Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 244: Season Recap & Looking Forward

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

This episode (recorded a couple of weeks ago) recaps the season and looks forward to free agency. 

Welcome back, everybody. You are listening to Drive into the Baskets. I'm Mike and I hope you all have been great. It's been a long, long hiatus. I can't even remember the last time I recorded. I mean, just by way of one of my typical explanations, which I believe I've given every time I've gone on a hiatus here. I just kind of lost my enjoyment of it. It was, I guess, kind of a combination of things, largely just some hell. health issues. I just had a really, really crappy time with sleeping for a while, just really horrible quality of sleep. And that just kind of made it, well, just loss of energy, a couple with kind of burnout. I've been trying to be a little bit kinder to myself as far as just, you know, in terms of leisure stuff, doing things because I enjoy them rather than because I feel like I should or feel an obligation, which obviously is not levied upon me by any of you. That's just in my own head. So in any case, the season's over. And so let's talk about the season. Let's talk about the upcoming off season, which promises to be either very interesting or very disappointing. So I'll start with

this. I'd call this season an unequivocal success. I mean, I know it didn't end how many of us had hoped. And in the playoffs, it didn't really deliver on, you know, what one maybe would have expected on paper from a 61 regular season team. Nonetheless, This team won 60 games, this team won a playoff series. This team made it to Game 7 of the second round. I mean, these were all very significant things, especially for a team that won 14 games two seasons ago. I mean, things are way ahead of schedule.

Are things perfect? No, are the things to be concerned about? Yes. I don't necessarily have a lot to say about the regular season. I think, of course, is my opinion going into the playoffs? The Pistons have kind of punched above their weight. Just a lot had gone right. the team had been very healthy.

And, you know, the regular season is the regular season. And this team had some systemic issues that were not going to show themselves as much in the regular season as they were in the playoffs. That's just kind of how it was. As I've harped upon bazillion times over the years, teams really tightened things up in the playoffs. I mean, things that are acceptable in the regular season become outright damaging. And playoff basketball is different. and your roster has to be tuned in. Your roster, if it has weaknesses, these get ruthlessly exploited.

That's just how it goes. And that's what happened to the Pistons. I mean, it's worth noting that this was also a very young team. It was a team with also various flaws. I mean, nowhere near enough spacing. Like, we all know about that. Just the shooting was not there. It was not there.

I mean, it was negative shooting almost, but the Saur and Duren playing so many minutes together in the starting lineup. and just not enough shooting around the roster to the extent that Duncan Robinson had the greatest on-off impact on the entire team. I mean, the offense went into the crapper in the regular season without him on the floor. Shout out to Duncan, who I think is incredibly underrated for what he provided his team this season. And of course, sorry, I'm going to move a little bit closer to the mic here. So sorry if this abruptly gets louder. So, of course, he was disproportionately valuable to this team because it had so little shooting.

But, man, Duncan, I just, I think you get short shrift because he's a guy who, yeah, he's not the greatest defender. And he's not a guy who's going to create anything for you. And, yeah, shooting guard often gets identified as that, you know, second position where you really want a guy who can create, whatever. Like, Duncan is an elite shooter, like one of the best in the world. he's incredibly smart he exerts a crap load of gravity and and does so expertly he takes some really difficult shots and makes them and if you leave him open i mean you're screwed like a wide open spot up three for duncan it was almost a 50% shot this season which is insane so yeah i mean he was he was really good for the piss since the regular season and in the playoffs again things

come like these things come up your weaknesses get exploited more duncan was a attacked more because that's what you do. Weak defenders get attacked. And unfortunately, a lot of the time the Pistons were, I mean, with Stewart, who I believe was injured from about game four of the Orlando series onward. With him not really there to provide rim protection and also Duren playing the majority of the minutes anyway. I mean, Duran, needless to say, deserves his own section and we'll get it. And I mean, there was nobody to go there and defend the rim, basically. Read, a good postseason, but he's not really a rim. He's not really a protector and Stewart, you know, when he was playing later in the playoffs, it was against

Cleveland in particular that Duncan got attacked. I mean, Stewart couldn't jump by that stage of the playoffs. So anyway, just all that aside, yeah, he also got focused like hardcore in the playoffs, again, exploiting a weakness. This team's a lack of spacing. They know that Duncan is the guy who's going to get the three-point offense for the Pistons. So he was often just actively taken out of the play. Anyway, I don't remember how I got on this. Yeah, spacing. I mean, his team had nowhere near enough shooting.

You got one elite shooter on the roster. You know, K-D is sometimes reliable from three. And beyond that, my goodness, I'm just going through this Rolodex in my mind. I mean, of course, the Sardin Duran swallow spacing. Tobias didn't have a good season as a shooter. I mean, he had a really good season, a postseason, yeah, postseason in other ways. Javante Green wasn't reliable.

Jenkins, as always, wasn't reliable. Levera shot a decent percentage, but it was all that one big game they had against Cleveland. He had against Cleveland, excuse me. Hurt or didn't really even play. Sasser sort of was around, but the guy has his own weaknesses. So, yeah, that was something that was hardcore punished in the playoffs. And like the lack of creation. Like, Kate Cunningham was literally the only guy in the team outside of sometimes Tobias,

who really punched above his weight in this postseason, but still struggled quite a bit. So I wouldn't necessarily call him a guy who was reliably getting his offense. And like I've said many times, and I'm not saying I told you so or anything like that. This is something that the front office is, obviously, these guys are professionals, not like they don't know this. That you've got to have guys. who can take the ball and get a bucket in the postseason. If you only got one of them, he's going to get swarmed.

And Kade just had to put forth like a heroic effort. And I think if the Pistons had gotten into the conference finals, I mean, this guy was going to run out of energy at some point because what was being asked of him was Titanic. And I don't care how good, you know, how good shape you're in. You know, I don't care how young you are when that's being asked of you and just getting beaten up on a nightly basis. You're eventually going to run this team.

And actually, it was, Interesting to see. Okay, C. Who, my opinion was going into the season, if they're healthy, they can't be beaten. They were not healthy. Jalen Williams, of course, is a huge part of that team, especially in the playoffs. Again, where you need these guys who can take the ball and get buckets, which a healthy J. lon Williams is very good at. A.J. Mitchell, who's also decent at it, was injured as well.

And so it was just Shea who was relied upon to create all the offense. And the spurs would just throw multiple bodies at him. And when he got into the interior, it was Wembe. and by game seven he was 10 he was just completely toast from from an endurance perspective I mean you saw in the second half of that game he had nothing left so this is this is something you need in the playoffs I know that the whole like you know two superstars or a superstar and two stars the format is kind of broke and it's not always accurate but I think it's fairly accurate and at the very least you need a second you know second guy who can create offense at a star level

and this team had outside of the times when Tobias was just hitting a lot of his jump shots. And, you know, like a couple of games when Jenkins was, even Jenkins from there, it was likely just that he got hot from three. I mean, this team had nobody. And the front office, and this was no surprise, the front office deliberately decided not to add anybody of that sort at the deadline. They chose to go with data gathering overwinning now. That is what it is.

I mean, this isn't cope, but looking at how the Knicks have caught five, on this postseason. I don't know if the pistons, no, who knows? It's a moot point whether or not they would have won against the Knicks, but oh my goodness, part of me is dreading a Knicks win if they managed to pull it off. Their fans are beyond obnoxious, like the equivalent of Canadian hockey fans. No offense to any Canadian hockey fans are listening to this. I'm just talking on the larger scale. And again, that's a complete generalization. So if you are listening and you're a fan of a Canadian hockey team. This was not meant offensively. In any case, what was I saying? So, yeah, so, you know, lack of spacing, lack of creation. You know, we can conflate spacing with shooting,

but they're both things. You don't have guys who can finish a place from the perimeter. That's a big problem. I mean, today's NBA on offense, it's about keeping up and meeting the other guy. And the three-point shot, the open three is a very high-efficiency shot for the teams that can make it. So if you can't, it's not only that the interior is clogged in other opportunities don't exist, it is also that you're not making that shot. And so much today is about hitting your open-threes, especially in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, that goes back to the spacing. I mean, in the playoffs, you saw what would happen with the SAR.

I mean, Kenny Atkinson, it was interesting the way he put it. And I don't remember who said this, what I'm about to say. I'm just repeating it because I think it was very well put. So Atkinson said, you know, our game plan around to Sarr Thompson, who was brilliant defensively in the playoffs. Yeah, our game plan around to Sarr Thompson was just to avoid him. Unfortunately, that was also the Pistons game plan on offense with the Sarr. I mean, he's still very raw.

He still can't shoot. I think Bakerstaff kind of let the foot off the pedals. a little bit because he used the SAR pretty effectively in game two against in game one and i believe game two against the cavaliers and then a SAR was just on kind of perimeter duty after that and just wasn't used a lot in sets or maybe Kenny Atkinson just adapted to take away those sets i don't know didn't really look like it but i digress basically atkinson was free to just put mowgli on assar and then you've got jared allen who is quite good on defense and evan mobley who is elite on defense packing the interior that makes a life on

a lot more difficult, especially for the one guy who was capable of creating offense. So my point is that, I mean, this was a roster that was built to develop. I mean, the front office chose in the off season to prioritize development. You know, big minutes for young players. It was Tallins that was Tsar Ivy when, well, it was obviously very, very big disappointment was Ivy. And so they chose to prioritize that of a winning now, which I think was the right move. And then they chose it against at the debline, which was, I think, kind of ballsy and maybe not quite the right move.

Just saying, oh, well, we're going to see what we have here. And we don't want to bias the data, which is pretty much what they said. They said we want to see what we have. And it's like there are certain things that are going to be extremely predictable. Number one of which in this, they could have adjusted. this, you know, they could have changed this to a degree, was the lack of creation. I mean, you had some guys who were on expiring deals like Anthony Simons or Colin Sexton or even Kobe White, if you wanted to pay the price for him, who could have been had for for a second

round draft stock. And they would have provided shooting. They would have provided overall scoring. They would have provided some secondary creation. And the front office chose not to do that. And, you know, this is not, I would hope that they weren't looking at this and saying, oh, well, maybe we'll go in and our, you know, our current model will work because, I don't know, maybe they were made a little bit complacent by the regular season. And they're like, oh, maybe we can translate this into the postseason. And it's like, you know, you guys have been in the business for a while. You know that's never going to happen, especially these days when there are just certain things

that you got to have in the postseason. And if you don't have them, it's going to be difficult to win. And also, if you don't have them, I mean, it's going to be difficult to execute an offense in particular. And also, if you don't have them, I mean, that absence of them is going to be exploited. So my thing, I mean, I went into the postseason, I thought I'm going to be happy if they win a series. And they did.

I hate to get into this because it makes me a little bit sad, but I think it's fairly probable. The Pistons, not probable. They got a break when Franz Wagner went out. I mean, Wagner's the best player on that team. and he was the only guy over there could really defend Cade. So maybe the Pistons would have won anyway, maybe not. The important thing is that they did win. They won their first series since 2008.

That was great. Then they went on and took a decent Cavaliers team to seven games, a Cavaliers team that had a lot more of the things you need to win, and also an enormous amount more experience. Like, enormous. So I was sad when it was over, but this, like, we're not in the middle. of this team's window yet. This is basically almost very, very, very beginning.

I think you could qualify next season as the beginning. So, yeah, I mean, then you have a team like a cavaliers who are locked in. I mean, they have very little salary flexibility. They have very little control over future picks. I mean, this team has some salary flexibility and all of its future first-round picks. So, yeah, let's talk about some other postseason storylines. And I'm not going to start with Jalen Duren because that would be kind of boring.

So I've already gone over some of them, actually. You know, the lack of shooting. You know, the lack of spacing. Isaiah Stewart getting injured didn't really help. I mean, Paul Reed, I got a hand it to Paul Reed. The guy made a sort of very rare kind of improvement in his offense this season. season. He's got a significantly larger bag. He's very disruptive also on defense like usual. You know, he did well when he was called upon, which in my opinion was too rarely by a coach who,

you know, Bickerstaff. I have gone on and on in the past about Bickerstaff's limitations as a playoff coach. And it's kind of like, whatever that, you know, leopard eating face thing is, where it's like, I don't remember what it is. It's like, you bring. bring a face-eating leopard into some situation, and then he starts eating faces and you say, you know, act all surprised. Like, oh, my God, you know, the leopard is eating faces. We didn't see that coming. It's like with Bickerstaff, it's, this is, this is him. This is what's going to happen. Great culture guy, you know, good floor razor, basically super Dwayne Casey, with the same weaknesses to a lesser extent. Among those weaknesses, a real unwillingness or inability to adapt.

and some lack of creativity on offense, rigidity with his rotations, these things all rear their heads. One of these things was Paul Reed not playing enough against the cavaliers, even though when he was on the floor, he did very well. I mean, you can make the arguments that,

okay, we're going to give minutes to Duren for, you know, for development purposes, but it's like, dude, you want to win the series or not, and obviously game seven was a blowout, but you might have won, you know, game three, four, or five if you played more Paul Reed. and at that point I mean I'd be a bit snarky in saying this

but it's like well the Pistons won but at least and this is the most important thing Jalen Durant's feelings didn't get hurt and it's like you know I get that there are some considerations there but also excuse the language the fucking postseason you do what you have to do to win and sure I'll get to Durran now who had a terrible postseason and like unfathomably

unfathomably bad postseason. This guy was dreadful. He did poorly against Orlando, and he got run over by the Cavaliers. They destroyed him. I mean, he got torn to shreds. This was an absolutely shameful performance by him. And some of it was just him.

I don't think it was actively checking out, but it's like this was abominably bad play. And that was the situation in which Paul Reed should have gotten more minutes. Like, you would go in and start Paul Reed, well, whatever. But you don't keep not playing until the fourth quarter.

I mean, like, seriously. You have your starting center who is the worst player on the floor, and you got a better option, but you don't want to make changes. So, but yeah, back to Duran. Two things here. I mean, where the lights bright?

I don't know. I mean, he didn't really look very tentative last season in the playoffs. I think, like, good regular season. Still some things to prove. I thought we were going to go into the playoffs. And the one thing, that was left for him to prove was that he could at least hold his own and play solid defense.

Like, you know me, this is not I told you so for a few reasons. You know, number one, anybody who says I told you so, give him the middle finger and move on because it's just the stupid fucking petty thing to do. I mean, anybody who wants to say that, yeah, it's just a dickhead thing to do. It's mean, it's petty, gets between people. Don't do that. Number two, I didn't tell you so, the first place, even if I would. were enough of a dick had to do that.

I didn't tell you so because I thought, again, maybe we're going to the playoffs and J. J. Lin Duren struggles on defense and that'll suck because the last thing, I mean, if he can go in and hold his own on defense while giving, you know, reasonable repeats of his regular season offensive performance, then cool. I might be still a little bit tentative about paying him or whatever, you know, okay, he's proven that. Instead, he came in and put up a colossal stinker that was far worse than what I think his worst-case scenario was, and what I thought his worst-case scenario was in the playoffs, which is just that he would get run over on defense like he did against the Knicks.

Instead, he fell apart in every respect. His offense was terrible. His defense against the magic, who, like the Pistons, don't exactly suffer from a surfeit of shooting, and were playing under arguably the 30th best offensive coach in the league. He still had his struggles on defense, didn't really provide much value. Like he did fine and straight on rim protection scenarios,

but for the most part, the issue with Duren is that, I mean, even when he's not making mistakes, he just doesn't really at this point seem to have the defensive IQ to do the things that actually provide defensive value, like just positioning himself to cause disruption, rotating at the right times, being in the right place, reacting fast enough. So he had his issues there.

He wasn't like awful, he was certainly poor, and then again, the cavaliers annihilated him. So it's not only those two things, it's like, and this was like one of them, this is very distressing to me, having to look back and make a positive relation to Andre Drummond, who I like now, he seems like he's matured a lot. Of course, he's nowhere near the player he could have been 10 years ago. But Drummond, it's like, even when he was like completely empty stats on both sides, it's like, you could at least know the guy was going to go out there and get a lot of rebounds.

related tallies or what. And Jalen Duran across what I think was 80 minutes in the three games, the Pistons lost in the Roe in the Cavalier Series, had 11 rebounds. He had two rebounds in one game. I think there were 14 guys who had more rebounds than he did. So it's like not only did he completely fall apart on offense, not only was he bad on defense, but the guy couldn't even do this basic stuff like rebounding, his finishing completely fell apart too.

It's like there are four things that Jalen Duran is elite at. He's an elite finisher. He's an elite vertical spacer. He is an elite role man, and he is an elite rebounder. And they took away, the finishing somehow died for reasons. I don't understand. I mean, he was just missing a lot of bunnies. And the drives he was trying, his drives to the rim just weren't working out.

Part of that was due to a packed interior. Part of it was just, you know, the defenders he was going up against in Cleveland or against the Cavaliers. And part of it was just him playing. badly. And two other things, you know, vertical spacing and being a role man got taken away by the opponents in part because they could just ignore a sour, but it can partly because Dauron is largely a passenger on offense still. And the rebounding disappeared for reasons I just completely don't understand. So it was just all around horrible, like completely and utterly awful.

the Orlando series was bad enough and the Cleveland series was just unbelievably bad. And again, I'm not looking back to Drummond with the Pistons and saying, woo-hoo, you know, he would have been better. You all think back to the 2019 series against the Cavaliers in which he was unfathomably bad. So here's where it leaves you with Duran. It's just instead of going into the postseason improving things, he went into the postseason and disproved some things he may have like ostensibly proven before. One of which was that no matter what, you're going to get elite rebounding.

And, you know, like traditional center things done in an elite level. Not only did the defense, obviously absolutely not manifest itself, but the other stuff just didn't. He let himself be pushed to the periphery. I don't know if he was actively disengaged, but there were times he just really wasn't working hard. And he sucked. And now because these things haven't been, not only haven't been proven, but now that you have two poor playoff series

and one outright bad one, as the entirety of his playoff data, which you do going forward. There is no guarantee that the guide age just simply from being 22 is going to substantively improve. And if you gave him, you know, if you would give him,

and again, I don't care that he made all NBA. It's like good for him. He made it. All NBA is kind of silly. Like the voters, most of these guys do not watch much of every team. A lot of these, a great deal of these guys are regional. And so, you know, in a way you can't necessarily expect them to be experts on everybody. That's reasonable.

But some of them seem to do very little research. Then you have shitheads like Stephen A. Smith who gave Durant first team all defense. It's like, again, during a pretty regular season. But first team all defense, elite defender, he was not. He was average at best, which is actually a big leap for him. But all MBA, number one, there were a ton of guys who did not meet the eligibility requirement. And also, I think Duren got the 60 win buff. He got the newcomer buff.

He got the big raw stats buff. Everything that's wrong with all NBA voting can be, in this season, summed up in the fact that Duren got quite a few more votes, voting points than Chet Holmgren. Chet, who was like one missed Wembe game or two missed Wembe games away from being probably the runaway winner of a defensive player of the year, who averaged high teens points per game, who can shoot, who can create some offense, and who was the second best player on the best regular season team in the league, got less votes than Duren, who was largely a passenger on offense, didn't really provide much defensive value. Also, Chet, pretty good rebounder, too, not as good as Duran, but still pretty good. also as a power forward often not positioned a power forward you can shoot often not positioned to get the rebound but i digress so well offensive rebounds and of course on defense as well he's when he's playing power forward he's going to be often away from the paints in a way that durin generally was not blah blah blah so it's like good for him good for him getting this name on the sheet does not affect the salary he would be

paid it would take an act of insanity for anybody to have paid him the you know the 30% max even the 25% max would have been a lot given that again the four things that he's the only four things that he's elite at are things that a lot you know you can get 75% of that from a lot of traditional bags who are probably better on defense and he's largely a passenger on offense doesn't create much and is not only is he not a good defender and a good defender is basically whatever he i hate repeating this but good defense is what characterizes traditional centers these days not only is he's not good, but he's arguably minus. So this just segues us into the offseason. I don't really necessarily have a ton to say about more to say about the regular season. And sorry about ranting a bit about

Jayland-Durran. Honestly, the situation really pisses me off most because it's like it just introduces so much ambiguity in the off season. It's like, can this guy be dependent upon? Is he going to improve? I mean, any big contract you give him is going to be, even if he, he would have needed like an epically good postseason in order to get a max contract, in my opinion. Just given, kind of player he was. But yeah, I don't have a ton more to say about the regular season. Cade was excellent. I mean, as good as he thought, as good as I thought he would be when he was drafted. You know, he carried the team a lot. Asar didn't make much progress offensively. Holland didn't make much progress offensively. Those things were disappointing. Ivy, of course,

fell apart physically and mentally. That's sad. Him working out. I mean, it's sad for him personally. you know, he said some not great things, and it's like, you know, the guy seems like he may need a little bit of help, seems to be in a bad headspace. I don't think people should just be written off for having a tough time, you know, or for maybe mentally fragmenting a bit. I hope he gets the help he needs and finds what he's looking for in a way that does not hurt other people. But yeah, falling apart physically, of course, all that happens. That was a big shame for the Pistons, because he could have been that secondary creator. They really need, and obviously they didn't work out.

Tobias' solid veteran presence with some shortcomings, of course. Duran made a lot of progress, you know, in terms of his ability to create and his defense, which went from bad to maybe average. And, again, good regular season. I don't think it was all NBA caliber, but good regular season. beyond that, not really much to say. Levert was terrible. No idea what happened to that guy.

He used to be at least, you know, reliable enough that he could get you some scoring off the dribble off the bench and the fact that he can't, couldn't do that. It was kind of an issue in the regular season, but more of one in the playoffs. So that was really disappointing. Javante Green was fine. Stewart was fine.

Well, Stewart, actually, it should be noted, was like the best brim protector in the league. in the regular season, but can't stay healthy in the playoffs. Again, I feel like this, like the organization and Stewart himself, oh, you know, health is fine. It's like, dude, you can't jump. It seems like a weird pretense to keep. Whatever. But, yeah, Stu's health is just becoming an increasing concern, you know, tone setter and elite defender and theoretical floor space.

or that he's not used as such by J.B. that he is. If you can't stay on the floor, then you're not really of much reliable utility. You can't be dependent upon. So it's either, you know, you keep you and hope that you do well in terms of health. And you've got Paul Reed, who's, you know, played himself into the position of pretty solid backup. As your third string, it's something to consider about Stewart, which makes me sad because I, I love Isaiah.

You know, I just, yeah, I think he's, not only does he, you know, sum up the whole Detroit basketball thing, which I think is cool, but, yeah, I just have a high opinion of him as a sportsman, you know, of course, outside of the rare situation in which he cost his team by losing control. But, yeah, and then Dennis Jenkins, who, you know, good for that guy, for playing his way from two-way player into, you know, NBA contract. That is really hard to do, like really, really hard to do. It's a rare success story. I mean, the two-way contracts have been around for, I think, almost a decade at

this point, and you rarely have guys who play their way from a two-way deal into an NBA contract of any kind, one that actually matters. Like Tolu Smith, it's kind of like, okay, we're going to convert you to a regular contract because we just want to have you available for the playoffs, but it's highly likely that you're going to be waived in the offseason. But, you know, there are very few guys who have done this. You know, Lou Dord, Robinson, Max Struz, Gabe Vincent, Miami with their completely unfair ability to find talent on the fringes and develop it, had three guys who are on two-way deals

who ended up on a finals team. You know, whether they deserve to reach the finals is a different story, but nonetheless. Yeah, I mentioned Caruso, I think, you know, and some others, guys who have gone on to, Austin Reeves, of course. But, yeah, it's just Jenkins, good for him. You know, he provided value. Is he reliable going forward as your backup point guard?

I would say no, because the guy is a brutally streaky shooter who really struggles to get to the rim. Of course, rim scoring is very high percentage. Also means your ability to break down defenses. He just gets pushed the periphery way too easily. and has to settle for floaters and pull up mid-range jumpers at which he is truly heinously bad. He is dreadful at his interior shots outside of the restricted area. He's decent, and the restricted area, his trouble is getting there. And again, his shooting, as we saw in the playoffs, as we saw in the regular season, is extremely streaky.

So, solid third-string guy. But nonetheless, I mean, he was a cool story. And while Cabe was out, you know, he had some really good games. So that's about all I have to say about the regular season. I think the Pistons were surprisingly good. I guess I'd think punched above their weight to a degree because there was regular season ball. But whatever the case, it was successful regular season. So now we're going to the off season, and this is where things get interesting.

because is number one the first time that Trajan and Company really need to be, as Tom Gores would put it, agile. I mean, he generally just meant when he said that, he meant we have options. And he was saying that when the Pistons were in the midst of a 28-game losing streak. But anyway, so not just being agile. They will have to innovate. They will have to take risks because this team has some urgent needs if it wants to become a real contender. Of course, your number one decision is the Jalen Duren contract extension. Now, salary cap, you know, the CBA collective bargaining agreement is extremely complicated in the NBA today.

And also with the second apron, teams are very, very careful for the most part. Whatever, there's a lot that goes into salary cap stuff in general. And I've spent a good amount of time learning it. You know, if you're ever interested, have any questions, you know, feel free to reach out. whether, you know, on Twitter, though, I don't really check Twitter too much anymore. Twitter, I just concluded it's not for me. It just stresses me out. So I've been inactive there since last year. I don't know, maybe I made one post. Yeah, I think I made a post or two recently, but for the most part, I just pretty much have stopped using Twitter.

I had pretensions of building a brand at one point, but don't ultimately just figure out or just realized for the last time that I don't have the motivation. whether they put in that work or to suffer social media in the process. It's just stressful for me. Anyway, now that a bunch of stuff you don't give a crap about is out of the way. So, yeah, if, you know, so easiest place to reach me is on Discord. We got a pretty sweet piston server, just Discord.g. slash Pistons, check it out.

So going into the offseason with Duran, yeah, we're well past the point these days, you know, with the second apron and whatnot, which it's kind of like, okay, there's this young player who's who cares how much we pay him. That's not true. I mean, it's just far more punishing these days to be an apron territory. And also, it's enormously more difficult to dump salary, especially big salaries. I mean, you really have to shepherd your below-the-apron space, because by the time you get to the apron, even the first apron, you lose a lot of options. And of course, when you get to the second apron, you lose even more options, like to the point where typically teams are not above it. Some of that is generally luxury tax concerns because you're paying quite a bit of a tax at

that point. A tax has gotten more punitive in the new CBA as well. But, I mean, teams will, I mean, every cap dollar counts. I mean, and millions of cap dollars especially counts. And Durham was probably on his way to a pretty hefty contract before the playoffs, probably, I think, south of the max. But at this point, I mean, he dented his value pretty hard. I mean, going in and laying that sort of stinker, it creates a lot of room for doubt. Because again, now he has nothing but negative playoff data. And he followed up, I mean, when he had kind of a poor series against the Knicks, whatever, he was following up a season in which, you know, he kind of struggled on defense. He was in a very well-usage role on offense. And then this time,

it was like, okay, he's kind of come into his own on the regular season on offense. you know, scored a lot of points, got a lot of rebounds, had some really big games, still had some weaknesses, but, you know, in his year older, and you go into the playoffs, and he just takes a huge dump. So going back to the LMDA thing, yeah, that makes him eligible for the 30% max. There's never going to happen in the first place, and it's certainly not going to happen now. So a couple things that can happen. Here's put it this way. I do not think, and it would make no sense for this organization. to just say, okay, well, we'll start the bidding at $40 million in year one.

There's no reason to do that. That's an overpay for Duren, in my opinion, just given again, that largely passenger on offense doesn't create much, can't shoot, and as a minus defender. Again, those are all really big concerns if you're paying a guy big money. I don't give a damn that he's, that he's Cade's pal, and if this front office is worth, you know, knows what it's doing, they won't care either. So, or they shouldn't care in the first place. put it that way. I'm not comparing myself to the front office. So in any case, what I would do

if I were the front office, I mean, I would cap their first offer at $30 million in year one. That's, man, you know, around 18% of the cap. And I believe even with that, I mean, Durham will have to make some substantive improvements, especially on defense to be worth that. But that's where you start. And you don't have to worry, by the way, about another team coming in an offering 30% of the cap. Only the pistons can do that. Well, now let me explain restricted free agency, because in this case, maybe you just let the market come to him. And in my opinion, the market is not going to come to him. So restricted free agency, you tend to the qualifying offer, which of course will happen in this case in order to make a player a free agency,

which is basically here is, you know, this is a one-year contract at a one-year contract offer at an amount specified by the CBA, and now you're a restricted free agent. And when you hear about a player taking the qualifying offer, it's basically, okay, well, I'm just going to take that offer, and next year I'll be a number restricted free agent. Also, it's worth noting when that happens, players have de facto no trade clauses,

because if they get traded, any player who gets traded who is on a one-year deal or a one-plus option deal who gets traded loses his bird rights, which typically travel by trade and allow a team to exceed the cap in order to resign the player. So that's kind of a big deal. So they have de facto no trade clause. In any case, restrictive free agent means that other teams can provide what's called an offer sheet,

which is basically, you know, here's the contract we're going to give you. And if the player signs it, then you're left with two options. Number one, that contract, that offer sheet that he signed with the other. team, he ends up there for that contract, or the team that owns his restricted free agent rights gives him that contract. Those are the only two outcomes once an offer sheet is signed, and player can only sign one offer sheet. Now, some complications here. Number one, you are able to offer less money and overall money and kind of less, wesser year-over-year raises only four years rather than five on a full bird contract.

So you're eligible for only four years with 5% flat year-over-year raises, versus 8% year-over-year raises and five years. So right away, you're giving up your fifth year, and that could be a significant amount of money. So that's a disincentive right away. It's a disincentive for the player. And the disincentive for teams to offer is that cap space is tied up immediately by this offer sheet. So in the first place, that rules out a ton of teams.

there are only three teams that could conceivably do this. The Lakers, if they pronounce a bunch of players, which I think, I don't think they'll do between, because let me explain first. Okay, so that cap space is tied up, and it's not just tied up for a short amount of time. There's a 48-hour clock in which teams are, you know, can get to make the decision, but that clock doesn't start until the end of the free agent moratorium. And the free agent moratorium is about six-day. starts six days. So July 6th and free agency opens up on June 30th. So basically it's seven hours and excuse me seven days and eight days and 18 hours. Or is it seven days and 18 hours? Whatever. It's upwards of a week. And in that time, everybody worthwhile when free agency comes off the board.

So let's say the offer sheet fails. Then you're just, you're left with a bunch of cap space that if you're aiming to win, you're going to have nothing to do with. So the Lakers, as a result, I think, are not a particular threat. Then you look at the Bulls and the Nets. I mean, the Nets are probably going to be trying to win this year because they don't have control over their pick. They always swap to Houston.

And the Bulls always seemingly try to win. Also, the new tanking rules, kind of disincentivize them from just trying to be bad. So you might say, well, okay, why don't they just give an offer sheet to Duren? And, you know, that's how they can use their cap space. It's like, well, if they're trying to win and they have even the merest inkling that the Pistons will match, then it's a complete waste of their time and it actively works against their interests. They can only offer the 25% max, not the 30% max.

The Pistons are the only team that can offer that. So you need to worry about that. That would take a truly insane GM at this point. point to offer that if they could. So essentially, if the thought is that the Pistons are going to match no matter what, then it actively works against their interests to deliver an offer sheet. And again, player can only get one offer sheet. So I don't see it happening. And again, you know, it would be great if the Pistons were able to get him for, I don't know, $30 million in year one, should be around $180 million in total on the contract. Again, if I pay,

him $30 million and he comes out and is even 75% as bad as he was in this last postseason, then it's bad. I mean, if that's, it's just bad, that is a bad contract. I don't think he'll be this bad again, but again, you just have no guarantee that a player will improve, even at 22 years old. You have no guarantee, especially on defense. So a darn decision is the biggest one. Your decisions after that, basically, again, you have the possibility of an Assar Thompson extension. And here's where things get even dice here. Asar Thompson and J. Landuron together are objectively terrible postseason spacing.

Terrible. It's very difficult. I mean, you're fine. It's not ideal if your center can't shoot these days. We're no longer in a kind of like, oh, it's no big deal. It's not a problem if your center can't shoot. It's a loss of value. You know, it's an opportunity cost.

It's one of the reasons why if your center can't shoot, you better be good. defender, you know, especially if he's making a lot of money. So, but it's a much bigger, it's a big problem to have a perimeter player who can't shoot, saw what happened with the Sart Thompson in the playoffs. He just gets left open. Kill spacing, you can't contribute much, you can't finish plays from the perimeter. It's a problem. So basically, if you extend him, you know, sublime defender though he is, you are locking yourself into that problem. And that's an issue. I mean, that is a permanent weakness and a very significant one. Kind of the catch there is that Asar makes things a lot easier on Duren

in regular season and postseason both on defense. And Holland, I think, can be a really good defender. Of course, he can't shoot either. He's a worst defender than Asar is. He's not as good as Asar. So it's like, there's a catch, is that you play Durham without Asar, unless you're replacing him with, you know, a pretty good defender. then his defense gets worse.

So it's kind of like losing a SAR would be really bad on defense in general and probably for Darn in particular. And again, you want to protect your highly paid center who doesn't create much and can't shoot and you have to protect him on defense. Not an ideal situation, but I digress. And on offense, unless a SAR becomes a shooter, then they are a terrible fit, objectively speaking, in the playoffs.

So that's a tough one. Honestly, I wouldn't extend to SAR this summer. Unless I were at a bargain rate. is he going to become a shooter? That's a tough one. That's a real tough one. I think the odds, unfortunately, at this stage are not great. So speaking of non-shooters, I mean, you have Ron Holland, who had a disappointing season, in my opinion.

He was remarkably consistent from three in that he made no progress over the season before. I didn't look at his final numbers, but outside of, they were inflated by, you know, some good games. some random good games near the end of the season on low volume. But even then, it was bad. In the playoffs, it was bad. So you've got another guy who, again, good defender, really hard worker like Asar, not as good of a defender, but still quite good. Can't shoot a lick.

What do you do? I mean, you got two options, of course. You hope that he gets it together. And I would have major FOMO with Ron Holland at this point. Because if he gets together as a shooter, then this is a shooter. than this is a starter for a long time for you. The business. I mean, that would be fantastic.

He is in dicey territory because Geyser's shooters and the bad shooters in the first two seasons, just statistically speaking, rarely, rarely work out of shooters. We're talking bad, and he was bad, just like Asar was bad, differently, but bad. So you keep him and you hope, you know, right now he still has trade value,

presumably you keep him and you hope he gets it together. So, yeah, you trade him or you keep him in hoping gets together. And that's a risk in its own right, because if he gets the next trade deadline, he's still a bad shooter. His value is destroyed. Because at that point, he's a reclamation project. So not only do we have, you know, a Sara who can't shoot, and that's a major concern, but you've got Holland who also can't shoot, and that's a major concern. So what do you do there?

How do you address the lack of secondary creation? Because again, it's not okay to just have a guy who can do some creation. You kind of just need a secondary creator who's legitimately a star in order to win a championship these days. You know, that part is pretty much unambiguous unless you're the Curry Warriors who are the exception of all exceptions. And even then, I mean, two of his championships. he had Kevin Durant championship against the Cavaliers. The first one is basically them against LeBron because Kevin Love and Kyrie were both out. And also, you know, Drayman was a shooter at that point, a decent shooter.

Clay Thompson, of course, and yada, yada, yada. But, I mean, they're just the exception of all exceptions. So, yeah, how do you do that? How do you navigate this thing with Duran? How do you add enough shooting to this team? because, yeah, they made it to game seven of the conference finals, and then the team that beat them got absolutely destroyed by the Knicks. You know, the East is going to be better next year.

The Celtics will be back. The Pacers will presumably be back. Even the likes of the Wizards will be better. You know, the Cavaliers will still be good. I mean, there's an option to just walk it back, but I think it would be kind of rash. and I mean if nobody of the sort of player you're looking for is available then yeah maybe you wait and see what develops but it's just comes down to like Langdon and Company are going to need to take some risks

presumably if not in the off season them later you know them later you know in this season or you run it back and accept the fact that you're that you're burning a year and you're not going to win probably meaningfully in the post. Your chances of winning a championship are going to be relatively low, quite low, I would say. And a lot of things came together in the regular season. I wouldn't be surprised if the Pistons do not win 60 games next year. So, you know, especially because there is not, I mean, these tanking changes are a big deal in terms of how teams are going to operate going forward.

You're going to have less bad teams in general. And the Pistons and everybody else got to beat up on a lot of bad teams this year. you're going to have less of those in general, and you're going to have a lot less of these teams at the end of the season, just willingly and deliberately getting the crap beaten out of them. I mean, the Pistons were one of those teams for a couple seasons there, and that was fine by me. You know, how I feel about the anti-tanking rules changes

is happy that the Pistons got their superstar lead creator before this happened. And I want to say this. You know, yeah, much has been made to the fact that the Pistons dropped three years in a row. That's true. It sucks. The Pistons also, so in terms of the odds sense, the Pistons didn't get super lucky. The Pistons, in another sense, got incredibly lucky because they did win the lottery. And when they did, it was at the right time.

Sure, winning it with Wembe would have been great. But, I mean, Cade is a fantastic player. They could have won the lottery in 2024. They could have won it in 2022. and you would not be looking at anywhere near as good of a player. So, yeah, and just to lay this out there. Yeah, I mean, sure, you know, the Pistons deserved some, you know, it would have been great if they'd gotten some better luck in the lottery

in the Wembe year in particular. Whatever, I'm not going to get into the math. Whatever. And I even remember how I got on this. Oh, yeah, the rules changes. You're going to have less bad teams. It's going to translate to less wins for the most part. You're going to have less variance between the very top and the bottom.

So I think this off-season is likely to go in one of two ways, either very gratifying or very disappointing. It is entirely possible that they would just run it back and maybe even extend to SAR and just deal with it later. That's a viable possibility. It would be disappointing. It would not be disastrous. It would just be disappointing.

Also, it would make, if they wanted to trade a Sarr, would make a little bit more difficult if you were extended because you've got something called the poison pill when it comes to extend, you know, trading extended players. Whatever. So it's just, if that is a sign that they're, if they extend, you know, if they give during a big payday and they extend us are and it's a sign that, okay,

we're just going to go with this. That's where I'm going to be really disappointed because at least in a way you are signaling that you're locking yourself into an inherently very flawed roster construction. So like I said, the Pistons are in a solid situation. They've got their superstar. They have all their first round picks. You know, they've got some solid, if somewhat incomplete, young talent. And, you know, in addition to Cade, I mean, and they're very flexible. It's just a matter of if Trajan Langdon is going to take the safe,

path or whether it's in the off season or at the deadline next year, you know, make a change or the year after that, you know, make a big change or make some big changes. And I think it should be noted that, you know, you do have at times some guys who are under managed, you know, under ownership pressure to do certain things. I mean, Trajan is way ahead of schedule. I mean, the guy has a lot. I got to think, especially with Gora seemingly having really, really, really, stepped away from meddling and participating, however you want to put it in team operations.

I got to think he's got a lot of flexibility at this point. Of course, that is entirely speculative. But, yeah, I would say it just comes down to whether or not he sees this core as the future of a contender or whether he thinks that substantive changes need to be made. in order to win in today's NBA, in order to win a championship in today's NBA, which we all know is the goal. So that'll be it for this episode. Hope you all enjoyed. I don't know what sort of cadence I'm going to be recording at, if at all, in the postseason. We'll see, again, just trying to leave it down to when I'm going to enjoy doing it.

Whatever the case, hope you all doing great. Thank you for listening, and we'll catch you in the next episode, whenever that is.