Driving to the Basket: A Detroit Pistons Podcast - Episode 93: End-of-Season Retrospective - Storylines and Takeaways

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

This episode, the first of our offseason series, journeys through a retrospective of the recently-concluded season, visiting season storylines, takeaways, and more. 

Welcome back, everybody. You're listening to Drive Into the Basket, part of the basketball podcast network. I'm Mike here with Tommy. And the season's over. How do you feel? Relieved. I mean, near the end there, I was kind of over it because, one, it was just kind of seeing where are we going to land and are we going to finish with these specific odds?

And it was just getting very tiring with the thunder, trying their best to put out the absolute worst possible lineup so that they could. I don't know. I think they thought if they lost by enough where they put out a significant, like, just the worst possible lineup, maybe it would be worth like extra losses. That might have been their strategy. Ultimately, it didn't work. Thank God. We ended up securing that 28th spot. And, yeah, I'm just happy that it's over. I'm looking much more forward to the future. Yeah, I'm relieved that the Pistons finished and finished where they did. However, I'm feeling a little bit sad. I didn't expect this because regardless of the quality of the basketball and the stress, down the stretch. Watching the Pistons every other nights or every three nights was definitely a big part of my routine. And we also, I often mention the Pistons Discord server. We have a good group there. Just, you know, some nice camaraderie, you know, watching the games every night with the same group of people. So, and also it's five weeks to the lottery, five weeks from the day we're

recording this, which is a long time. I mean, the NBA playoffs will be a bit of a useful distraction from that fact, and I'm looking forward to those. The plans start tonight. But I'm sad that we won't be watching the Pistons for another six months. Yeah. But that nine-month COVID off-season was absolutely brutal, but any off-season still, yeah. That was just awful. And I keep bringing this up, but it's fun.

If you go back and listen to our episodes from during that off-season, yeah, of course, the Pistons just had their season completely truncated in the middle of March. And then it was until November before really anything happened. But if you go back and listen to our episodes, we're talking a lot about Christian Wood and his future and how he attacks closeouts and so on and so forth about Sekku Dimboya and how he's going to look and so on and so forth. And it's just everything has changed so severely. We've come a long way. Yeah, it's come a long way and entirely for the better, 100% for the better. Oh, absolutely.

Don't miss Christian Wood. Don't miss Seku. There's much better things there for the Pistons now. So this is going to be the first episode of our end of series. excuse me, end of season series, planning on doing two or three episodes here and then transitioning to draft previews leading up to the draft lottery. So on the subject of endings, some of you, we've gotten some questions from some of you about where Dante has been. Dante was the third member of this team. So Dante had been on hiatus from the show for a couple months and made the decision recently that he would not be returning. He wanted us to tell all of you that he had recently graduated

from law school and accepted a full-time position in a corporate firm. My commentary here, it's a very good firm. He told me about it. It was a difficult decision, but maintaining his career and continuing his show regularly wasn't doable. And he wanted to offer you guys his sincerest gratitude to the listeners. Said that being in the show was a wonderful experience. So I was actually going to, I forgot to do this.

I was going to joke that he was leaving the podcast because he just couldn't handle it after Trey Liles was traded. Dante really didn't like Trey Liles. Yeah. So, yeah, for my part, I just want to thank Dante for the year he spent with us on the show and for the memories of the good times that the three of us had. Yeah, absolutely. Huge congratulations to Dante on graduating from law school.

He got a job at one of the top firms in his area. He told us about that, and we're very excited for him. You know, it's a huge job, huge deal with some long hours, but we know that he's very passionate about it. And as passionate as he was about the Pistons, we know that this is something that he's worked very, very hard on and we're very happy for him, obviously. And truthfully, I've been thinking about one of his big takes a lot.

I mean, this is something that he's been telling us about all year, and that's that Sadiq Bay has been. He's better than we thought he was going to be. And I'll definitely concede, Dante, you were right. Sadiq Bay is absolutely redefined his ceiling, in my opinion. So once again, man, you got me. Yeah, definitely good place here for us to just transition into general story lens in the season. It's just going to be a general reflection on how the season went.

Takeaways, how it went differently from what we predicted, and so on and so forth. So Sadiq Bay, definitely one of those. So started in Summer League, I think he was there largely just to practice his new play style as a creator. Pulled that into regular season, the first 20 games or so, it was a complete disaster. They basically just handing the ball at the perimeter and saying, please create offense with it one-on-one. I mean, that's the toughest thing to do in the NBA. So that didn't go well. It actually went extremely poorly, and it discombobulated his entire game and, you know, on both ends. And around mid to late December, they kind of pushed him more toward a different role, not trying to

create an isolation, just focusing on shooting and on creating a lot. offense within the arc. And things went well from there. And he saw it a particularly big role during the period of the COVID absences and so on and so forth. Yeah. And they just continue to improve throughout the season. I know Tommy you and I thought, okay, maybe fourth best guy in a championship team. And who knows, maybe he's third best guy. I still have my doubts about that. But even 3B on a championship team is a fantastic player. And he made his presence felt every night. Still needs to work on shooting consistency. But the guy, like there was a, a press conference today with Troy Weaver and Dwayne Casey,

and they basically said, you know, we told, you know, we told Sadiq take some time off. And Dwayne Casey used to coach for the Mavericks. He was assistant coach, excuse me, for the Mavericks. And he was there during the 2011 championship. He actually put out the defensive scheme that helped to slow down LeBron. And he said that it was just like with Dirk Nevitzky, they had to put a, you know, I don't know if this is actually literal,

but they had to put a walk on the gym. And he feels like Sadieke is the same way in his, just relentless work ethic and desire and intents to improve. Yep. One of two, what is, like one of five guys who started every game. I think one of two guys. Two guys started every game. One of five, yeah, one of five who played in every game.

One of two who started every game. And that's, I mean, especially in COVID year. Yeah. That's insane. And, yeah, Sadieq Bay is an absolute workhorse. And yeah, going back to, you know, what we think his ceiling is or his reasonable role is, I'm there on calling him a number three option. I think he has that type of potential.

Again, you mentioned the consistency. That has to be there for all these great moments that he has. He still has some nights where he's not shooting the ball particularly well, but he's still a very good player and guys will still respect him. I think one of the most fun developments this season has been Sadiq Bay adding that driving game where he's using his strength, putting his shoulder into guys, and they just bounce right off of him. You know, he guys is such a strong physical player.

he's getting to the basket on these drives, and it's been one of the best developments of the season. I've absolutely loved that. So, yeah, Sadiq Bay, I mean, we have a good piece there. I think he's one of two surefire core pieces that we have. Yeah, definitely. I'm very, very happy with the value that we got there on that pick. 100%.

Also, a great culture guy, by all accounts. Absolutely. It's very well liked in the locker room, but sets an example. And, you know, he's the kind of player everybody wants, also perfectly fits that Detroit. ethos of gritty and hardworking and plays 100% for the team and it never takes even a moment off on the court. So I got to love it definitely. Like I said, I still have my doubts that he's

the number three guy in a championship team, but I'm willing to certainly allow that I might be proved wrong. We'll see what he adds in the off season. But I mean, what I'm really looking for is, like I've said in the past, motion shooting. I think that Sadiq is always going to be a guy who's a shooter who can do some creation rather than a creator who does some shooting. And that's fine. You have a guy who can consistently hit threes. And he has difficult threes on volume. He has that nice little side step move. And he can get that shot off. He can get a shot off with guys, you know, with a guy's right in his face. He's just really perfected this motion in which he catches the ball. He brings it across his body and then he shoots very quickly. And for most guys,

bringing it across your body is a big no-no. I mean, guys, that can be very disruptive to some his shot and shooting coaches will often try to remove that from your shot because it's just bad for the technique. But Sadiq makes it work very well. And I think the next frontier for him as a shooter is coming around screens and being able to shoot right away. And from creating in the interior, yeah, he's been very good at it. He's just, he's good at parlaying the assets that he has, which is really his strength is one of those that guys built like a tank. And he's developed some interesting and intriguing touch as well around the basket. it's just a paradigm shift from the mess he was early in the season.

And I blame that chiefly in the coaching stuff. Yeah, but I'm very happy with the progress that he's shown. I mean, the work ethic truly shows throughout the course of the season. I mean, I'm not going to say he's an MIP candidate, but maybe on the Pistons he is. I mean, he's the transformation. It might have been subtle in some ways, but the body of work and the results are certainly there. So very, very happy with the way Sadiq Bay has progressed in year two. I think he's another cornerstone piece moving forward.

Yeah, so that's great. I mean, just going back to, you know, if we can step back a little bit and just go to overall season storylines. So going into the season, what were your expectations? I know you wanted a tank season, but how did you think it was going to look? Yeah, I think I wanted a tank season. I mean, the situation, if we still want to think about it, like the pistons ultimately still need talent. I mean, we've seen these pictures circulating on Twitter of Kade getting mobbed by five guys and everybody. he's like spaced out like six to 10 to 20 feet around him.

But I thought that the team had a chance to be fairly good. I thought, I think at one point I even said that this team might win 40 games. And obviously that didn't come true. But down the stretch there, I think we saw just how good they can look. And I think that that 40 game type team, that 40 win type team is a lot closer than we think.

And yeah, I mean, once it kind of became apparent that the team wasn't really ready, that there were some issues with efficiency, some issues with shot selection, athleticism. Once we got to that point, it was like, okay, we definitely still need more talent. At that point, I was kind of like, yeah, let's just dial it back. We're not going to make the playoffs. We're not going to make the plan. Let's just see about focusing on development at the expense of wins and secure high odds again.

And I was happy to see that down the stretch they ultimately decide to do that. but at the same time it was disappointing. You know, I think that it's become abundantly clear that losing games or winning games has become very important in the rookie of the year race. And while I've kind of cooled off on caring about that a little bit, just because, you know, even the people who are voting for rookie of the year and not necessarily voting Cade, they all kind of agree that Cade is the best rookie. We got our guy.

Yes. Yeah. So that was probably the bigger disappointment to me, just how they kind of came out looking rough, but ultimately I think it's, I would say that it's worked out for the best. And maybe we get lucky in the draft lottery again this year. I feel good. The team needs talent. Yeah, yeah, I think there's a lot. I'll make this claim right now. I think there's a lot of good feelings towards Jabari Smith Jr. to the Pistons. Last year, you predicted the Pistons would get the number one pick. I'm going to try to be bold right now and I'm going to say that the Pistons end up with Jabari.

I don't know what pick it will be at, but I'm going to say that the Pistons end up with Jabari. but yeah just getting back to the question that was probably the biggest thing for me i thought that the team would come out looking better and they definitely struggled early on that 14 game losing streak was really rough for them we got to hear a little bit about that in some of these interviews so yeah yeah yeah yeah definitely i mean on the subject of talent one of the things that Troy said today was just the the team the goal is just to continue a growing talent i mean a pistons aren't anywhere close in terms of the talent that they have on the team and i think there's weaver seems i would have no doubt that weaver is perfectly aware of that

The Pistons made a gigantic first step by getting number one last season and getting Cade. I mean, I cannot reiterate and stress enough just how fortunate the Pistons were to get number one in that stacked draft. Absolutely stacked draft. Which, you know, if Jalen Green and Evan Mobley and Kate Cunningham were in different drafts, they could all have been a number one overall pick. And then you have the guys behind them. Yeah. In this draft, they all probably go number one.

Oh, I don't think that's probably about it. I think that's 100% certainty. So, yeah, it's, I mean, the Pistons were very fortunate in that respect. So how I thought the season would go, I was just looking forward to saying, okay, well, the Pistons are going to come out with a decent-ish roster. And they're just going to see where it goes. And, you know, who knows where it will go, but I'm just going to sit back and whatever happens happens and I'll be okay with it.

Did not go as planned. I don't think they expected to be anywhere near this bad. Goodness. Kate came out very slow after his injury. He missed, I think, all much of training camp, all of pre-exam. season and it just took him a while to get going. Killion, of course, had a very difficult season. He made some progress near the end, but man, was he horrible? Sadiq, as we said, started out very slow. He lost Kelly Olinick early. Grant really wasn't that great, and then he got injured.

Let's see. One of the questions we had to with Killian's progress. Yeah, I mean, he's made steps. I mean, I think he's still got a long way to go. Do you remember at the beginning of the season, my idea that we all we all kind of poo-pooed. No, yeah, both of you know, definitely. Yeah, your idea of maybe bringing Kate off the bench or at the very ways playing him next to another handle. I think off the bench would have been gratuitous. He did end up playing next to another handle or the whole year.

We had James Edwards in the show here. He said that that was primarily just to keep from exhausting Kate in his rookie season. Kate yesterday in his accident interview said that, you know, it's difficult to prepare for your 82 games. He's the first season of 82 games. It's a lot of games. One thing he said was that he's going to eat a lot of calories, put on some strength, really work hard on conditioning just so you can keep going, you know,

throughout that and stay at peak performance throughout that whole series. So throughout the whole season, also I would imagine during games themselves, because he slowed down, usually throughout the course of a game with the giant workload he had. But, yeah, we ended up with Corey Joseph next to him for most of the season. Right. And that irritated us at times. It made sense. Yeah.

The other part of that was bringing Killian Hayes off the bench, and I think for sure that seems to have worked out. I think we can all agree at this point that Killian is much more effective and useful to this team off the bench with the ball in his hands. And I'm especially excited to see how that goes next year, assuming that he stays on the roster and stays in that role. I think that was starting to work really well for him. Yeah, I think that's, like I've said before, it's a lot easier. It's a lot more difficult to put it to this way to see when a player is not. not playing super well on a bad team. It's a lot easier on a good team when they're playing in a city, you know,

with the team that's winning, and you're able to see how they fit into a winning system and how they're playing compared to winning players. Because if you put Killian on a good team, I mean, it wouldn't be in the rotation. You'd be able to see his struggles. But I agree he made progress. So back to what I was saying, though.

Yeah, you, so Killian plays poorly. You lose Olinick and you lose Grant for a protracted period. You know, at one point, eventually during the season, Diallo Kinna came online, and he was a lot of fun to watch, and he has his issues. His only issue, really, is not being a shooter. Again, something that would be very prominently noticeable on a good team, but it wasn't a big deal in this team. But, you know, I got really upset with Casey at many points early in the season,

and then it became apparent to me that the season was lost, and then I started being perfectly okay with his relatively poor in-game coaching. And we can both credit him. We both have credit him. I credit it comes out again and again that the players really like the guy, and they really think highly of him. And he did a good job holding together a locker room for the second straight year for a team that was constantly losing, which is not an easy situation.

Yes. Yeah, I definitely want to make a point to bring up Casey and give him credit. X's and O's aside, definitely one of the things, and this is definitely hand in hand with the job that we were. has done. But those two together brought in guys who would buy in and, you know, the culture of this team, like people, we've talked about it at points as well. Like, it's not anything that is groundbreaking, but it was an admirable job to keep these guys focused on working hard and continuing to buy in over the course of 82 games. I mean, this is a long season. And during

Kade's exit interview, he talked about how he was in a really tough place during that 14 game losing streak. You know, these guys, they've always been the best throughout their lives. And, you know, for him, he had high expectations. He went on to the JJ Reddick podcast at the start of the season. He's like, no, we're going to make the playoffs. And Cade said in his exit interview, he was like, yeah. Didn't realize how hard it is. Right. Casey definitely, you know, reminded us of how hard it is to win in the NBA. And he made us aware of that. And I ultimately, in that, I was thinking about this. The Pistons, once the season was lost, I did want them to focus on development,

but also preserving the lottery position. But I am really glad that they showed a lot of strength post-all-Star break. I think that the team really, really benefited from that. That losing streak and the other ones that were in that season, the blowouts, they must have been really, really tough. And for them to have had to endure that for a whole season, I think that that could have potentially derailed a lot of the good field. feelings. They talked about how the team was, you know, much more receptive to, not, maybe not

receptive, but much more positive, like their film sessions were a lot more positive. And I think they have really good momentum going into next year. So maybe some of the predictions that we had for the beginning of this season will apply next year. Maybe next year we are a 40 win team, depending on how things go. Maybe the team does have playoff aspirations, you know, that sort of thing. But definitely, I want to credit Casey for the job that he did, cultivating in the locker room. Yeah. Yeah. And Weaver as well. Yeah, Weaver brought in, like you said, he brought on the right guys. He really selects for character, which is something I feel 100% in favor of.

I think that's a great policy. Even though at the draft, I kind of felt like maybe you're focusing a little bit too much on character at the expense of athleticism. But as Weaver really hasn't paid much attention to athleticism. And I'm very confident he understands the value of it. But, you know, you're early on in a rebuild. Do you want to get the right guys in there? We've talked about Isaiah Livers. Even he is a great culture guy.

And he's impressed us. we talked about that last episode. Definitely. But yeah, looking back in some other story lines, there was, I know one for us. And also, this was just a hot button topic in general with Sabin Lee versus Corey Joseph. Like, why are you giving this spot to the veteran rather than to the young guy who could use time in the NBA for development? I think certainly it's been stressed by Dwayne Casey. It's been stressed by Troy Weaver, the value of just having veterans on the roster for a stabilizing presence.

but also Corey Joseph was so immeasurably better than Sabanly in the NBA. I think, and this is a topic that I love to talk about, not Corey Joseph, though I think he's cool, dude. Just how good NBA players are at basketball. I mean, these guys are, like, the worst guy in the NBA who manages to stay in the league for a lengthy career is a sublimely good basketball player. I mean, these guys are incredibly good. Like, if you make it to the NBA for 10 games, I mean, you're an amazing player by the standards of the general population.

I mean, G-League players would go into, I mean, these guys would stomp all over the vast majority of basketball players in the world, even guys overseas. I mean, the G-League is that good, and the NBA is a step above it. So, Corey Joseph's an NBA player. I mean, he's a slightly below average backup, and then he started on this team. But he, you know, he was steady enough. He was a steadying presence in the starting lineup. He took some of the ball handling onus off of Katie. He shot well.

And, you know, I was happy with him. I know he's a much pillory player, but he was good for what was needed. And Saban Lee made no progress, you know, from West season. Right. Yeah, I don't want to rehash the Cory Joseph versus Savan Lee thing. From the beginning, I was like, you know, it's a very different game, the G League game, to the NBA game. Because at the start of the season, Sabin was putting up these massive numbers in the G League. He finished second in MVP voting, the G League.

Oh, did he? I did not know that. But only a couple of G League MVPs over the last like six or seven seasons have actually come into the NBA and stayed. Chris Boucher is one of them. And he has, aside from his first season, I mean, he was not good this season. The leap is enormous. I mean, the guys who are going to make it in the NBA often are just the guys who don't

even need to go to the G League first. Right. Yeah, definitely very, very happy that Corey Joseph was on this team. I definitely agree that he was a stabilizer. presence. But I was listening to Cade's exit interview and he shared a story about another one of the veterans maybe who's a little bit underappreciated and that was Kelly Olinick. And it's not even just about his play, which was fine. I don't think anybody had super high expectations for Kelly Olinic on the court. But behind the scenes, Cade was giving Kelly Olinic credit. He was saying, you know,

Kelly really empowered me to be a leader and be a vocal guy. You know, that's that's admirable. that's exactly what you want in the locker room. Everybody wants Cade to be the leader of this team. And when you have veterans on the floor, these guys are putting their egos aside. It's not easy for them to be on young teams where they are clearly not the priority. And not only are they taking this drive,

they're actually encouraging these young guys to. It helps when you're being paid to be better. Yeah, it helps when you're being, sorry to interrupt, it helps when you're being paid $13 million. I think they can really soothe that particular hurt for Kelly. Yeah, but I mean, still. nonetheless. He knew what he was getting into. Sure. But I mean, he came from Miami. That's a very good program.

No, he was with Houston. I very much. He was a Tius right. He did come from the last season. Yeah, putting up big stuff. I still think of him as Celtics and Miami. I did forget about that. But he played very well in Houston. I'm sure on the tail end of his Houston tenure. The point is, like, it's, I very much appreciate what Kelly Olinick did and what the veterans did for this team. Even Rodney McGruder, like when he came back, I guess all the guys were like really happy to have him. back. There are good veteran presences on this team. And I appreciate that very much. You know, there's no guys coming out here saying, you know, I'm tenured. I deserve more. I deserve more touches, more minutes. They are very much for the team. And that's something, again, Casey definitely

mentioned that he wanted to perpetuate that type of mentality, you know, buy in, do what's best for the team. And I think that the guys that Troy Weaver brought in very much did so. Yeah, on a slight aside, Tommy and I had the opportunity recently to speak with somebody who had worked within the Miami Heat Organization for a few seasons. And we asked who their favorite player was in terms of personality. And the answer was Rodney McRuder, like unequivocally so. Yeah. And that was completely unsurprising based on everything we've heard about him. He, the way it was put before the season was just that he was very popular in the locker room.

And, you know, he came in and gave some deep. recent minutes. We'll put it this way. So Tommy, you remember back in free agency in 2020 when we were just like, oh, man, why are they bringing in veterans? You know, just field all young guys so they can develop as much as possible and be the worst team you possibly can. I think, I mean, I think we admitted, we've long since admitted that we were wrong about that and that Troy Weaver has definitely shown us the benefit of having veterans on the roster. He was also just very, very agile on how he handled last season, you know, getting rid of the veterans. and positioning the pistons to get a high pick,

while also, you know, seeing some good development from the youth. So, yeah, the veterans, I agree, are valuable. He's brought on the right veterans. Everybody loves Cory Joseph. Seems like everybody has always loved Corey Joseph. You see how things are between any time he, after the game, you see him with his old teammates. I mean, they're always, you know, it's always all smiles and laughs.

And you just always heard good things about Jeremy Grant, who's there for different reasons. But, yeah, it was. It was a roster that was put together well for, you know, in terms of culture for what the Pistons needed in the second season, which was really going to be all about development. For a team that still doesn't have a ton of talent on it. So definitely kudos to Weaver, kudos to Casey. And that was cool. Absolutely.

Yeah. And Saban Lee, it's worth remembering that he was second round pick. And guys in the 40s, I think, have something on the order of like a one third chance of west than that, I believe. believe. I'd seen a graph on it. Basically, second round picks, they have a 25% shot of having like an actual career in the NBA. And a lot of those guys are guys taken in the 30s. Like guys in the 50s have like a 10% chance. So guys, yeah. So basically, if he doesn't work out, I mean, it shouldn't be unexpected. And he really didn't make much progress at all. The guy still can't shoot. In the G league, he can just burn people. And NBA defense is just punish, or much better

and they punish him mercilessly for not being able to shoot. Yeah. Is there anything more that you wanted to say on Weaver and Casey? Because actually you just reminded me of a really interesting quote from another video I watched that Cade had done. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So Mike Schmitz, he does these film sessions with prospects, and he did that with Cade prior to the draft. And then he did another one just a week or two ago.

And it was watching this video. It's fantastic content. Mike Schmitz is one of my favorite draft guys. and I was really happy that they did another session. And one of the things that Cade said in that video was that this was the first time in his career where his length really played a big part in his scoring. He said that the transition from college to the NBA was very difficult because he was learning to play more within the very limited space that the NBA affords.

And I thought that was just really interesting because looking at the game, you know, between college film and NBA film, you don't really see that very much. You don't see it a ton, except for maybe on drives where Kate was finishing with like these crazy long, you know, sweeping hooks and sweeping layups. But otherwise, you know, I thought it was very interesting. It just, once again, it highlights just how different these leagues are and how that learning curve is very steep. I mean, I'm thinking back to, you know, his welcome to the league moment where Anthony Davis

blocked him on, I think, was a one or two three-point shots. And, you know, the progress that Cade made over the season, once again, just phenomenal. And, I mean, I don't think that we, I'm not going to say that we don't talk about it enough, but what a fantastic season. Honestly, I think that overall, you know, for a 22 or 23 win team, you know, things went very, very well. You know, we accomplished a lot this season. And, you know, for a team that wasn't going to win anything significant, I think we made more progress, maybe with the path that we took, as opposed to a team that maybe won more games on the backs of, maybe more veteran help if they had brought it in. You know, I'm very happy with the way that things went. I'm very happy with the rotations that consisted mostly

of young guys interspersed with, you know, stabilizing veteran presences. I think that they went about this season very, very well considering that it didn't look like they were going to, you know, win anything or make any playing games. And now a quick word from our sponsor. The NBA playoffs being next level basketball. Get ready for all the action by betting on the play in tournament with Draft King Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NBA. New customers can bet $5 in any team to win and get $150 in free bets instantly.

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Back to just general season takeaways and storylines. So at the beginning of the season, we talked about how it was going to be one of Josh Jackson, or Hamid O'Deuvre Diello, who was going to make it. We all know how that went at Josh Jackson. and, yeah, got his chance. He was awful. And then Hamadu, after an unfortunate blowup at Dwayne Casey, came into the rotation.

And, you know, did a pretty good job. It was very exciting to watch. So Josh Jackson, I'll read, right, is the kind of guy you take a chance on. And as a rebuilding team and free agency, that was 100% worthy project. It didn't work out. He might be on his way out of the NBA.

So, but, yeah, what did you think about Diola? I mean, he was fun to watch, definitely. For sure. I mean, I'm definitely a guy who, I like certain archetypes, and especially for guards and forwards. I like guys who can shoot the three ball, and that's certainly very important to me, and Hamadu is not a guy who does that very well currently, but Hamadu definitely impressed me this season.

You know, despite the fact that he's not able to shoot from distance very well, his presence was very much felt on the floor. He was an injection of athleticism that the team desperately needs and needed, especially at that time. And he found a way to become an impact player. He was just active on the floor, attacking the basket and finishing plays. And that's ultimately still what the pistons need. At the same time, I still think that the NBA meta is the five out.

Everybody can shoot a three and go in for rebounds. But Hamadu, he found a way to play very valuable minutes despite that. And I think that looking ahead to next season, he's definitely a guy who I would like to see get rotation minutes. in some capacity because he's just so much fun to watch play. Like his power jams. I mean, he's probably a top 10 athlete in the NBA. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

And it's not that you can't have too many of those guys. I mean, you still need guys who can shoot. He's got to be able to shoot if he's going to stand. He's still. Yeah, if he's going to, if he's ever going to become a starter and a very good starter at that, it's like you said all year, he's got to be a guy who can even a bench player. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. got to be somebody who can get into those mid to high 30s. And if he ever does that, watch out NBA because, yeah, that's the only thing holding him back right now. So I hope he puts in that work in the offseason. Clearly, he's a very talented player. And I'm very happy that he, he managed to establish himself in the rotation. I'm glad they didn't try to offload him after that a little incident early on. He definitely, he was right. He did, he did deserve playing time. And maybe that's not the best way to go about getting it. Yeah, definitely not. I'm very happy that ultimately he got it and he was able to contribute this season. That was a very nice surprise

on my end at least. Yeah. So I love Hamadu. Yeah, I think he's starting shooting in the future if he can get his three point percentage up. If he doesn't get a three point percentage up, I doubt will be on the team, you know, a couple years down the line because on a good team, you just can't have rotation players who can't shoot pretty much, excuse me, a perimeter rotation players who can't shoot. I mean, they'll just get punished mercilessly, particularly in the postseason. Hamidu is a great athlete. He is the best pure driver on the team, I would say, even better than Cade. He's just very good at getting there. He's incredibly quick. He's a great leper. He's really strong. And Casey said that this season, they're basically just putting together a shooting book for everybody.

I'm sure his will be very extensive. And hopefully he's one of the guys who sticks around to Detroit. So it was good to see him in the rotation. You just, you love seeing the dunks. I mean, he's so exciting to watch. I mean, this is just purely on the level of, I mean, of enjoying him watching him play. It doesn't say anything about his effectiveness, but he just found ways to be effective when no plays are being run for him. He was great at generating steals,

and he did so without overly gambling. And yeah, he's a guy who can stick to really athletic players on defense, too. And he's a vertical spacing threat. Dwayne Casey doesn't really like calling Wob plays. I think he only called one for Hamadu, in which he came very close to throwing down a one-handed above the rim slam.

but yeah he's he's good for that too and you just hope he works out and so Josh Jackson like hard worker I mean you want to talk a guy he can't shoot either he's he's not really super great at driving in the basket uh that's the show name yay but he's not great at scoring there either so I wish him well but I don't think he's likely to maybe an end of rotation for a not so good team. And there was Trey Liles also. He played pretty well. I'm pretty sure. I'm quite confident he was brought in just to trade him. And they did trade him. He and Josh Jackson in a couple seconds, including the last vestige of the former franchise player who was traded for a second round pick. That was one of the picks for Marvin Bagley. So Bagley,

very well liked by Weaver and Casey, particularly Weaver, quite confident he'll be on the team next season. We've talked about him quite a bit. But what do you think he brought to the team? team just by a mere dint of being on the roster. Yeah. You know, one of the things that we talked about prior to Bagley's arrival was the lack of vertical space and you just mentioned it, essentially being a guy who puts pressure on the rim as a lob threat. We desperately needed it.

We didn't have anybody who could really go up there and get it other than Hamadu, but like you said, he wasn't getting those plays run for him. So when Bagley joined the team, it just added another dimension to the offense. And I was excited about it because at the very least, it's a lot of fun. but we definitely got to see what it's like when Cade has a guy he can just target and get the ball up there. I mean, those guys were starting to really develop chemistry down the stretch. There were some quick lobs like, you know, blink and you'll miss it. And Bagley kept his head on a swivel and he was able to throw down a lot of these plays.

So definitely very important for the team to have guys like that who can go up there and get it and just put it down. It's obviously a very high percentage shot. and I was very happy that they ultimately traded for Bagley. I thought it was going to be Bagley or Mitchell Robinson just based on the rumors. And I'm happy that it was Bagley. And I'm happy with the price that we paid. You know, if you think back to a season ago, the Kings tried to trade Bagley to us for Sadiq Bay.

I'm glad that the Pistons held strong. Laughed at them, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. No. Excellent. It was just another good move by Troy Weaver. And, yeah, I mean, initially I was excited for the potential chemistry,

with Marvin Bagley and Killian Hayes. And while I still think there is potential for those two guys to get a lot of overlap next season, in the meantime, it was very good for the offense and just for the viewing experience to bring Marvin Bagley on and see what it's like to have a lob threat there in the paint. Yeah, it was definitely a good trade.

I agree. At the very least, you take a, you know, at the very worst, you take a flyer on a potentially good player. Maybe it'll work out. Maybe he won't for basically the cost of just a couple of second round picks, one of which is going to almost certainly be in the 50s. So that was cool trade. I agree.

Basically, just merely thanks to his ability to play above the rim. I mean, that was just such a help to Cade who really relies in the high pig and roll and you want to give him as many options as you possibly can and not having a vertical spacer. That's another thing Troy Weaver said today was that he screwed that up and didn't put enough athleticism in the front court. And it was noticeable. Basically, no team in the NBA had that problem.

problem. Because of him maybe the thunder when they were starting Jeremiah, Robinson, Earl. Basically, everybody else was able to, was able to play above the rim to some degree. I think that it definitely called attention to Isaiah Stewart's deficiencies, his lack of verticality, just how hard it is to get him the ball and the pick and roll, and he's not a lob threats, and so on and so forth, just what he doesn't provide. So it was definitely good for Kate. I should mention that Bagley isn't special in that respect.

There are plenty of guys who can play above the rim, so you could definitely replace him with another guy. who can play above the rim and do more stuff. The hope is that he improves as a defender or as a shooter. Got to shoot to play power forward. Got to improve his defender to play center. I really question if he has the defensive vacuum to do it. But he'll have a chance.

But that was definitely a good thing for Cade, without a doubt. And, you know, good trade. And who knows? If weaver had brought in a vertical space early in the season, maybe the business wouldn't have third best draft odds. So not the worst thing in the world. Yeah, definitely. And you mentioned Isaiah Stewart.

I think that he's the other part of this. He's the other big on the team. And, yeah, we've already mentioned that clearly he wasn't a very good vertical, yeah, a vertical spacer or a very good law threat. But he still found ways to be effective. The highway screens was a really cool development once that was pointed out. And he still did what he did. Last year, you know, you could see the energy and you could see just the way that he was getting in guys under guy's skin

and just outworking everybody. And that was great this season, but when his role expanded, I mean, this is one of the things that maybe was a little bit of a disappointment on the season. I think back to the start of the season, those first 10 games we were like,

okay, Isaiah Stewart, this is your chance, you're going to be the starter. Let's see how you do. And then it just became abundantly clear that him and Cade are probably not a good long-term duo just because Isaiah doesn't do enough for Cade in terms of being an option

or a guy who can finish plays. So that was disappointing, but I still think Isaiah's presence on the team is extremely valuable. He's another guy who's helping set the culture. And I think that he'd be very valuable off the bench as just a guy who can finish plays in the low post. And I think that just having him on the team alone is more than, he's more than deserving a roster spot, obviously. So maybe that's a disappointment on some level that he wasn't, he doesn't. appear to be a starting caliber five, but, you know, he's still high value and we all still love him. So I still think that he, we got to figure out more about what he is and what he can contribute.

And even if it's not exactly what we envisioned at the start of the season, I'm still very happy with his potential contribution and what he does for the pistons. I think that, you know, we've talked about this a few times now, like your potential bench. I think the pistons already have their eight or nine man rotation in terms of the bench if they want to, you know, kill you a good back. up. Yeah. For next season. I mean, I'm like a good backup.

Yeah, I don't think, you know, I don't think anybody beyond Stewart at this point has established himself as a good bench player on a good team. Yeah, that's probably, yeah, I can agree with that. I'm high on Killian and I'm high on Bagley. I think those guys, I think all three of those guys could work together, especially if Isaiah Stewart continues to knock down the three, which on the tail end of the season, he's been very, very good. It's not an out-of-now-where thing.

We knew that he had that potential, but he looks, it looks different, And it looks like it could translate into next year. He's got to be able to shoot in order to be an effective offensive player. We've said it many times because down low, he's just a paint clogger for the most part. He's not a very good score in the restricted area. It's tough to be a center who's undersized and scores below the rim. That's not easy. I mean, that's a tough job.

Yeah, but it's easier off the bench. It's easier off the bench, definitely. You know, when it comes, again, we can talk about, you know, the future bench rotation at some points. I think, like I said, I think Killian's got a long way to go back. Bagley's got to do some work. I agree you can have a decent big rotation with the two of them. If Stewart can shoot, the Bagley run the pick and roll, and Stewart will be just the space around offense.

That looks plausible. Yeah, and Stewart can be the guy who protects the interior because I think that Bagley's got a drastically better shot of being a decent perimeter defender. I mean, it was something else how poor he was at making the right reads, you know, as the guy defending the interior when Stewart was out. So, but Stewart's, like you said, great culture guy, super hard worker.

Him going after LeBron was one of the highlights of the season, I would say. Man, I forgot about that. That was crazy. That was crazy. Yeah. And he established himself as like a guy that nobody wants to mess with. So that's cool. Yeah.

So, but yeah, long-term bench guy, I would agree. My only concern would be, you know, he goes, your starting center of the future goes down to you've got to bring Isaiah in. And that's a big step backward on offense if Kay doesn't have a good role man with him. It's like you said, he doesn't function. well with Cade, who just needs a more dynamic player who's able to play more effectively in the pick and roll. Isaiah is not good on the pick and roll. Aside from the screens he can set, but that's not enough. So a final guy I think we should talk about is Jeremy Grant.

Start of the season slow was doing some irritating things, just too many of those awful mid-range pull-ups and just playing a very black hole style of play. After the All-Star break, Troy Weaver said he talked with him, or maybe it was case, he asked him to play a more efficient game and he did he was he was moving the ball around a lot better i don't think he'll be great at it ever but he was moving the ball around a lot better off the drive he wasn't taking as many bad shots he was also just shooting better but you saw he and bay and kate played pretty well together now are they a big three on the championship team it would say no you need much better number two than grant but uh you know kudos to him for making that improvement and now had he not been

asked to play that way before who knows but kudos to him nonetheless Yeah, I definitely agree with you. If you hadn't done it, I was going to bring it up. I'm happy that Troy Weaver and Dwayne Casey acknowledged the fact that he was not playing a very good, inefficient game. And they addressed it and he made changes. You know, this was definitely something that we got a chance to talk about during the season. You know, the mid-range pull-ups, they drove us crazy. And he was starting to cut those out a little bit, taking a lot more threes, taking and making, most importantly, a lot more threes.

Yeah, going hard to the basket. Yeah, yeah, that was something that he did. I mean, I don't know if we can call it last season now, but in his first season with the Pistons, he would attack the rim hard, and he was like putting his body on the line. He was taking punishment. He got the crap in the start this season.

Yeah, he didn't do that as much. And it was kind of a head scratcher because it was one of the things that made Grant. So, I don't know, dynamic. It made him such a weapon. You know, he was going in there and he was not afraid to mix it up. And it was something that we very much appreciated about him.

So I'm really happy that he started to look like a little bit more like that first season with the Pistons, Jeremy Grant. I'll ask you this now. Do you think they trade them? I'd say it depends on the draft. It also depends on the offers they get. Troy Weaver said today in his press conference that they just didn't get very many. They didn't really get good offers for Jeremy.

And he said, I was surprised he was this open. He said, we'll look forward and see what happens. I mean, I'm sure Jeremy was perfectly aware that even when he came to the Pistons that he might end up getting traded. So it'll depend on how the draft goes, I would imagine. I just start repeating myself, depending on how the draft goes, depend on chief above all, which offers you get. Like there was talk about Portland trading the Pelicans pick. The Pelicans pick is most likely to fall at number 11, I think,

or is it number 12? I think number 12. So if they don't make the playoffs. So that's not great. Yeah. Yeah. Going back to these offseason offers, you know, there were some disappointment among Pistons fans and us that Jeremy,

Jeremy didn't get traded. We thought that, you know, his value might be high. But it was a suspicion of ours that maybe the offers just weren't that good. And Troy Weaver kind of said what we said back then, which is that, you know, after the playoffs, there are a lot of teams that are like, oh, maybe if we just bring this guy on, maybe we'll look better. But I think the Portland offer, maybe that's one of the better ones out there. But there was, you know, this is a little bit of news from a few weeks ago.

There was indications from Shams that there is a decent amount of interest in grant and that maybe we have a little bit of a maybe not a bidding more but there is enough competition to drive up the price a little bit which is always good for us you know I think Grant's I still think that theoretically he could contribute to this team and when they are

looking to compete but the timeline is it's iffy because he is what is he turning 28 or 29 here soon yeah I think he well he just turns 28 did he so yeah if the pistons yeah if the pistons are

planning for next season, probably make the plans, the season after that, make the playoffs straight away. And then the next season after that really start to contend. I mean, Jeremy is going to be 31. And that's not old, but the really... It's right on the tail end of your prime. Yeah, most NBA players go into decline in the 30s in the early 30s. So you still have them on the team, but once you're really ready to contends, maybe is your

fourth best starter. Not the worst thing in the world. But the question is, what can you get in exchange? But what are you losing in terms of his presence on the team and generally, off the court. Ultimately, if I had to guess, I don't think that Jeremy Grant is going to play another game with the Pistons. If he does get traded, I am intrigued by the potential return there, especially if it's

centered around draft picks. I've already started to look into some of the guys in the late teens. There are some interesting names there. Once again, this is not the 2020 NBA draft. It's just, yeah, the 2021 NBA draft. It's not that talented. It's worth reiterating just one last time. that draft class was phenomenal.

I know maybe this might have been some people's first real interest. That might have been some people's first real interest in tanking and what can we do in terms of building. And in the draft too, Pistons hadn't had this kind of high pick. Exactly. But even further down, there is depth all over the place in that draft. So I don't think that that's going to be this upcoming one. I just want to be upfront about that, I guess.

But there's still some interesting names there. So if Grant does ultimately get traded and we get another pick in the teens, there are some interesting names. And I don't think it's still looking forward to that. I don't think the teens is going to be high enough to trade for Grant. I think if Portland drops a couple spots in the lottery, they're number six. I think if they drop to number seven, they drop to number eight. If they jump, there's no way to trade that pick, I would say.

No. But if they dropped the number seven or eight, I wouldn't put it past them to say, well, we're trying to win now. That's the big thing. That's what they did this offseason was to build her on some. It just creates space for Lillard and have a team that's that's Lillard and Simon's in the back court. And I think that grants could be worth more to them than that pick.

I don't think they get both. Yeah, I don't think they get both picks that Portland has. That would be quite a coup. Dave's not getting any younger. Yeah, I don't think this was a well-advised rebuild by the Blazers who still just have a two-man rotation. You know, who'd rather have all of their hopes loaded into two guards still. and they're an even worse defensive pairing than Lillard and McCollum were.

And also, Simon said his best work on the ball. Bluett does his best work on the ball. How are you going to make that work? So whatever. Okay. So we're going to move on to some listener submitted questions. First one we have, what do you think a fair contract would be for Marvin Bagley? Oh, okay.

So I know people really like Bagley. And like we just sang his praises and what he did for this office. offense. But like Mike mentioned, you know, it's not that hard to replace athleticism in the NBA, especially for what Bagley does. He's kind of a tweener four or five. Yeah, at center, it really isn't. Right. And so with that in mind, like with Bagley's defense in mind, I don't actually think that he's super valuable if you can bring in somebody who has like the same skill set. I would feel comfortable offering him like between six and seven for two to three years. I don't think you want to give him like a ton of money.

I've seen some pretty high numbers up there. But like this is the first time that the Pissons have had a decent amount of cap space in a while. And you don't want to just throw that away on a player like Bagley. So unless he's like a starting caliber guy, like you're confident that he's going to be really, really good, like a core piece. I don't think that you should throw a ton of money at him. Yeah, I disagree that you can easily replace athleticism. Well, unless it's bad players. But I certainly agree at center.

I mean, finding a decent traditional big. who can just be a strong role man, catch lobs, finish strong in the interior and play decent defense, ideally protect the rim well. Those guys aren't terribly expensive or difficult to find because the fact that they can't shoot really drives their price down. So I would say two things about Bagley. Number one, he's a full-up player. We've been over this. I mean, the guy is still a net negative player because he can't shoot and he's a bad defender. So he's got to make progress on those ends. I think that the pistons would like to get him locked up. to like the highest day would go is like eight million per season for a two plus player option

it gives you two years to see what you get and then if he's good you have the third season at a really great price so but bagley will bagley want a one plus one to bet on himself i think that's a possibility in that case i think you're still looking at around the same number i don't think cap space this summer really matters all that much unless the pistons you know throw a big offer at bridges and he gets lowball by the Hornets and ends up with the Pistons, but I don't think that's likely. I think that would be a very exceedingly poor move by the Hornets.

It's worth mentioning just that he spoke very highly of his time with the Pistons post-trade. He definitely seems to like it here. Maybe that's a factor. Maybe the organization's like, yeah, we can offer you this type of role. I mean, you know what you're going to get here. You know what our team and our organization is about. Maybe that's appealing to him. I don't know if that's a factor for him.

I mean, maybe it's not a factor for his agents. we're just trying to get a cut. But yeah, I mean, as far as betting on yourself, this is a good place to do it. There's not a ton of talent here to take over for you, and you're definitely, you know, you're going to get your minutes if you're throwing down lobs for Cade. So, well, I think, I think this is an appealing spot for Bagley. It is, definitely. And he said that this is the most fun he's had in the NBA.

Of course, the rest of his time in the NBA with this is with Sacramento and the worst, probably the worst situation you can possibly be in the NBA. But one thing you think about with Bagley, if the Pistons draft, Barry Smith at the Pistons draft. Chet Holmgren, I don't even want to think about the Pistons drafting Paul Van Carrow. I mean, neither of us like him. And we'll talk about, we're going to do a deep dive into him as well as into Smith and Holmgren and, I don't know, maybe Ivy before the draft.

But, yeah, if they draft the power forward and you have Stewart on the team, yeah, especially if Grant stays. I mean, where do you find minutes for Bagley? That's a consideration. But Troy seems to like him so much that I'm quite confident that he will stay. we'll get minutes next season. So, yeah, I would say $8 million is the highest I would go for Bagley. And not many teams have cap space.

Those teams are almost certainly not going to throw a big offer at the likes of Marvin Bagley. And teams that don't have space are very unlikely to use the, who are trying to compete or very unlikely to use the mid-level exception on Bagley. Okay. What should we do with Jeremy Grant? We went over that. Depends on the draft. It depends on what offers they get.

Okay. Who is the biggest surprise for you, biggest disappointment that isn't Killian. That was a reference to me. I was very hard on Killian early in the season because it really annoyed me that he wouldn't drive into the paint and accept contact. Yeah, it's like struggle, whatever,

just do that. Everybody else is doing it. You got to do it. Just got to do it in general. Yeah. I'll take the lead on this one if you want. Yeah, I'll, yeah, why don't you? Because I got to give it.

I get to give it some time. I mean, I just have my biggest disappointment. I'm not even sure who the biggest surprise is, but biggest disappointment for me is definitely Frank Jackson. And certainly part of it was this back injury that really seemed to just hurt his shooting. But I had very high hopes for Frank Jackson. I think he can still be a fifth man on a very good team, just a guy who's low usage, sneakily athletic. And last season, there was that stretch where he was putting the three ball up really well on volume and a good percentage.

And I was very intrigued by his potential. But this season, it just hasn't worked out. I've seen people keen on the idea of moving on from him getting him off the team. I am not even close to that yet. Give him time. Let him see if he can get healthy and just get his stuff together because Frank Jackson, his archetype is very appealing to me. He's a low-usage, three-point shooter with a very quick release.

People have noticed that he can catch the ball high and put it up really quickly. I think that's incredibly valuable on a team like the Pistons. We've said it a million times. We need guys who can finish the plays that Cade creates. And if you're a three-point shooter and an athlete, you are one of those guys. So Frank Jackson, I'm disappointed that he didn't get to establish himself as a good player this season, but I'm still high on him and definitely the biggest disappointment in my opinion. Was the biggest surprise for you, Dello, because I know that, you know, in our personal discussions,

prior to him really getting time, you weren't high on him at all. Yeah, I was thinking, I was trying to think, he was my benchmark. I was trying to think if there was anything that was a, bigger surprise to me, but I would have to say that it probably was Diallo because you're right. Like I said, I have not been high on Diallo and I didn't think that any guy, like I said, I'm big on archetypes and, you know, how guys fit with other guys. And to me, Hamadu, he's so athletic. He just bucks the mold where it's like you need guys on the perimeter who are going to space.

But Hamadu certainly earned his minutes and he was an effective player, an impact player. And yeah, no, that was definitely a big surprise to me. Yeah, so I would have two surprises. my biggest disappointment. I had this in my head. I don't remember. Frank, I wasn't super hopeful for him. I hoped he would work out.

But last season was his first as a good three-point shooter, good motion three-point shooter. And you just never know if that's going to be a flash in the pan, especially because he primarily just picked it up near the end of the season. Well, middle to end. He really struggled early on. So I would say my biggest surprise is, Sadieke, again, I didn't think that he would do.

quite that well this season after his first unfortunate, it was 26 games, actually. But yeah, middle of December, all the way up to the second to last game because he barely played in the game against Philly. He also barely played in the game against Oklahoma City, that season finale against Philly rather. He was at about 18 points on, you know, pretty good efficiency and then creating a decent amount of his offense. A second one to a much, much lesser extent would be Isaiah Livers, didn't expect him to come

in and didn't give really solid rotation minutes that are. on. So those would be my two biggest surprises. Biggest disappointment. Probably Isaiah Stewart, yeah. Because I thought I was really big on him during last season. During last season, it was just a guy who was like, he makes his teammates better. He's such a hard worker. And then this season he came in and there were the struggle of shooting.

But also, it was just apparent, like we said earlier in the episode, that he's got certain flaws that come of being both undersized and a poor leper that you can't really, they're insurmountable. I mean, it's not going to get taller. He's hugely unlikely to just gain another gear as a leper. And yes, so he was disappointing for me. I think it was only took until midseason before I had reached the conclusion that he was probably better off the bench.

And, okay, favorite moment for the season, I would say, you know, there were some great kid games like that explosion against, against Brooklyn. probably my high moment in terms of joy for the season was when the Pistons beat the Spurs with the only roster, the only members of the main roster were on the team, because everybody else was sick, were Garza Dielo and Bay. And that was such a feel-good win. Like, I came away from that feeling like the Pistons had won a playoff game. That's a good one. Yeah. I think my favorite movement of the season was K-dropping the 34, 8, and 8. You know, because one, it was just such a crazy stat line and everybody it was such a big deal that the only guy was whoever knocked that down

was uh jordan so yeah no that's probably my favorite one um and then i'll shout it out one more time winning the lottery if you can count that as part of the season that was just such an i i'm i'm keeping it man like i just want to mention that one more time what a phenomenal moment that was just how great kate kate has absolutely lived up to what he was built to be if anything, he's exceeded my expectations. I mean, the three ball has been streaky, but just the floor general that he is. Like, I'll say it again, man.

Things went really well this season. Considering how many games we lost, like overall, this was a good season of Pistons basketball. Like, we're building something. It feels different. And I certainly appreciate that after some of the weird, short-sighted rosters that we've had to suffer through over the past decade

and whatever. Yeah, that feels like just, that feels like just almost like a distant bad memory at this point, even though it wasn't too long. This is a breath of fresh air compared to that. No, to say the least. All right. I mean, I think that severely understates it. Yeah.

And finally, what are some things Johnny Kane can go into the offseason to improve his commentary game? It's possible that Blah if he doesn't, if his recovery is slow, will not travel. It's a far away game. So you might have Johnny Kane doing primary commentary or play-by-play rather at certain points next season. I enjoyed Kane. I really like his hype. I loved hearing him shout Hamadu. That was cool.

So I would say for him, just do some research before the games, come up with some cool talking points. You know, he clearly is very passionate. And I think having a somewhat more knowledgeable bent to his commentary would be helpful for him. Yeah, Johnny Kane, probably the most improved player. Like, I wasn't a fan of him. I wasn't huge on his commentary like two years ago, but he definitely grew up on me this season. I agree. His energy is fun.

I love it when he screams lob. Like his energy there, immaculate. But yeah, it'd be cool if he did his little research and came up with his nicknames. I remember there was, I think, I want to say it was Ian Eagle. Desmond Bain had hit a shot and he said something like, the fire rises. And I just thought that was the funniest thing ever. But yeah, no, Johnny Kane, what a guy. I like him.

I think he, I think everybody kind of knows at this point that he's probably going to pick it up. when Blaha puts the mic down, but I think we're in good hands. All right. Any closing thoughts? Social media. Yeah. No, if you made it this far, thank you so much for listening to us. Stick around with us through the off season.

We do all sorts of stuff, like especially draft content. People really seem to like our single prospect reviews, and we don't stop. So if you made it this far, thank you again so much. If you're on Spotify, please consider giving us a rating. If you're on Apple, rating and review. and then if you want to interact with us, we love hearing from you guys and interacting with you.

We're on Twitter at To the BasketPod. That's T.O. The BasketPod. And once again, thank you so much for listening. Oh, T.O. The BasketPod. What did I say? You said T.O. BasketPod. T.O. Oh, my God. Yeah.

T.O. The Basket pod. Yeah. Driving to Basket. Yeah. Driving to Basket. Yeah. No, that's not it. No, that's not it. All right, folks. So we'll catch you.

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