Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 162: 2022-2023 Player Reviews - Bojan Bogdanovic

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

This episode takes a close look at the 2022-2023 season of Bojan Bogdanovic, the team's leading scorer. 

Welcome back, everybody. You're listening to another episode of Drive into the Basket. I'm Mike, your host, and I hope you're all doing great today. So this is going to be the, I suppose, two and a half player review episode, if you're counting the Killian episode, is sort of one half. And this one, we're going to be talking about Boyon Bogdanovich. So Boyan was acquired last summer in exchange for Kelly Olinick, Saban Lee, and a little bit of cash.

The Jazz allegedly had some offers of wait for. first-round picks, but did not want to take on salary. He wanted to actually dump salary in order to duck the luxury tax. They had gone into a reboot that summer, having traded away Rudy Gobert for one of the most. It's just an awful, awful trade for the Minnesota, Dimblerwolves. And Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers. You got Danny Aange there. The man loves to stock buy list picks.

In any event, so sent Boyan to Detroit. And he came in and surprised, basically had the best season of his career. So let's talk a little bit of. About that. So Boyon, this last season, 21.5 points, four rebounds, two and a half assists on 49, 488 shooting, 54% from two-point range. So Boyon, for me, was a big surprise. He came in, and he had his biggest offensive role in his career, and certainly made the most of it at the age of my turn 34, I think a little bit after the season or thereabouts. excuse me and yeah he had the best season of his career he was a very very impressive offensive

presence for the pistons and just a three-level guy really really really just had a very very good offensive season and was extended not long after the season began he was under contract for next year at around 20 million dollars the same salary as he was at in his last contract and then his second year of his extension is guaranteed for a very small amount. So let's talk stats. So the man started incredibly well, 72% true shooting in October for those eight or nine games, around 50% from three. He slowed down in November from least in three point range, the tune of 30%, but still was

near 60% true shooting. Around 62% true shooting in December and January. And just like in February, he got to, down to 32% from three and still again 60% true shooting. I mean, this is a very, very efficient score. So ultimately would miss the final month of the season in part because, you know, he got sort of hurt, but also the Pistons just had really no reason to play him. They were fighting for very, very bad draft odds at the time and him not being in the lineup was one of the reasons why the Pistons only won two of their final like 21, 22 games. And yeah, because pretty much,

well, it was game 64 onward, and they won, yeah, two of their last 19. It was a tough second half of the season for the Pistons, partly by design, at least toward the end of it. So let's go back to stats. So, Boyan, really a three-level score and a strong creator for the Pistons, but not a creator necessarily in the traditional sense, because he was just expert at finding his opportunities in the flow of the offense. But I'll just talk about some of the other characters of his scoring. 49% on four two-point pull-up attempts per game, so a strong pull-up shooter.

as I've said before, there are not many guys in the NBA who can do that. Your efficiency threshold in the half course is around 48%. That's where you want to be if you're attempting these pull-up two-pointers. And, you know, he met that on a fair amount of volume. Didn't take many pull-up threes. He was only 33% on those, though that's a fair mark on pull-up threes. That's a difficult shot. You look at, for example, Luke at Donchitch, who shoots in the kind of low to mid-30s from three-point range,

and that's because he takes an enormous volume of pull-ups. So 45 and a half percent on spot-ups in three-point range on wide-open threes, depending on which page you look on NBA.com. He had to shot 48% or 50% on wide-open threes. Needless to say, he's a fantastic mark. One of the best spot-up shooters in the league. You know, he just had a fantastic season as a floor spacer. One of the leagues, just elite play finishers.

He was surprisingly strong at drawing free throws. He was top 40 in the league and free throw attempts per game at 5. one. That's definitely no joke, especially considering the difference between number 40. He was 38th and 20 is one free throw attempt per game. So 5.1 versus 6.1. Also, 9th and 3 point percentage for looking at players who attempted four free throws per game or more at 88.4%. So good at getting in the line and excellent at scoring there. Shot 66% in the restricted area, about 48.5% from mid-range overall. and also in the paint outside the restricted area.

Again, those are efficient numbers on shots that are that difficult to make efficient. So just as a whole, yeah, one of the leagues elite play finishers, a guy who doesn't actually hang on to the ball that long. Last season, there was the occasional KZO of, You're my veteran guy, take the ball and please score with it. But for the most part, he just expertly play within the flow of the offense like he always has. About half of his field goal attempts were on two dribbles or less, averaged only three seconds per touch.

which was sixth on the team behind the four guards. It would be Killian, Cade, Ivy, and Corey Joseph. And just in my opinion, yeah, he's just, he's super, super smart. He's savvy. He's not athletic at all, but he gets the rim off the dribble just by being smart, being shifty, rarely by attacking, again, rarely by attacking in isolation, but just generally in the flow of the offense. He's not really a guy who initiates from the perimeter and hangs down to the ball.

He's doing most of his stuff from offball movement, catching the ball in stride before attacking the rim or shooting from mid-range or just attack and close-outs when he's not, you know, actively finishing from the perimeter. No slouch is a passer either. He passes when he has to. He's not a black hole. But, you know, I know there was some criticism of Boyon for not passing, but if you're able to finish plays at a very efficient clip, you know, there's, it's not an issue that

you're not passing the ball. I mean, if you're depriving other players of more efficient opportunities, that's a different story. But, you know, if you're, if you're just scoring very, very efficiently, you know, why pass? I mean, that's just kind of what you do. It's about getting good efficient looks for your team. And Boyan, for the most part, was not passing it. He was not a black hole. You know, if he was taking a shot, he was most often making it. So here's how Boyan operates if you watch him play. Again, super smart guy, knows where to go, knows where to be. Almost invariably makes the right decision on offense. He is these very, very, very, very

cerebral and he just he finds his spots he's good at getting open you know sneaky good at getting open he you know for example you see a lot of his drives to the basket a lot of his shots of the attempts at the rim he catches the ball in stride after having you know curled around an off ball screen or just you know finding a good way to move that gets him open and it's just a couple dribbles and then he scores with you know his typical like three inches of space to spare from below the basket. It's just not easy to score like that as a guy who is as unathletic as boy on is. I mean, he is not a horrible NBA athlete, but he's definitely down there, not explosive, not fast, you know, not a good leaper by any means, but he's just so smart.

So he'll catch the ball in stride that way, and, you know, if he has to pull up for a mid-range shot, then he'll do it, and you can make that efficiently enough, but often he would get to the rim, and he scored at a high percentage there, or just getting open around the three-point line. I mean, that doesn't sound like much of a skill, but he's smart at finding his way into open shots. For some reason, Brett Hall is coming to mind. It's kind of like a hockey equivalent. Brett Hall was always excellent at just floating into good positions in the slot with nobody noticing him, especially in the power play, but just in general.

Obviously, Boyan is not, you know, the basketball equivalent of Brett Hall, who is one of the greatest hockey players at all time. I also shout out, one of, you know, won a Stanley Cup with the pit, with the Red Wings in 2002. too. But Boyan just has the knack of getting himself open and just being in the right place to either catch that ball in stride or to be open from three. And again, just a deadly vicious three-point shooter when left open, you know, when left wide open, you know, not the guy to leave wide open. And so just an excellent floor space, are absolutely elite. And if you close out on him, he's going to just dribble past you. And there's a pretty darn good chance that he's going to

score off that drive. He can pass when it's merited. Again, he, I mean, he was a very dedicated play finisher for the Pistons last season as more or less the primary option when he was on the floor after Cade went down. Ivy really, I mean, Ivy had a much better second half of the season than first half of the season when he really started, you know, when he really had his good games, a lot of those were after Boyon left the lineup, which was, you know, around the beginning of March. Boyan, he was a valuable presence for the youth in that you could rely on him to just take the ball and get a bucket when nobody else could. And I just think he was a stabilizing presence. Again, he's a guy who makes the right decision.

He was not a usage sucker. He's just, he's expert at working and just getting the most he possibly can from within the flow of the offense. This is not Jeremy Grant and his two years when, again, this is just something that Dwayne Casey loved. hey, insert, you know, go-to veteran here, just take the ball and score with it. You know, I'm not going to coach you. Again, with Grant, he played at his best and at his most within the flow of the offense in his last couple of months with the season, with the pistons, excuse me, because Troy Weaver talked to him about playing more efficiency, proficiently.

Dwayne Casey had not done that, and he's just thrilled to have one of these go-to veterans. He can just hand the ball and say, you know, do it, do something with it. So, yeah, that wasn't Boyon. And here's why, you know, I know there's talk like the Pistons should trade the guy, you know, because, you know, he's got some value. He's on the older side. And, you know, you get what you can for him right now. And I strongly disagree with that.

I think that this is an ideal player on offense. Let's talk about his defense a little bit first. Blion is a pretty poor defender. I don't think he's a disaster by any means. And Utah, though this was partly Gobert, was able to, to have a pretty darn good defense even with him on the floor. He's not a guy you put on there, and you just have to worry that he's going to completely fall apart.

And though he was part of those two, like, really bad Utah offenses that flunked in the postseason in 2021 and 2022, I think. But it really didn't help that Donovan Mitchell and Bryce O'Neill were turnstiles in those playoffs. I mean, Boyan's kind of a guy who's going to be sort of okay if you have him on the or with guys who are not awful defensive liabilities. You know, generally when you put a couple of defensive liabilities in the floor together, they just kind of, they compound the impact. It's just they both have a greater negative impact upon the defense.

Now, am I saying that he's a reliable defender? No. Boyan does not have very good defensive IQ, which is weird for a player who's as smart as he is on offense. He works hard, but he's not athletic. He's going to struggle to keep with guys who are considerably faster than he is. He doesn't rotate well. He obviously can't play help side rim defense. defense because he can't jump. And he's a minus defender. There's absolutely no mincing words about that.

I do strongly disagree with the notion that he is just a disastrous defender whose mere presence is going to unhinge the defense or that he gives back as much on defense as he gives on offense. I don't agree with those. Again, I think if he's on the floor with reasonably good defenders with the Pistons next season, then is he going to be an awful defensive liability? No. Again, if he's on the floor with guys who are just awful. It's a different story. Now, I know there are some traumatic memories from the first part of the season in which the front court, and this was just awful, like this was just terrible and should never have happened, you know, start during from game one if you have to, the front court of Isaiah Stewart,

Sadiq Bay and Boyan Bogdanovich, which was incredibly unathetic, undersized, and both Bojan Aminus was himself on defense and Sadiq Bay for reasons that remain entirely unclear to me. maybe you just stopped caring. It seems like the kind of maturity that he had, beyond his year's maturity had shown in his first two seasons kind of fell apart. But he downgraded himself from serviceable defender, who I thought had solid defensive potential given his smarts and his, you know, it's pretty quick feat to really bad. And so you've got like two pretty poor defenders at forward. Your center, who's Isaiah Stewart, who is generally a strong defender. It was made substantially worse by the fact that, I mean, you put the two of those and the Ivy next to him,

and suddenly he's got to be repositioning like Matt in the interior, and Isaiah Stewart doesn't have the athleticism to both reposition and challenge. He can do one or the other, though, of course, he's not good of challenging when the play is behind him either. So he'd reposition, but then he couldn't jump. People would just score over him. Not ideal. So, yeah, if you put Boyon out there in an awful defensive lineup, he's going to hurt you.

But, you know, even if he were a solid defender, I think that lineup may have struggled quite a bit, but he's not. So minus defender, but if he's not in a horrible defensive lineup, I don't think his defense is like a game changer. He's not one of those guys, a game changer in a minus way, in a negative way. He's not one of those guys who's just absolutely an utterly horrible like Marvin Bagley, whereas just you can't really trust him on defense because you know he's going to make a bad decision eventually.

He just can't process it well. He just can't process the game. defense. But definitely a minus there, but like I said, I just don't agree that he's so bad that he gives back everything on defense that he gives on offense. I think he is nonetheless, say, going to be a positive contributor. And you look at the lineup, the pistons are likely to feel to start the season next year. Jalen Duren, who I think will be considerably improved on defense. Isaiah Stewart, who's more just average as a power is as a defender of power forward. but definitely compared to Sadieke Bay

of last season is a great deal better Cade who's a solid defender at the guard spots can switch up the forward if he has to because he's got the size and the strength to do so Ivy's the other question mark there he admitted last season that he was really bad he was none too pleased with himself

about it on defense and sometimes he would literally be turned in circles trying to figure out where he was supposed to go not for lack of effort by any means. He worked super hard on both ends. It's one of the things I loved about Ivy. I mean, the guy has the work ethic and the drive without a doubt and expects a lot from himself. But, yeah, basically, I don't think that putting Boyon out there is just going to give you a bad defense.

I know I'm sort of repeating myself here. But let's talk about why I think that it would be not a great idea to trade away Boyon. number one you don't want to put your young players particularly kate and ivy in a position in which they are responsible for creating everything ivy has one season in the league kate has a total of 84 games in the league these are young players they and that's that's just a big responsibility to put on top of two young players and i know that's there's this philosophy out there of just you know giving them the opportunity given the responsibility and let them adapt to it it's not quite as simple as that you know Number one, you just said number one.

In the first place, you don't want, I mean, you want to make life easier on these guys. Like, you want, you don't want it to be, I mean, you have that another creator and boy on a veteran creator, also just a guy, like basically a guy defenses need to pay attention to also. And so a lot of attention to makes life easier on Kate and Ivy. And in situations when Kate and Ivy are really struggling, having somebody else to fall back on is nice so that you're not just having them ram their heads. against a wall again and again, which is not good for winning games and is not good for their confidence. So it's just, I just don't think it's ideal to just throw everything on their shoulders. That is a lot to ask from them. And I think they can use the help, basically. Also, just in the larger context of the offense, you have Blyon to serve just as an offensive release

valve when things are going badly. You know, again, when Cade and Ivy are struggling, and just when you need somebody to create something. So you, you know, you have Boyon there. Boyon gives you, and it's worth noting, Boyan Bogdanovich is a 20 point per game three level creator in the NBA. This guy is no slouch. There aren't many guys like that. He's extremely efficient and he's,

he's good for most everywhere. Again, he's not kind of a guy who's just going to put you in isolation and drive to the nets and score. He operates more within the flow of the offense, but he's a strong score. That should not be understated. So when things aren't going well, then you have him as a release valve,

when things are going reasonably well, you still have him as another option that defense is really need to pay attention to. He's an elite floor spacer. Caden Ivy, you're going to want maximum spacing around them. And it doesn't, for very, very, very few players, does it get better than Boya? He is just a fantastic shooter. He's absolutely killer if you leave him open. And he'll just attract a great deal of attention at the three-point line.

Again, you just, you got to know where he is. and that makes them great at spacing the forward because you've got to have a guy out in the perimeter guarding him. You know, it's sort of, and if you're forced to close out on him, not athletic again, but he's very likely he can get to the rim and score on you. And he likes to do it. He likes to attack closeouts. So if you want that spacing and business needs that spacing,

a guy for Caden Ivy to also pass the ball to finish plays for them, Blion's ideal there. He's one of the best spacers, four spacers in the league last season, and it's just perennially strong at it. He's a guy who, just in the first place, is the Pistons focus more on winning games next season. And for the record, I know that it's been said that the Pistons are, you know,

that the priority is going to be winning games. I mean, priorities, there's still going to be a lot of, quite certain, a lot of priority placed on development. The difference this season is that guys will not be given an infinite leash. You're not going to have Killian Hayes coming in and playing dozens of games and being absolutely horrible, and he just gets to continue doing it. You know, he's going to be fighting for minutes in the first.

place. But Marvin Bagley, he's going to be fighting for minutes too. He's not, I think he was a guy, Dwayne Casey pointed at in particular and said, you know, he struggled and players are not going to be allowed to play through their mistakes next season, though maybe I'm misremembering, though he certainly said that in general, that players are not going to be, not going to have the opportunity to play through mistakes next season like they have been. So he's a player who will help you win games because he is a strong score. He provides good veteran leadership. We heard a lot last season about how he was a loud voice, you know, a loud veteran leader out in the court. And I'm not sure if we heard in the locker room, but yeah, we definitely heard about what he was doing in the court. And it's

just the savvy veteran presence for a team that currently has very little of it. And I would say when it comes to players like Caden Ivy, sure, I mean, if you're in a perfect world, you'd have a stronger defender. But I'd say that Boyon is kind of like the, one of the perfect players to put alongside him because he's a player who doesn't need the ball. He doesn't really initiate plays so much. He does not, by any means, a heavy possession player. He's a guy who just, I'll say this again, is just an absolute expert at playing within the flow of an offense

and finding high percentage opportunities within the flow of an offense, whether that's from the perimeter, from mid-range off the drive, at the rim off the drive. He knows where to go and what to do. He's not only going to make Cade and Ivy's life easier as initiators attacking an ointacking in the interior, he's going to allow them to do more by having a guy to pass the ball to who's going to be able to maximize the gravity that they attract

in order to finish blaze at a high percentage. I mean, I'd ask what's not to like about Boyon next to Caden Ivy. This is not, for example, having like the likes of Jeremy Grant, who at least under Casey, that he certainly didn't do this in Portland, was just going to be sucking usage and becoming kind of a black hole who just, you know, didn't really pass the ball that much. You know, a lot of bad offense from mid-range in particular.

There's nothing about Boyon that will make him conflict at all with Caden Ivy as ball handlers. It's just, it's not his style. He is not a high, you know, a high-volume handler. He is a play finisher. And it may look like he's a handler because he does some, you know, he ends up attacking the rim of fair amount. But again, he's doing that within the flow of the offense. And it's just something he's great at.

and savvy at and smart and if you want to talk about I don't know if I've ever held to the notion of mentorship in the NBA I think it's helpful to have veteran leaders but but it's like you know I'll teach you how to play the game I mean that's I don't think that's

it's like some guys I mean the NBA with a standard of talent being so high I mean generally if you're going to be a successful player you either have it or you don't it's not here I'm going to teach you how to play the game a lot of it's just based on the skill that players have but

I know that that's a different story. But it definitely sets a good example in terms of the decisions he makes on offense. So again, I just, there's so much he offers. He's not going to, he offers to the offense in general and also in terms of just making the lives of Kate Cunningham and Jaden and Ivy easier and allowing them to be more effective and doing so without conflicting with them in terms of handling the ball at all. My question is just what's not to like about Boyan's fit here. And in terms of what you could get by trading him,

I think that his value to the Pistons at this point, just in what he can provide in the context of running a functional offense next season and just making life more palatable for the team's principles, the principal young players they want to develop. I mean, that's, sure, it's not getting you tangible trade value, but I think that's providing good tangible value to the rebuild. And also, again, for a team that is hoping to win more games next season. I think that Boyon, because his defense is pretty poor, has less value.

And also because he'll have a smaller role on a playoff team, just has less value on there because his defense is going to hurt more. And, you know, for putting him in a postseason situation. Also just this is offense will be less impactful if he's playing next to guys who are, I don't know, like I've heard. you know, say the idea of trading Boyon to the Dallas Mavericks, but you have Luca who is, you know, arguably the, you know, the premier heliocentric guy in the NBA today.

And Kyrie, who, you know, is a solid offball player, really. But it's going to eat up a lot of usage too. It's just Boyan's role in that offense, the amount of field, the number of field goal he's going to be taken will be significantly less. That means his offensive impact is significantly less. And then his defense is just, just the ratio there in terms of, yeah, what you are losing from having him on the floor there, especially because that's a bad defensive team.

Kyrie's a minus defender. Luke is a minus defender. Who knows, maybe thin Luca this season will be a better defender. But I don't know, I'm not holding my breath. So, yeah, you're reducing his offensive impact, which is, you know, as a result, indirectly going to, you know, emphasize he's just providing less on offense while still costing a certain amount on defense. And for the Mavericks, I got to think, you know, you're supplementing an area of strength while emphasizing an area that is already weak. I know we heard a little bit about,

you know, him, some trade discussions with the Mavericks, but trade discussions, I would guess, in the majority of situations don't actually go anywhere. So I don't doubt there are a lot of exploratory inquiries and discussions that really just never get off the ground and that they're, I'd be shocked if those didn't outnumbered successful trades by a great deal. So a guy who can offer value, again, can offer value in the rebuild. He's not just a guy where it's like, yeah, we don't, you know, we don't need him. He's not going to help us. You know, we're not going to make, probably not making the postseason in the now.

So why keep him, trade him for a draft asset? I just, I really disagree with that line of thinking because, yeah, like I said, I think he provides value in the now to a rebuilding team that can really benefit from his presence. As far as why not to trade him? I mean, I just went over by the piss and should keep him. Let's think about what you're losing if you trade away Boyon. You're losing an elite floor spacer on a team that desperately needs shooting. You're, you know, who's coming into the starting lineup in that situation?

You bring you Alec Berks in, okay, fine. You know, he can provide good floor spacing. He is not Boyon's equal. I mean, as a shooter, Berks was pretty darn good last season. He's not Boyan's equal as a creator by any means. Again, Boyan last season, he wasn't a higher usage role than he's likely to, occupy with both Kate and Ivy in the lineup. But, I mean, he was a, like I said, 20 point per game, like three-level guy last season. That is not something to scoff at. You know, he's a significantly

better scorer than Alec Berks. And he brings Alec Berks also into the starting lineup, and you're losing a lot of heft off the bench. But, you know, you're also losing one of your two really elite-leet-lead shooters. So you're, you know, you're losing everything that I talked about in terms of why the person should keep him. But, yeah, you get rid of him. All the onus for creation comes on Caden Ivy. They have one less play finisher. They have that much less spacing.

They're losing his veteran leadership. It's just my guess is that it would hurt the offense pretty significantly. I know that there's some hope that Asar Thompson will start. And Asar, just like with almost any other perimeter player, you know, there are exceptions that we're looking at are like Janus. Jimmy Butler, maybe a couple of others. I don't really count Draymond Green there. But if a SAR can't shoot, it's going to be extremely difficult for him to be a positive contributor on the floor. Shooting is one of these things where it's like it's not going to make you a good player on its own.

So, I mean, it's not like, oh, I have it. I'm going to be good. But it very much is, I don't have it. I'm most likely going to be a negative value player. You know, I don't really want to think, especially with Duren in the lineup, You feel two non-shooters, hardly anybody can get away with that. Maybe if you've got like the talent of the Durant era warriors, or even the current warriors, I suppose. Or the Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Hardin, Nets, or even just the two of Kyrie and Kevin Durant, then you can get away with it.

But for everybody else, it really hurts. I don't think that Blam being in the lineup is going to hinder Assar Thompson's development. I think Asar is, let's see, he comes in next. season and he's ready to go. I think, which would be an outcome, of course, that all of us would be thrilled at. He comes in and he's a reliable enough, a three-point shooter when left wide open. It's like fantastic. He's coming to the starting lineup and, you know, as long as they feel that he's ready to receive that level of responsibility and it's not going to be kind of overwhelming him early on, which is an ideal. It's not always ideal for a guy to, you know, you just,

you bring him on and you play him 35 minutes a night when he's just coming into the league. But if he's ready. If he comes in to training camp and it's like, wow, you've revamped your shot. You're reliable from three. He plays well in preseason. I think the guy he'd be replacing in a starting lineup is the person who is, I think, likely, has to line up next to Boyan on forward, which is Isaiah Stewart. I'll talk about Stewart more his season. And, you know, when I talk, when I do his episode, when I do the episode about his season, don't think that Stewart is ever going to be an ideal fit of power forward just because of his athletic limitations, which are much more more painful of power forward than they are at center. And it's also just a position that

kind of minimizes his strengths while emphasizing his weaknesses. I love Stewart, and, you know, it's really think highly of players who, you know, who are not stars. Like I've said, the vast majority of players and the NBA are role players and role players are important. So let's say a SAR is ready to go. I think you move Boyan to Power Forward and you put Asar at Small Forward or the other way around. I think Boyan, just as a defender, even though we are in a very switch-happy league, is better suited to defend power forwards. He's not a good defender at the position. He is not a good rebounder.

Fortunately, Asar is, I think, going to be a pretty darn good rebounder for his size because the guy can really sky. He gets up there and, you know, he works hard there. I think that eventually, and it rarely happens in a player's first off-season that he puts on a bunch of strength, but you can pretty regularly see it in off-season number two when guys really bulk up quite a bit. And if a sara puts on another 10 pounds, I think you can fairly well run him 10, 15 pounds here. I think you can fairly well run him at power forward and have him do pretty well between his, you know, he's already a strong player between what would be,

you know, like 225, a pretty hefty player even at, I mean power forwards are are not huge anymore. 10 years ago, a lot of power forwards were just smaller centers, pretty bulky guys who often couldn't shoot and four years later, you know, if we're talking 2013, four years later, all these guys were other centers, shooters, or out of the league. So, yeah, I don't think Blion is standing in Asar's way at all. If Asar can shoot this season, quite confident he'll be a starter. And if he can't, then he shouldn't be a starter. It's not going to be good for him.

It's not going to be good for Caden Ivy. It's not even going to be good for Jalen Duren, who's going to enjoy pretty bad spacing, you know, alongside Caden Ivy. And I've seen it asked, you know, will Assar's defensive contribution? you know, just be enough when I put them in there and the pistons would be a much better defense. Well, I mean, number one, it's very unlikely to put a guy in there and do a bad defense and have it improved quite that much. But number two, more importantly, just not being able to shoot is such a painful thing in the NBA. The NBA meta is incredibly intolerant to non-shooters in the perimeter.

It's the ability to shoot is too valuable and the inability to shoot is too damaging. Those to come together. if you're a really bad shooter. It doesn't matter if you're Andre Roberson, who was a great defender, or Matisse Stuybel, who's again a very good defender, you're going to have issues.

It's going to be very hard, especially in today's NBA, in today's offensive-focused NBA for you to be a positive value player. So my answer to that question would be no. So on the season, I'd give Boyan an A-minus. I mean, on offense,

you give the guy an A-er and, you know, very high grade because he was genuinely impressive. I'm very impressive on offense. You lose him some points on defense, but the thing is the Pistons were not in the business of winning games this season. This was always going to be developed and get good draft odds. So I don't feel too bad about his defense being pretty poor. And he was just so good on offense for this team that I'd have a hard time giving him a grade lower than that. I hope I'm not dealing with some inconsistency here in terms of grading.

Again, I think that the impact of his poor defense was emphasized by him being on the floor with one or more, remark you know also you know pretty darn poor defenders and i think that'll be it'll be less so that'll be less of a thing with the pistons uh going into next season so that'll be it for today's episode uh as always folks want to thank you all for listening uh and for your support just uh really enjoy and appreciate hearing from from those of you who reach out with feedback and uh and with kind words and yeah uh just just always very happy to hear from from any of you, whether that be on Discord, on Reddit, on Twitter, really, wherever. So, all right, folks, I will catch you in next week's episode. Be well, and I hope you all

have a great week.