Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 58: An interview with Frank Garza

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

This episode features Frank Garza, father and trainer of Pistons rookie Luka Garza. Frank speaks about his son's upbringing, training, basketball journey, and character as an individual. He also covers his own experience with Pistons fans, his rising stardom on Pistons Twitter, his initial impressions of the organization, and his observations regarding Summer League. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Driving to the Basket, part of the Basketball Podcast Network. I am Mike. I am here with Dante and our very special guest for the day, Frank Garza, father of Luca Garza. Thank you so much, Frank, for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you. Well, thank you, Mike and Dante for having me on the show. You flatter me.

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will get a free entry with their first deposit. That's code TBPN to get a free entry with your first deposit, only at Draft Kings. Minimum $5 deposit required, eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com for details. So, yeah, it's just got to say it's been great watching Luca play in Summer League. It's been great to see his reception from Pistons fandom. Despite being drafted alongside the number one overall pick, I feel like he's gotten almost as much fanfare is just the fans really seem to love his his tireless work ethic and his team first

mentality. And it's, it's been fun watching you as well, Frank, become a sort of emerging Detroit Pistons Twitter superstar. Well, thank you for all that. You know, Detroit, one of the videos I had with Luca growing up, you know, he could watch TV, but his choice of what he could watch was pretty much surrounded around VH tape. about basketball. Of course, there were other stuff, but it was like I didn't say you had to watch it,

but if you wanted to watch it, there it is. But one of the tapes we always watched was about Detroit and the history of Detroit and the bad boys' days and all that stuff. So that work ethic, that is so much a part of our game, which is you're not very fast, you can't jump very high. You have to find other ways to play.

And that's what's great about basketball. You don't have to be a basketball athlete to play. You can be a basketball player. You could be sure. short. You'd be really tall. You could be somewhere in between, but what differentiates you is production. Can you play? Luke is the slowest one out there, guys, but he's the first one down the court. Why? He starts sooner. So running 100-dra dash really has nothing to do with basketball unless you can use it in the game. For instance, watching the summer, like how many guys sprinted back and covered Lugo. Lugo was the first one back every time. And guys he was

against had speeds on the three-quarter sprint way out through the roof. But that's, been our experience. And so, I mean, you know, Detroit's about hardworking to make it happen and, you know, earn, not given. And that's, that's what we're all about. So I'm very delighted that, and very grateful. Detroit has accepted, you know, Luca and from that standpoint, myself as well, that that's who we are, not flashing, but will be the last man standing. Absolutely, Frank. And that's great to hear. And speaking of earned not given, Luca earning a two-way contract, I believe it was yesterday. So I think some congratulations are in order. And I'm sure this is a very special time for you and your family. So number one, we'd like to congratulate you guys on that. And number two,

for sure, you're super, super busy. So you're taking the time to come on here, talk to us. It means the world to Mike and I. And it means the world to the listeners as well. So is there any way, Frank, you could sort of speak to what it was like to see your son, number one, be drafted, the culmination of his dream sort of and the number two play so well in the summer league and earn a contract yeah well thank you for that dante and and mike yeah what a wonderful moment for a family and in particular for luca you know i remember that all those times and working out luca was a young boy you know all the way through here to even up through the draft where you know early on you know he could barely

walk and chew gum at the same time. He would trip over the baseline, you know, and that's a painted line. And the idea back then was, hey, it doesn't matter who you are as an eighth grader, as a player. What's going to matter is where you are as a 10th grader in high school. So let's focus on that as opposed to what's right in front of you, because it could be very discouraging for a young player. And we grew up in D.C. So I made sure he played in the toughest leagues, and he got embarrassed early. Couldn't even hold the ball. They had. steal it from. Couldn't dribble, they'd take it from them. Couldn't grab up, you know, you get a rebound, then they'd steal it from them. And so he had to adapt early and often. I always say this,

fail fast, recover faster, you know. So it's like that was his story. And so to see it come to fruition, the fact that he trusted his parents, the fact that he trusted the process of, it's not, you know, it's not where you are. It's where you want to be. That's the key. And to have him, focus on that and to trust that and then see it come all the way through. Because, you know, keep in mind we're 52. There was a chance he wouldn't even be drafted just simply because of the optics. You know, he doesn't, you know, his eye candy, he doesn't have a lot of eye candy. He doesn't like, oh, man, massive bodies, super fast, jump high.

But you got to look at the stat line and that's where he shines because most of his gifts are in the intangible world, you know, in the intangible. list. For instance, if statisticians would take stats of, okay, who's the first one off the bench to congratulate the players when they're not playing? Who's the one that takes to charge? Who's the one that boxed out

every time? Who's the one that goes the offensive board every time? Who's the one that says, hey, good job? Who's the one that's talking on defense? Who's the one doing that? Those are all intangibles, because it speaks to the inner character of a player. Those players that care about that stuff do that, and I do think it makes a difference on a team

to have that. And I'm not saying it's not there now. I mean, I got to great pleasure of meeting. Of course, I knew Livers, and I've always fell in love with his game. He's such a sunshine, bright light, just so happy, Luke and him on the same team. But then the opportunity to meet Cade and the other recruits, I mean, you're talking about right from the get-go. Guys, he's just like coming to Detroit from the moment we got here, the organization, that touches, the electricity in the air, the attitudes.

You could see that, hey, you know, Detroit picked Kay because this guy's a leader. This guy's a connector. So is livers. So is Lucas. So you could see there's this whole magic going on that we're just so grateful to be a part of. And the fact that Detroit picked us, that was our one we wanted. And I think Luca mentioned that the other day. We wanted to be in Detroit.

And I'm sure Detroit didn't want us. as evidenced by some of our, I had some guy DM me and said, what, this is the all-time worst mistake in Detroit. I was just like, okay. I appreciate that. I'm used to that, but let's see if we can't soften that petrified belief because it's only based on optics and nothing. Yeah, I think that's a great attitude.

And, yeah, of course, Troy Weaver from the very time he became the general manager of Pistons was all about we're building a culture here. And yeah, and you said that same thing about, about all three of the Pistons draftees, Luca and Libbers and Kate Cunningham. That's, you know, these are all guys of high character. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

No, it's, you know, it starts at the top. Like you mentioned, Mike, you know, with Troy and, and also with the owner. I mean, getting to meet the owner, you know, you can tell he's all behind. all that. He's a self-made, you know, hard work and intelligent man and did it his way. And I just I just love that because that's what we're all about. Right. And Frank, too, speaking of, you mentioned going 52 and there was a chance that Luca wouldn't even be drafted. And I remember one of the reasons we wanted you on the show and what really stuck out to me was during the post-draft press conference when Luca had a chance to speak and he said that he was grateful to the organization and to the

for just giving him a chance. And I remember that really struck me because it's not often you hear a player of the year show such grace and humility just for being, quote, given a chance. So I know Mike and I were talking prior to recording, but we were wondering, is that an attitude that's been inherent to Luca's whole life? Is that something that you've fostered? And how do you think that's helped him sort of grow and mature into the player that he's become? Well, excellent question, Dante.

Okay. You know, Luca is, certainly his upbringing, you know, come from a sports family. My wife was an athlete, still is an athlete. Her sister was an athlete. My brother-in-law, Taima was a professional player for 13 plus years in Europe, played with Gary Payton at Oregon State. It was one of the first Yugoslavians. Actually, my dad and I brought over from Yugoslavia to play here. and so it's like the idea about getting better. You know, Socrates said it best, which is the beginning of all wisdom is I don't know. So if you can continually harbor that kind of an attitude and a young person pretty soon becomes second nature. So for us to go from college being number one, yes, and dominating with double and triple change, but then to go up to the next step, it's a big, it's a big. step. It's a huge step in terms of everyone on the team is incredible physical talents,

as opposed to maybe one or two on a team in college. And so to have the chance to play in the best league on the planet, boy, we are nothing but great. You know, not because we're surprised, no, but just to have the chance to have someone look at Luca, look at his physical stats and go and then yet still see him. You know, Fran McCaffrey at Iowa saw that in him. That's why we went to Iowa. It takes a special kind of coach,

general manager, to say, okay, I'm going to go for the unpopular pick. I'm going to go for heart. I'm going to go for leadership. I'm going to go for that. Boy, we're grateful. Yeah, that's great. It's so good to hear.

This is, I don't know if this is a little bit, a change of pace, but what's been the reception like in general from Detroit fans for you and Luke? I'm not talking to a bad egg on Twitter, of course. Oh, yeah. Not a guy who messaged you. Not him. I got several the first night from people just trying to do it. But I totally, I totally understand it. You know, it's not, didn't it upset me. For us, we use it as our own nutrition, if you will in terms of understanding that everything must be earned.

You know, everything must be earned. So, but as to the reception, oh, I'm just so thankful. I was hesitating whether or not I should tweet out some stuff about Luca, but because I got so many DMs, I was going to my dad the other day. He's like, oh, my God. Yeah. I just felt like, well, hey, everyone's not knowing. They haven't seen who he is.

So let me just throw some stuff out there because we've been doing three workouts a day. for over three years and prior to that it was two a day. And so it'd be hard pressed. And I know they're out there somewhere, but it'd be hard pressed to find another kid who worked as hard as Luca, not just on the outside, but also the inside. Meditation, visual motor rehearsal, pranayama exercises, which pranayama, the science of breath.

Lucas motors much stronger than most because his lungs are one and a half time the capacity of his opponent because we practice meditation. And rehearsing the future because no stone unturn when you're trying to be the best. You've got to have the 360 development, which is not only outer skill development, but inner skill development. What happens when the lights go on, the referees are there and it's time to play ball? Now what happens? All that athleticism tends to go out the window.

Now what comes on comes down to inner. In other words, the saying is, gentlemen, You only perform on the outside in a manner that's consistent, consistent with your inner coherence, mind, body, spirit. And if that's in alignment, you can pretty much move mountains. If it isn't, it doesn't matter if there's defense on you or not, you're still not going to make the basket. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that inner sort of resilience that you were talking about, that preparedness obviously comes from all of the times that people aren't watching, right?

all of the hard work going on in the gym, all of those videos that you're posting on Twitter of you and Luca just absolutely grinding, you know, ever since he's been drafted. And I, of course, not an NBA athlete, but I am an athlete myself. I played pretty high-level soccer for a long time, and my dad was my coach.

Oh, it is awesome. So that's got to be a very special bond between you. How did you handle it? Let me just ask you that, because it's kind of like, you know, growing up, it was like, you know, you know, the other thing about the coach was to allow me to devolve my son because, you know, that's what I was doing.

Right. I did that. But how did you handle that with all that going on? I mean, it's... You know, Frank, it's funny. Sometimes, and I'm sure you know, it's very easy to get frustrated by your coach, but when your coach is your ride home, you can't exactly quit this time. You just got a kind of roll with it.

And it's a next one. And I learned, I learned pretty tough growing up, but it ultimately does make you a better player and something that my dad used to say that I just couldn't help, but it was kind of bouncing around in my head as you were speaking is you practice like you play. And so if you make your practices harder than any of those games are going to be, you're going to go out there and turn out a performance like Luca gave in the Summer League. You know, and it's very evident. Oh, that's such a fun thing.

I'm so happy. That's, that's, I appreciate you saying that and sharing that. You know, it's been a process, you know, you know, not only being his father, but then also, you know, really taken on the development. It's been a challenge for both of us. And I know it couldn't have been easy for Luke in the early days. Just like you said, his right home was me. His meal on the table was me.

Exactly. Voice on that ride home, but to listen to everything I said. And so as all children do for the parents, they help you grow. They help you evolve. And that in the case. So at what stage, I mean, you guys, I take it, were training from when he was pretty young, correct? Yes. Yeah.

And at what stage did the two of you agree that, or decide really that, you know, we want to go for broke, so to speak, you know, really the top, really the top league in the world, excuse me, the NBA is really what we want to work toward here. Because I know that, like, I remember watching this documentary on Dirk Novitsky and he had. his trainer, I can't remember the name right now, but basically said to Dirk that, you know, you're already the best player in Germany, you know, maybe the best player Germany has ever created. Nobody can stop that now. But if you decide you want to go to the NBA, we're going to have to take this up one more level. So at what point did you and Luca really reach that decision? Yeah, great question. It, you know, it evolved. You know, I was more concerned as a dad making sure he fell in love with the game because it requires that to do all that kind of work.

You have to love it to workouts a day. And the kind of work outside did, I only posted one about the pool work. That's not even close to some of the stuff I've put him through, continue to do. They were talking about stuff that nobody else on the planet, I'm sure, is, you know, in terms of preparing himself for this. But what we were more concerned about, gentlemen, was becoming the best that you're capable of being.

rather than focusing on an end result, which you can't control an outcome because there's too many other people involved. But you can control the controllables, which is being the best you can be. Now, I had in my head mostly based on what was going on in the development of the game that, and it's not a fault of AAU, because thank God there's AAU. But essentially, the big, the big man was disregarded. You're supposed to run 94 feet, get a rebound, and then get it. out of the way. Maybe blocker shot on defense, but get out of the way. The guards are going to do it. So it became guard plate. So I knew if we did it right, Luke could have a chance to go really far, maybe all the way to the top, because everyone has forgotten to develop the big. They don't know

what a Sigma Pivot is. They don't know what a stepback is. Is the big person? Why? You're not supposed to do that. They don't shoot a skyhook. Don't even knows how to shoot a skyhook anymore. No one knows how to do this kind of footwork stuff because nobody cared. So we figured that if we could do it right and practice the way we want to play, right? Intelligent practice creates intelligent play. Then we'd have a shot to go for. But we never ever said, I never said, hey, you want to, you know, this is all about making the NBA because I didn't think that was right. Because what happens if he didn't make it? Is he a failure? Is all that work and effort and commitment just gone? No. It's the journey that produces all the fruit. So it's like, let's be the best that we are capable of becoming and let

that determine our level. And so that's all the thing about a potential is you can't control an outcome. You can only control your behavior. So what did we do? We ate right. We worked out right. We did the inner work, which hardly anybody is doing. Rehearsing the future. Now, just like Armstrong did when he went to the moment. He had a resting pulse in the 50s. How did he do that? Well, he went in his mind a billion times before he landed. So that when he got there, it was right. I'm totally comfortable. So I, you know, Luca wanted it. He wanted to be the best. He wanted to play in the NBA. And I certainly never said, no, that's too, that's unrealistic. I said, hey, great. And what we focused on was controlling the control to get there. Now, when did I, maybe a caveat to your

question was, when did I look at him and go, he was going to be an NBA player? It was, it was, was his senior year in high school. Not it was after, you know, he won the Gatorade player of the year in D.C., which hadn't been not at his school ever in basketball. And certainly, you know, for him to achieve that was great. But that wasn't it. He played in three all-star tournaments afterwards, including the Capital Classic, which is the historic one there. And he was MVP of all three. And when he, when I, when I watched him out there with all that other talent and seeing what he could do because he was so fundamentally better than everyone else that I was sitting there going, well, it's going to happen. And I never shared that with him because that would be

improper for me to put that pressure on him because it's got to be him. But I could tell then that he was going to make money playing ball. Those are some wonderful tidbits, Frank. And I can't help but notice that when you refer to all of these different steps along the way, you say, we. You don't say Luca, you say we. And obviously to get to this point to reach something, to reach these heights, the NBA, it takes a village and Luke is definitely lucky to have you, which sort of brings us to our next question. How have you been involved as his trainer? And I guess if you could just sort of walk us through, what's a training session like with Frank Garza? Well, I, I've always been, you know, having a hand in Lucas, you know,

a major hand of Lucas development. I always, something I know an awful lot about. I was, again, blessed with phenomenal coaches, two of which are no longer here. And so they taught me stuff that I know just from being around the Big Ten and around basketball as much as I have that really no one else knows. And so I took that, and thankfully, Luca wanted to play basketball, not ping pong. Because I wouldn't have been able to helping it ping pong.

I might have to go get him a coach. But, no, our workouts were very intense. And of those three workouts the day, I didn't do it all three. What we did is we worked out, his overall development, what we needed to do, we planned it out. So weights were done, brought in a coach to do weights. Some of the pool work, I went and found a guy to do the pool work. I'll always be his shooting coach. I'll always be as something I'm, is in our family.

But a workout, you know, a typical workout, you know, we start first with a mind work, you know, meditation about what we're going to do in the practice. So we rehearse it first mentally, so we don't just go out there accidentally and try to do it. Now you rehearse it the mind. Then we would do very intense workouts. And we mixed up to do some inside some days and outside some days. and outside some days in terms of outside stuff, inside stuff, but probably the most glaring

thing about our workouts. If you saw this workout, you'd go, geez, why aren't they using a basketball? I mean, you're working on basketball, right? Well, why aren't you using a basketball? I said, well, because 85% of the time in the game, you don't have the ball. So should your workouts be 85% without the ball? Yes, because that's how you play. And it's only the other percentage that you have the ball. So that would probably be the most glaring thing, Mike and Dante, that you would see in a workout, which is, where's the ball? What would you say the, well, first I've got to say as a shooting coach, you've done a pretty darn good job.

You've got a guy who's able to consistently hit more than 40% from outside. I mean, that's a world-class skill for any player and really in any league. but what other you know i know you've described that clearly you and luca have trained in non-traditional ways are there any other any other sort of aspects of that you think are notable yeah certainly i i would say that by the way i will say this yeah shooting is something i believe i can teach anybody how to shoot uh because it's science it's physics um and i'll make this prediction luca will be the first big to shoot over 50 percent from three And he hasn't really shown his range yet, but he can shoot from the half circle, you know, which is 40 plus feet away from the basket.

I've actually posted some videos of him doing that at a very high clip. One, you know, 22 in a row, 24 out of 20. I mean, just being able to do that. Now, he'll grow into that with the pace of the game. And I do think that he'll be the first big to shoot over from three. Well, what other things we would do? Well, we did a lot of lane slides with bricks and his hands. So you get the idea of on defense, you've got to have your hands up.

So if you carry around a brick while you're doing lane slides, oh, my God, you can hold your hands up a lot easier because the bricks are out of your hands. So we would do a lot of that. We would do a lot of different kinds of bench jumps and things that. some of my coach has taught me specifically for basketball and pushing up. And again, a lot of the, as you saw in this, I opposed to the other day, some of the pool work with Luca that are unconventional kinds of workouts. I remember one time we were working outside and I had Luca doing the crawl run, you know, on all fours, running along, just getting used to getting, you know, bending his legs. It's hard for big people to bend the legs and get down low.

and I had some parent come up to me going, well, what the heck is that boy? And then they played the game and Luke up, actually dove for a loose ball, caught himself in the crawl, picked it up, and didn't travel. And the parent looked over me and went, ah, I see. Another fun thing we did when Luke was younger is that I'd take him to a trampoline. And that had a basket. So, you know, as a young kid, you know, what you said. see, you know, and all the games, the guy's dunking and that. So Luca couldn't do that.

So you go take him out with a trampoline in a basket. There's places around where we live where you could go out. So, you know, he'd get to jump up, hang in the air, and dunk it and just get the feel of hang time. Get the feel of that. But I would say overall, the things that besides, you know, hey, where's the ball when you're practicing? But the other things are very different about his workout is all the inner game work that differentiates. I mean, how many people are meditating before a workout, rehearsing what they're going to do in practice,

so they prepare their body to go out and do exactly what your mind told it to do. So many players just come out and play, and it's such a disadvantage. I mean, in other words, it's a competitive advantage to have your mind prepped. So it tells your body what to do rather than your body trying to tell your mind what to do. Make it, make it. It doesn't work that way because the first shot, gentlemen, is between your ears. before you shoot it. Not when you're shooting it.

You're going to make that shot before you shoot it. And that's why I say the first shot. Sure. I think it would be all of that mixed together that would create a very unconventional approach to basketball development. Frank, I've got two responses to that. Number one, I'm pretty sure I could listen to you talk all day.

And number two, these methods may be unconventional, but at the end of the day, your son's in the NBA. So we seem to have worked. So we've talked about the childhood. We've talked about the journey. So let's fast forward to the present. So from a Pistons perspective, they're returning Killian Hayes, who had some impressive flashes in his rookie season.

Sadiq Bay and Isaiah Stewart, all rookies. And then land the number one open a pick. Cade Cunningham is coming to town. And then two very notable college players, number one and your son and number two, Isaiah Livers, who we already mentioned, and you had a prior existing relationship with. So there was a lot of buzz and fanfare around this team going into Summer League,

and you fly out to Las Vegas. So could you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like? And I'm not 100% sure. Are you still in Vegas right now? Yes, yes. I leave tomorrow. I'll watch the game this evening. Well, I made my ticket.

This is just who I am. I made my ticket to leave after the championship game, because, of course, I assumed Detroit would be in it. Now, this was Summer League, no big deal. And again, you know, we were three for two. You know, but we didn't. So anyway, that was just my mindset for it. But yeah, to your question, listen, Luca, you know, phase one is done with a two-way.

Now he needs to earn a roster spot. So that becomes, you know, mission objective number two. And that's just going to come down to Luca finding, you know, based on what Coach Casey wants, what Troy how they wanted, finding out where he can best support and help and then doing it 100% of the time. And that's a path that starts with training cap. I mean, listen,

Summer League was fun. It was good. It's all that stuff. But now you're going to deal with some vets and playing in the league that know what's going down. And thank God Jeremy Grant's on the team because we work out with Jeremy Grant, the DMV.

Thank God, Sadiq Bay is on the team. He's a DMV guy, you know. They played against each other in high school. He went to school across the street from Moray. And so it's like, thank God he's got, and thank God levers is there. They got just the whole thing is there. But the point is, now is where school starts, his training camp, you know, and he'll do the rookie part and then come in the vets. And I tell you what, he's going to be a sponge and soak it all up because like in life and in basketball, it's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

And so for Luca, he's coming in like a sponge and, hey, I don't know what that path is. I'm going to find it out and I'm going to look around and see it because that is what is going to take to convert that two ways. And he's going to earn that and he's going to. And so now the next phase of his development begins. And now listen, guys, my role in his development now is now going to be less because the coaches in Detroit. And at this level, the NBA, there is so much talent. I mean, Luca was telling me one of the coaches going through how to set a screen for about an hour. And I loved it because that kind of detail is what it takes to be the best.

It's all in the details. So I'll always be a shooting coach and I'll always do my part with it. But he's now evolved into. He's no longer an apprentice. He's now, you know, master of his game knowing that he needs to learn. And so he's going to go do that. we've got to trust and I do the process that we went through is within him so he's going to do all those things and if he knows how to raise his hand and ask me something if it's really bugging him

and he knows that I'll do the same for instance if I didn't point out something in a game that I saw that he'd get on my case hey dad you didn't mention that you know I didn't do this over here why didn't say that you know so he holds me accountable as much as I but it's like there's so much for him to learn so many new things for him to do and so much to learn from the vets. And he's going to, he's going to take it up as a sponge and do his best to contribute and help this team win. So what would you say is, of course, somebody of I'm sure is going to continue to train with him quite a bit. What have you guys been working on the most with an eye toward the NBA ever since he was drafted in terms of, in terms of skills? And really, what do you think the next

skill frontier is for for luca as far as maximizing himself in the NBA yeah great question and by the way you know we hired our agents and we we I would do the night workout and they would do the day workout and so we'll coordinate what do we want to do well first off we wanted to drop 25 plus pounds get him lighter he was in great shape he played 38 minutes in college you know hard that is to do in the big 10 he would bigs were coming in like last night you saw three different bigs coming in to guard Luca, three different bigs coming in to smash on him. Same thing happened as whole collegiate career. So he was in great shape.

He was just 270 because he had to be big and smashed around in the middle. That's not the NBA game. So we had to change to make it. So what did we? We dropped the weight. Our agents, Perid of sports consultants, we got in with all those trainers, to work on his dribbling, his one hand passing. This was the time, gentlemen, for him to,

use his stepbacks. We've been doing stepbacks for years, but never could really use them. He only used it one time his senior year in college, the stepback. And now he's got to use that a lot here. So we've practiced them all the time. He just couldn't use him. So we're bringing out the sky hook that's in his bag. We're bringing out the stepback that's in his back. We're bringing out the passing. He got some assist. He's almost three assists a game. Why? You're going to have to guard him or he'll score. And if you're uptight on him, he can pass him like he did to Sede. on those things. So there's a lot passing, dribbling, lower weight, faster feet, better defense, having your hand up all the time on defense, not having it down. All these things are where he needs to go. Now, this time next year he'll probably will have put on 10 to 15 pounds of just tight core muscle.

And I think his ideal weight will be in the 255 range, 250, 250 range from 42 now. And so that's, you know, these kind of skills, even a quicker release on some stuff, although it's a quick release, we worked on a lot, but they'll need to refine that more and more. And so those things, as you saw, it could dribble, pass, didn't do a ton of that in college, and we worked really hard on it for the summer league. So I know that Lucas post game was really,

I wouldn't say necessarily it was his bread and butter in the NCAA, but it was a big aspect of his game. Now, should we know that post offense isn't quite as prolific? And it tends to be the realm of very few players. How would you and Luca be working toward translating that game to the NBA, where I think it's just certainly just played a little bit differently, or quite a bit differently from the NCAA? And I guess in general, just, you know,

how do you think he's going to have to adapt this game from college to fit the NBA? Yeah, great question. I think what he's going to need to do is to be that big, that stretches the court and makes 50 plus percent of his threes. And then when he's on him, he can create offense by, he did that. You saw with Lee and with Cade, you know, he'd catch it past, boom. You know, they kind of had lit back and forth. Did you see how much he screened and moved and he created openings?

You're going to see a lot of that from him. You're going to see a ton of pick and pop, pick and pop, fake drive, step back like he did in the game. And then when it comes to the post, I think we're that post game translated, which he's a phenomenal post player, is an offensive rebounds and on the roll, because he knows what to do in the paint and how to get it up. And so you could see it on some of the roles he had in Summer League and some of the offensive rebounds. He would get and ones.

Why? He knows how to go up and take the foul, hang, smash, and then still lay it up and get it up. And that's what he'll be able to bring from college to the NBA. is that knowledge of what to do once you get the ball in the middle. He's got great hands. Very few balls that will be anywhere in his area that he won't grab. And so that translates in for him. And will they post him up?

Well, I think on that roll when he's got a smaller guy, and I think it's an easy too. And so that'll just be a matter of how they all want him to roll with it. But he'll be a screener, be a great passer, a great initiator of the offense and a great trailer for that long bomb three and then on the pick and pop, which I expect him to shoot seven to nine threes a game, making over 50%. I see that translating what he's going to need to adjust at that next level, because then that opens up the game. Can you imagine with Cade not having to worry about help defense because they have to stick to Luca?

How many has all that room or Killian or Lee or Jeremy? me Grant or Sadiq. I mean, my God, these guys are. I've always said this, and my dad reminded me of this is I always said this growing up, Luca growing up, the best ideal scenario for Luca is four phenomenal athletes in Luca. Because you're going to have to, when these, the other four drive, you're going to have to have help. And when help comes over, Luca's sitting in the corner, bang. You know, just like a knife through the heart, you know, bomb and a three when they do that. And that scenario, I think, has a lot of potential. Frank, you're getting me excited here as a Pistons fan.

I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie. Well, I'm excited, man. I can't wait, man. October 22nd, right? I mean, let's go. Oh, it's going to be great. It's going to be great, Frank.

And speaking of, so Detroit in general, obviously, I can imagine just as a basketball family, you guys were very cognizant of the bad boys, you know, the bad boys, the going to work, Pistons. and a lot of their team identity, I say a lot, pretty much all of their team identity was defense. And a lot has been made about Lucas defense and obviously dropping the weight has helped. I know in some prior episodes or actually just the last episode we recorded, I talked about how when you're 270 pounds and you drop 25 to 30 pounds, that doesn't mean that you become Usain Bolt all of the sudden. But it does mean that you can get at least I don't think it means that.

I'm not a sports scientist. but it does mean that you can get to your spots quicker on defense and hopefully bothers some quicker players on the way to the rim and disrupt their shots. And so what would you say is the plan to further improve Lucas' defense moving forward? And based on the summer league in general, how do you think he did? What did you like? What did you not like? And what would you give his progress report so far on that side of the basketball?

Wow. Yeah, wow, that's a great question. So, I mean, I would say this. certainly Lucas Footspeed were doing a lot to increase that. And we're not even done there yet. I mean, I went to school with Dan O'Brien, who's the world's greatest athlete,

won the Atlanta gold medal. And early on, he showed me some, who was in Iowa. I've been in Idaho where we went to school together. He's like, he showed me some foot stuff that we haven't yet brought out that is going to be incorporated in what he's doing to really improve his footwork.

It's part of why we did some of the pool work And then they have a great trainer, Gibson training, and the DMV who's got some great, works a lot a lot with the NFL guys. Working a lot on the foot speed, footbeat, constantly always moving his feet, never standing, standing flat-footed ever. He's the athlete that cannot stand flat-footed. Pretty much all the other athletes can stand flat-footed, can see the play development go bang, and they're there. Luca can't. He has to all-rehab, have his legs bent, on his toes to move. Everyone else synapse speed from the brain to the feet are way more bad.

you know, a higher than Lucas, but he's just got to start sooner. He's got to anticipate. But I'll say this to you. What other center had five blocks from one game in the entire Summer League? Oh, I'm not sure. Was there anybody? Nobody. How many guys, when the guy tried to dunk on him,

he met him out there and challenged him with both hands up there, straight up? They thought they were going to posterize Luca, and he blocked the shot. They didn't give him the block. He blocked the shot. Didn't do it. So he stopped. You know, he protected the rim.

more than any other center playing in the Summer League that I saw. I didn't see all the 40 games to date, but what I saw, and I was there on the days of the games where they had the tickets where I watched those games, I didn't see a center get back as fast as Luke up. I didn't see a center rebound as much as Luca. I didn't see a center block out as much as Luca. I didn't see a center go to the board. I didn't see a center have a hand up on defense on the switch every time and challenge each shot because he had his hand up. I saw a lot of senators go out there and have their hands down.

They just shot over them. So I want to challenge those to say, Luke is terrible on defense. Okay. Yeah, he's got some foot speed issues. But tell me a guy through hustle, hard work. When he got switched out and he was on the guards, nobody blew by him.

No one had a free land. Nobody. So I'm going to challenge everyone on the defensive part because no one else had those blogs. No one else protected the rim like that. And no one else had a challenge at the rim. where it was going to be a posturization and he blocked it. No, I agree with you, Frank.

And I think, too, even watching some of these, you know, we've been starved for basketball, so I'm rewatching some of these summer league games because I'm just so excited about the team. And one of the things we've talked about this so many times on this podcast before, or at least I have, one thing my dad would always tell me growing up, you know, playing soccer, him being my coach,

was that you can offset not being an elite athlete by having elite thinking. and elite anticipation. If you already know where you're going to go before you need to be there, it doesn't matter if you're lightning quick. You're already there before the guy who's faster than you is there. And so when I was rewatching some of these games, I noticed even if Luca doesn't have the quickest foot speed, he's managing to bother these quicker players all the way to the rim.

And like you said, putting up five blocks in a game doesn't happen by accident. You need to be in the right place at the right time. So I can only imagine that those are aspects of the game that you yourself have sort of emphasized with him and Luke is cognizant of as well. Yeah, well, you know, you're absolutely right. The most important thing on defense, and I had one of the best defensive coaches in the game. In fact, Yugoslavia, the country, when they had their junior national team, again, now remember, this was one country with Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, all one country, right? My coach was brought over to teach them defense because they didn't know how to play defense.

So we know a lot about defense. So the number one thing about defense is right, is, peripheral vision and presence of mind, being able to see the play develop and get there first. Absolutely. So you'll see Luke on his peripheral vision has immensely improved. He's still got a ways to go on that when you're not swivel ahead. You can see both by looking straight ahead. And then using your fundamentals to get, not let anybody get in the paint, beat him before they get in the paint, get there first, stop them, take a charge, reflect it. And that does a lot to an offensive person when you got a guy that's going to be.

they're at his size closing out, you know, with that. So, you know, listen, he's got a long ways to go and, yeah, he hasn't played against the vets yet, but he did work out with Jeremy, and he has the last two summers when Jeremy's been around. And so he's been with some top talent teaching him how to how to cover, particularly on the ball screen. And so he'll, you know, now listen, you're not the best at defense. You know, who is? And in the general, in general, and the NBA, this is the most I've heard the NBA talk about defense in a long time when they talk about Luca. Everyone wants to talk about their defense. Okay, time out. All right. What other player are you talking about defense? Because right now, let's match them up. Who had their hand

up on every possession? Who challenged every shot? Who didn't get beat on the dribble? Who protected the rim? Well, Luca did compared to those others. So yeah, they may have a ceiling once they learn it to then do it. But how many will actually do it every time? How many athletes will actually sprint back on defense every time? When you start measuring that, that circle becomes very small. And so I think he'll adapt, he'll find a way. And Casey's a brilliant. I mean, but you're talking about a guy that knows the game. He'll figure out some defensive sets that will not so much hide, but amplify Lucas' ability to play defense. So this is a little change of pace, but you've mentioned Jeremy Grant, who's only been with the

Pistons for about, I think, just shy of 10 months, man, that's in this last season, strangely enough, started in December. So what is the experience of you and Luke have been like working out with Jeremy? Well, you talk about a gentleman, you know, just, you know, I was familiar with him at Denver, you know, when he was at Denver in watching his career. His agents are our agents as well, imperative sports consultants. And, and, you know, and he was at Denver. And, you know, he was in, he was in, And, you know, he is so talented. I mean, he is just flat out, just hard to imagine. I wonder what it would feel like to be able to be that fast and jump that high and be that strong.

So what Jeremy brings for us is just that calm confidence, you know, that comes from being that kind of player. I think he brings home a gold medal, you know. Went to his alma mater in high school the other day, supposed to do. the pitcher. Just guys an ambassador. And so that means a lot because, you know, Lucas got wide open eyes. And so we need, you know, we need somebody to look out for him. And I know that besides the coaching staff and his team means, I know that Jeremy, in fact, I'll tell you this story. Luca gets drafted. Well, all of a sudden, his phone rings. It's Jeremy Grant calling from Tokyo. Now, that just tells you pretty much what that means for him to do that because it was

different time of the day, of course, and yet it was important for him to let Luca know, hey, we're going to do this. And so that's what he means to us as, you know, in terms of that calm confidence that, hey, you're not where you want to be, but thank God you're not where you're used to. That's fantastic. So I get another question. What would you say? I mean, this has been, I'm sure, just such an incredible journey. What would you say you are the proudest of as far as how Luke has developed both as a basketball player just and as a human being. Well, I would say this. The things that I'm, you know, the things I'm most proud of is, you know, one, his love of his family, you know, is, you're right.

It takes a village to grow, to grow a man. And same with a female. And I'm just talking about Luca, it takes to grow a man. And the other saying I used to always say, and I still say is, hey, success has a thousand fathers, failure but one. And I always told them this, I'm that one. You know, that's in terms of everything else out there in the village, I'm that one. I'm going to make sure my last dying breath, I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure my kids have a better life and have a chance to succeed. And so we share that.

But what I'm my most proud of? I'm most proud of the fact that when he only had. $28.33 in his bank account as the best player in college basketball. We did an NFT, and it sold for a little bit over $42,000. Before we sold it, and as we were creating, his non-fundable token, the first, you know, player ever to do that coming out of college, he said, dad, I want to make sure I give back to the community in Iowa. I want to, I'm going to donate. And it ended it was north of 20 percent of the proceeds to Children's Hospital. the net proceeds to Children's Hospital.

I said, look at that. That's one of the things I'm most proud of. The other thing I'm most proud of is Luca would take time to go to the children's hospital and read to the, didn't have to do it. Wasn't asked to do it, but he knows where he came from. And where he came from was, you know, Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson had a great essay. His whole essay series is great. His whole book of work is great. But body work is great.

but one of his essays is essay on compensation. And that's what it's called compensation. And in that, and inherent in that, in Luca, is the understanding that in order to win, you must give. You can't win and then give. No, you have to give and then you win. And to the extent that you give, the more you win. So it's like that saying about karma.

Karma is undefeated, has no expiration date, and comes with no menu. you get exactly what you've earned. And so it's stuck with him. And so he does these things. And when he does it as a dad, I'm sitting there going, the guy's got $20 in his account. We didn't know if it would sell for $42,000.

We didn't know if it'd sell for a dime. But whatever it's sold for, he's given a big chunk back to his community. And he'll do the same thing in Detroit, because that's who he is. Wherever he's sitting in his nexus, he's going to make sure that any, inside his orbit, anything around him, he's going to do his best to touch and uplift those around him.

Frank, those are some wonderful tidbits. And we can't even tell you how appreciative we are to have you on here sharing these stories. And it's like we said, this must be the absolute busiest time in the world. And yet you came on and you made about an hour of time for us here. So we really appreciate it, Frank. We're cheering for you and your son. You have no idea. And honestly, I'm not sure who accomplished more this week because Luca got a two-way MBA contract, but you came and you killed it on the driving to the basket podcast, so I don't know. You got to sign me a two-way?

You're going to sign me a two-way guy? I mean, I guess an invite back later in the year. Does that count as a two-way? I love it, guys. Yeah, anytime. You know, it's a... You are more than welcome any time to come back on. We absolutely loved having you.

And speaking of just... It's funny because the reason that we had the idea to even ask you in the first place is because you're sort of a rising Pistons Twitter superstar. And so what we're going to do is we're going to mix and edit the episode. We'll tweet it at you. And if you retweet it, I don't know, I guess we'll end up on Good Morning America or something. Twitter is growing. I don't know.

But honestly, Frank, that's. I'd be happy to do that. And again, I appreciate you guys. You know, and I'm again, so appreciative of Detroit of just open arms for Luca because, you know, But even though I got over 100 DMs guys at me about Luca, I want them to know that, hey, I have no real feeling. The issue is you guys what's best for your city. We do too, and we think Luca be there will help that.

That's my belief. That's my mindset. And Luca's going to do everything in his ability to make it so. We love to hear that. You've got no idea what that means to both us and all of the listeners and all of the Pistons fans out there. It really embodies the spirit of the city and the spirit of all these sports franchises and we're so hungry for some success. And I think we sort of think we've got something special coming up here with the Pistons.

And we're hoping that Luca can be a big, big part of that. Me too. I tell you, I've been around sports my whole life. I've champions and championship teams and whatnot. That ineffable quality that you can just feel but not touch. you know, you can sense it, but not, it's not tangible. And that's what's happening at this organization. And I am just so happy that Luca has a home where there's that caliber.

I'm not saying the other organizations don't have that. No, no, I don't mean that. But I'm just saying, it's in abundance here. And that's, as a dad, wanting the best for his kids, I can't think of a better home. And I just know he's going to do whatever it takes. And I hope that's enough and that's good enough to contribute. Absolutely. Well, this, Frank, just like Dante said, has been an absolute pleasure.

So thank you once again. And it's not just been fun hearing about this, but it's also just been educational. It seems like, or inspiring, rather, it seems like you and Luca just have such a great outlook on life and on, you know, what to do to get from, for. point A to where you want to be. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you both. And again, thanks for having me on and a special shout out to Detroit. I'll be seeing you at the games, guys. Absolutely. As soon as the border opens, Frank, I'm there and I'm buying you a beer. How does all right? I'll take you up on that guy. All right. Sure thing. Well, listen, Frank, thank you

again. Until all the listeners, thank you for listening. And we'll catch you next time.