Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 225: Taking Stock (a somewhat concise review of the last two months)

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

This episode attempts to make up for lost time by discussing the events of the past two months.

Welcome back, everybody. You are listening to another episode of Driving to the Baskets. I'm Mike. I hope you're all been doing great. So back from an extended hiatus. Well, just the last couple weeks, but before that, I think a couple months, which is the longest I've taken off from recording since COVID summer, the 20, you know, the 2020 off season. So more than four years. In any case, I won't bore you with the details. I know I've had on multiple occasions when I've taken kind of, kind of, you know, I've had, you know, mini hiatus is uh I've explained why I was gone I'll just sum it up. Uh, number one, I think there was just a certain amount of burnout between just having gone straight from last season into this one. Last season, of course, having been the utter and complete fucking nightmare was. And just combine that with my just kind of punishingly high standards for myself. Uh, I'd have trouble kind of going in anything without thinking it has to be perfect. and just kind of thinking about enjoying myself.

It's no way to live. I think I mentioned that before. Number two, it's been a solo show now for goodness, more than two years, coming up on three years. Originally, well, for a while I had two podcast co-hosts. Unfortunately, that fell apart in the space of a couple of months. It's, I think the statute of limitations on that has run out. I mean, back then we're kind of very, I don't think politically correct is the right

term, but just kind of wrote off the absences as, oh, just moving on to other things, I'm not going to get into the details. And, you know, it's long in the past. But those departures were not quite as harmonious as it was put out to be. There was some difficulty there. And that kind of put me off from bringing on a co-host for a while, because I was like, you know, man, to hell with that. You know, having, having, that happen. But I think the reality is I enjoyed recording quite a bit more when I had podcast, excuse me, when I had co-hosts. I don't know why I called them podcast co-hosts. Earlier, obviously, you knew that. It's just kind of a different character to the show where

it's kind of discussing, just talking hoops with somebody on a weekly basis rather than just, you know, talking, you know, monologuing, I guess, kind of feels like it has negative connotations to it. But there's just a different character. There's a lot less pressure because it's a consistent thing you can rely on. You've got two minds rather than one, you know, focused on ideas and content. And I've had plenty of guests. It's just kind of different when you have guests versus somebody who is on the show consistently with you. So I'm kind of a mind at this point to look around for a co-host. I think that would just make, not that I don't enjoy recording, I think it would just make it more enjoyable for me.

And the third and biggest reason by far, that I was out for a couple months, is that I deal with a chronic illness long term that has just had me completely exhausted. Specifically, chronic mental illness, I won't get too deep into the details there. It's just something I've dealt with my entire adulthood. It has been extremely treatment resistant.

And there's a real reduction in quality of life. And from time to time, I just end up feeling completely drained. So for a couple months there, it was pretty rough. Now, unfortunately, I am far from the only person who has to deal with these issues. I've been very fortunate that I have a lot of support and genuinely access to pretty much the best treatment money can buy. And I wish that were the case for everyone. I guess this is all just to say, you know, be kind to yourselves.

If you're dealing with these issues, you know, seek some help. You know, if you know, if you know others who suffer from them, you know, be supportive. Just be good to each other. be good to yourselves. So all that said, I spent four minutes talking about myself, which I never like to do. Let's talk basketball. So obviously this season has turned out to be drastically different from what any of us had predicted. I feel like I was much higher on this roster than the average person, well, certainly than the average Pistons fan, whom I speak to on a regular basis. I saw this roster as having, I saw this season as being very much a development season,

but I felt like the roster had a ceiling of around 35 wins and a possibility of making the plan based on roster improvements, but also the east being very weak. Now, the east has turned out to be very weak. And also at the debline, some talent has migrated east, excuse me, migrated west, and the west is just drastically stronger conference, in my opinion, than the east. Nonetheless, also the team has really exceeded expectations. I know I have given a lot of the last, a lot of flack to J.B. Bickerstaff, though, of course, it's like the mini mental boom I had over the coaching earlier this season, which was, I think, just largely the product of stress and exhaustion. In any case, I've given a lot of flack to him, but clearly he's been good for this team,

clearly in the same way that he was good for the Cavaliers. Again, the guy has a ceiling, especially on offense, but, you know, seems to be good for the team right now. You know, the players love him, clearly. He's a good motivator. He's a good locker room guy. He's not a bad coach. He's just a very indifferent offensive mind. That's clearly, you know, he's got them playing well on defense. And, you know, the team I would say at this point is altogether, you know, at the very least the sum of its parts, which is great to see. And like I said earlier this season, even though I had my issues with him, I was confident he was going to be the best coach the Pistons had in a long time. Of course, that needs to be contextualized, but nonetheless, they'll certainly say it seems

like he has been quite good for the team. If the team advances, you know, continues to develop and you're in a position where you really want to be a contender, you probably have to replace him. But he's been much better for the team than I expected in the now. So kudos to Baker-staff. Also just seems like a super likable guy who really, really goes to bat for his team. You got to, I mean, he's gotten himself thrown out of games a couple of times. You got to love it, you know, that he's really willing.

He's so intensely behind this player, so willing to advocate for them. and that's fun. Also, you know, shout out to Trajan Langdon, and a little bit of a shout out to Troy Weaver, who did have his strengths alongside some very demasculating, is that the right word, hamstringing, sorry, weaknesses. Clearly, it's a locker room full of guys who get along very well, and that's a big deal, you know, team cohesion. Not every locker room is like that. It kind of reminds me of the good Ken Holland days with the Red Wings, Ken Holland certainly had major, major faults. And it turns out that when you no longer have, like, the best coach in NHL history, virtually unlimited spending power, the best European scouting apparatus in the world,

and in the league, rather, same difference. And like a top tier support staff, like you start to, things start to go downhill. But he did always select very heavily for character, which I always approved of. You know, it's a very, very important thing. Troy Weaver did also select, I think, in some cases. cases to a fault heavily for character. I think Marcus Sasser was very much a character pick. Isaiah Livers, why did he offer Livers a standard NBA contract when he wouldn't offer one to Austin Reeves? And I think the Austin Reeves story is a little bit misunderstood. It's not that he

didn't want to play for the Pistons. It's that he didn't want to be drafted by a team that would not give him a standard NBA contract, which makes perfect sense. If you're only going to get a two-way deal, you know, why have anybody draft you? I mean, go out there and find out there. And find the team that's willing to give you the best situation, which is what he did with the Lakers. So Weaver refused to give him a standard NBA contract, moved on to Livers, whom he offered a standard NBA contract. Livers clearly a high character guy, but, you know, whatever happened to happen. But nonetheless, he did select heavily for character, no troublemakers, guys who are really hard

workers, though it's been back and forth, but darn, I'll talk about him. And one thing Troy Weaver did not do is find good veteran role players, guys who would be good in the locker room and also stabilizing presences on the floor. And that's certainly something that Trajan has done. I mean, with Weaver, it was all about the raw talent. I mean, you did have some guys like Alec Berks and Boyan, not really leaders. I love Tobias. I always have. I was very, very sad when he left the team the last time. He's just a great locker room guy model sportsman. He's clearly been very good for them. Up and down on the court, but really, really clearly very good for the team. A league Beasily is

obliterated expectations on the court. I mean, the guy's genuinely one of the best shooters in the league, best, like, perimeter shooting specialists, rather. He now holds the franchise record for most threes in a season, which he broke with like 30 games remaining. That was Sadiq Bay's old record. And also clearly has been great for the youth and just a really good, stable, you know,

just a really good presence on and off the court. Seems super likable. You got to hope the guy stays around. and I think he will. And Tim Hardaway Jr., who's been a very mixed bag on the court. I mean, Tim can't defend, he can't pass, he can't rebound. Pretty much all he does is shoot threes, and if he's doing that well, then he'll just be a minor negative. If he's not, then he's a very big negative. But another guy who clearly has been very good in the locker room. So a lot of cohesion there, just a great locker room vibe, and that matters. So, I mean, yeah, between the

veterans and the high character of the youth and the coaching, you've got a team that goes out there and they very much play for each other. They really play hard. This is a team that does not give up. I mean, you'd think that all athletes will go out there and give their all at all times, but that's, that's just not the case. And that's almost universally the case with this team. And also just the grit is fun. Again, that's roster construction, some coaching there. But like, I'm not, I don't harken back to like the days of the, you know, the old defense first NBA and say, please give us that. I would like there to be more defense in the NBA and West Tickey Ticketts Fowls.

Nobody likes a parade of the free throw line. Well, maybe if you have, you know, like prime James Hardin on your team, you appreciated it because it meant your scoring points. But whatever the case, they, what I would like, certainly, and I remember thinking this a few years back, like in 2021 when the Celtics came to play the Pistons and whatever reason, Sadiq Bay would always explode against the Celtics. I don't know why that came to mind. But I think it was Jalen Brown who said, you know, who just lamented the fact that they felt kind of beat up after the game, the Celtics did.

And it's like I want to, you know, I still do really appreciate like the concept of, you know, Detroit work ethic and Detroit grit. I mean, that was, that's something that's, you know, I think anybody would appreciate that from their team. But I really love that ethos. And certainly it's very much in the history of the organization and so on and so forth. But, you know, what I would love it to be is if you come to town and you beat the Pistons, I would love the other team to leave feeling very beaten up, you know, within reason. We're not talking about dirty here. Though I think it should be noted, like, this is a complete A-side.

But like the bad boys who got this reputation as a really dirty team, the Celtics before them, the Robert Parrish, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale Celtics were brutal. even the Lakers who were known as a finesse team, those guys were pretty nasty. It was a physical era. I think just the pistons of those days just owned it. They were like, if you haven't watched it 30 for 30 on the bad boys, go do it. It's great. And I mean, again, these days it would be very, very much out of bounds and it probably went

a little bit too far. But I love the stories about the Jordan rules where it's basically, and you never want to brew for somebody to get hurt. but it's like basically Michael Jordan put it this way he's like well they beat the shit out of us and I love that I love it a little bit more

because you know Jordan though he was you know one of the two best players of all the time I think it's also a mega narcissist and you know you gotta think certain things about a guy who admits to still hating the bad boys pistons literally 35 years later it's like

it seems like a real waste of your time and energy, but that's how Jordan is. And the last dance, I think, was a pretty healthy dose of Michael Jordan propaganda. The guy has his own way of looking at things. Yeah, the same guy who got up, you know, got up in his Hall of Fame induction speech and had to throw shade of people. Anyway, that could get on these tangents for a long time. So, yeah, things are going this season quite a bit better than I had expected, even with the loss of Jaden Ivy, which is very sad. Obviously, we're all hoping he'll be back before the end. end of the season. Now, I've gotten together a team of trained orthopedic surgeons, and they've come back

with one unanimous conclusion, which is that if I let them go, they won't say anything about me holding them against their will. Jokes aside, who knows? Hard to say. What a bit hard for me to believe, but my opinion is completely unimportant, and I don't have the qualifications. But that would be a pretty rapid recovery, but I have no idea we're going to hope for it. But yeah, a lot of things have gone right. I mean, Cade has, I'm not going to call this a victory lap, but I don't know why I qualified that. I have always thought since Cade came in a league, he has an all-MBA ceiling, a guy who is extremely smart, a potential three-level scorer, which he has been this season. And this doesn't quite count on the all-MBA equation, but also a leader. It's a big deal when your

best player really wants to lead your team. It's not always the case. You've got some very good players or the best players in their team, but don't actually want to be leaders. They just want to go out there and do their thing and not have to set an example or be responsible for anything. We saw it with Kyrie Irving with the Celtics. He's like, you know, I want to leave Cleveland because I want to be the number one guy somewhere.

But the guy, you know, he wanted to be the number one guy, but he didn't want to have to lead anything or to set any example. I mean, he just misbehaved a lot of this time. There was Al Horford who led the team, you know, who was the leader in the locker room. And Anthony Edwards, who is an extremely talented basketball player, is also a mega douchebag. You know, even notwithstanding his off-the-court shenanigans, it just is no intention of being a leader.

And it's a big deal when your most talented and best player is playing for his team. And of course, I've said this, I'm sure many times in the show because I just love this quote. But you look back, for example, to the Red Wings in the era of Steve Eiserman. And I always love what Darren McCarty said about him. He's like, you know, a lot of players really care about their stats. And the only stat, I'm paraphrasing a bit. And the only stat that Steve Eisenman ever cared about was wins. I mean, he was just the consummate leader.

Who knows if Kate'll ever reach that level? Because Eisenman was really very singular in terms of his combination of extremely high talent level and, you know, complete subordination of everything to being the best leader he could be and winning as many games as he could. but it's a big deal. Like, don't underestimate that. And that's something that Cade has, I mean, that leadership potential has always been there. I mean, that's not something that is not a special insight that I had.

You know, everybody knew that coming into the league and when he was coming into the NBA. But just going back to his encore performance, yeah, you see the high basketball IQ on display just in terms of how he's attacking the interior, his excellent ability to set up his teammates, who this season can finally hit shots. and he has benefited a great deal both from his personal growth in what is, again, effectively his third season, because he played like 14 injured games in season two, and also just a drastically more functional team around him, because, again, Troy Weaver was all about raw talent and not at all about fielding functional rosters. You know, this roster could there be improvements made, sure, but, you know, it's a far more functional roster than he's had before. And again, the coaching on offense could be better, but bigger staff is still the best offense. excuse me, best coach on offense the Pissons have had since, again, depending on whom you ask,

Flip Saunders or Larry Brown. It's been a long time since the Pistons have had like a genuinely okay offensive coach. Van Gundy did all right in his first season. It was all downhill from there. And Dwayne Casey, you know, bless his soul. I don't know why I put it that way. I'm not religious, but a great guy by all accounts, literally every single account I've heard, you know, including people who have met and spoken to him. universally praised as just a great, this is a really good human being, who is clearly very well liked by his players. Also not a talented offensive mind. Bakerstaff, not talented, but somewhere in the area of maybe a little bit below average, neutral, whatever. So that's benefited Kate as well.

Casey was not good in that area. And of course, last season's coach, who should be sent to Ascaband, sorry, the whole Lord Voldemort references I like to make. And I know Lord Voldemort never went to Ascaband, but, you know, forget about that guy. So, way to go, Cade. And I'll talk a little bit later in the show about all-MBA watch. Moving on to other notables, Sarr Thompson has certainly helped defensively. And on offense, you see the flashes. I mean, it doesn't have the same handle as his brother has. I think he's a little bit better as a defender. But you see the flashes in terms of him attacking the basket. He's been obviously drastically better used than he was last season. I do wish that he'd gotten the opportunity to play secondary handler more before Dennis Schroeder came on

because there was just, excuse me, primary handler for the bench unit because, you know, there was nobody, nobody was doing it. Marcus Sasser can't do it. But, you know, definitely seeing some growth. The shot, unfortunately, still not there. The fact that he is not being used as a shooter at all, I think is a negative sign. But, you know, we'll see. If he could shoot, I mean, he'd be the ultimate Swiss Army knife, but, you know, one of them anyway. Again, TBD, hope for more next season. But, you know, you've got to love the guy in terms of his work ethic, his spectacular athleticism, the defense he plays, which is truly on a standout level.

And ironically, I'm not sure he's going to actually make all defensive. Is he going to make the 65-game threshold? I'm not sure. But even if he did, I mean, I think, ironically, his brother will probably get more considerations just because of his greater degree of offensive success. You know, you're more prominent. All things are equal. All other things are equal.

You're probably going to get more of a look, even though I think Asar is a little bit better on defense than his brother is. So I kind of wish I had more interesting things to say. But, yeah, having a coach who is using him better is nice, of course. He's moving more off the ball. I did have a mini meltdown earlier in the season when he and Ron Holland were both standing in the corners in the same possession.

Fortunately, that hasn't been repeated. one I know that I've been asked to sound off on is Jalen Duren and certainly has been much improved in 2025. And I'd say that comes almost exclusively from a better level of effort. By the way, really not thanks to the people who found it fitting to reach out and reach out with, I told you so's about Jalen Duren. Number one, kind of misplaced. But also, number two, like I told you so is an awful character trait. I mean, it's either people who just wants to feel like they are superior to others or people who are a little bit nasty, or it's just why I told you so, anybody. It's just something that comes between people and is just the product of whatever.

I'm not going to get into the psychology. It's just why do it? Like, seriously, why do it? Of course, you can look at the fact that people who are willing to do it are almost invariably in my experience in the realm of, you know, in the category of those who would never admit that they're wrong. about anything, not that I care, but, you know, I'm not talking about myself. It's just like, it's a bad thing that humans do, like, stop it. And also imagine doing that in response to something positive happening is even more puzzling to me. Whatever the case, Duren has been much improved on offense. I've always said, whatever, I know, I'd put it that way, but I have

always, like, I don't know, I put together like a, I think a 16, 17-minute video over the summer of Durand's offense from last season. He does always think at the capacity to be on the high end on offense amongst traditional centers, which of course is a limitation in itself. But I think he's a strong finisher. He's a strong role man. He's a solid connective passer. And yeah, he's especially good for a guy like Cade, who really, really lives in the

pick and roll and benefits from a strong role man and is very, very good at finding lob threats. So he's been good. On defense, he's been better, still below average, but better. Again, this is pretty much exclusively due to a drastic improvement in his level of effort. He has admitted for the second time because he admitted it during the summer about last season. He has been open about how his just level of effort sucked earlier in the season. Now, do I feel he deserves credit for working harder? I do not. I think that's an expectation for a professional athlete, particularly professional athlete at the highest level. it with a lot of money and faith. And it was the same thing with Drummond's where it's just the times it was like, oh, look, you know, Andre's really trying now. And it's like, well, that should be the expectation. I mean, he deserves nothing but criticism when he's not doing it. I think the same thing with Duren.

So it's great to see him working harder. We're at about a 30-game sample size now after more than a season of him not trying super hard, whatever. I'm not trying to take away from the guy. It's just don't think that professional athletes should be credited for advancing from a terrible level of effort to one that's a lot more acceptable. Yeah, he has been playing much, he has been working much harder and been playing more of a team first game, and that's great.

I think that's something that you look for in all of your players. So it is a positive. It's just one that I think is not necessarily deserving of, you know, of pads in the back. It's just kind of like you were not working hard enough earlier in this season. And now you are. Cool. Problem solved, at least for now. Now about Duren, looking forward, I mean, the defensive issues,

remain. Again, defense, and I don't want to take away from, again, he's been certainly good for this team on offense. The defensive issues remain in terms of just defensive processing, as I've said in the past. Duren's level of effort is the difference between him being a poor defender and a, like, brutally bad defender, which he was basically the first quarter of this season. But, yeah, the defensive issues remain in terms of decision-making and also in terms of switchability. Again, the guy, he's protected it basically at all costs by bigger staff from needing to switch. Like, we've seen what happens this season. So, again, is he the future, center of the future for the Pistons?

I think the playoffs will be the litmus test for it because, and I think the Pistons will make the playoffs, because in the playoffs, any competent coach on the other side is going to attack every weakness you have. I mean, teams are fighting for every fraction of a point they can find in the playoffs. And so anybody who's a weakness is going to be relentlessly attacked. if a guy can't defend in the pick and roll, he's going to be attacked in the pick and roll. If he can't defend in switches, he's going to be attacked on switches. You know, they'll just, you know, do you have a guy who, whatever, teams can do this.

It's not difficult. And come to the playoffs, I mean, defending a guy or protecting a guy from switches comes with sacrifices that might be palatable in the regular season but are not in the playoffs, especially when it's not only the coaching is going to be a lot more focused on exploiting weaknesses, but you are playing far more minutes against just the other team. team's best players. Rotations shrink in the playoffs because you want to have your best players in the floor at all times. And if you have an exploitable weakness, you really want to keep that off. So I'm kind of concerned about what it's going to look like when Duren, who can't defend the pick and

rule, can't switch and struggles to defend against complex offensive schemes that make him track multiple things at the time. It's possible the guy's going to get run off the floor, but that's where we maybe will see what he's really made of on defense. Like I've said in the past, it's very rare for a player who is this degree of trouble at processing defense, the switchability. I mean, that's an issue with mobility. But it's very rare for somebody to make a leap like that. What I think with Duren is even if the level of effort comes, it's kind of going to be a situation, I hope I'm wrong,

it's kind of going to be a situation like, you know, my great grandmother told me, you know, Mike, you're good at a lot of things, but when it comes down to it, you're never going to be good enough. Okay, she didn't say that. I'm the only great grandmother I have when I'm, I was alive, died when I was three, and I don't think she should be from all I've heard, she wouldn't be caught dead saying that to anybody. But, you know, some guys, if you can't play acceptable defense in the playoffs, as a matter how good you are on offense,

I mean, it's, well, it does matter. You know, if you're good enough to have a defense constructed around you, like Yokic, and you can bear having like a non-shooter like Aaron Gord in power forward, or you just so overwhelmingly good on offense, you know, is Yokic that the bad defense is palatable. But for basically everybody else, I mean, if you're a, a Sabanis or a Shangoon probably or a guy like that who might still be very good on offense but isn't quite that good and is like just not very mobile as a switch liability it's going to hurt and Dern is far below the offensive level of those guys. So again, hope I'm wrong. It's like it's nice that he's playing harder because it's much more enjoyable to watch and it's very good for Cade.

We'll see. Again, I think that it's very likely the Pistons will make the playoffs and you know, then we'll see. So the effort, again, I think should be an expectation, but it's certainly been a positive. There's no doubt about that. Let's see. Who else does this leave? I mean, there's Ron Holland who, I mean, I feel like I was a little bit wrong in what I said earlier in the season about I was just not ready for the NBA and he probably won't be still a minus player, of course. And again, that's not something to knock him about. He's a 19-year-old who is still pretty raw coming into the NBA, but he's definitely shown encouraging signs.

Like, I'm feeling pretty good about Ron Holland's future on offense in particular. The shot looks a lot better. He is much like Asar, just an incredibly hard worker. I mean, he's got more of an edge than Asar does. I mean, the guy's kind of got that Detroit basketball mentality of being very combative, excuse me, being very combative and not backing down from anything, which is good. Isaiah Stewart takes a little bit too far. Ron Holland kind of keeps it under control.

He will have the mentality. the motor on anybody is going to be a force multiplier. So, you know, I'm feeling good about his potential as a guy who's going to be certainly a plus on defense. And even if just only the shot comes along, then, you know, you've got a three and D, very athletic three and D wing. And that's a guy who's going to play in the NBA for a long time. But I'm feeling pretty good about his on-ball offensive ceiling as a creator as well. He still has some refining to do.

I think he's still somewhat predictable on the drive. but you see in transition, really, the touch and the creativity. And we're seeing that translated a little bit more into the half court as well. So he's certainly had a more positive impact than I anticipated. And that's been good to see. Isaiah Stewart is Isaiah Stewart. I would be very, very sad to see this guy traded in any situation because I think kind of much like Draymond Green, he is the,

and I'm stealing somebody's term, I think this is Mike Breen's term, the emotional heartbeat of the locker room. Nobody works harder. He doesn't back down from anything. He would go to bat for his teammates in any way, and so on and so forth. And he's been shooting more threes lately, which is nice, because I think that's just going to be an important aspect of his game in any case. But, yep, he's been one of the seasons' elite rim protector,

still a very strong defender overall, and just needs to, and he certainly knows this keep the temper in check, much like Draymond. He's gotten himself thrown. out at some unfortunate times because he's done some stupid things. And in that case, it's like, yeah, by all means, you know, stand up for your teammates. But you get yourself thrown out. You're kind of robbing your team of which you can provide on the floor. There's been at least one instance this season in which I think he lost the Pistons a game. And that was against the Bucks and a game

that the Pistons lost in overtime. And Stewart's one of the better guys in the league at defending Janus. So beyond that, I think there's really a ton to talk about. It's great to see Dennis Schroeder be at him, like I said last episode. He's a guy who can handle the ball. He's a guy whom I think the Pistons will aim to keep in the offseason, just because there's really nobody better, you know, and I think they can get him at a pretty affordable price. But just the fact that he's a guy who can handle the ball, which is something that the second unit really did not have at all, you know, after Jaden Ivy's injury. And even when Ivy was healthy, I mean, I think it's just not really his role. He's, I think best suit is an off-guard who can definitely do some playmaking off the drive. But

but not suited as a guy to really general in offense. Sasser is Sasser. I've talked about him plenty on this podcast. Again, I don't really see his role so much going forward. You know, this team doesn't really have any room in the guard rotation at the moment. If he were a capable handler, of course, they wouldn't have traded for Dennis Schroeder. I think Schroda, I can chronically mispronounce his name. And I'm not saying that, oh, the fact they traded for Dennis is, you know, proof positive.

he's not a decent lead handler. He's not a lead handler because he cannot beat anybody off the dribble, cannot break down defenses, can't really score at the rim. And that makes him, you know, if he can't do that, sorry, I'm a broken record about this. He's an underside shooting specialist. And no room on the rotation for him right now. Certainly not when Avi returns.

Well, Dennis basically kicked him out of the rotation. And then Fon Tecchio, who's been the primary disappointment for the team this season, And it sucks because he was, I mean, he was considerably better than this for the Jazz. He was a lot better than this for the Pistons. And it would have been really big to have him playing at like 80% of last season's level. Because right now he can't really do anything. He doesn't really rebound the ball that much. I'm not putting these in order of importance, whatever.

I'm not going to start with rebounding. He can't shoot. It's just, his shooting is very unreliable. He is not particularly good on defense at all. all. You know, the rebounding isn't great either. It's really the shooting is the biggest problem, the defense following that. He's not aggressive like he was last season at attacking closeouts or attacking in transition. I don't know if that's his toe is still bothering him or what's. Clearly conditioning is not the concern at this point, but he's been bad. In answer to questions I've

seen about why the Pistons didn't trade him, it's because he's a real struggling role player with, you know, at this point, like one decent season, and he's in the midst of a bad season right now. he's in his late 20s, and he's got salary next season. If you want to get rid of future salary, you have to pay. I don't think the Pistons were in any, really, any hurry to pay to get off of Fontecchio's contract. I mean, teams especially with the new CBA are stingier and stingier in terms of taking on long-term salary for players who just may not be very good. Yeah, it's just where we stand.

Anyway, I already talked about Beasley, excuse me, already talked about, Hardaway Jr. already talked about Tobias to a degree. Tobias, who has actually been strong from mid-range lately, has been not so great from three, but has certainly stepped up in terms of providing scoring. And, yeah, not a perfect player, but always think highly of Tobias Harris. And I think the fact that he gets ragged on for not being worth a max contract in Philly is nonsense. Yeah, he wasn't worth it. That's true. I mean, you get off at a max contract, you're going to take a max contract. Also, I'm not going to say he was done dirty, but it was really very, very much not a good thing when he became, like, fourth option or even third option. Tobias disappears. It has the capacity to disappear. If he's not being really kept involved in the offense, he's always been best as a first or second option. And I think Doc Rivers say what you will about Doc Rivers being a bad coach, and you'd be correct. But he always did do a really good job of keeping Tobias involved. This season is just a lot less as expected of him.

He still does kind of disappear from time to time, or he gets involved after he has not been involved for a while, and it's not very good, but, again, a lot less is expected out of him. So I'll just send this up with a couple of rounds the league items, the All-Star Game. Ooy, yo, y'oy. I mean, the NBA has an All-Star game problem, like the players, namely that the players don't care.

And I'm not being kind of like an old crotchy, he had by looking back and saying that the players did care at one point. I mean, there's a big example even in Pistons history. You look back at the 2006 All-Star game, and there were four pistons who came off the bench and really changed the game for the East. It's the four of them and Paul Pierce in the second quarter who really helped the key a comeback. Players did care back then. I mean, there were the usual shenanigans in the first quarter, but things locked down after that. And these days, it's like, who even cares? Like the most memorable moment for me was Shea Gilgis Alexander, I believe it was, driving in to eliminate Cades team, and nobody even got in his way.

Like, Jaron Jackson, Jr., kind of tried for a little while, and then just said, screw it, I don't care. And nobody even tried to contest him on his way to the basket. I mean, I know that at one point the NHL was considering canceling its All-Star game because it was so lame. they ultimately went with the 3-on-3 format, which produced the amazing 2016 John Scott All-Star game. And that was incredible. Of course, there was a story component to that. If you don't know anything about the 2016 NHL All-Star game,

go and read about it and watch the highlights. It was just like as perfect as you could possibly get an All-Star game. It was incredible. Nothing will ever match that in any sport. but I mean it's tough for me I understand it these players I put it this way I understand that these players

don't want to get hurt in an all-star game I don't know if there are any instances or any examples of players getting hurt in an all-star game back when players still cared I don't think so but I mean

these guys are just moving languidly around the court and yeah it just sucks they just don't care it's kind of shameful and of course the format in which they were far far far more ads and kind of gimmicky stuff than actual minutes of gameplay was not ideal either.

So it is what it is, but I just think it's shameful on the part of the players. It's like being an All-Star is an honor. If you want to go to the All-Star game, show up and actually try. Otherwise, say, well, sorry, I don't want to get injured. And, you know, I appreciate being named an All-Star, but I don't want to go to the game. And clear out space for somebody who's actually going to take it seriously. Not asking these guys to go out there and give like 100 percent and take charges, though I do remember back in the first season with the Eulam format, I think,

the Eelm format where it's like the winner plays to X number. I think this is in 2020 when it got really competitive. In the closing minutes, Kyle Lowry took a charge. I mean, the players really started caring, and that was great. Unfortunately, it didn't last. But it's like, yeah, if you want to be named an All-Star, but you don't want to actually want to show up, clear out for somebody, you know, somebody who will actually take it seriously and treat it as the honor that it is.

Is that ever going to happen? I doubt it. And finally, I'll end with all NBA watch. So first, how this concerns the Pistons, pretty much every or I think 100% these days of max rookie extensions have what's called an escalator clause for the sake of what's called the Rose rule, named, of course, after Derek Rose. Rose won MVP yet was not eligible for a larger contract. He won an MVP on his rookie contract was not eligible for a larger contract as a result. The Rose Rule stipulation was built in afterward, and the Rose Rule provides for scenarios in which a player on a rookie contract can get an extension that starts at 30% of the salary cap rather than 25%. And two of those concern MVP and defensive player of the year, which are not relevant in this case.

The area that is relevant is that if you are all NBA in the final season of your rookie contract or in the two seasons pre-season, seating that, then you're eligible for that 30%. Jason Tatum and Ben Simmons actually missed out on a Rose Rule extension because they won All-MBA in their third seasons and not their second seasons and not their fourth seasons, which is kind of silly, though in Simmons case, it certainly did turn out to absolutely not deserve the contract he got. But anyway, so if Cade does earn All-MBA this season, then his first-year salary, season on his new contract will go up by about 7.7 million, I believe, close to 8 million,

whatever it is. And his total contract value will increase by 45 million. So it would be a mixed bag for Pistons fans if he actually does or the organization, whatever. I mean, honestly, of course, if he wins, I'm not going to say boo. If he doesn't get all NBA, you know, there's some benefits to that. Of course, if he deserves it, he should get it. Now, what implications would that have for next season? So I think it's very, very likely that the Pistons will go into the off-season. in operating above the cap. They will be below the cap in terms of how many contracts they have allocated, but cap holds, and this is where it gets complicated, would allow them to operate as an above-the-cap team, which would give them access to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception,

the biannual exception, though that often goes unused, instead of just the room mid-level. Sorry, MBA-CBA is extremely complicated. So it wouldn't actually impact most likely, like the cap situation at all. Like operating as an above the cap team will make it a lot easier for the pistons to keep Schroeder, to keep Beasley, et cetera, et cetera. Where it would come into play is later on when the pistons, you know, hopefully will be in position to contend, and maybe have extended Ivy, maybe have extended, well, Duren's not going to get an extension. Probably not Ivy either this summer. I think Ivy would bet, we would prefer to bet it himself, excuse me. And I think that they wouldn't give an extension to Durham without quite a bit more data.

terms of just him consistently playing hard and improving and so on and so forth. But at that point, you know, hopefully you've, you have larger salaries because players have deserved it. And yeah, so where this would come into play is in terms of the luxury tax, which is not an issue for Tom Gora, say what you will about him. He's willing to spend the money. What's where it would be a consideration is in terms of like the aprons, the first apron and the second apron.

But that's well into the future. But let's talk where the. all-MBA field lies at the moment. So first a reminder that in order to be eligible for all-M-B-A, you have to play at least 65 games. This has presumably been the root of a lot less load management from players who would like to earn awards. That stipulation applies to not only all-MBA, but also the all-defensive teams, most improved defensive player of the year and MVP. And players ever since that rule was put into place have been put. playing quite a few more games. Like, your best players these days will, you know, barring injuries

play well over 70 games. Like load management had gotten pretty insane beforehand. And like, it makes sense, but it's not what players are being paid for. Well, I guess the teams that are paying them didn't care, but it's not what they're there for. This is the professional sporting league. And it's not fair to the fans. All the load management, I think it was a very bad look for the league and bad for just competitive integrity in general. But, you know, I digress. So if you miss 18 games, you become ineligible. So that means that already Lamello Ball, Victor Wemagnama, who tragically is going to miss the rest of the season due to deep vein thrombosis, his blood clots, and hopefully he is fine going forward. Of course, I always figured

that health would be his primary obstacle in the NBA, because the guy is pretty much unstoppable. I did not see this being the case, though, of course, is this the product of him having a completely wacky body, probably not. But in the event, he's going to miss the rest of the season, so he will be ineligible. Franz Wagner is already ineligible. Luca is already, excuse me, is already ineligible. Janice is six missed games away from being ineligible. He's injured in the moments. Kevin Durant is five games away. Anthony Davis is, I don't know, it's either seven or less. He's going to be able to play less games because the Mavericks had played more games than the Lakers when he came over.

So he technically will just by default play less games. It's likely just due to his propensity for injury that he will become ineligible because he's Anthony Davis and these things happen. So I'll leave him off the locks list. Now, if 80 had played 65 games, I think he's a lock. He's been very good this season. So who might deem is the locks right now?

Gilgis Alexander, of course, who's MVP front runner, you could argue that that's due to border fatigue. But you could also just argue that he's been exceptional, which is true. But yes, voters do get bored of voting for the same guy, namely Yokic. So Gilgis Alexander, Janus, Yokic, Katie, Tatum, Brunson, Carl Anthony Towns, and Donovan Mitchell. So that's eight names, and who knows, you could lose two of those. But I think that probably those guys don't want to lose the opportunity to be all NBA.

It might be taken out of their hands. but for right now, you know, you can just assume, well, I'm assuming for the sake of this exercise, that Durant and Janus will be in there because, I mean, there are all sorts of hypotheticals, excuse me, hypotheticals at this point, guys who have been perfectly healthy to this point could miss a lot of time, even at this point to become ineligible, guys could really surge, guys could just really slump, but we're working on the basis of the data we have right now. So, in any case, that's eight names. the main field otherwise, Cade, of course, Kyrie, who's been good, Anthony Edwards,

all these guys have been good, Anthony Edwards, Damian Willard, Devin Booker, who kind of having a down season, but has still been pretty good. LeBron, who, from an on-off perspective, is not a great season, say the least, but he's LeBron, and the fact that he's LeBron and is playing at this, still playing at the level he is in his 40s is going to get him some votes. Curry, who's been, you know, who's well past his prime, but has still been, you know, was still a completely lethal shooter. And again, we'll get legacy votes as well.

Jaron Jackson, Jr., who has been very good for the Grizzlies. Maxie, who has been, well, with them beat out, the best player on a really banged up and disastrous Sixers team. Jalen Williams, who is second fiddle on the Thunder, you know, the arguably the best team in the league, maybe, certainly the best team of the West. And is, you know, a good three-level score who is strong on D.E. defense, you know, decent playmaker. And then on the fringes, Powell for the Clippers, who has randomly become a pretty darn good player on offense. Evan Mobley, Zach Levine, and Darius Garland. Now, Cade will get, I believe, pretty strongly, a leg up from two things. Number one, being most like, I mean, I think you could argue the primary factor in the Pistons, not only improving

quite a bit, there was always going to be improvement because last season's disaster of a roster. Well, it's a bad roster. I don't think it was quite as bad. is, as was said, but it was certainly very flawed roster, and it's much, much, much more disastrous coach. We're in the past, so there was always going to be some improvement, but Kate, the leap he's made, and the fact that he is the best player on a team that is really surprised, and I think at this point we'll very likely make the playoffs, we'll give him a leg up. You're always going to be given a leg up if you are on a respectable team, and you are the best

player on it, versus a team like the Cavaliers, where you're unlikely to get preference if you're Garland, I think Kate's been better than Garland. Or Mowgli, or if you're Jalen Williams, because you're not the leader on your team. You know, you're not the guy who's going out there and making the most, at least, offensive impact every night. The fact that he's such a story, again, and the Pistons are such a story, I think we'll give him a leg up as well. I think that probably LeBron and Curry are locks. Maybe Curry doesn't get it if the Warriors missed the playoffs.

But I just think they're, again, I think they're really be helped. by who they are in the stage at their career they're in. But that's 10 players at this point. Again, this is assuming nothing really changing in terms of performance level or injuries. So that leaves five slots, which I think will. Again, I think that Mobley and Garland will, they've been good but not great, put it that way.

Like quite good, but not exceptional. and the fact that Mitchell is the leader on that team. I think they'll get, I mean, knocked down the preference list by the fact that unlike Kay, they are not the leading guy in their team. So, yeah, five slots, if you assume that Janice and KD make it, and that's, you know, I think they're very likely scenario that LeBron and Curry do. And you have that basically between Cade, Kyrie, Anthony Edwards, Damian Willard, Devin Booker, who would really have to make a surge.

And then Jaron Jackson, Jr., Maxie Williams. I cannot see five of those players being pushed ahead of Cade. And again, you could, and I think you can probably likely lose one of Durant's or Janus. He already lost Wembe. Today, Wembe could have been first team all-MBA. It's second to certainly have been all-MBA, period. So as much as it sucks, that does improve Cade's chances quite a bit. Because one of the guys who would have been in front of him is no longer eligible for the award,

though you never want to see it happen that way. So if the season ended today, I think it would be overwhelmingly likely that Cade would be third team all NBA. Of course, things were subject to change, but thought it'd be a fun exercise for now. All right, so that'll be it for this episode. Before I finish, I want to give out my heartfelt thanks to all of you who got in contact throughout my absence to rather see how I was doing or just to ask what was going on with the podcast. Whatever it was, it really did mean a great deal to me that you thought of me and went to the effort of checking in. So thank you really from the bottom of my heart. So that said, I hope we're going to be back next week with another

episode. And until then, thank you all for listening. Hope you're all doing great. Catch you next time.