustments in game two, but it's like, dude, you already gave up a win. Pissons were never going to win that series regardless. But with the Raptors, I mean, his playoff performance always seems underperforming in the playoffs. And it just got worse as they moved into, you know, the modern NBA in which his flaws just became more and more pronounced. Now, after they lost in the playoffs against the Cavs in 2017, Masai Ujiri, who's the president

of basketball operations for the Raptors, said we're going to a modern offense, Casey was not running. That was his mandate. And he tapped Nick Nurse to do it. Nick Nurse was the guy who formulated that offense. Casey went on to win coach of the year. I mean, the Raptors had their best season ever. And then in the playoffs, in between, like, tough, hard thoughts,

literally down to the last few minutes, seven-game series against the Pacers, who weren't really all that great. That was the Oladipo Pacers. And the Celtics missing their best player. The Cavaliers absolutely ate the Raptors for lunch in four games, and Casey did a really bad job, coach. and that was it for him. We've seen it with the Pistons. I mean, he hasn't been working with good rosters, of course, and he's a good guy for development. He's a good guy for running a locker

room during really, really awful horrible losing seasons, which isn't necessarily an easy thing to do. We've never heard a single peep about discontents, toxicity, anything in the Pistons' locker room. So he's well suited to that. But in terms of winning games, I mean, his primary contribution of the win-loss column has been to lose the Pistons a lot of close games because he's a horrendous late game coach. And he's not good at any other stage of the game. I mean, and that's been helpful for draft odds in the last three years. But needless to say, it is not a useful skill to a team that's trying to win. And we saw it again tonight.

Eric Spoulster, who once again as a top flight coach, made the proper changes in the fourth quarter. And Dwayne Casey, of course, as is typical for him, was completely unable to adapt. So if Weaver is serious about making that pivot to really trying to win games next season, then Casey is not the way to go. So we'll see. So moving on to the first of listener questions is how is James Wiseman doing? And that is a relevant question tonight. I mean, we just saw all the worst things about James Wiseman put on display against the Miami Heat,

largely just surrounding his exceptionally poor basketball decision making. And I'm positive that, and I've said it already, that this is something that the front office is really hoping and probably feels pretty good about that it's the product of rawness. He barely got to play in college, and he's just not really played very much in the NBA, so the hope is that he's the kind of player. Like, I don't know, we can compare it, like, you know, Wendell Carter Jr. and Marvin Bagley. I mentioned this, whatever, I've got to stop saying that. Mike Shoshavsky had to switch to his own defense in the year in which would have been 2017-2018, in which Wendell Carter Jr. and Marvin Bagley were playing for Duke,

because they were completely unable to defend the pick and roll. Bagley still sucks. Marvin Bagley, who excuse me, Wendell Carter Jr., through his time playing in the MDA, has improved. I mean, he's still not a great defender, but he's not like a horrible liability anymore. So the hope is that Wiseman is in the Wendell Carter Jr. category, not the Marvin Bagley category, because Marvin Bagley is just a bad defender. And that just seems to be, as I've said, a question of IQ. So it's not out of the question.

I mean, especially Wiseman is ultra-raw because he didn't get to play in college at all. And again, really didn't get to play very much for warriors either between injuries and just not making sense to have part of the rotation. But it was just, I don't want to call it a masterclass, but we'll call it that sarcastically tonight in terms of just making really bad decisions on offense and being a sieve on defense. So we can start an analysis of Wiseman by the numbers. A lot of what he does wrong though is qualitative, but let's start with the number. I mean qualitative, I mean stuff that isn't really going to show up in the score sheet. Really isn't going to show up in numbers. So where has he done well?

He's been a strong score in the restricted area, 72% before tonight. Since he joined the team, his tops amongst qualified players on the pistons over that span, and he's been doing it of the most attempts per game. He's got good touch around the basket. He's got an excellent length. He's been doing well in that capacity. Good efficiency on the pick and roll on decent volume. Though Casey really doesn't use him there anywhere near as much as I would like.

and Casey also hates vertical space and you see how little in the way of lob plays that you get from Marvin Bagley Jaylen Durran James Wiseman this is not a new thing for Dwayzee it's just how it's just one of his foibles one of his unfortunate foibles When you look back to Kate and his use

of Marvin Bagley as a vertical spaceer last year I think it's pretty much that Kate is allowed to do whatever he wants but then the flow of the offense at large yeah vertical spacing isn't really there that's something that Wiseman is good at beyond there it's pretty much all bad i mean it's been decent as a rebounder but not great and beyond the interior scoring and the pick and roll and sort of the rebounding yeah it's been all bad you know on offense just constantly not really operating within the flow just repeatedly

always trying to post up i'm not sure why he's being a lot to do that maybe it's dwind case he'll looking and saying well let's see what he's got but you know it's no shame to james wiseman that he is in the post. The vast majority of players in the NBA cannot score effectively from the post. At this point, Wiseman is putting up drama numbers, and he's just not participating in the flow. He just wants to post up. And drama numbers, by the way, are absolutely terrible. We're talking, like, absolutely and utterly horrible. You want Josh Smith shooting threes instead. You know, that'd be higher efficiency. So he's doing badly there. From mid-range, 28%. I'm a decent form. You can see that maybe becoming a thing for him. from three point range,

21% with awful form and a lot of really bad misses. If Weisman really wants to find good offensive value, he's going to have to be able to shoot from the perimeter. On defense, it complete an utter mess. If you want to look at numbers, defensive on-off is the worst on the team since he's joined it. Opponent shoot better than average against him from

everywhere. He's the worst rim protector on the team. He's giving up 67% of the rim. He's worse by a very substantial amount than Bagley and Duren. He can test a lot of shots. He just really sucks. at it. The perimeter defense doesn't help, but he's just also really, really bad. And over the span of which he's been in the Pistons, six worth, amongst players who have, who contest, who average more than five or five or more, excuse me, contest at the rim per game.

He has six worst in the league alongside such defensive luminaries as Yokic, Sabanus, and Valanchunis, all of whom are awful rim protectors. And in terms of stuff that doesn't show up in the score sheet on defense, I mean, he just doesn't know where to be. He doesn't know when to close out. He doesn't know when to rotate. He doesn't know where to go. He doesn't know how to position himself. Really every bit of his decision making is awful. Now, has any of this surprised me? No. Does any of this worry me? No. We knew when he was coming in that he was incredibly raw. And we're going to see over, you know, at least next season, is the last year of his contract. How much he improves just from getting time on the court.

it's time to hopefully develop from actually getting to play in the professional level. And the hope is that his decision making right now is horrible decision making, I know I'm repeating myself, is the product just of that rawness rather than the absolute lack of IQ. Because there's a potentially pretty good player in there if he can get that together. But if he can't, now he's going to struggle at the NBA level. Next listener submitted question, who stays and who goes in the offseason. So we'll roll free agents, of course, options and potential trades into this.

And we'll start with the free agents. So the first amongst those is everybody's favorite, Corey Joseph. So I feel like Corey gets unmerited flack largely just because, you know, I think fans understandably don't really like him getting significant minutes because he has, you know, he's boring to watch. He's not a part of the future. Obviously, he's not a young player. Now, for what Corey is, he's a solid third string point card at the NBA level. He is a great locker room guy. He's a leader. And he's been a positive presence on this team who is completely selfless. Has seemingly always been perfectly fine sitting on the bench so that young players can play. And he can come out there and give the piss and decent minutes. You know, he's a serviceable score. He's a good three-point shooter.

A decent playmaker can occasionally attack the basket. Again, third string point guard, not a guy you want to be giving you. a lot of minutes to on an NBA team that is trying to win games. And I understand that some people have had issue with him really playing many minutes at all on a team that's meant to be developing, meant to be playing young players. But I think he's a solid stabilizing presence. As far as if he's going to be on the team next season, so there's also Rodney McGruder, who hardly ever plays. Rodney is a guy who is solid as a perimeter shooter, but is bad at basically everything

else and also undersized. So just being good at three-point shooting for him, definitely not enough. He's very much a minus player. Never actually had a good season in the NBA, but just like Kojo, apparently a leader and an absolutely great walkroom guy. I suspect that one of them will be on the team next season. If I had to make a choice between the two, I would say it's probably Kojo, probably his third string point card. Unless the Pistons draft Scoot Henderson, in which case, I don't know, in that event, then maybe it's Magruder over Kojo. Of course, drafting Scoot leaves Killian's future in doubt as well, and I'd just like to note that Kojo is drastically more of an NBA player than Killian at this point.

For the simple reason that Kojo does not have the absolutely gaping, game-destroying hole in his game that Killian does, namely being an absolutely and utterly atrocious score. Kojo is not the playmaker that Killian is. However, he is a serviceable score, whereas Killian is a complete disaster, and that makes a difference. I mean, Kojo is a very significantly below average NBA player, but he is an NBA player. So, in any case, I don't think the Pistons are going to want to spend two roster spots on veterans of this sort next season. It could be wrong, but I would also guess that Corey Joseph is not going to get any sort of significant role on an NBA team going forward. he's unlikely to make much more than the minimum going forward. So I think he'd glad we accept the third string roll for the pistons.

And he'd still be around as just a positive presence in the locker room and for the youth, and that's valuable. So if he stays, I would imagine that Rodney Magruder's three-season stint as moral support for his teammates is probably going to be at an end. Next is Hamadu Diallo. You've been listening to the show for a long time. You'll know that I was bullish on Hamadu. opinion was he could be a pretty darn good player if he could just learn to shoot. Of course, if you can learn to shoot is a phrase that has sunk many, many players. And Tomadu, unfortunately, has not made the slightest bit of progress as a shooter. When he came back after the 2021 offseason

and had made no progress at all, it's like, okay, well, that doesn't reflect ball on him. How did this guy, this guy doesn't seem to be trying very hard, but maybe he just doesn't have the touch. And I had hopes that he would come back from this last offseason a much better shooter. because shooting is really the swing skill for him between being a valuable NBA player and also for him getting paid and him being on the periphery NBA because if you're a perimeter player who is not like a superstar who has an offense built around him and you can't shoot

then you're an offensive liability and almost invariably a negative value player no matter how good your defense is and how much his defense is not elite in the first place he can stick to guys pretty well but his decision making is rotations it is not good he just makes mistakes but even if you were a very good defender, very, very typical to stay on the floor for a team that's actually trying to win. You're that perimeter guy who can't shoot. Hamadu was on the edges of the rotation even this season,

even with Cade out and the Pistons having a very weak rotation overall. And rightly so, because, again, he has that issue. He can't shoot. That is a major downside for him, and it makes a huge liability to the offense as a whole. He had a few games, a few fun games, as the backup center. that's obviously not really sustainable.

It's not going to make him a positive presence. It's not going to make him worth retaining either. So I would doubt that Hamadu really is going to want to stay on a team, even if the Pistons are willing to keep him. And I think that's in the first place the Pistons are probably not going to have much interest in that. Unless for whatever reason, Troy Weaver still maintains faith in Hamadu's shooting upside. I don't see why he would possibly maintain that faith, because Hamadu is shown absolutely nothing to justify it.

And it's entirely possible that Hamadu is just one of these guys who just can't do it. It may sound funny, but at the NBA level, there are guys who can work incredibly hard to become solid shooters and just are not able to do it. So whatever the case, I don't see the pistons being interested. And if I'm Hamadu, I don't want to stay with the pistons anyway, just to be on the absolute periphery of the rotation. I want to go and try to make something in myself elsewhere in the NBA. I don't know where that would be. and he's not going to really make anything of himself unless he learns to shoot. And I don't think that's likely to happen.

If it happens after he leaves the piss, I'm going to be pretty upset. In any case, I would guess they'd is not on the team next season. And that is it for the free agents, not many of them this year. I'm not going to cover the two-way guys. They can be waived at any time with absolutely no financial repercussions for the pistons. So let's move on to, well, there's one guy with non-guaranteed salary. R.J. Hampton, his salary becomes guaranteed on the six. of July, that is a week after free agency opens.

RJ has been, in my opinion, very, very unimpressive with the distance. I mean, he's done, he's been given a significant opportunity on a team that can afford him a certain amount of usage just because there's so few options and he just has completely failed to impress. And on defense, he has very, very much failed to impress on offense. He's been a minus player on defense, considerably worse. I'm leaning toward him not being back, especially because of how. how many guards the pistons have.

But just chiefly because, you know, it was worth giving him a look in terms of upside. I mean, the guy's only 22. The magic just had no space for him. They declined his option for next year at the beginning of the season, which made perfect sense for them because he had been absolutely nothing special for them, and they just have so many guards to play. Or guys, they, you know, young guards, they want to give time over him. I'll put it that way.

But he definitely hasn't come in and impressed. And I don't think the Pistons are likely to hang on to him next season. Yeah, that's just my feel. I mean, there's not really much to lose in terms of just a $2 million salary in a roster spot. But, yeah, after watching his performance in the time he's gotten with the Pistons, I would say no. Omer Ui. So things are a little bit different as you're a team that's pivoting to try to compete, or not to compete, but at least to win.

You want your depth players to be guys who can actually do stuff for you. Omar Rui is a guy who could be a fringe NBA rotation player if he were able to shoot. Again, if he were able to shoot is a big if. And Omar Rui is about a 27.5% three-point shooter in the NBA that is basically prior to the night exactly where he was with the pistons. And in his current state, I mean, again, if he could shoot, he might have a place in the NBA. He is not a particularly athletic player. He's kind of got like the opposite profile you would want for the positions he plays because he's kind of too slow. to play it small forward, but if power forward, he's too short. The guy is only a little bit over

6'5 without shoes. I mean, he's quick enough, but he's very much a below-the-basket player, and again, he just can't shoot. So I would lean toward the Pistons turning down his option. We're on to the options now. His is an actual player option. Player options have to be figured out by June 31st before the opening of Free Agency. So if this were another rebuilding season, the Pistons might give him another shot, but, you know, he's not going to get minutes next year, and you probably want to use that roster spot someplace else. So I would guess that Omer Rui is going to be gone. And I'd just like to reiterate, he hasn't been very good for the Pistons.

You know, he's provided some decent minutes to a really, really bad rotation, but a decent is in the context of that really, really bad rotation. All right, elsewhere on the options list. Isaiah Livers, he's sticking around $1.8 million option. I mean, that's just a no-brainer for the Pistons. And the only other actual option that hasn't been picked up because options on rookie contracts get picked up a year in advance. So Isaiah Stewart, obviously they would have kept them anyway,

but Stewart, Hayes, Wiseman, Cade, those options were all picked up prior to the start of the season. So the only other option on the team is Alec Berks. You know, this is not a no-brainer. 10.5 million dollars. Burks is, you know, can create a solid amount of offense. He's a savvy veteran. He's a decent passer.

He's an elite force baser. He's just a very good all-around shooter. I mean, unless the Pistons get a really good offer for him in a trade market, you know, I bet good money he's going to be on the team next season. And either way, his option is getting picked up, whether he's traded or kept. But I would want Alec Berks on the team next season. He just provides a lot that's useful to this team and useful to the young players and just useful spacing, which the Pistons don't really have a tremendous amount of, of course.

Or you can call it elite spacing. And along those same lines, Boyon, and this is into the betray category, the Pistons seemingly really want to keep him for next season toward the end of trying to win games. And Boyon, though, he is a complete mess on defense, is a genuine, like, true, honest to goodness, three-level score. I mean, he's strong for mid-range. He's strong from the three-point line, and he's surprisingly strong at attacking the basket. I mean, the guy's super candy, not athletic by NBA standards at all, but really gets there and scores there well. The Pistons set a high price for him at the trade deadline. That wasn't met.

It's not surprising. And I would count on him being there next season. Again, unless they just get an offer that really blows them away. It blows them away, and I doubt it. I just really doubt it will. The fact is that at this point, Blyon is more valuable to the Pistons in terms of just being a strong scorer than he has to a playoff team, because in the postseason, his value declines because of his poor defense. He gets attacked.

distance at this point are more focusing on regular season. And it's worth noting that Boyan's salary and the final year of his deal is only very lightly guaranteed. And the only last logical one to think about, in my opinion, or really the only one that we haven't actually covered yet to might conceivably be in the trade market is Marvin Bagley. Marvin Bagley is a negative value trade asset just because of where he is as a player. He's a known commodity. He still has his long-term issues, and he has two more years at $12.5 million. That's only 10% of the cap, less than 10% of the cap, but 12.5 million is 12.5 million on a multi-year deal. To any team, that's going to make him a negative trade asset. And the only way I really see him

on the move, because obviously the Pistons aren't going to pay to dump him, that makes no sense at all, is, like, let's say the Pistons fall out of the top three, and they decide they find a good opportunity to trade that pick for which they can do with the draft, regardless of the fact that New York technically owns it because at the moment the season ends and the Pistons fall into the protected range, the pick is theirs to trade. No, they have to do so at the draft to remain compliant with the step union rule. So in the event that the Pistons do need to send out salary, I mean, they'll have a fair amount of cap space to take somebody into. But in the event that you do need to send out salary, I mean, Marvin Bagley is really the only option. So that's the only situation in which I see him on the move.

either that or another sort of Wiseman trade where you're trading Bagley away for another kind of young but struggling player on a not very good contract. All right, so let's talk collective bargaining agreements and excuse the raspy voice. Like I mentioned in my last episode, I was sick early last week and a minor case of asthma. So unfortunately, some of the symptoms of whenever I get an upper respiratory infection tend to stick around for a little while. in any case, yep, the CBA. And I'm just going to talk generally about what the changes are. Some of these will actually be pretty relevant to the Pistons.

Others will not be quite as relevant in the short term, but we'll have impacts elsewhere in the NBA and I think are worth talking about. So let's get rolling. And this CBA, if it's definitively agreed upon, it's been tentatively agreed upon at this point. it would be very, very surprised to see that pull apart. So if it is actually decided upon and signed

that we become effective in this offseason. So number one, cap smoothing. So we all remember back in 2016 when the cap jumped by almost one-third because the NBA's new TV deal, unfortunately, Adam Silver was still pretty new at the time and caved the players who said no on cap smoothing. Capsmoving is basically just setting a set amount

by which the cap will jump. So the NBA just wanted to have that jump over the kid. The course of two seasons rather than one, the players said no. They were probably all thinking, oh, man, we're all going to get paid so much. In the event, teams went in and signed a bunch of really horrible contracts and a ridiculous spending spree on the first day of the 2016 offseason. And come 2017, oh, that was also how Kevin Durant got to join the Warriors, by the way. And come 2017, some players opted out thinking, oh, I'm going to get paid to and found to their dismayed that all that cap space has already gone.

Meanwhile, Durant to the Warriors had obliterated competitive integrity in the NBA. So this time around, you know, perhaps the players stopped back to that and said, maybe that's not the greatest thing to do this time. So cap smoothing maximum. Of course, the CBA is 10% increase year over year in the cap. So when the new TV deal comes in, we won't see that gigantic jump in salary cap, which I think is. ideal, that we're not going to experience that again. So that's definitely good news. There's been an increase to three two-way players. That's just going to be a benefit to everybody.

I mean, these players will still be limited to 50 games per season and it will be ineligible for the playoffs. But, you know, for any team just gives you a shot, like for teams that are like really paying a ton of money for their rosters, this just gives them the opportunity to only carry 13 guys and just gets games from two-way players that don't count against the cap. and therefore don't count against the luxury tax. For everybody else, it's basically just taking a flyer on potential young talents. There have been some good players to come out of two-way contracts. Alex Caruso, excuse me, Austin Reeves,

Duncan Robinson, who was pretty darned effective player for a couple of seasons there before horribly falling off. Max Struce, who's basically Duncan Robinson's replacement is a top-not shoot-up of the heat. Lou Dort, for the Thunder, and some others that I'm not remembering, though. I think those are the major five. So that's only a positive for every team, including the pistons. This is a fairly minor one, but this will have a bearing for the pistons. Most likely, the room exception has increased by 30% to be more comparable with the mid-level exception. So how the room exception works?

Well, actually, let me explain the mid-level altogether. So the mid-level exception is a way for teams that are over the cap to sign a player basically every year in free agency. for teams that are below the tax apron and the tax apron is six million dollars above the luxury tax line. This year it was about $10.5 million. The teams that are above the apron was $6.5 million. Now, exceptions count against the cap. So the biannual exception and the mid-level exception will count against the cap for teams that have cap space. So you have to renounce those to use that cap space.

And what that leaves you is the room tax payer exception, which is the room mid-level exception. So the Pistons are a caps-based team, which they most likely will be, unless they make a trade for a lot of salary. Increasing the room exception will basically just give them maybe like $1.5 million, give or take, extra to work with any offseason, which is small, but nice. It's going to be an in-season tournament. We still know exactly what that's going to look like. I think it's kind of silly. Restricted free agents now have teams, rather, whose restricted free agents get an offer sheet, now have only 24. hours to match rather than 48. Awards require a 65 game minimum to kind of discourage, I would imagine,

load management. But this could actually have significant contractual implications for players who might be eligible for a Supermax contract. Because to be eligible for a Supermax contract, you need to fit one of two criteria. You need to be all NBA or defensive player the year in the season before your contract expires, or in two of the, basically, or in the two previous seasons. Or you need to have been named MVP in any of the three most recent seasons. So the fact that you now have to play 65 games to be eligible for any of these awards means that, excuse me, a player who played 64 games and may have gotten one of these awards and made themselves eligible for Supermax won't get it, assuming that this works

as it appears. So that could make for some funny situations. There is an increase in the extension limit from 120% to 140%. So it used to be that the maximum extension you could get, the maximum salary you could get in the first year of your new deal was 120% of the salary in the final year of your existing deal, which made it really not worthwhile for a certain number of players who were on bargain contracts to sign an extension. Jeremy Grant was one of those that just made a lot more sense him to wait for free agency and get a lot more money. So where this might impact the Pistons is, you know, in the event that they trade for somebody on a parking contract like that, and the increase in the extension limit, excuse me,

the increase in the extension max might allow them to just extend that player rather than let him hit free agency. Be it considered basically a boon to more or less every team. There will be cap exceptions now for second round picks. Previously, teams that didn't have cap space and wanted to sign a second round. pick needed to use the mid-level exception, the biannual exception, or the minimum exception to sign them. That's no longer the case. All draftees are required to do physicals at the combine, so no longer can top guys come in and just not go in and have a physical.

They'll have those physicals done, and those will be distributed to teams in their draft range. That's just a boon to everybody. And finally, I mean, there's some other minor changes I'm not going to go. over. Stuff that could have a certain amount of implications, but not for the pastons at this point. There have been rules put into place to penalize teams that spend an enormous amount of money. So, as I noted, the tax apron is $6 million over the luxury tax line. They're adding a second apron that will be $17.5 million over the luxury tax line, so $11.5 million over the first apron. and basically you just get penalized pretty heavily in terms of certain options if you're one of those teams.

For one, you get no taxpayer mid-level exception, and the taxpayer mid-level exception is the main means for teams that are deep into the luxury tax or under the luxury tax at all to add talents that is not added on minimum deals. So no taxpayer, Emily. You can't sign players in the buy-out market. That's another significant loss for teams of this sort, who will, will generally benefit from players who've been bought out wanting to go to a contender. So can't do that anymore.

You can't sign players in the buyout market midseason. Sunday cash in a trade can actually be pretty useful in small trades for a team that's paying a tremendous amount in luxury tax. You know, for example, and this happens with a fair amount of regularity, like we're paying this player $2 million and he's also costing us an additional $8 million in luxury tax. So, like, you know, it's midseason and he's got like a million left in the next year. this deal, we'll send you him and a million dollars of cash to take him on. Basically, we'll pay a salary. Can't do that anymore. Or in other small trades where it's basically like, you know,

we'll throw in some cash to incentivize you to make this trade. It's obviously not going to make a difference in, you know, when you're talking about a really notable player, but when it comes to a much less notable player, it can make the difference. Can't do that anymore either. Teams above the second apron can only send out first round draft picks six years in advance rather than seven years. For teams that are not above the that apron, which can be a big deal basically if they're wanting to make a big trade, especially if they've got first round picks tied up in, you know, like the next three or four years. And finally, this one is huge. They cannot take on more salary in a trade than they have

sent out. It used to be before for every team. It was you could take on 125% of the salary you're sending out plus $100,000. And so basically means that these teams absolutely and completely have to send out at least as much as they're taking in, which can be a significantly limiting factor, especially given that these teams are often extremely top-heavy. We've got a lot of salary tied up in a small number of players. And that loss of flexibility actually could be a pretty big deal for these huge spenders. It could wipe out a certain number of trade possibilities for them. And I'm sure more details will come out in the coming weeks, but this seems to be the size of it

as far as significant implications of the new CBA. So that'll be it for this episode, folks. As always, want to thank you for listening. I will catch you in the next episode.