Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 15: 2019-2020 Season Recap and Player Reviews, Part One

Episode Date: July 30, 2020

This episode recaps the 2019-2020 season, discussing takeaways and reviewing individual player performances. Part one of a two-part episode.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi there, everybody. I'm Mike. I'm here with Tommy. Welcome back to another episode of Drive into the Basket. Once again, hope you all are staying healthy throughout this very unpleasant health situation and hopefully happy as well. So today's episode, we're going to do a bit of a season recap. I know I said in the last episode, we are going to do a sort of mailbag episode, but maybe we'll save that for later. So we are today just going to talk about the season that has, of course, for the purposes of the Pistons, has been over for more than three months now. So just take a quick jog down the roster,

talk about how we felt everybody did, including the guys who are now departed from the roster, as well as who might be back, some moments we enjoyed from the season. And I guess we've already gone over quite a bit what the future holds. So let's just launch into it. Just a quick season summary. to tell you guys this because you were all watching it, but season began okay.

Typical pissed in season, really, and that they were trying to win once again, began without Blake Griffin, and then more or less just evolved into a series of injuries that yanked the carpet out from under that particular objective. And the organization at long last, finally, chose to change course and hit the reset button. We saw that for sure when Tom Gores, who had always been talking about, the future is a little bit about now, or we got to build that winning culture or whatever else, finally came out and said our goal isn't to be the eight seat every year, which really is a philosophy of the pistons should have been subscribing to long before that.

So in any event, let's just go on down the list. So we're going to start with the guys who are not here anymore. We'll begin with Tim Frazier, who really went the way of Jose Calderon. Calderon came in last season as a guy who had shot very well from three for a long time. He was a veteran leader and so on and so on and so forth. He was absolutely not really terrible. Couldn't hit the broadside of a bomb with a shot for some reason. I couldn't play defense.

He was just pitifully bad. Tim Frazier was himself very, very bad. He got shoved in the lineup very early because he lost Reggie Jackson in game two. And he made the absolute least of it. A guy was decent as a passer, but he shot, I think, like, 22% from the field in the early stages of the season when the Pistons were trying to win before he lost his spot in the rotation to Bruce Brown. So he was just completely awfully. He improved a bit toward the end of his season with the Pistons when it no longer mattered, and then he was ultimately waived. So we are ultimately going to go with the grading system of great, good, okay.

Okay, bad and terrible. We're not even going to really pay much attention to the grades here for these guys who are no longer with the team, and certainly it won't be next season. But I just call Frazier super bad. And Tommy's already told me he doesn't have much to say about these guys, so I'm just going to run through myself real quickly. John Henson joined the team at the deadline, more or less salary filler in the drum and trade. He worked hard, he played his role.

Good guy overall. Ultimately, all he had the offer to the Pistons was a contract that, is gone this summer or this fall, as it were, with the changes in the NBA schedule. Brandon Knight, same thing. Came over, got a little bit more of a role in the offense than I would have liked, because at this point in the season, especially with a guy again, Knights is a guy who is not going to be on the team almost certainly and probably wouldn't even, you know, to be honest, probably, or my opinion,

not to be honest, will very possibly not be in an NBA roster next season unless he's a third string point card. I didn't like how much usage and time on the court he got, when I would have preferred to see that go to, I don't know, Jordan Bone, or really any of the team's young guys. But much like Kenson salary filler and his chief contribution to the Pistons was his contract, which is done after this season. Jordan McRae, a lot of you might have even not noticed that he was on the team

if you weren't watching as much in the late stages or just simply forgotten about him. I kind of did. He was more or less a warm body. He was claimed off of waivers in the midst of a slew of injuries and biots. He played four games. He played badly. Done. Marquif Morris, pretty good as the seventh man.

He really modernized his game, really focused on three-point shooting and higher efficiency offense. He largely phased out the notorious Morris twin pull-up mid-range ISOs. He did hold. horribly as a starter, but pretty good as a reserve. He was generally fairly inconsistent, some good games, some bad games. It was an issue with Marcus as well, and he was with business, particularly with the second season. But overall, did his job for a salary. You know, it was only about $2.6 million.

And bought out after the deadline. He's with the Lakers now and might get that playoff matchup with Marcus. right to Jackson so I'm probably for those of you are on the Piston subredits

I'm probably known pretty well as I was one of Jackson's really harshest critics at least in that community for a long time it was I think

personally a shame to see his tenure with the Pistons down the way it did he came into the season injured he was clearly not himself at all in game two

he just he put up a few just egregious air balls before he left it's just clear the guy just couldn't even set a shooting for him. Ultimately, it came out to the back injury, and he was out for

three months. After that, he came back for three weeks. He didn't play really well. Didn't matter at all. And then he got bought out after the deadline and went off to the Clippers with his close buddy, Paul George, the Chase the Ring over there, and I wish him well. As much as he was really pilloried, you know, very harshly criticized by a fan base during his final two years with the team, he actually I liked him by the end I really really didn't like him

his first couple years because I think he was just incredibly selfish and egotistical and just had to be the man no matter how good or bad it was for the team but I think

by the time of his third season and particularly in his fourth season when Blake Griffin was along around he had morphed into a guy who was willing to take a wesser role

and be more of a team player so I wish his yeah I wish I wish, well, whatever the case, I wish him well. You got anything to say about Jackson? I think he hit the nail on the head, like in those last couple of years where he was able to, like, not, maybe not swallow us probably, but he was able to take the offball role to make Griffin's life easier.

I did appreciate that because, like you said, this first couple of years, him and Drummond, they had that pick and roll duo, and they just ran that over and over and over. You could tell they were both happy with that. And it probably wasn't easy for him to go through these injuries and have to take this. like third, third man. So, yeah, it's unfortunate that, yeah, this is how his time with the Pistons ends,

but maybe he'll win one with Paul George in the bubble. Yeah, he's got, I think he's got a good shot, so I'm with the clip is one of the best teams. Jackson definitely, he warmed his way out or forced his way out, you know, whatever we want to call it. It was pretty unprofessional. And for me at least,

kind of left me with a bad impression from the beginning, but he forced his way out of Oklahoma City because he wanted to be the primary option. He was actually, you know, he was starting caliber point guard and they had to trade him for scraps because he, because he made it clear that he was gone and even kind of faked injury, I think, at one point. But he did so on the basis of, I want to be a number one option. And he was fully, fully intent on maintaining that role, even when there were better players around him. Like Tobias Harris was a better score than Jackson.

He was the best score on the team the moment he came in. And Jackson, like the next season, you know, there was some controversy because he came and he was playing terribly. And he's like, well, I thought we were just doing the pick and roll. You know, I thought that's what we were going to do. And, you know, he said, you know, my dream scenario is that we run the, he said that's the thing in 2014 when he came to the pick and And so 2015, excuse me, he said my dream scenario before that, whatever, around that time.

My dream scenario is that we were on the pick and roll every play on the way to a championship. So whatever the case, he matured. And yeah, I just, I wish, you know, like I said, the third time, I wish him well. And you got to feel a little bad for him. Because he really did lose a lot from his flare-up of knee tendonitis. And then from his grade three ankle sprain, which basically, means, I think, detachment of some of the ligaments. That was a nasty injury. In any event, we come finally to Andre Drummond. Now, Drummond began the season fairly well, actually.

He was scoring fairly well in the paint. He was hustling. He was actually playing elite defense. He was still making some bad decisions as far as turning the ball over and attempting some shots he shouldn't take. But, you know, he was playing well for the first, I believe, eight games. Again, not perfect, but good. And he was clearly happy because he got to play a major role in the offense. And I think it led a lot of people to think, you know, maybe finally has Drummond turned the corner. And this is what we're going to see this from him all season.

And the answer, and as it has always been, was no. He fell flat on his face after maybe two or three weeks. The overall quality of his play really went down largely, I think, because he started having a lot of trouble scoring. And that's generally been a recipe for Drummond to, mentally check out and start pouting and stop trying. So his offense got real bad. His defense started to gradually slide.

When Blake Griffin came back, Drummond visibly went into, you know, just I don't care anymore mode because he was shoved, I think he was shoved off the ball. And the guy has pretensions of being this offensive superstar. And he's never been able to accept. I think that that's not him. He doesn't have that talent. So it just went more and more downhill from. there, lazy play, bad decisions, bad offense, you know, indifference. And for the last six

weeks of his team, six weeks with the team, excuse me, before the deadline, before he was absolutely not a garbage with the Pistons. He was just terrible. I think, I know, it was for the last month or six weeks. The Pistons were like 10 points for under processions, better without him on the floor. And this began before the trade rumors. So just awful efficiency, terrible defense, laziness that was above and beyond even his usual bar, usually very bad bar. It's funny that I find this really funny. Like when he was last summer talking about his intention to hit the free agent market because he thought he'd be a big fish, he more or less said that, you know, in a free agency

market that wasn't going to have a lot of big names. This statement also made it pretty funny when he got really pissed and went on a rant on Twitter after his trade of the Cavaliers. or there's no friendship or loyalty anymore. It's like, dude, you were talking about leaving the team, if you, you know, possibly leaving the team to get more money. But in that same conversation, you talked about how he had added a three-point shot and in ball handling skills, and he went on to shoot like 4.8%.

I'm not saying 48th. This is less than 5% from three-point range. We had all centers in the league and turnovers. And he was, with his time with the Pistons, anyway, he only played a few games to the Cavaliers, so I would imagine that held. And he was, I think, the only player in the top 20, an insist per game who had a negative assist to turnover rate. The guy just has pretensions. He's not Nicola Yokic.

He wants to be, but he isn't. And I'm glad he's now off someplace else where he can entertain those delusions of being a fantasies of being a superstar scorer. I was glad to see him go for many reasons. You had anything to say? What's your opinion? Yeah, a lot of what you just say, I would echo that. We'll talk about this more later, but like the way that he plays where he's, he's drawing bad possessions, and he's making the team worse by trying to do more than he's capable of doing.

Whereas, like, the best centers are the ones who know their role and they stick to their role. And ideally, you don't even have to draw offense for them. And that was a real problem with Andre because he didn't want to be that player. He wasn't even the guy who was like when he had, like, open, driving lanes. He was trying to do like these Kyrie Irving layups just for the flash of it. But instead of jamming down the high percentage shot, when sometimes he would even miss those layups and it was just pure frustration from him. So it's unfortunate that with so much natural, like, no, and so much natural potential and like natural gifts, he wasn't able to put it together

because he was just unwilling to put in full effort when he wasn't the hub of the offense, when he wasn't the guy who was making those pocket passes. It was, there was so much. much more effort from him and you can see this potential in those first 10 games. And he just wouldn't put it together because he wasn't getting the offensive role that he wanted. It's just, it's such a waste. And you even look at like where the league is trending in terms of what centers like him, these old school centers who can't space the floor at all. It's, it was a smart move to trade him. And it really is like he came into the league eight years ago and that was a completely different league. I mean, talked about

this, but you go back and watch like Miami, he highlights from 2010. It's a completely different game. They're taking so much more mid-range. These are the best athletes in the world, and they're still playing a fairly slow game. And that was something that Andre did. He slowed the pistons down. He kept them in like the 2010s, and that's how Stan Van Gundy coached him. You know, when he would go up for rebounds, he would take the ball. He would hold it for two seconds. And in that time, you know, that was two seconds more that the opposing defense had to get down the floor and set up their defense. And then by the time Reggie would walk it up the floor, you know, you'd have to go like into a half court set instead of what's become like more of the ideal offense, which is like

the transition and moving. And even that, I think Stan Van Gundy was not a big fan of because you could hear him screaming move. And these guys would just kind of walk up the court and then run their pick and rule. So moving on from Andre Drum. and it was just necessary because he kind of represents the past. And it's good that the Pistons are trying to move into the future. Yeah, I've promised on Futa and on past episodes that I won't ran about him again. I'm just going to disagree in one area that I don't think he was really a center who was particularly fit for the past. He talked about how he came into the league eight years ago.

The fact is that he hasn't really made substantive improvements in those eight years, you know, as much as people can point to the fact that he's only 26. He just, he hasn't really made those improvements beyond improving his free throws, his free throw percentage from worse than NBA history to just bad. So, and I think this year, he still had that role until, until Griffin came back. And even after that, he just got worse at it. And when he didn't succeed, he'd pouts. But I agree that he got to play a role. And he was, he always refused to do that.

So whatever the case, I think we're certainly in agreement that we're glad he's gone. I still look at it seems like a lot of fans who are not fans of Detroit were confused when the Pistons kicked them away for nothing. It's like this is a guy who puts up big raw stats that don't actually have anywhere near the impact

that they might appear, who plays very badly off the score sheet, and who had no interest to the trade deadline. Zach will put it, he said he had no trade value. And I think it was James Edwards who said that teams just didn't think that he played winning basketball.

So either way, glad he's gone. He was a guy who forced his team to play around him just because he wasn't, for two, you know, in two ways. Number one, because he was a traditional center. And number two, because he just wasn't willing to accept the role that befit his talents. The guy was just, he was a bad score. The guy was just was going to be good at running to the rim and grabbing rebounds. And playing defense, of course. But, you know, he wasn't willing to put him the work on defense anyway. Either way, he's gone. And really the last era of Detroit basketball left with him and with Reggie Jackson because those were the two guys Stan Van Gundy put together.

He wanted his ostensibly dominant big. I think he was thinking Dwight Howard and his pick and roll focus point guard. That style of play, that really ground pounded, ball pounding, slow-paced style of play just wasn't fit for the NBA anymore. But other way they're gone. So from there, let's move on to the guys who remained on the roster and who I guess maybe, maybe possibly. Oh, excuse me. Before that, we'll talk about a couple of young guys. or three of them, in fact.

So first one is Jordan Bone. He was, I believe, the 56th pick. Last season, signed to a two-way contract, spent almost the entire of the season in the G-League. He actually did fairly well in the G-League. There were questions about his jumper before he came in. About six and a half attempts per game in the G-League, he shot around a little bit over 38%. That's good. He's very athletic.

He's decent at getting to the rim. The guy still loves his long twos, and those really dragged down his efficiency. Now, the question is, at the NBA level, can he get to the basket? Can he use that athletic as he gets to the basket? And can he draw fouls, which he really didn't do in the G League? Nonetheless, decent performance. If there is a second bubble, which has been spoken of for the teams who are not invited to the other NBA bubble, namely the teams, the eight teams that were just so bad that they would have been trying to lose,

there was nowhere near the playoff, nowhere near the playoff cut off. Then I suspect, because I'm almost certain that you will see very, very few NBA veterans there. suspect Jordan Bowen be a starting point card. So next guy, I was going to talk about Dante Hall, because I thought we'd see him in the bubble, but he was signed by the Brooklyn Nets. So we'll see how he does for the rest of the season contract to replace, I guess, DeAndre Jordan, who I don't exactly remember why he's not showing up, but he won't be with the Nets, who have been basically gutted by coronavirus diagnoses and guys deciding they don't want to play and other injuries.

of course, Katie and Irving were gone for the beginning. Lewis King, who occupies the other two-way contract slots. Every team gets two. So Lewis King was pegged by some as a first-run, potential first-run draft pick. Ended up going undrafted because he just shouldn't have entered the draft. He just needed more development. So the piston snapped him up. And he just like Bone, I should mention, saw a few NBA minutes.

in which he looked completely hesitant and indecisive and I don't blame him. You know, that's just how it is for guys early on in any event. So King, likewise, saw some NBA minutes in which he wasn't particularly good. Not a problem. He wasn't particularly good in the G League either. Also not a problem. The guy just needs to develop, and it costs the pistons. The opportunity cost of keeping him in a two-way contract is very small for a guy who's

long and plays a position of need and is very athletic. So then just has a lot of potential. So if there's a bubble, he'll get big minutes there too, presumably. And finally, Kyrie Thomas, the man who cannot catch a break. He was superseded by Bruce Brown in the rotation in his rookie season because he got injured. And then he got injured again this season and missed crap at a time. And just as he was back and was set to get a larger roll down the stretch in the final, I don't remember how many games were left, like 20.

Something like that. Is that right? So he was set to get probably pretty big minutes. in those games and then the NBA shut down. So, poor guy, in any event, I personally, is his conscious salary for next season is not guaranteed. I personally think the

person should absolutely guarantee it because you just, you don't want to give up on any potential talent that you have on a contract. Any potential young talent with the potential that you have on the contract, the guy is probably never going to be a good ball handler. But if you can play a good defense and shoot three-pointers, then

great. You're probably in pretty good shape. Also, the guy though he's only, I believe, 6-3, you can actually play a little bit up the lineup because he's got a 6, I think 6, 10 and a half wingspan. So he's a switchable defender and so on and so forth. Another guy will get time in the bubble. All right, finally, after 20 minutes,

we get to the guys who are actually on the roster. Now, we will get started with Bruce Brown. We're just going to go alphabetically here. So, Brown, after a brief but, you know, terrible, extremely absolutely awful, but fortunately brief, maybe two or three games to stretch at the beginning of the season. Improved to an extent. He would ultimately take over starting point guard duties from Tim Frazier, who was starting

a point guard, unfortunately. I guess Casey just really wanted bros to play from the bench. But having just Tim Frazier, your starting point guard was a very bad thing for a team that wanted to win. Nonetheless, Brown took over about a weekend. He had his most notable game of the season in his first game, the starting point guard. The very underman pistons beat the Brooklyn Nets.

He had, I don't know, like seven or eight assists. Didn't shoot well. But nonetheless, it was a fun game to watch. He spent the rest of the remainder as the remainder of the season is the team's titular point guard, starting point card. Realistically, Derek Rose got the majority of the minutes. Bruce Brown would come in and play, you know, I don't know, maybe eight minutes. I don't remember exactly.

but Derek Rose is really the team's lead point guard. But starting ground allowed Rose to come off the bench, play less minutes, and play against easier opposition. So Brown was steady, but still an offensive liability. People pointed to the fact that his three-point percentage improved, which is more or less just him improving from one of the corners. He had already been good from the other corner. I think he was originally good from the right corner and improved from the left.

Whatever the case, he shot those on very low volume, only when left wide open. And though that's valuable, he shot 12. 22% from above the break, which means that opponents were very happy to leave him open. He improved to a degree, so it's still spacing liability, improved to a small degree on the weight of the basket at scoring the restricted area or in the paint. Unfortunately, he improved from like one of the worst in the league to just really bad. The guy, it shocks me because it surprises me because he's very athletic, but he plays below the basket. He doesn't score above the basket off the jump.

He settles for these flat-footed hesitation layups and floaters. So, yeah, unfortunately, still a liability. He impressed people as a playmaker in Summer League, where he still was unable to score efficiently. Impressed people as a playmaker, but in the NBA, where guys will just play you a certain way when you can't shoot. It just makes his playmaking a lot less useful,

and this was really illustrated by is awful efficiency on the pick and roll. So, you know, and as though his assists per game tripled, his turnovers did as well. Still study on defense. TT improved over the previous season. Not elite still, but maybe he has that ceiling. And he really did visibly come into his own as a team leader.

So for next season, what's to work on offense, offense, offense, more confidence as a shooter, no more passing up with threes. You got to improve your mechanics. work at scoring above the rim on the drive. I love Brown. Not necessarily talking about his performance. He's just the ultimate team guy. I've said this before.

I think that if the coaching staff said, Bruce, we're going to have our best shot at winning if you take zero shots, that he would do it and probably be perfectly fine with it. And leadership is always useful. The guys with that work ethic are always useful. But he's just got to improve because even though he'll have a spot in the Pistons rotation, like right now he would not be a rotation. guy and a bad team. And it issues me on a good team because just defense guys who are

spacing liabilities are just not that useful. And he's not, he's not yet an elite defender. The Pistons are fine with this. I think with him continuing to develop at this point, you know, at a reasonable rate because they're not looking to win right now. But we've got to look at also the fact that he's 20, he'll be 24 at the start of next season. So if improvement doesn't come soon, it might not be coming. I'd say, so we're going to talk about just throw out a key stat for every player. Key stat for Brown. He improved his true shooting percentage by 5%. That's significant, but he improved from awful, like 47% to 52%, which is below average. Still, good to see. All right. After that very, very long summary, which I promise is the longest

one we'll have for any player. What do you think, Tommy? I just wanted to add, for all the talk of his defense, he did improve it, but I think he was a little bit out of control. We talked about this to the beginning of the year. He was a little bit out of control on defense. And he plays very high energy, and I think that kind of was almost a little bit of a detriment to him. Because he matched up against Trey Young in one of the very first meetings of the year,

and he was following him a ton, and he was kind of taken advantage of. Go ahead. No, I was just saying it was the second game in the season. Oh, yeah. And the next meeting against the Hawks, you know, he played a much better, much more under-control brand of defense.

And it was really good to see that, he was willing to put in the work and study the film, I'm sure. Because he took that loss personally. He took that defensive showing, like, you know, to his brain. And he played it really well. I definitely need him to shoot better, at least from the corners, because he's a team leader. He's definitely one of the guys who took Seku under his wing when Seku first got here.

And I really hope that he can continue to improve, just to the point so that the Pistons can reasonably, can find the reasons to keep him because guys like that, guys who are team first, they're rare. And even if they're not the most talented guys, you want them as opposed to guys who have more talent but play for themselves like Drummond. So I hope that he can pick up his three-point percentage

to an acceptable rate because it's like we'll talk about these guys who can shoot the three, even if they're not graded a lot of other things. they have a place in this league. So that's what I hope for from Bruce. Yeah, I'd say I think you got to be able to shoot from above the break as well. We used to maybe at least at like 32, 32, 33 percent at least when you're left open. Otherwise, guys just aren't really going to respect you.

And it would help him out of the way to the basket if you could shoot those threes, but also it just reduces his status. Excuse me, removed his status is a spacing liability who really makes things more difficult than everybody else. also yeah about playing out of control last year he was number one in follows amongst consistent starters who did not play center centers would be more foul prone in general this year he cut down on those by about 18 percent i think which is still makes him very foul prone but much improved in that capacity so uh i'd give brown uh you know based on where he is actually i mean i would honestly give Bruce brown as much as i like his work ethic i'd give him kind of a

grade of okay i don't think he really did much to push himself in good territory. But, you know, I think he did passively well. What do you think? Yep, about the same. Couldn't really expect too much more from him. So just okay. All right.

So Seku Dumboya, the Pistons rookie. So Seku was drafted purely, purely, purely on the basis of his potential. I think even the organization came out, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong and said that he's a project player. he was really a guy drafted for somebody else put it well this these aren't my words but drafted for two years from now rather than right now and i don't think the organization really expected him to even play this season and i think he wouldn't have i mean because to blake riffam were healthy dumboya just stood him in the minutes for him so or if thonmaker had played passively well much she did not we'll get to that so dumboya came in when was it just after the new year i think it was uh it was on the second of january he had a really good two-week stretch that was capped off by a 24 performance against the celtics before absolutely

falling flat on his face for the rest of the season he was probably one of the worst players in the season excuse me in the NBA for the remainder of the season notwithstanding this uh this wonderful facial donkey put down on tristan thompson showed off his at his wankton his athleticism and his stink guy. So, yep. So it was a little disappointing that he, you know, his performance abruptly declined to that degree, but not surprising. The guy's only been playing organized basketball for about six years again. It wasn't at this point. I mean, I think he started playing at 12 or 13. He was drafted at age 18. So he's just raw. He wasn't expected to play. It was nice to come in and see that I think he has the basic touch, so to speak, as a three-point shooter, which is very relieving

because some guys just don't have it. I think he's got a little bit of work to be done in a shot. It's got a weird spin. But for next season, improvement, improve everywhere, really. He's got potential to be good on both ends. The guy just has to develop. Couldn't say how many minutes I'll get next season. I hope we'll get him, but hopefully he's got that work ethic.

Key stat for him. In his first two weeks with NBA minutes, I believe this is eight games. He averaged 14 points per game on 54% from the field and 41% from three. So that was fun. I give him a grade of, again, just like Brown, okay. I don't think he had a very good season in his own right. But he also, I think, based on in some ways, he exceeded expectations by playing in the NBA at all and doing fairly well at all, including against some good teams, against the Celtics and the Lakers in particular.

Yeah. I mean, even that Celtics game, a lot of those buckets that he got were kind of like right place, right time. But it was still very encouraging. He did finish the year shooting under 29% from three. It seemed like maybe the length of the season got to him. A lot of these other leagues, they play like 20-30 games. So the 82 game grind was probably a lot for him. And this isn't even so much about Seku, but like that two-week period where Seku was like starting to show up as an NBA player, people freaked out.

I think it kind of showed us how desperate this fan base is for something to get excited about. So I hope that people appreciate just the fact that we are taking these steps to acquire more high-level or high-ceiling young talent. Because I don't know if you remember, but at that time, people were really saying like, all right, guaranteed All-Star. We finally got our guy. People want to be excited. It was, yeah, I mean, I don't want to, like, I don't think anybody wanted to, like, pump the brakes on that, because it was really fun. It was, it was so fun to finally have something to get excited about. But, yeah, it was a little out of control there. But I was, I was still very happy. You know, I didn't, nobody expected him to be that good, especially given the circumstances where he was really just kind of put into that lineup because the distance just had so many injuries this season. So I'm happy with the way Seiku played. just a notch above okay, I guess. Yeah, he, in his first game,

James Edwards wrote an article about this. In his very first game, they told him you're starting and you're defending Kauai winner. And that'd be a hell of a thing to be told. He got butchered, of course. It's just fine. It should come as no surprise. It's your first real NBA minutes against

one of the five best players in the league. That's right. It was like Hawaii, LeBron, and then Jermon or something, right? It was like that West Coast road trip. Yeah. Yeah. I think he was defending.

Those were the three guys. And yeah, so it was fun. And the excitement was a big thing. And I think you're absolutely right about just people being desperate for some sort of excitement. I've always said that if you want to have a fan base, you've either have to have excitement for the future or a consistently successful product. And the Pistons have had neither of those. Of course, if you've got excitement for the future, then you're going to parlay that into consistent success if you want to really build up the fan base. but the pistons have had neither of those things for a long time.

So that was just one of the themes of the season, I think, as it went on and younger guys got more playtime, there was just more to be excited about. And that was nice, even though the Pistons were not winning at all, that was fine. That was okay, actually good for a different reason. Not that I were for the team to lose, you know, just in a vacuum, but the losses were good for draft position. I'm going to be real about that. So moving on, we go to Langston Galloway. used to be one of my whipping boys actually had his best season in the NBA.

And finally crested that week average efficiency mark for the very first time in his career. That's kind of a big deal for a guy who's a three-point specialist. He's got to be efficient. So he struggled with consistency at times, but nowhere near the just brutal degree of inconsistency that it did characterize his career in the past. So absolutely deadly from the corners. I'll talk a little bit about that in my, you know, the key stat category. He's always been pretty poor, like 32, 33% from above the break.

But whatever. Led the Pistons in total minutes played and aside from Brandon Knight. And I'm just going to talk about qualifying Pistons here. I'm not going to include Brandon Knight and Tenton and whatnot, guys who didn't play many games. He Gallaway led the Pistons in scoring efficiency and transition and on spotups. A bit of a down year defensively, but more like below average rather than bad, hard worker. and by all that's been said by the beatwriters, the guy is really considered a true professional in the locker room and on the court.

So I would say as far as area's improvement, and this is even assuming he's here next season. He just says what he is at this stage. It's possible that he'll regress. It's actually probably a likely scenario, given that he played above his typical baseline, particularly in his perimeter shooting. I think he eliminated a lot of the really crappy mid-range shots.

It's been sad to persons might bring him back just because he is that professional presence But I think personally it's a little unwise Given the glut at shooting guard I guess we'll see You do have to have apparently some good presences In the locker room so we'll see So his key stat

He was one of the very very best corner shooters in the league He converted on 52 and a half percent of his corner threes On more than two attempts per game from the left corner, he led to the league in percentage at 63.3%. And that's three point range. And he ranked second in total mix. And overall, third and total three point makes from the corners and first and overall percentage. So good for him.

Shame for him that it amounted to nothing on a team that went nowhere. But that is what it is. And I got to say, I did like him a lot more this year. So I'd actually give him a grade of good for what he was brought in to do, which is basically just to shoot threes. He and work hard. I want everybody to work hard. And even though he really didn't have a very good year on defense,

I'd still just in terms of what he offered on offense, I'd give him a good grade. So we'll go with, and sell will be in good territory. Yeah, I would say the same thing. This was like the first year he was like tolerable. I would bring him back or I'd be okay with them bringing him back, but I would still want them to kind of like lower his usage a little bit.

I feel like he's one of Casey's favorites, and Casey's favorites get played a lot more than they should sometimes, especially since we're probably going to, well, at least hopefully, draft a guard. And even if he continues to shoot well, I would still prefer most of those touches go to somebody who's maybe more part of the Pistons' long-term plans. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a pretty nice offer, especially after those pretty excellent shooting numbers. But this whole season, I was kind of like just waiting. When we started shooting well, I was just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop and for his efficiency to tank.

but it didn't really happen. So I was very happy with Langston this season. And since, like you said, by all accounts, he is a good locker room presence. I would be perfectly fine with him bringing him back for another year or two. It was solidly good. Yeah, I would not like to see him back just because I think general managers kind of need to save Casey from himself.

I think we saw that in the past in Toronto. Because he will play as favorites. They just will get time. And they might get time that does not fit the team for them to get. So especially if they're playing badly because they'll still get time. Galloway last season. And then he had one stretch when he, you know, he didn't have a three. And like, I think he didn't make it a single three last season in like 20 games,

which is appallingly bad. The last season being 2018, 2019. But, I mean, I think Casey will just play, still play his favorites no matter how will they play. And so I'd rather see him not return. But yeah, as far as Langston's overall, three-point percentage was a just a shade under 40%. that makes you about in the realm of an elite three-point shooter on five attempts per game. So next, moving on to Blake Griffin, needless to say, a lost season. This was, I mean, anybody who's listened to this show knows that I was a very, very big detractor of the trade.

Tommy here, also not at all a fan of the trade. On the day of the trade, both of us were quite upset. We were shocked. My actual reaction was like just his contract value. I was like, we have to pay this guy that much for the next five years. Yeah, you were like instantly against it. It made sense. Yeah, I was like this trade makes no basketball sense.

And that wasn't only because he was injury prone. I mean, it was also just because it did cap lock the Pistons with a bad team. Yeah, the fit was awful. The Pistons just absolutely didn't have what was necessary to succeed in the NBA and so on and so forth. You know, and I'll still maintain. period that this was just low-hanging fruit for Van Gundy and for Jeff Bauer, who's the nominal GM, and that they were desperate to save their jobs, and that Tom Gores was just all about having a big name, who I think, which he equated with, Stars going to win us games and

bring in fans, which neither are which are true. You got to have a good team. So Griffin, this season, after undergoing his fourth knee surgery, his basketball career, consequent to which I believe he missed the entire preseason and also the first 10 games the regular season he returned to post the very, very worst marks of his career and only 18 games before he bowed out and underwent his fifth knee surgery. Same knee, the same surgery in the last,

in the same knee, excuse me, the last two times. Just simply put, he was really bad. He had a few solid outings, but he just really wasn't himself physically at all. And for the most part, was just bad on both ends. Also, the team noticeably struggled to adjust to his presence because Griffin's just extremely ball dominance.

You have to have him on the ball or he's a lot worse. Also, just Dwayne Casey, I can hardly blame the guy for trying to make Griffin the end of the offense again because last season he was certainly a top 20 player in the NBA, I would say. And, you know, you want to get the most out of your best players. But it was just, it was visibly difficult to integrate him back in with. but Drummond, who, you know, however well or poorly, been playing, was largely playing with shooters at that point.

And Derek Rose, who himself is very ball-dominant. So that was just very noticeable. I kind of personally anticipated problems. And also I've said on the show that I think even if everybody was healthy, I mean, just the fit on the team is very bad. Nonetheless, hopes for the next season, better health and the possibility, however remote, of a trade, I think just Griffin has no utility to rebuilding team,

and I have no doubt that he doesn't even want to be on one. The guy's entering the later stages of his prime. He probably, and he can hardly be blamed for this, does not want to blow two years of it on a team that almost certainly has very little chance of even competing for a playoff spot, let alone for a championship. So also, yeah, I mean, he was a good leader last year, but he's certainly led by example,

but that is very different between that. playing on a team that's not going to be trying, you know, that's for which developments rather than victory is the goal. And, you know, who knows, I can't really think of any scenarios in which somebody would trade for him. Who knows, maybe. Couldn't say. And you never know.

One of these times, it's like, is he going to come back and we just find that he's just impaired for good? There have been a lot of injuries. So either way, if he's on the roster, it'll be his first season on a rebuilding team since his rookie year. It's a long time ago. So key staff for Griffin, true shooting percentage of 47.6%, which is the product of 35% in the field and 24% and 3,

was by far the worst of his career. His previous season worst was about 7% higher, 54.4. So I can't really give Griffin a grade. I mean, if this was a guy who would just play the whole season, I would have said you had a terrible, terrible season, but I'm going to have to go with kind of not applicable. Incomplete? Yeah, absolutely incomplete.

Would you trade a medal loss? Define a loss. like giving up who i don't know like a decent role player or like a second rounder to get rid of his contract yeah i'd give up a second rounder to get rid of his contract uh you know with against the possibility that you could actually get more from absorbing a couple of bad contracts that last the next two years you know because if you can absorb a couple of bad contracts and get uh three second round picks then you've come out ahead yeah it's good thinking yeah uh also frankly if you come back Exeteran plays well, the Pistons, so it might get just stuck up,

stuck in mediocrity purgatory again, and I really would like to avoid that. I'd also like that the usage to go to their young players and for the Pistons to be able to run a modern offense, which is impossible with Griffin on the floor. Right. So any thoughts? Any thoughts about his performance this past season, or I pretty much say everything? I don't even, I mean, with him, like, yeah, other than the stuff that you mentioned, I don't really think about him in terms of the future anymore.

I mean, at this point, I'm so focused on, like, Can we move him? Can we get any type of value for him? Is it worth holding onto his contract and just letting it expire in a couple of years? Those are the questions I have with Griffin. I mean, can he come back and prove that he still has something left? And maybe you trade him to, like, I don't know, Denver for Millsap because he's a little bit younger. But I don't know. I don't even, I don't even think of Griffin is part of the, part of the future anymore. I don't think he'll, I'd be very surprised if he even got an offer from the Pistons once. his current contract is up. I don't see any reason why they would do that or any reason why.

I mean, if I'm Griffin, I made a ton of money. I'm going ring chasing on a very reasonable deal. Once I'm off the distance, I don't think Denver would ever trade for the guy. I mean, here's the issue with Denver is that Yokic plays the exact same way as Griffin does. That's true. Yeah, and he's better. Yeah, and the three-point shooting is not there this year, exactly. Yeah, that's a shooter anyway, yeah.

Yeah, it's like, what are you going to do, like, set up two guys in the post? They're both calling for the ball and then pass the ball to each other. I guess, I don't know. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, I mean, the issue with Griffin is like it's, you know, it's a big salary number. And that makes it really difficult to match salaries, maybe in a multi-team trade. I don't know. And maybe for a team that really wants to clear space ahead of the 2021 free agency class,

which is pretty big. But who knows, things are just a mess right now. And if the cap goes down, they're just going to make things, make it even harder to move his deal. So that'll be it for part one. one, the season recap. We will continue in part two, which has been posted alongside this episode.