Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 23: Recapping the Draft

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

This episode recaps the Pistons' trades and selections at the 2020 NBA Draft, and discusses each individual pick's profile, upsides, downsides, and outlook. (Free agency will be discussed in the next episode.)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Drive into the Basket. I am Mike. I'm here with Tommy. This is going to be a draft review episode. So we are three days past the NBA draft, the first draft of the Pistons supposed rebuild. Free agency began yesterday. A lot happens. We're not going to talk about that today. We're just going to leave a little time for the dust to settle, so to speak. Also, that would make this an exceedingly long episode. No real call for that either. So we're just going to leave that for the successive episode. So tonight we are just going to talk about what the Pistons did at the draft, our thoughts on it. So as you all know, I imagine anybody who watched it has been keeping track of what the Pistons have been doing. Pistons started the draft with just the number seven pick, ended it with number seven, number 16, number 19, and number 38. So this came of a series of trades. Just a disclaimer on this draft. So as many have said, this was a relatively weak draft.

It was a weak draft in a couple of ways. Number one, there was no real, you know, surefire star talent. Like, for example, the draft in 2019 when you had Zion, of course, and John Moran, for example. There was none of that in this draft. There was nobody you could look at and say, man, this guy's going to be a star. Also, as you got into the double digits and picks, the amount of high ceiling talent, that just really wasn't much. Basically, this is unlikely to be a difference maker draft for the Pistons.

I would personally be surprised if any of the four guys the Pistons drafted were to really develop into Star Calibur talent. Killion Hayes, as I've said on previous episodes, I think he could be if everything came together like the low end of the top 10 point guards in the NBA, which is nice, but really not Star Calibur. So in any event, just something to know about this draft. So as far as the trades went, The first one, you know, first trade to show up was Bruce Brown, who's traded to the Brooklyn Nets for Toronto's 2021 second round draft pick, Musa, who is a, Tommy, what's his first name? I forgot.

Johnny. John Musa. Okay, yeah, sorry, everybody. Just realized I started the episode without having that written down. So you've got him, he's kind of, he's a very tall. shooting guard who's been kind of disappointment so far. A guy who doesn't lack for confidence to a fault. It has some potential as a, you know, as a good three-point shooter. It did well in the G-League, but of course, we know that doesn't necessarily mean anything

because there's plenty of guys who don't make the NBA light up the G-League. So it was him, Jalen Hans, who was, I believe, the 58th pick last year, or 56th, and some cash unclear as to what they were. the future, Jalen Hans will be, it's either a two-way or will be waived, probably the latter. The Pistons don't really need a fifth point guard in the system, and, you know, the guy doesn't really have a ton of upside. Hasn't played a minute in the NBA. You know, I didn't play a minute in the NBA in his rookie season. The Pistons sold a pick. The Lakers 2021 second round pick to Houston for cash. The Lakers' 2021 pick will almost certainly be the late, wait second round, of course,

because the Lakers project to be an excellent team next year, just like they were in this past season, one in the championship. So moving on, the number 16, started out as a salary dump of Trevor Areza for the Rockets of the Pistons, in which the Pistons got the 16th pick and sent over a very heavily protected, a future first-round pick.

It was originally top 16 protected for the next four years, top 10 protected for the next two years after that, I believe. And then I think top four protected for a couple of years before it turned into just a couple of second round picks. And that eventually evolved as a result of the sign and trade of Christian Wood to Houston, which increased the protections even further on that first round pick so that it is super unlikely to convey. at least as a first round pick. And the Pistons received an unspecified future of second round pick from the Rockets. Second round picks really just fly around.

It's often, unless they tell you exactly, you know, unless the people are voting in the trade, tell you exactly what they are. It's tough to know exactly who's, you know, whose pick you're getting. So, yeah, and of course, this means Christian Wood of the Rockets. You know, we'll talk about that more in the free agency episode. But as far as a reason coming to Detroit, that was, you know, just a case in which, yeah, it's nice to have cap space so you can have unwanted contracts dumped on you in exchange for assets.

He was traded last night to, you know, in a trade. He's been traded three times, like in the last four days. I don't exactly know where he is now, but it's completely irrelevant for purposes of the Pistons. And then for the number 19 pick, the Pistons sent over Luke. Canard and this is very surprising for a second round draft picks. And three of those would belong straight to Detroit. These were not kind of like this sort of very dubious super, super late second round picks.

You never know what these could be. So Detroit's 2024, 2025 and 2026 as well as Portland's, I believe, 2021. Went over to the Clippers. This I don't understand because, oh, and the person's got Rodney Magruder as well. we'll talk about that a bit. So the Pistons ostensibly gave over the best player on that trade. Landry's Shamut also went from the Clippers to the Nets, but the Clippers ostensibly got the best player.

And the Pistons nonetheless sent over four first round picks, second round picks rather. And you can say that second round picks aren't huge, but that's, you know, they're significant. You never know who you're going to hit. Second round picks have flexible contracts. And they're also, you know, they're good for trade. So that was surprising.

the only thing I can possibly conceive of is that there must be severe concerns over his knees. Do you have any other theories, Tommy, as to why we would send over four second round picks in that trade? I really don't. I agree with you. They have very scarce value. You don't know if you're going to get even a rotation player out of them, but at that volume, it's really more about maybe you hit somebody. Yeah, it's just the only thing I can think of is that either.

Weaver got really desperate. Troy Weaver, the Pistons general manager, either got really desperate to make that trade. And I agree fully. I've said it in the past that it was the best for the Pistons if Canara was gone. You don't want to have to extend the guy. It does not fit the timeline of what at that point we thought would just be like a typical several year rebuild. And there were concerns about his knees. He has bilateral knee tendonitis. He has missed a significant time in two of his first three seasons with that. And tendonitis is an overuse injury. It only will get worse if you continue. you to do basketball stuff on it. So that's a little dangerous. So if the clippers really felt like, you know, eh, we really really like sham it. And by all accounts, they love Landry Shamet. And they thought, well, we really like shamit. But we'd be willing to make this trade to get, you know,

what Canara provides, which is a lot more secondary playmaking. But we're really concerned about his health. And, you know, the clippers, of course, had really depleted their, their stock by old future draft picks over the last year. Well, last year and a half, you know, the offseason, the 2019 offseason was a year and a half ago. So, you know, that's really the only scenario I can think of because, you know, there is, I just don't see any other way, you know, any other reason why the Pistons would even give

up one second round draft pick, let alone four. So that was a bit of a strange trade, in my opinion. I imagine we'll find out more about that. Some light will be shed upon it in the near future. So in any event, yeah, brought Rodney McGruder back in the trade as well, not a player on whom the Pistons. I'm sure we're interested for what he can actually provide. So the players themselves, it's worth noting just the overall qualities

of the three players' Pistons selecting the first rounds. were really just high character, hardworking players who play tough defense. That's just worth seeing. And while you could make the arguments that we were, especially in the case of one of these picks, went a little bit overboard possibly and just looking too much to character, I've got to say it is nice after the sort of dark era of the Pistons went through under Van Gundy in a couple years afterward in which we were still stuck with that roster when you had Andre Drummond, for example, who was the precise opposite,

not a team player, not a high character guy, not a high motor. And like the earlier Van Gundy years when you had, you know, early on Reggie Jackson, who was just super selfish and egotistical and whatnot. And, you know, he grew up into a good teammate over time. So that much is refreshing. So let's get to the picks. The four picks we got Killian Hayes, of course, in number seven. You got Isaiah Stewart.

at 16, Sadiq Bay at 19, and 7 Lee at 38. So we've talked a lot about Killian Hayes, you know, over the last, you know, throughout our draft previews. And I don't think he really needs to be revisited here. You know, just a quick summary. He's a point guard, of course. He's got good size, good length. He's got great basketball IQ.

He's a really good passer. and, you know, he has, if he has, if he puts all of his skills together, which include a lot of potential as a shooter, then I think, like I said, he can be in the bottom half of the top 10 in terms of point guards. His weakness is right now, he's not the most athletic player. He is not the greatest shooter at the moment. He needs to work on that, though I think he has potential. And when last be heard, he was very, very left-hand dominant, though, according to him,

he has fixed that. So it's a pick I like. and, you know, we'll see how it goes. Next at number 16 was Isaiah Stewart's. Tommy, what do you feel about that pick? I thought it was a little bit of a reach. But again, it fits Weaver's archetype of bringing in these high-energy, high-character guys. And I think you kind of alluded to these guys not being like drummond.

This is going to be a guy who runs the floor hard and uses his body. So on offense, things that I like is he has really nice touch around the rim. And even though we talked in previous episodes, like when we talked about Christian Wood, about how the league is kind of moving away from post offense. If it's an efficient shot, it's fine to take it. I don't want him chasing that shot and making too much of it. But he seems to have the tools to make it a valuable shot. He has really nice footwork.

And at 6-9, 250 pounds, and 7-4 wing span, he has the body for it. it and he takes full advantage in the paint. So he's using a nice mix of footwork and brute force paired with hook shots and lay-ins to score. He's kind of light on his feet. He's got really active feet, I should say. He's not the guy who's kind of like playing slow and like lazy, I guess. He's very, very high energy. And his interior game is pretty polished against college competition. but we'll have to see how that translates to bigger, stronger NBA defenders. And then, even then, I feel like it's like an upside pick. There's been talk that he spent the eight months off focusing mostly on his shooting.

He says that he has shooting potential and he thinks that he'll be able to space the floor. He did shoot almost 80% on free throws. And we've seen him demonstrate that he has really nice soft touch around the rim. At Washington, he only shot 25% on threes, just 20 attempts, but the jumper looks fine. It's not broken. The form is fairly consistent. And that's probably going to be the biggest thing for him in terms of what he can be. If he can space the floor, he becomes significantly more valuable. I know, I know me personally, I'm really not keen on going back to traditional centers. I know you're the same way, so that's going to be very, very important for him.

And then besides these things, he's just a really, really high energy and effort guy. He sets good screens, runs the floor really hard in transition, and he tries to beat people down the court and establish a really good post position. On defense, again, super high effort. He's low center of gravity so that he can uproot the opposing bigs and deny post position. And oftentimes we saw him push his opponents straight away from the basket on pound dribbles, which is another thing. It's like the opposite of drum. And he would take two dribbles and he would get no closer to the rim and then he'd just take,

you know, look away hook shot. Stewart is not like that. He pushes his way inside. And that's not the easiest thing to do. He has to have good balance for that so he doesn't get the chair pulled out from under him. I don't think that's going to be an issue for him. Other things I like, really good verticality and reaction time. He averaged, I think, two blocks at Washington.

And I think there's a good chance that he becomes the – he kind of replaces Bruce as that fan-favored guy who plays with the really high-energy defense and makes some of those plays. As far as things that I don't like or things to improve, he does need to add a little bit more offensive versatility. He's a bit of a ball stopper in the post, and he doesn't kick out or play much from the paint to the perimeter. And then other than that, we just have to see, again, can he space the floor? Can he get his three ball to an acceptable percentage on decent volume? That was one of the things that make Christian Wood so valuable. and if Stewart can do that for us,

he can maybe be a starting level center who, you know, you sign to a team-friendly contract. You know, he's done for figures to be like that max-level guy. He doesn't really have the bounce for that, but he's probably just going to be a culture and effort guy. And the other thing that we'll be looking to see if he can do is switch on to the perimeter. We've seen him switch, but Washington ran pretty much. only zone defense, so he was pretty much always in the paint.

The NBA is ball screen heavy, so we're going to have to see if he can come out to the perimeter and stop penetration from there. What do you think? I think it should be emphasized that traditional centers are not very valuable in today's NBA. You have center as just the undisputed least important position. Like basically, you can easily punt on. center these days as long as you have sufficient strength at the other positions.

We saw the Warriors do it. Of course, the Warriors are an extreme example. They have just a tremendous amount of talents, especially Durant on the roster. Nonetheless, you don't want to, the reason this pick was a little bit of a reach was the possibility that he just turns into that traditional center. If the passants are going to get good value out of this pick, he has to become switchable on the perimeter and he has to be able to shoot. As you mentioned, the ability to stretch the floor is super, super valuable in the NBA. This is one of the reasons why traditional centers have been just declining so rapidly. Like over the last three years, they have declined at a prodigious pace in terms of importance, value, and number even.

Now, the other reason is that a lot of these lumbering, you know, big traditional centers cannot defend switches on the perimeter. Teams in the NBA right now, it's just part of the standard offense that if you have a guy, who's too slow. They run a pick. They get the proper matchup. And then the guard most of the time just obliterates you. Even if you block the, you know, even if you manage to get over rotate, somebody rotates over to protect the rim, I mean, it's going to open somebody up. So Stewart really needs those two things. He needs to be switchable on the perimeter. He needs to be able to shoot. If you can do both of those, like you said, he can be one of those really cost-effective starting centers. You know, who can be a good piece on a good team,

provided he's surrounded by guys who can create offense. Again, you could really punt on center and just pay somebody a modest salary as long as you have enough talent at the other positions. So what I like about him is a lot of what you like about him. I love that he is, by all accounts, the reviews have always raved about his work ethic. He's just an incredibly hard worker. He's super mature. He's all about his team. So you got to like that. Like I said earlier, it's just such a contrast, for example, from Andre Drummond to players of that ilk. So it's real refreshing. And I always, of course, like players, like players who are really hardworking and play for their team. So that's good. He's definitely got an NBA ready body, 250 pounds and 6.9. He's pretty chiseled. I mean,

he's going to be very strong. He's going to be a very capable interior scorer, I think, who will finish well through contact. He's going to be an active defender, but again, can he move his feet fast enough to not be a liability on the perimeter? that could be a thing. And also his vertical explosiveness is not good. I mean, he can run the fore, but vertically, he's not good at playing above the rim. And that's going to hurt him in terms of blocking shots and in terms of catching lobs. So what you got in it is you have a guy with a high floor,

but just the trouble is that if he's at that floor, then the Pistons really made a bad pick at number 16. Like this draft is kind of weird and that a lot of centers got selected in the first rounds. It's weird because center just really isn't that important anymore. But if he only reaches that floor, the fact that he does a safe pick is irrelevant, you just picked a traditional big at 16, and that's not a good value. So I think he's got, as you said, he's got a decent stroke. I think he's got potential as a shooter.

He did shoot on low volume in the NCAA, but that also just wasn't his role in Washington. He executed most of his offense from the post. And the NBA, you can have a harder time just because, you know, you're not going to be drastically bigger and stronger than the average person in the NCAA. also at the NBA offense just run differently. If you want to be a high volume postplay, you've got to be real good at it. So, yeah, it'll depend on those two things, like I said.

Switchability on the perimeter and the ability to stretch the floor. I've seen some comps to, it's like, oh, this guy, you know, super hard worker, defense focus, you know, is this our next Ben Wallace? Again, this is just, you know, I don't chatter I've seen from Pistin's fandom. The answer is no. Ben Wallace, you know, that should be emphasized, was a freak. The guy was unbelievably athletic. I mean, just even by today's NBA standards, the guy was an incredible athlete.

And he'd be a very good defender in the NBA today. Of course, the issue is that it would be that he's a terrible, he's a terrible score. And that would keep him out of the ranks of the elite NBA centers today because that offense is important. You know, you can't be an elite center going in and scoring eight points a game and having really being a non-threat on the offensive end. But I digress. So I was, I'm mom on the pick. I'm kind of ambivalent.

I would have preferred to see it go to a wing player like maybe Josh Green. Because, you know, the pistons at the end of the draft were still, you know, not very high on those guys who can play from shooting guard through power forward. And those that, I think that just, that gives you better potential upside than a guy who might be a traditional big. So moving on to Sadiq Bay, take him with the 19th pick. Take it away, Tommy. Yeah, so again, fits the Weaver archetype pretty well. His mother was a high school principal.

He talked about how hard she pushed him in basketball and academically. Fits the high character thing. On offense, the things I like is shooting. I think he shot 45% in his sophomore year from three at Villanova. Great percentage. high volume and I think five and a half threes per game. And he played really well within the Villanova offense. He demonstrated the ability to make the extra pass.

It's really good on the kickout. He did the bulk of inbound passing, which is just something that I noticed watching him play. I think it just shows a lot of trust from his coach. There are things to improve on. I mean, that three ball alone is going to give him a spot in the league. I know he's like 6-8, 2-16. He's got good enough size to play the three.

But I'd like to see him expand his game a little bit more. One of the things I noticed, he's just not very aggressive. And when he catches the ball, there's like a moment of hesitation where it seems like he's trying to decide what to do. He's not the most athletic guy in terms of his burst or attacking the hoop. So it seems like he's deciding whether he's going to be able to finesse his way to the hoop or if he should just. just pull up. So he needs to sharpen that decision-making and then probably improve his perimeter footwork and handle so that maybe he can drive inside.

And if he's not going to power his way to the rim, maybe he can switch directions and just kind of maybe, I don't even know, a Euro step his way. He needs to find a way to become an attack point because with his three-ball percentage, he's going to demand defenders, play him close. So he already struggled to do that at the NCAA level. So I'd be surprised if he became a good driver in the NBA. Maybe for now he's just like that 3-and-D role player. And then he kind of telegraphs that he's out of the play.

He doesn't sell his cuts off ball unless he's really going for it. And then he doesn't set good off-ball screens. I'd like to see him try harder to get open. You know, a guy who's shooting 45%, you really want him to take more threes because that's just an excellent shot. If he can play on a team with spacing like he did at Villanova, I'd like to see him post up more. This was something that I didn't know about his game until I watched him. He can't take it all the way to the hoops. What he would do sometimes is he would take it maybe two or three steps into the perimeter,

and then he was really good at finding the open man. We saw a little bit of this from Griffin, not so much that he was driving and then stopping and then passing it out, but he would turn around, post up, and then kick it out. So I would like to see him. If Griffin is still on the team come opening day, maybe that's something that he could learn. But really, like, the thing that most impressed me,

even more than the 45% from three was the defense. I knew he was like a good defender going in, but it was just very, very pleasant to watch. He was always engaged. His head was always moving. He was guarding all the up and down the lineup. He was taking on the primary ball handlers, the guards, all the way up to the bigs in some cases. His post defense was really good. He was getting low and pushing the opponent, his opponent denying position and keeping them out of the paint.

and then he doesn't chase blocks. He just goes straight up with his contest, and that means that his block number is really low, but he's forcing really, really tough shots and making it as difficult as possible. On the perimeter drives, he funnels his opponents, and he turns them inward and pushes them into a difficult route under the hoop. So if he was picking up somebody on the perimeter

and they were starting to drive inside, he'd angle his body, he'd angle them, He's very physical with it, and he just makes it so they can't take it all the way to the hoop. His footwork was great there. It's not so much that he's trying to stop them or steal the ball away. He's just trying to force the difficult shot. And then on ball, he was excellent at navigating screens. He doesn't try to get in front of the ball.

He just denies the driving lanes and plays close. And this leads, again, to the low steel count, but he does not get broken down defensively. I also saw that it was very vocal in calling out assignments and switches when necessary. That's another thing that, again, I don't think we saw a lot of from guys last year. It's just another, I think, underrated trait showing some leadership. And, you know, you could really see that he was taking on a lot of responsibility on the defensive end. And in this game that I watched, like, if the ball handler got picked up by a Bay. They'd just try to get rid of the, they'd back up and they'd reset. They had tons of respect

for Bay as a defender. And then I really like that he stayed focused and trusted his teammates. There was one play where a perimeter player off the ball was driving and he was trying to pull Bay away from his man in the corner so that he could kick it out for the three. And Bay just stayed with his guy and the play fell apart. I feel like a lot of other. guys would have just would have stepped away from their man and that would have been a pretty good look from three but on that play it just resulted in a really really tough contested like fallaway jumper near the basket yeah no i don't have any complaints here for him defensively he's a great positional defender he's probably going to be underrated because he has the low steals and low blocks

but i feel like he could be a starting role player by the end of the year well this was pre signings, but I feel like he has that potential in him. If he had more bursts, I think he probably would have gotten taken lottery. But I think this is going to be a guy that Casey really likes. And I hope Casey has him moving a little bit more off the ball because I really would like him to chase more of his own three-point looks. How do you feel? I mean, I like to pick at number 19.

I think it's a very good value at number 19. He was a guy who, I believe, was expected to go considerably early. by people who do this for a living, I suppose. So I'm satisfied that the Pistons certainly is satisfied with this pick. I think he's a sort of guy in the NCAA who was very, very versatile at that level. You know, he could attack to a degree off the dribble. He was just a lot more talented than the average guy is playing against. The issue with Bay, his major disadvantage, I would say, and like you said,

what kept him from being picked much higher is the fact that he's not explosive. He's not unathletic, but he's not explosive. He doesn't have that first step. that's going to allow you to blow past somebody and leap toward the rim. So that's going to make him less versatile than the NBA level. He'll still be a good all-around player, but he's not going to be what he was with Villanova, which is the guy who's executing the majority of the offense.

So I agree with pretty much what you've said about his strengths. Yeah, really strong work ethic, very good character, good IQ, strong fundamentally a disciplined basketball player. he's not unathletic. I guess he's, I don't know if you call it average or good enough on the athleticism scale. He's got a good wing span. Responsible defender, you know, again, good IQ on that end. Should be reliable.

He'll need to use his smarts in order to defend against the quicker guards who might get switched on to him. But I think he'll hold his own. He's a good shooter, obviously. High release points, quick release. He can easily get himself. looks over shorter defenders. He can take some threes off the dribble, which is nice, some pull-ups. Because that way you can just, you can switch him onto a smaller guy and then he can basically attack him in isolation from the three-point line. And he can do some shooting around screens.

Don't think about that like Speed McKay look, for example, who despite, well, Speed is actually fairly athletic. His issue is that he's got crocodile alarms. And not he's not, in terms of lateral mobility is not good. His issues with athleticism mostly come on the defensive end. But Svea is very quick. He can grab the ball around a handoff or just take, you know, he's not really taking it around screens because he's not a very good ball handler, but he can grab a ball around a handoff and very quickly fire it, you know, right as he, right after he goes around the screen. You won't really see Bay doing that quite as much. He can do it, but he doesn't have that degree of quickness. But I think nonetheless, he'll be a valuable NBA three-point player, excuse me, three-point shooter.

Any guy, I mean, if you can get a guy who can play defense, you can shoot threes, that's valuable, you know, just from the get-go. He's got some other skills that might come into play. Like, you know, he's got half decent post moves, and he can do some shooting off the dribble. That'll be more difficult at the NBA level, though you've got much longer defenders. He does also have pretty good court vision. You know, he's got the ability to make some decent passes right off the screen on the pick and roll. And he's a fair overall passer who sees the floor. he will pass up a bad shot to pass to a teammate who's more open.

That's valuable. A lot of these guys will just get the ball and they don't, well, not so much at the NBA level. This is usually, these guys don't make it quite as much. But there are guys who will get the ball and we'll just shoot it because they have it without looking around to see what's going on. So I'd say he projects as a fairly high quality role player. I think he's more likely to be a swing man off the bench ultimately than a starter If he's a starter, you better be surrounded by guys who are more able to creating offense

because just being unable to beat anybody off the dribble in the NBA is, you know, is an issue that's really going to limit any player. And again, it's just a product of his lack of explosiveness. I don't see him. He's a guy who, you know, will cut to the basket and can take advantage of open lanes to score at the basket. But he's not a dude who's just going to be taking the ball and beating somebody. But nonetheless, yeah, like I said, you have a guy who can shoot threes. Yay. If he can do some shooting off the dribble,

yeah, guy who moves off the ball, yay. I mean, that's good. This is the 19th overall pick. That is, that is not bad at all. This is, I think, a very, very solid pickup and a good value. I think this would be a good value even in a draft of average strength. So I'm happy with this. Now, what's funny, of course, is that the Pistons could have picked Sidique Bay at number 16 and Stewart at number 19. And we'd be talking about, oh, maybe it was a little bit less of a reach to draft it, to draft Stewart at 19, but, you know, the point remains. Anything else to add about Bay before we move on to the mystery man, Seven Lee? No, I don't think so.

All right, so Sevenly, again, I don't have to mention this before. This trade actually, so this was, yeah, I forgot to mention this poor, actually. So the Sevenly was brought on by way of taking on a salary dump from the Utah Jazz. At the Jazz, at the 38th pick, they wanted to get rid. of Tony Bradley so that they could, you know, make an offer to, you know, within their means, I believe below the tax for Jordan Clarkson, which they did. So Tony Bradley is of no use of the distance. He's, you know, he's a guy who is decent as an interior scorer, but you can't defend it all.

And if you can't shoot, you know, if a traditional center who can't shoot, you better be good at defense or you're not worth putting on the floor and he isn't. So in any event, yeah, they took in that $5 million of cap hit, and they sent over some cash considerations and, quote, unquote, future considerations, which can really mean anything or nothing. So Lee is a six foot two, you know, slots in his point guard, may have better skill set for shooting guard. Extremely athletic, very good leaper, explosive.

He's very good at reaching the basket. in the NCAA, he thrived on penetrating into the basket and drawn contact. He took an enormous number of free throws. He really seeks out that contact, which is a good quality. Not a particularly good shooter. That may not ever be a good playmaker.

He just doesn't really seem to have that vision. He looks to shoot. So he looks just largely like a high-volume attempt guy rather than a real point guard. On defense, you know, he's undersized. 6-2 is small these days. He has a 6-9 wingspan. That's nice.

I mean, that's nice also for scoring at the basket because, you know, that short wingspan just, you know, makes it a lot more difficult. It makes it a lot easier to block you. So that wingspan and his athleticism may help him compensate for that size. He just needs better focus. So I would say he projects as sort of a bench flamethrower if he develops his shooting properly.

I think shooting guard ultimately might end up being his position. Not ideal given his size. We've seen guys make it work. If he's a guy who you can put on next to a real point guard and if he becomes a better shooter and so you can shoot the ball or you just pass him the ball when he's got a good lane

or he can beat a guy in isolation. You know, great. Undersized attackers can really still be useful. It just basically is what he can provide. Now, a couple of issues I have with this pick. I wasn't really happy with this. By reports, Troy Weaver saw this guy as the first round talent

and was very happy to take him in the second round. However, it was really unclear before the draft if he was going to be selected at all. So it's possible the Pistons could have had access to him as an undrafted free agent, whether he would assign with the Pistons instead of another team as anybody's guess, of course. And there were just other guys on the board, guys like Woodard and O'ora and Hughes, who were guys who I think just maybe had more potential, or I just think were just stronger picks that were still on the board at 38.

you probably could have gotten lead in the late 40s or early 50s again this guy was not really a sought after draft pick you never know but I think guys like the three I just suggested they probably maintain value even if the Pistons aside

you know whatever we don't need you they're going to maintain some trade value hard to say that with Lee and I'm not sure you know where the Pistons are right now like before free agency ban it began I don't care about the salary it's like okay 5 million

well the Pistons don't you know why not not get an extra pick and taking on somebody else's salary. That's the idea. But at this point, it's like, you know, I'm not sure. In any event, it's worth noting that the trade hasn't been completed, which is a little strange because as far as I understand things and I got a pretty good understanding of these things, there is nothing in the CBA that is stopping this trade from happening. I could be wrong there. I don't think I am. So who knows what will ultimately happen with it. Another thing about Lee that bothers me a little bit is that he reminds me a little too

much of Jordan Bone, who was just released by the Pistons. I think about a week and a half ago, he's off the team now. They didn't extend him a qualifying offer. They're not identical players by any means. Like Bone has crocodile alarms by NBA standards, whereas Lee actually has a pretty good wingspan. Bone, his primary issue, I think, was that he did not do well attacking the basket. You know, that's a big problem. He wasn't really able to capitalize on that athleticism very much.

He settled for just gaining separation. and taking a, you know, a pull-up mid-range jumper instead, and that's not going to fly in the MDA, unless you're very good at it. And I don't think Bone is, you know, was ever going to be that good at it. And if you can't, if you're a point guard and you can't break down defenses, you know,

going downhill toward the baskets, you're much less valuable, much less valuable. You know, bones, you know, again, his short arms really didn't help with that. But both superathletic guys undersized, Bone's a better shooter than Lee. Wee's got some touch. We'll see.

I don't see any reason. You know, any severe warning signs there, but it's basically you had a guy. You took in the second round and you just took a flyer on him, super athletic point guard. He didn't work out. You release him. And then you take another guy who's fairly similar in the second round, you know, a week and a half later.

So that's less of me thinking, oh, my goodness, that is just an awful idea to release bone and then draft this guy. It just makes me a little wary. But, you know, it's obviously. possible that the draft team saw is seeing something that we are not. So, and the 38th pick, though again, this was probably a reach at the 38th pick. You know, it's a second round pick, and you're happy if you get a good rotation player there. So you have any thoughts about seven-wee?

No, I think you hit pretty much everything. You know, he is what he is at this point. I had a lot more to say. I think there would have been a lot more to say about the potential fit and where these players fit into the roster prior to the onset of free agency. I think a lot of things happened there that we did not expect. Prior to free agency, I would have thought that, you know, you have Hayes.

We'll be starting. I think he'll still be starting. And then presumably Griffin's still on the roster. And if he's healthy, he's starting a power forward. And, you know, who knows who you have at center, you just signed some, you know, some random guy, a veteran, ideally, to a small one-year contract to play at center. And you see how Stewart turns out. You play him off the bench and you see where he goes. Maybe he takes on that spot for a team that doesn't really care about winning.

And you've got either Bay or Seku plays one of them, you know, provided that Seku is playing well enough. You know, he fell flat in his face at the end of the last season. But just it's surprising. Nobody expected him to play at all. And he played pretty well in his first two weeks and then fell out. part. Whatever. That's fine. I don't think I wasn't upset about it. I was more excited that he showed NBA potential early on than upset that a kid who was, you know, for whatever it's worth, was the youngest player in the NBA and had been playing basketball for like six years.

I couldn't sustain that level of performance, whatever. So I anticipated that either he or Bay, one of them would start at the three and the other one would get most of the tweener minutes off the bench. And then Lee is going on a two-way contract and it will certainly just be in the G-League for the majority of the year. Though it's worth noting that the rules on two-way contracts actually have changed. It used to be that players could only spend a certain number of days with the team that included travel and practice. And they've changed that such that players can only play a certain number of games with the team. So that's that's just a a nice change.

Also, just bear in mind, the Pistons are going to have a G-League team in Detroit next year. I'm sure, well, for those of you who don't know this story, the Pistons asked the Grand Rapids Drive to move. They were the Pistons previous G-League affiliate. The Pistons is not on the team because the Pistons want their G-League team to be in Detroit so that they can benefit from the team's facilities, so they can benefit from the team's trainers, so that they can be more effectively scouted. And so that for home games, they're going to be available, period, rather than, you know, all of this, rather than having all this stuff two and a half hours away.

And the drive said, no, we're establishing Grand Rapids. We're going to stay here. So the Pistons went out and bought the Suns G-League team and they're moving into Detroit. So, you know, conceivable, that means that we'll see more of more time for the Pistons, two-way players, though less now than I think we would have seen prior to, you know, what transpired and free agency. So that'll be up for today's episode. we will be back soon with a free agency review whenever it is that the Pistons stop making moves. Really no way to tell exactly when that's going to be. But we'll be back sometime within the next week with another episode reviewing what the Pistons,

at least to that point, have done in free agency. As always, I want to thank you all for listening. We will see you next time.