Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 166: Offseason Mailbag #2

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

This mailbag episode answers listener-submitted questions about a myriad of subjects, including the USA's recent disappointing FIBA WC run. 

Welcome back, everybody. My name is Mike. You're watching to another episode of Drive into the Baskets. We are getting pretty darn close to the start of the 2020, 23, 2024 NBA season after, well, what has felt, Mike, most off-seasons do is a very, very long one. And hopefully this season, maybe that's a lot to hope for, hopefully this season, I'd say very, very likely in the following season, these off-seasons will be getting a little bit shorter as the pissons are ideally at least in the first round of the playoffs. So in any event, training camp starts up on October the 3rd. So, which I believe is exactly three weeks from the damn recording this episode. And then preseason kicks off October the 8th against the suns. So about five days after that, well, obviously eight minus five, you know, eight minus three equals five.

Don't listen to me. So still waiting to see if anything might happen in terms of player movements with what remains a little bit of an awkward roster. Who knows? I don't, well, I could say I don't foresee anything major, but really honestly have not even the slightest clue. And things do happen late in off seasons. Boyan was acquired literally. the day before training camp last season, he was acquired on Media Day. So these things happen. They're not really altogether all that likely this close to the season, but all we can really do

is speculate. And that was an absolutely and utterly worthless insight on my part. But I hope you enjoy listening to it. In any case, this is going to be a bit of a mini mailbag episode. I want to thank everybody who submitted topics on Pistons Discord. If many of you all are Discord users, haven't checked it out, or at Discord.GG slash Pistons. I got a pretty sweet community over there. Check it out. So let's kick it off in no particular order, or rather in the order, well, it is a particular order because it's the order in which I received the question. So number one, best role player from the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010's Pistons teams, defining whom I would like to have on today's roster and defining these guys as somebody who never made

an all-star game in their career. So I'll say that for the 1980s and the 1990s, this would be a little bit hard for me for a couple of reasons. Number one, that was before my time. I just was not watching the pistons at that point, you know, at that point for, well, in part, because I wasn't alive for some of it. But also because I didn't really get into the pistons very much in my life until the going to work era. And even then, I wasn't, I knew enough back then to answer that question for the 2000s.

And of course, no plenty from the 2010s. But so when it comes to the 80s, I don't know very much. And also, you know, I do know some guys, but it's a very, very different NBA now. course than it was back then. It's a very, very different NBA than it was, even in the 90s, certainly in the 80s, even in the 2000s, even in the early 2010s. So you have some guys who were good role players back then who really wouldn't fit for the Pistons. It wouldn't fit for any team in the NBA. And you can look at a guy, for example, in the 80s like Vinnie Johnson, who was, you know, a decent sixth man.

I was going to call him a microwave scorer that's actual a nickname as the microwave. But he was pretty inefficient and couldn't shoot threes. and also he was undersized and, if I recall correctly, not the greatest on defense, he's just the kind of player who really wouldn't fit too well in today's NBA. And even if you go into the 2000s and even leaving aside the fact that I don't really know a ton about that era of the Pistons, I do know that these were not deep teams. And excuse me, in the 90s, in the 90s, these were not deep teams. These were top heavy and not particularly good teams after the championship era.

And on those championship teams, you can even look at, you know, because the second championship was in 1990, you can look at that. team. Even the guys there, I mean, obviously you have to rule out Lambert. You have to rule out Isaiah Thomas, Dumars. You have to rule out Rodman. You have to roll out even Aguier because he made an all-star. He made a few All-Star games, if I remember correctly. And even if you didn't have to rule out Rodman, who was a role player on that team, I mean, the guy was probably about six-six without shoes and couldn't shoot, would kind of struggle to play that small at center in today's NBA. Just a lot of these guys would have to play differently. But yeah, when it comes to the 90s,

men just as a decade. I mean, who do you think of guys who weren't necessarily like the principles for the Pistons and yet were decent players who didn't make All-Star games? I thought of Alan Houston, but he did make a couple of All-Star games. Terry Mills is a guy I don't know too much about, but he had a couple of seasons with the Pistons in which he scored well. It was B-lead for the time, a very before his time, a stretch forward, but I really never watched the guy play, so I couldn't tell you. So kind of got to beg off on that question from. from the 80s and the 90s, unfortunately, in largest part, just because I don't, that just my, my base of knowledge is not really big enough. I tend to like to answer things only if I really

have the backgrounds. This is me tuning my own horn, just the way I like to do it. I don't really like to make. I wouldn't want to answer on the basis of it, really what I consider to be very insufficient knowledge in my part. Those are just not eras of the pistons in which I really have a great background. But also, again, it's complicated by the fact that just a lot of those guys would not fit in today's NBA. They would either have to play differently or they just wouldn't make it, which makes sense, given that this was a long, long time ago. Now, you go to the 2010, excuse me, in 2000s, it becomes very easy.

The answer becomes Tashon Prince, a guy who was arguably a fringe all-star a couple of years there, though even then, I would say that, like, in those really peak-peak seasons, like between 2005 and 2008, where he was a good player, but I wouldn't even necessarily call him a fringe all-star player. can't put in the same category as Ben Wallace, of course, who was basically the perennial defensive player at that stage, and Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, who were All-Star caliber players, and even Sheet, of course, made an All-Star game with the Pistons. I don't remember if he made any before that I think he may have made, he may have appeared

an All-Star game with the Trail Blazers. Man, if only there was a website, I could check that on. In any case, I don't know too much about Sheets' career with the Blazers, but right now I'm just remembering one completely random sheet story after he left the pistons. So Sheed is the all-time leader in an NBA history in technicals in the single season with 41, which I believe is now impossible to actually match, to actually get to without being suspended a little bit too much. Though I might be wrong about those rules, whatever the case, it just is not worth it for anybody to even remotely come close to approaching that number. It wasn't worth it for Sheed either,

but it did be a lot to be a lot worse now. So this was in his final season. after he'd retired and then come back and he was playing with the Knicks. And he fouled somebody. It was a shooting foul. And she'd, as was typically the case, really didn't like the fact that he'd been called for a foul. So he complained and got a technical. So the opponent took the first shot and he missed. And she'd, of course, as he was wanted to do, yell ball, don't lie. And he got a second technical and he got kicked out. So he got a double technical or he got two technical fouls in zero seconds. but not for, you know, not the same sequence. So good old sheet. In any events, yeah, Tashon would, I think, fit pretty much on any team in the NBA these days,

Prime Tashon, rather, a guy who is a rangey wing, long, athletic, strong on defense, shoots threes, can do a little bit of really rudimentary creation in the flow of an offense. Yeah, Tashon, I think, would be a solid guy in today's league, and absolutely would love to have Prime Tachon Prince on this team. You know, maybe there's your stretch for there. You know, your stretch for the future. And, you know, goodness, but that, obviously, in the starting lineup, would that be a pretty darn strong defensive starting lineup, at least three very plus defenders. I think Duren, of course, as I've said, I think will be a very plus defender. Asa, I think we can count on it to be a very plus defender. And prime tautation, definitely very plus defender as well. Just a bunch of switchable guys. And yeah, I think K to sell at it. It's Ivy, who's the real question mark in terms of his defense, which, as I've mentioned, was very, very bad. last year, but he was a rookie. I'm not feeling particularly concerned about it. Not particularly concerned of the fact, you know, not in the context that I'm 100% positive is when you become a good defender, just that it's, I think it's far too early to be getting concerned. He's certainly not

lacking for work ethic too, which is, which is nice. You can still fail, even as a hardworking defender, even as a hardworking athletic defender, but you've got a much higher chance of failing if you're a lazy defender. Excuse me, pardon the sniffles. Seems to be a consistent problem lately. So, yeah, easy answer there, Tatian. So for the 2010s, we have Tobias Harris, who never made an All-Star game. He was really a fringe guy. One year in particular, that first full year, excuse me, this would have been 2018, 2019 with the Clippers. He was a fringe All-Star in a very, very deep Western conference. But he didn't make it. So if that is the criterion on which we are going, I would say, you know, sure, that era of Tobias Harris, you know,

who was there in his last, especially like two-thirds of the season with the Pistons. That was a young player who he was still prone to disappearance when he was kicked too far down the totem pole. But solid guy to have on the team. I mean, a guy in his mid-20s who, not on today's contract, obviously, but a strong score when utilized well by an able coach. And if we can't go with him, then the pool shrinks very significantly. And that would bring me to Reggie Bullock, who in his last one and a half seasons was really one of the strongest motion shooters in the NBA for the Pistons.

he had his typical horribly horribly horribly, horribly slow starts that was pretty much just the thing he was going to come in and be awful for like the first couple of weeks. But aside from that, strong shooter, decent enough defender, hard worker. It'd be a solid bench player for the pistons. So those would be my answers and thanks for submitting the question. I appreciate it. Next one, my most intriguing teams for 2023, 2024. Okay, no particular order. One that I think you have to bring up just in general is the Thunder, who are just in a fantastic position with one of the most.

most elite scores in the league and Shay Gilgis Alexander and a bunch of promising young talent. You have Davis Bertons. No, I'm just kidding. He's just on the team. I just said that to be funny. So obviously you have Jaylon Williams who came and was a real surprise last year. If I remember correctly, the runner-off for rookie the year, strong role player. I don't think he's going to be the kind of guy who's necessarily going to continue improving all that much. He's a 22-year-old player already who, you know, has not the greatest athletic suing. doesn't mean you're going to be a bad player, obviously, but it does, you've got to be kind of special to transcend that past a point. I'm not saying, oh, he's not athletic, so he's not going to be a good

player. He's a decent athlete, I think. But I think he came in with a pretty high four. He was a strong all-around player coming out of Santa Clara, and nobody expected him, I think, to be quite this strong. I think he'll be a very solid starter going forward, is what I'm saying. I just don't think he's going to kind of take that, take his, he was starting kind of at a higher point, I put it that way. He was less upside, more than outside. But you have Shay, you have Jason Williams, who I think is going to be, yeah, a strong starter and potential trade bait. You haven't even seen anything of Chet Holmgren, though I continue to believe that the guy absolutely just needs to put on a lot of weight and play at center in order to actually really capitalize his potential in the NBA.

And can he put on that way? Who knows? Josh Giddy, who I think is going to be a capable point guard, still needs to improve as a shooter. But smart, good size. The entire lineup has good size. and you've just got so much draft stock there. You have a team that already made a play on the last season, even without Chet Holmgren. And, I mean, Shea is just a superstar. Shea is a superstar scorer. And, you know, there are no two ways about it at the age of 25. So even if you just see a decent amount of improvement from those guys, you know, from the youth outside of Shea, who I, I mean, there's not, I mean, if the guy improves more, but it that way, I mean, good, watch out.

It's already a 30 point per game score who, like the vast, vast, vast, vast majority of his offense is unassisted. I mean, he's just very extremely difficult to stop. So the Thunder are definitely going to be a team to watch. And, of course, they're always a threat to make a trade to improve the team, obviously, because they have an obscene amount of draft stock. So moving on, the Pelicans. The Pelicans, I would say, are an interesting team because if Zion Williamson can just stay healthy, they are not far away from being contender, if far at all, really.

Zion is lampooned rightly for the fact that, well, where do I start with Zion? It's basically that he's a player with enormous scoring potential. I mean, the guy is literally about his unstoppable player on the drive as the NBA has ever seen. It's his combination of touch and finesse and just general skill with just a frame that is tremendously strong, that is athletic, explosive, bouncy, agile. You put those two things together. He can't really shoot kind of guy who just doesn't really matter. You want to surround him with shooters.

But you're just given the ball and do let him attack the rim. Chances are he's going to get there. And, I mean, he's just, he's really something to behold when he can actually stay on the floor. Unfortunately, he can't stay on the floor. It's that incredible and ridiculous frame of his is one of the absolute key factors, obviously, to him being the player he is. And the qualities that make that, you know, that make him what he is physically are also, we're always inevitably going to make it very difficult for him to stay healthy in the NBA.

And I think if he had done everything right, his body would still begin to break down, you know, maybe as he got into his 30s. Some NBA players would just deliberately lose weight as they get in their 30s. Some guys who were kind of bulkier, like LeBron and Mike Mello and Dwight Howard was kind of forced to do it because his back went out. But that's a lot of what it's about is the back. But, you know, your lower body also. These guys play a lot of grueling minutes.

There's only so much weight that Zion, obviously, he moves just by the nature of things. In the events, he definitely didn't come in and do everything right for his health. He did not maintain his weight. He needed to stay at the smallest weight he could possibly be at. Because, again, I mean, you look at what his body can do and couple that with the size of it, you know, the density of it, it's just, it's extremely difficult on the ankles, on the knees, on the feet, and eventually we'll be on the back, but not until he gets older. Any events, yeah, he definitely did himself no favors, and so his injuries have started earlier.

But you take a healthy zion who is inherently a game changer on offense. because, again, just good luck stopping the guy. You look at the one season in which he was reasonably healthy because Zion is, I believe, now missed the majority of his games in the NBA. Actually, I'm certain of that. It's not a probably. I mean, he's had four seasons. He played 24 in his first.

He played 29 in the most recent one. He missed his entire third season, and he played 61 games in his sophomore season. But in that season, he, as a player who was 6'6-6 in shoes, so probably shy of 6-foot-6 unless he's one of the odd guys who rounds down. put it this way, yeah, he's six-foot-six player. He led the league in restricted area field goal at times per game, and he made 70% of them, and I think a lot of those were on assisted. So he's just, there's really been, in terms of what he specifically brings to the table, no player ever like him in the NBA, just in what he provides in terms of melding his skill with that frame of his. So all of this is just to loop

back to what I was saying at the beginning, which is that if he is healthy, the pelicans are in very good position because you've got a decent amount of talent on this team. Brandon Ingram is a good player. You know, another good young player in his mid-20s who can shoot, who can create. He's like one of the rare shot graders in the NBA. C.J. McCollum is, you know, another decent creator, a decent guy in the ball. I mean, they could really use like an honesty goodness point card, which they don't have. But you take those three and you add Trey Murphy, who is going to miss us.

of the season, but has already drastically, you know, outstripped as his draft position. You know, the guys, the guys looking real good as a strong defender and a guy who can do some creation is just a high efficiency score. And Herb Jones, who I think will get it together ultimately as a shooter and is just one of the weak strongest perimeter defenders. Larry Nance Jr. is a solid backup center. Jonas Valenzhenius is, they got to replace him and I'm not sure how they're going to do it. But you could just put a traditional center there, you know, just a strong traditional center there

and probably do fine, even though Zion can't shoot. Dyson Daniels, who knows what's going to happen with him, another, you know, if you can learn to shoot guy. But they've just, they've got the high level talent there. Zion is every bit good enough to be the number one guy in a championship team. So it's really all about him. But talented though he is, the most necessary first ability, the ability you have to have to do anything in any field is availability. You've got to be able to report to work and do your job. And thus far, he hasn't been able to. Now, with his health, having gone haywire very, very early, can he get it back on track? Or is he just going to be one of the NBA's big what-ifs? I think it's going to be the latter, unfortunately, but I hope it's the former.

I hope he's able to get it together because, I mean, beyond the fact that you never, obviously, always want, you know, want these guys to be healthy, even if they're not in your team. It's just a, it's a big loss to the NBA. You have a player like that, just not, you know, to all of us as fans to not have a player like that, be able to play. So that's another one, the Pelicans. The Nuggets, this is almost just kind of like, how do they adjust to getting a little bit worse? They ran a foul of the CBA particularly in the case of Brze Brown, who wasn't like an absolutely key player.

But that is a significant loss in turn, you know, for a team that didn't really have a ton on the way of depth. He was an important role player for them. He signed a one-in-one. And at the end of the season, I mean, they had nothing, they had no way. not even remotely any way of matching what Indiana would threw with the guy. And the most that they could offer him was the mid-level exception. I believe they're a tax team too, so they could only offer him the tax bearer mid-level exception. So you also, I mean, Bridget Jackson, no disrespect to the guy, but he's extremely washed up.

You know, he's basically, I mean, Christian Brown actually did pretty well. I think it's Brown rather than Braun actually did pretty well last season. And, you know, they've got some young guys in the team and really just got a hope for development. there. Losing Jeff Green, I guess, and Jeff Green's not irreplaceable, but I think they've downgraded on him even there. You've got to hope that Ziegnazhi is pretty good. So it's a team that really lacks depth now, and you're still really strong in terms of creation. Obviously, you've got, I mean, Yolkich speaks for himself. Jamal Murray is a very strong creator. Michael Porter Jr., they could really use a leap from him because right now he's just like an elite three-pointer, a lead very

difficult to block a three point shooter who is pretty poor on defense and makes all sorts of horrible decisions on offense if you actually let him handle the ball. So I'm just looking to see what happens there. I think, though, that the Nuggets got very, very fortunate in the teams that they faced in the offseason. And yeah, I just think they got very, very fortunate. They, in the first round, we're facing a team that had no hope of measuring up to them. And the Timberwolves in the second rounds, Chris Paul goes out, Monty Williams does a pretty bad job, and they're just playing against the team that has no penetration. In the conference finals, I mean, well, Brun is the only guy, you got to attack Yoko Chun defense.

Well, Brun's really the only guy in that team who did that, Anthony Davis had a bad series. And then in the finals, I mean, the heat got there. Jimmy Butler was really torn up already, and the heat had really no business, in my opinion. I mean, it was really kind of like a cinderella run of the finals. That team really didn't have a ton of talent. It was really held together by fantastic coaching and Jimmy Butler being an absolute supernova. postseason player. I mean, he was amazing, but he had nothing left by that point. He was injured also by the time they got into the finals.

Not to take away from what they did, I just think that their route there was fairly easy. And they're going to be going in, assuming they don't get good production from, you know, from young players, they're going to be going in a significantly, a pretty shallow team next season. And, you know, we'll see how it goes. The Cavaliers, if Evan Mobley, like, they are still fairly weak at small forward. Like if, you know, this is no particular route. Obviously, the most important thing there is that Evan Mobley becomes a shooter. And if Evan Mobley becomes a shooter, I mean, you've got a contender there.

They ran into some issues in the postseason because having the whole Twin Towers can't shoot model, even if you have like two elite creators at Guard, which they do, that's kind of an issue, especially in the postseason. And, yeah, but if Mobley can learn to shoot, you've got a very complete roster, even without really a strong small forward. If Isaac Okoro could just get it together for them, that would be absolutely huge. If he just becomes a good three-point shooter on decent volume, that would be absolutely huge for them.

But just even if Mobley gets it together, I mean, they too are going to have some issues with depth, but that's just such a potent starting lineup. And you can rotate Mitchell and Garland in so that you, you know, have a strong creator on the floor basically at all times, you know, assuming good health. Max Trues, I think, was a little bit of a weird pickup for them. He was kind of the kind of guy, like, don't trust heat role players. He is a strong shooter, not the greatest defender. And you take him away from Miami where Spillister is just so expert at using guys like that.

I think he's going to drop in terms of effectiveness. I think that money could have been better spent. Does Caros Leverd come off the bench now? Who knows? Maybe I'm saying something stupid there. But yeah, in terms of depth, they're not great. I don't think they're necessarily a championship contender. But if Mowgli can get it together, I think that's going to be a very interesting team to watch

and a team that can make the conference finals. And then finally, obviously, the team are most interested in is the Pistons. If you look at the Rockets or the Spurs, the Rockets, I'm not feeling too hot on next year. They are going to obviously be trying to win, but, man, that's a team with some issues. And a team that is still a bit of a mess, and I'm not sure if they're going to find it within themselves to get it together in this, just in this upcoming season. If Eminem Thompson, I mean, basically a single win condition for them is just if Eminem Thompson can just get it together as a shooter by like year two or three, and you have him

next to Jalen Green. I mean, that's, in my opinion, you know, championship caliber back. back court right there in the first place. Shangun, I have his question, I have questions about his ability to play defense in the postseason because, you know, he's best off at center, and he's just going to get, they're just going to switch onto him constantly.

He's going to have to, they're going to make him a defendant space, and they're going to make him his defend on switches against fast players. And I'm not sure he's necessarily going to be able to do that. And if you can't do that, you're going to limit your team inherently in the postseason. I mean, if you're like an absolute offensive titan, like, you know, like, like, Nicole, Yoker. then you can give up some stuff on defense and you're still providing an incredible amount of value to your team.

But you have Yokic and then you have guys like Sabanus and like, you know, maybe Shangoon. And if he becomes a Sabanus, I mean, that's a major win. But you still get a play him at center in the postseason and he's no Yokic. So Cam Whitmore is obviously a wild card. It's just like I don't feel great about how that team comes together and I don't feel great about them getting it together this year. And the spurs, of course, are the spurs and they are where they are. Ma Manama is going to be fun to watch. My main hope for him is that he stays healthy

and that he does not start accruing injuries in the first year of his NBA career. That would be awful. So those are the teams I'm going to be watching next season. Moving forward, would I take the going-to-work title or not having to deal with 15 years of irrelevancy, which has been it for the Pistons? I think this was submitted by Price.

I'm sure many of you remember from the draft preview series. So as I understand, it's what I trade the going to work title, assuming we have no championships in this situation for 15 years in which the pistons weren't quite as bad. I'd say no. I mean, obviously, it's just, it's so hard to give up a championship, to say, you know, we would give up on the pistons reaching the top of the mountain, which is just such a sublime moment for any sports fan, in my opinion.

I'm just one sports fan. But I think a lot of us have that in common, that it's just such a big deal to watch your team win a championship. You know, if it's like, okay, we know this is going to cost, you know, a few years down the line, the pistons are going to fall into 15 years is just a team that's constantly struggling. Yeah, I would hurt to know that, but I would never, even though I wasn't nearly as into the pistons now, back then, excuse me, as I am now, still, that was just, that was such a fun team, and it was just so cool, especially as just the embodiment of the underdog to see them win that

championship. So now I wouldn't give that up. And the thing is the pistons didn't have to be this bad the last 15 years. They've had to do a lot of things wrong. Though, of course, the last three years have been being bad for a reason, which is very, very different from what the Pistons did for the first 12 years, from really from the Chauncey trade onward, which was for the most part trying to be good in a really, really stupid way

and being good enough that you are never picking, you're never one of the teams that has the highest lottery odds, but you're not managing well enough or coaching well enough. but mostly you just don't have the talent to be a team that's going to be able to do anything significant. And also for most of that time, you also suck at drafting. But yeah, in a second, I'd take the title in the last 15 years versus no title. And 15 years in which the Pistons, you know, might have been better, but, you know, still we're not going to, we're not going to come closer or not going to win that title.

So moving on the Phoebe Squad, which ended up in fourth, which in the, in the Feeble World Cup, which was, of course, kind of a disappointment for a country that still has, you know, the greatest preponderance of, of MBA talent. Here's the thing. And this ties into another question I got, which is, you know, can you talk about how, you know, things have changed from the dream team onward in terms of how the United States competes at the international level. And that would be kind of like more of a, that would be more of a protracted analysis.

But the meat of it is basically that when the, when the, when NBA players first became eligible to go to the Olympics, I mean, it was a big deal to go there and represent your country. And they got the best, the best. Back then, international basketball talent was nowhere near what it is today, like nowhere even close. So the dream team, which was composed of many of the best players in NBA history, came in and obliterated everybody. They just annihilated everyone. It was no contest. Over time, playing in the Olympics became less of a novelty.

Players cared about a less. Less good players went. And then, you know, and then at the same time, the quantity of international basketball talent steadily grew to where we see it today, where a lot of the talent in the NBA is made up of foreign-born players. Like, for example, this season, the top three guys in MVP odds were, it was, this was Embed, Yokic, and Janus are all foreign-born players. You have Luca as a foreign-born player. I mean, you've got a ton more talent at every level, you know, from, from superstar,

all the way down just a role, just standard role player than you, than you have ever had before. And I kind of feel like you also have these rosters from the United States where, number one, especially in the World Cup. Here's the thing about the World Cup. The NBA season is very long. And a lot of these guys just want their off season to relax and to heal. So the World Cup is never going to be a big attraction.

And it's not to say the United States didn't send a team that I think by right should have won because they had a very good team. But it went the best in the United States had to offer. And I kind of feel like you have other teams that come out there with West talent that still have enough talent to do something. Like Canada, of course, you know, could, they feel that they feel that they're, a pretty good, really decent starting lineup. Germany had nowhere near the amount of actual basketball talent the NBA did, but you have these guys who come in who are not really just treating this as something we can do during the summer when I come out and play some ball and win a tournament that really isn't like the

most important thing in the world, of course. But you know, I go out, we kind of want to win, whereas these guys from other countries who are coming out and just playing their hearts out, maybe playing is more of a team, but just playing kind of higher effort basketball, which generally doesn't trump talents, but when you're just kind of putting together a bunch of, you know, you know, you know, just kind of mashing together NBA talent, maybe with guys who haven't played together as much. I don't know. The United States should have won this tournament.

I mean, they just, they had drastically more talent than everybody else. Only Canada even came close, and they came close on the basis of just having Shake Gilgis Alexander. Lou Dohert is not a, you know, is this, they were a relatively weak offensive team when you're starting, Lou Doort, who is not a good score. He's a low efficiency guy. You have RJ Barrett, who is consistently struggled at the NBA level as a scorer. You have Dylan Brooks who sucks as a score at the NBA level, though he certainly did well in the third place game.

And then you have a bench, which is basically just kind of Kelly Olinic, like Zach Eadie. Oh, he's not really playing many minutes, but you just don't have a good bench. The United States had by far the most talent in this tournament, but they were just not, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win if you're not playing as a team and you're not playing the right way. Do I personally particularly care? I mean, no. Like the World Cup, it's just like it is in hockey, though hockey, of course, has talent. much more evenly distributed, you know, even more evenly distributed. When you look at all the teams in hockey, of course, Canada is still the team with the

plurality of NBA, NHL, excuse me, NHL talent. The United States is number two, but you've got top end talent from a bunch of countries, from Sweden, from Finland, from Russia, from Slovakia, from the Czech Republic. It's not nearly that even in the NBA, but it's kind of, well, also in the NHL, I mean, the guys who go to the World Cup or the guys who miss the playoffs or got knocked out of the playoffs early enough to play. but it's just kind of a thing that guys go and do. It's not like it was in the Olympics in the old days.

I'm not trying to sound like, oh, you know, back in the day, these guys cared about, you know, playing for their country. That's not what I'm saying. It's just that it's less of a thing now. These guys go out there and it's, you know, they're not playing as far as in the same way as things are at stake at the NBA level. It also didn't help that the three best players were all guards between Halliburton and Edwards and Brunson.

The team wasn't, but again, they just, they had enough talent to win elsewhere. would have really helped to have somebody, you know, as somebody who was better at center, Jaron Jackson Jr. was not great. And the United States had issues with rebounding at times. And I'm kind of reaching the point at which it's like I didn't watch enough of this to like give really in-depth analysis. But it's funny. You look at how Cade and Durham are in there just, you know, if you play Duren at Center, things may have improved for you quite a bit versus playing Walker Kessler at Center who has his limitations in a way that Durant doesn't necessarily, you know, strong drop defender, but it doesn't really provide more just kind of the all-around. How do I put this? I think Durran is just more versatile for the

game, for the role that he would have been asked to be played. So ironically, you put him out there, maybe things are a little bit better for you. Well, certainly in the third place game. No, Jaron Jackson, Jr., just in general had a rotten tournament. And he was absolutely terrible on the boards. Again, I have a Duren out there. Maybe that's not as much of an issue. He's not as good of a defender as Sharon Jackson Jr. But he'll always have him on the roster. Who knows where Cabe would have really found his spot on the roster, just again, given that the three best players in that roster were all guards,

he probably wasn't going to spend a ton of time on the ball. I'm sorry because I know this was an incredibly meandering answer. And I hope it was somewhat entertaining to listen to. But it's just basically it's the World Championship. It's not really that the USA isn't sending its best players there because those players don't necessarily want to play. Like you look back, even to the, the Olympics. You look back to the redeem team, which was basically like, you know, we've got the

most basketball talent in the world. Let's get together the best team we possibly can to go out there and win this thing and they can. And they could still do it today. They could do it in the World Cup as well. But the players aren't, the best players are not coming to the table, which is what it is. Again, I think you can understand it, especially for a competition that's held in the offseason, which again is a very long off season, a very long season. And these guys want this time to rest and recoup and, you know, rest their bodies and, you know, have a period in their life. lives that isn't they completely dominated by by the job like it is during the season. But I think that if the USA ever fields a team that has the best of its talent, I don't think

it's realistically beatable. The endseason tournament. All right. So, yeah, the end season tournament is new this year. I'd go, go check it out. If you want to know about it, I can probably, there's some material from the NBA that can explain it better just from reading it than I can. But basically, the games in the end season tournament, aside from the championship, all.

are counted towards your record. Teams are split into six divisions. Each of them will play six divisions of five teams. Each team will play four games, of course, against the other four teams. And then the top six are the leaders of every division, and then the two teams that play second but had the best records, which probably involved point differential or whatever tiebreaking means they're using, which I think is most likely probably the same as they use in the NBA for playoffs,

for playoffs purposes. We move on to the second round, which is single elimination, and so on and so forth. So the Pistons got drawn into a group with the 76ers, who I think even if Harden is holding out, will still be a pretty decent team next season. But probably more beatable, the Cavaliers, who I think should be strong and probably win that group. The Hawks, who are a fringe team. The Pacers, whom the Pistons could well be better than next season.

So basically the Pistons are going to, it's kind of a tall order for. for them to win the conference. You know, who knows? I mean, there are enough variables in that group that maybe they can play second. So, yeah, I don't think it's a bad group for the Pistons. You don't necessarily have, like, a clear titan there, though I think the calves are likely to be the best.

And who knows, maybe Maxie goes nuclear for the Sixers next season. So I'd say the Pistons are like the three and a half best team in the group because I don't think the Hawks are really all that great of a team and things could really come together for the Pistons next season. But I think their route out of the group. group is a little difficult. Again, this is one game against each team. You never know what's going to happen. As far as how I feel about the tournament itself, there are plenty of teams that have absolutely no hope of winning it. But for those teams, it's just these are just games as

usual. So I guess it's like an additional gimmick in the middle of the season. I like that they just made it regular games, you know, instead of making it into like an actual tournament, which I guess would not realistically have worked out within the context of the standings, because you would have been just asking teams to play a bunch of teams. to play, I guess, some more games than the others. It just would have been kind of a distraction from the season. And who knows? Maybe it'll add kind of, it will add more meaning to a certain number of games in November.

And finally, how can I stay sane until the season starts? You know, I've long to go, my friend. And until then, you know, there are plenty of good computer games. We're a gamer that have come out. Balders Gate 3 has been pretty good. I know Starfield just came out. It's going to be completely ludicrous, like any Bethesdaq game upon release. We've already seen that it's got a certain, you know, a decent ways to go.

But these Bethesda games almost always get there and the modders help them get there. So worth checking out. If you're a football fan, you can watch that. Personally, I don't. For me, any sport that's not basketball or hockey just kind of feels a little bit too slow to me. It's not me saying anything just beyond that. When I really got back into sports in the mid-2000s, it was hockey. Hockey is, of course, a super fast sport.

and then I transition from there to basketball. And, yeah, also football, I'm not saying that anybody should, you know, should feel bad about watching it. But man, is it a barbaric sport? These guys get messed up. It's very, very difficult to escape the NFL without some form of brain damage. And that makes it a little harder for me to watch just knowing the price that these guys pay. They pay it willingly, even though I think it's, I don't think anybody's really capable of saying, you know, of comprehending what it's like to live with brain damage. And, of course, the NFL, even, you know, even, you know, even,

leaving aside some share of understanding that the league is there to protect the teams is just shameful the degree to which they are completely unwilling to accept. And I know it's legal liability, but it's completely, that just the owners are completely and thus the league front office are completely unwilling to step up to the plate in terms of anything they can do. I mean, there is no way to keep CTE out of football. It is just a fact of life and these guys go in and knowing the risks. But in terms of mitigating them however possible and acting to take care of these guys after they leave the league, it's like, my goodness, it's just so ugly that you know that these guys are going to get so messed up.

I mean, football is an intensely physical sport, and these guys get constantly jostled, and your brain gets bounced around in its pan. And generally, it's much more often a series of microconcussions that basically overwhelm the brain's ability to heal than it is a series of major concussions than when you get major concussions, each one makes it easier for the next. concussion to be very bad. You just become more and more prone for the, you know, for the next concussion is going to be a lot worse than the one before it. But if you're a big football fan, you can watch that. Getting, I believe, into getting closer to the end of the major league baseball season. I don't know. A lot of good books out there. I'm happy to give you some recommendations, particularly if you like history, science fiction, or fantasy. And fortunately, we don't have long to go. And it's not going to be long before we've, you know, we've got, you know, plenty of

at least news and some content to feast upon. And we are, you know, less than a month, just about exactly four weeks until the beginning of preseason. So for me, this offseason feels like it's gone a little bit shorter than the ones before, though two years ago the offseason was literally shorter by a month. And of course, the year before that, it lasted for eight months. But like I said, I'm, you know, really confident that soon enough we're going to see the Pistons have shorter off seasons. So I hope you folks enjoyed this episode. I know there was a lot of meandering here. And of course, there's a certain amount of difficulty, you know, keeping up with relevant news because there's so little at this point. After the draft is over and summer league is

over and we've, you know, we've talked about every player on the roster. And there's plenty still to preview, you know, and there will be those episodes, you know, probably do two or three of those that might actually account for the remainder of the episodes of, you know, prior to preseason. But just in general, we're getting close. And I'm feeling real excited about this season. I think we've got a lot to be excited for. So that'll be it for this episode, folks. As always, want to thank you all so much for listening.

Catch you in next week's episode.