The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Spurs-Pistons Reaction: Wemby & Castle DOMINATE + Cade Cunningham learns important lessons

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Jason reacts to the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons squaring off in a battle of young NBA Finals contenders. He breaks down how Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle affected the game on both ends of the floor, Cade Cunningham's up-and-down game, and what Detroit needs to take the next step. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, welcome to who's tonight here at The Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great beginning to your week. Got a quick show for you guys today. We're going to be hitting one game from last night. It is we had a showdown between two of the best young teams in the league. As the San Antonio Spurs roll up into Detroit and pretty much control them, in a big road win there got a lot to dig into from that game you guys know the joke before we

started subscribe to hoops tonight youtube channels so you don't miss any more of our videos make sure you like this video and sign up for our post notifications that helps us a lot and the last minute at least if you want to get mailbag questions into our friday mailbag drop them under this episode or any of our other full episodes and we'll get to them on fridays throughout the remainder of the season all right let's talk some basketball so as we said a very fun showdown between two of the best young teams in the league. The Pistons, they've been both the best team in the league by record and by number of, like, impressive wins. Going into the game, they had been by far and away the best team in the NBA this season against the upper level teams and going into the night

having the best record. Just very simply, the Pistons had been the most impressive NBA team so far the season. Meanwhile, San Antonio has been fantastic as well. They came in on an eight game winning streak. Last night was their ninth in a row. They've consistently held down the two seed in a very competitive West. And so it was just an awesome showdown that a measuring stick game for both of these teams. And the half court dynamic became problematic for Detroit right away. Predictably, Victor Wemnon Yamma was shutting off the rim on basically every kind of attack that Detroit was trying to unleash towards the basket. Deep drop on any of the pick and roll looks when he was guarding their centers. So when he was guarding Jalen Duren or Paul

Reed, just shutting off the guy driving at him and the roller in those, in those particular sequences. He guarded Ron Holland some on some sequences when Detroit had their lesser shooters on the floor. They'd tuck him away on Ron Holland and just have him hang out at the rim. And there are just so many different ways that Wemby can break in offense. He can pretty easily shut off pick and roll. But again, kind of splitting the difference between the ball handler and the roller. He shut down when Detroit tried to go more towards a matchup attacking type of style. Like, we saw Cade searching for answers all night long, and we're going to talk about that in a minute. But especially in that fourth quarter, he started to try to look at a few more ISO looks,

a few more post-ups, try to find different ways to attack Wemby. And Wembe was just still swatting those attempts away at the rim, even just interior passing. In the first half, J.V. Biggarsap ran this like kind of nifty play, just a little cross-screen for Jalen Duren and try to get him a post-catch on the right block. And Wembe ended up, because there was a third screen involved, Wendy, Wembe ended up stepping out for a second to show on a different guard screen. And so he got caught off guard and Dern broke free wide open under the basket. Post entry pass gets made. Wembe just recovers and then reaches over the top. It pokes it away and it leads to a turnover. And I'm like, oh my God, you literally

ran a play to perfection and got Jalen Dern one of the best under the basket presences in the league, a wide open catch. And Wembe just because he's got arms that go on for days, just poked it away anyway. It's just he does so much to break offense with his presence around the rim. And that was a problem for Detroit all night. I also want to shout out Steph Castle here. Like, Steph was phenomenal in this game with so many facets, especially on offense. And we're going to talk about that in a minute. But his on ball defense on Kate was a real factor in this game. He's big. He's got a high motor. He moves laterally super well. He's very good at disrupting rhythm. Again, that dynamic with Wemby at the rim was basically

turning Cade into a jump shooter. And so Steph's job at that point is to like, because he had forced a bunch of stuff at the rim and, you know, Cade ended up getting blocked six times. Like, that just wasn't working, right? So essentially, Cade becomes a jump shooter. Steph's job there is to try to disrupt his base, disrupt his rhythm and get good contests on the jump shots. And I just thought he did a phenomenal job there all game long.

And then in the half court, Detroit managed just a 67 offensive rating last night. And again, that was with them doing quite a bit of damage on the offensive glass. They had, I think, over 20 points in this game just on putback. So, like, a lot of damage on the offensive glass and yet still only a 67 offensive rating in the half court. Just a very impressive defensive performance in the half court for that young San Antonio's

first team. I want to switch gears here and talk about Cade for a minute because there was a lot of discourse about him after last night's game that I didn't necessarily agree with. And look, it was a bad game. You went five for 26 from the field, like we mentioned. He got blocked. six times in this game. There are definitely some low lights in there, some bad forced early jump shots in the shot clock, some bad forces at the rim, especially in that fourth quarter stretch.

A couple of ugly turnovers. Like, I'm not going to sit here and make the case that Cade was good last night because he just wasn't. That's not what I'm trying to say here. But there are two points that I want to make about his approach in this game that I think are worth considering. one, this Victor Wemnon Yama problem is still a relatively new and unique problem around the league. Like, believe it or not, because Wembe missed both Pistons games last year and then they each were never on the floor together in Wembe's rookie season, there is yet to be an opportunity for K to go against Victor Wemanniama. This was his very first time trying to solve the Wembe problem. And that's kind of how this stuff manifests.

like all of the great defenses in the league like look different right like minnesota's is more based on length and you know Oklahoma cities is more based on quickness on the ground. San Antonio's obviously a combination of both because they've got some bigger perimeter players, but they also have wemby at the rim. Each of the great defenses around the league present a unique puzzle for all of our great shot creators around the NBA to solve. And Kay did not solve the spurs last night by any means, but he did come away with a lot of information about what works and what doesn't. He's going to have a lot to learn when he goes to look at the film. And so the Pistons played the spurs again here in less than two weeks. And I do think Kay down

when they go to San Antonio will at least play a little bit better as he gets a little bit more familiar with what this defensive look looks like. Like to put it simply, Kate isn't the first guy to run into Victor Women yama and have an oh shit kind of moment where he realizes that this is very different than everything else that he's dealt with. Two, this Pistons offense is kind of a nightmare matchup with San Antonio because they don't have close to enough shooting to space the floor. And then when they tried to skew their lineups towards shooting, it ended up causing other problems for them on the defensive end of the floor. There were so many possessions in this game where I saw Cade probing in pick and roll and there

would be like two guys in the dunker spot like Jalen Jern or Paul Reed would be there. Assar Thompson or Ron Holland would be under the basket as well. And like whoever, you know, when you look at those kind of spacing situations, you, you pause this. Like I did this a lot during my film session this morning. Like when Cade would kind of get into the decision zone underneath the basket, I'd like pause it and I'd look. And there would be, you know, the two guys that could shoot on the floor,

like they would be kind of up on Duncan Robinson or up on, you know, on Tobias Harris or whoever it was that was the other kind of more. offensive threat that was on the floor. Cade would be kind of in the middle. Steph Castle would be on his side or on his back. And then there would just be like six bodies in the paint. And one of them is Victor Wemianama. And like, yeah, Cade would force something bad and get blocked or take some really tough shot around the basket that he'd miss. But I'd be like, there's not really an obvious read to be made there. There was like one late in the game where Ron Holland is actually standing wide open in the left corner. And Cade's kind of driving along that right side. And he ended up

forcing it up at the rim and getting blocked by Victor Wemagnama. And I'm like, okay, yeah, Ron Holland's the read. But Ron, after making his first three went 0 for five on his next five threes. And several of them were bricks, including a bad air ball out of the left corner. So like, Ron Holland didn't have any confidence in his jump shot. And I'm looking at Cade processing there. And he's thinking like, well, shit, if I get it up on the glass, maybe we'll get an offensive rebound or something. If I throw it out to Ron Holland, he's just going to miss, right? And so like, there's a certain amount of, I'm not saying that he made the right decision every single time, but I'm just saying it was a lot easier

said than done. It was a very new challenge for Cade and this Pistons team doesn't come equipped with the type of guys that you need to really put San Antonio into some tough predicaments on defense. And again, they struggled with it, but it's a lot of new additional information in some realities as it pertains to Detroit's roster construct. And then when they went to their more shooting focused lineup, there were several times where you'd look out there and it would be like Kers Lavert and Dennis Jenkins as the two guys that they would try to provide

for K to give a little bit more space to the actions they're trying to run. And then right there on the other end of the floor, Steph Castle and Deere and Fox are going right at Dennis Jenkins in one-on-one because he's not close to the defender that a Ron Hollander or a Sarr Thompson is. And he's a target one-on-one. And those guys were going right through him and getting all the way to the rim. Dearon Fox got him a couple of times. Steph Castle was just powering through him at the basket.

And so it was a predicament. It was like you could try to space the floor a little bit better. But those guys weren't even making threes anyways. Like the entire bench lineup for Detroit was broke from three in this particular game. It's not like Harris Lavert and Dennis Jenkins were out there, you know, creating a ton of space. So like, again, I don't, I, Kate had a rough night. I just think when you look at the fact that this Wembe problem is relatively, new and it's kind of a bad matchup for Detroit anyway. I'm just not overreacting to it.

So the question is, how can Cade become more successful against this type of look? It really comes down to surgical over-the-top scoring. Like, if you can do that specific thing well enough, tight space scoring, close range scoring, manufacturing points at the foul line, that sort of thing, that allows you to keep your more defensive-minded players on the floor. When you have your more defensive-minded players on the floor, you can get more stops and turnovers that allow you to get out in transition more. Like Detroit actually had a ton of success in transition in this game. Of their 103 points, 38 of them or in transition, like that's a huge chunk. That's over a 30 year offense right there. Ron Holland himself had a crazy run in the first half where he'd back

to back, freaky athletic drives in transition. So like if Cade can become more successful as a mid to short-range score, he can make J.B. Bicker staff's lineup decisions easier. Just play the defensive players. We'll get out and transition when we can. This is the whole Oklahoma City approach, right? But it only works because Shea is arguably the most surgical tight space score that we have in the league. Right now, Cade's just extremely mediocre at it. On short pull-up twos, floaters, and hooks, he makes about two per game and he shoots about 47%. You compare that with Shea, he's at 56% on almost double the volume. And he gets to the foul line a ton to even further reinforce that idea.

That's not to say Cade needs to become Shea. That's absurd. She's a completely different archetype of player. I'm just saying that by adding more of that to his game, he'll open things up not just for himself on offense, but also in the lineup flexibility that can stop J.B. Bickerstaff from having to leave his best defenders off the floor for much of that second half. At least within this construct of the,

team until there is some internal improvement with these guys in their jump shots or until some roster changes are made. I think that's the biggest area of opportunity for Cade when they run into this look. Because maybe it won't be as dramatic as Wemby, but you're going to see versions of this throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs where it's nothing's open except for a bad shooter or a cluster fuck around the basket and Cade's going to have to try to find a way to generate some off. And so bottom line, like, it's not Cade's best moment for sure, but I don't think last night was a referendum on who he is as a basketball player. It's just a challenge he's going to have to solve within this team construct.

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Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas, we invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually... come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys. I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. We were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band.

Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

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or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen Chinchin win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.

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Now, moving back to San Antonio, their half-court offense performed pretty damn well against a phenomenal Detroit Pistons defense. They logged an offensive rating of 90 in the half court last night. They had their ups and downs. Like Detroit was similarly packing the paint like crazy against San Antonio's ball screen attacks and their drives. And there were stretches where like Steph Castle or Deer and Fox were forcing the issue around the basket or Fox in the short range area. and that was usually what would spark Detroit's runouts. That was when they would get going in transition. And that was especially what drove Detroit's early success.

They had some leads there in that first half. And a lot of that came from their transition attack. But overall, I was really impressed with San Antonio's offensive process. Like on their drives, for the most part, they took advantage of their kickout reads. And their roster is much more well set up for that, for the spacing idea there, the ability to make the defense pay when they pass. the paint like that. Both Julian Champani and Devin Vassell were amazing in this game, spacing the floor. Those dudes ended up going 12 for 19 from three, a really, really impressive

shooting performance from those guys. And there's some like very specific, there's a specific detail with Julian Champany and Devin Vassel's shooting that I want to highlight here for a second, because both Julian Champany and Devin Vassel like to take contested catch and shoot threes. Both of them a larger, a substantially larger portion of the catch and shoot threes that they take are contested. Now, this drives down their percentages. Both of those guys are in the mid-40s on unguarded catch-and-shoot threes when they're wide open. But on contested threes, they're in the like mid to low 30s, both of them. So both of them by taking those, they actually do drive their percentages down. But it is far more valuable within the team.

context because in the team context, having a guy that you know will shoot it if he gets any breathing room will lead to the kind of space that allowed Steph Castle to attack, you know, Dennis Jenkins one-on-one, that allowed Deere and Fox to attack Dennis Jenkins one-on-one. If they're only shooting when they're wide open, and I run into this as a Laker fan, there's two shoot, the two good shooters that the Lakers have are Luke Kinnard and Rui Hachamura, and it's the exact opposite dynamic. The vast majority of the shots they take are unguarded. If you throw a close out at them, they're probably not going to shoot it.

They'll end up driving it. And by the way, both of them have outstanding three point percentages, but it doesn't bring anywhere near as much value in the team concept because those guys know, the guys that are guarding those guys, know that they can dig down and get into the lane and disrupt things and just throw a hard close out. And that dude's probably going to put the ball on the floor, which gives your defense a chance to recover. So like, there is a level of aggressiveness off of contested catch and shoot looks with Julian Champani and Devin Vassell that bring an insane amount of value to this particular team.

And I mean, again, like they're like those threes that Devin Vesel hit early in the game. It's like they run that little back screen for Victor Wimmyn Yama. Kade comes over, Chuck's Victor, Devin slips out to the top of the key. Kade gets out there with the contest. but Vassell's like, I'm firing tonight. Like there is an aggressiveness that is very important with those two guys. And it's an important detail when we look at jump shooting around the NBA. If a guy's a really high percentage shooter,

but he only wants to shoot it when he's standing completely by himself, well, guess what? When you're playing the Detroit Pistons or the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs or really any of these great defenses around the league, there's not really a lot of wide open threes to come by, maybe won a game for a good shooter. Like you're not going to be able to get to the volume that you need unless you're ready, willing, and able to take those threes.

And one of the things that helps, Julian Champani has good size. Devin Vassell gets a lot of lift on his above the break, three point shots in particular. Like there is a certain amount of talent to it as well. But the willingness is a huge part of this. You have to be willing to take some of those contested threes. And those guys did a wonderful job last night. Julian Champany, lightning quick release from the corner. He was hitting that one throughout the game, Vassel more above the break.

I think Devin Vassell's above the break three point shooting aggressively off the catch has just been a massive value add to this Spurs team this season. Then I've also all season been so impressed by San Antonio's offensive organization and their execution. They run very crisp off ball action throughout the game. Usually some sort of screening action that involves a big and a guard. This is one of the biggest things that you'll see with Wembe on the floor is just actions that involve guards screening for Wemby. because what ends up happening is no one wants to leave Wembe open. If you back screen for Wemby, like that first play of the game, if you back screen for Wemby and Kade just stays attached to Devin Vassell,

Duren gets hit by that screen. And, you know, Steph Castle is just going to float that thing right up to the front of the rim and Victor Weminyama's going to dunk it, right? And so what ends up happening is Kate has no choice, but to step over and chuck Victor, because if he doesn't, Victor is going to roll for a dunk. So Kade takes away the dunk, but in order to take away the dunk, you essentially have to give up that Devin Vassell above the break three.

Or you have to switch, which now is going to leave a massive size advantage for Victor Weniamah to attack in some other way else. We're on the floor, whether it just be on the offensive glass or in some sort of post seal or quick ISO or something like that. But the Spurs run a ton of that kind of action. They'll even run it in their bench groups with Luke Cornette. They even had a centerless small ball group last night that we saw. It was kind of a unique look that we haven't seen a ton from the Spurs this year. but like when you run those actions with a guard and a big it puts it creates that indecision that marginal indecision where the players don't necessarily want to switch because it creates a mismatch

and that creates these little bits of openings uh devon vassell hit a little mid range jumper in uh if i remember correctly it was like mid third quarter where similar kind of thing off ball action just a little bit of a hesitation that catches him a little bit of a closeout opportunity at the top of the key pump fake one dribble pull up little mid range jumper that goes in. The other part of it, too, like, there's clearly a very, a very useful attention to detail on how they run those off ball actions. Like, they're sprinting in and out of cuts. They set really good physical screens. Their guards set really good screens, which is a big part of how these guys get open. And the spurs have been the seventh best half court offense in the league this

year. And I think those two things, the aggressive catch and shoot shooting from their two starting wings and the crisp execution of their sets is a huge part of what drives that success. I continue to be super impressed by Steph Castle's passing ability. There were two things that stood out to me with Steph early in the season that had me view him as a better prospect than a men Thompson. The consistent playoff of two feet with a strong base, he again last night multiple times in ISO, power dribbles off at two feet, bumps the dude off and gets an easy layup versus a physically overmatched guard. The natural playmaking feel and pick and roll. He is so gifted at reading the low man as he

gets downhill, making that, should I throw the lob or the skip pass or are they staying on the, like there were a couple of plays in the first half where Steph got easy layups because Jalen Dern or Paul Reed are basically hugging Victor Wimb and Yama on the role. And whoever's guarding Steph is in trail position. He just goes right downhill into the lane and gets a wide open layup. But like, if the big steps up, he's reading that low man. Am I throwing the lob to Cornette or the lob to Victor or am I throwing the skip pass? to that opposite corner like he did to Devin Vassell in the corner on that second three that Devin Vassell hit in the game. Cade sagging into the lane, boom, skip pass to the corner, wide

open three. He's just a natural with it. He plays at his own pace. He knows all of the reads. His passing feel in terms of touch on lobs, like, lobs are hard passes to throw and he's just very, very good at it. The accuracy of his skips is off the charts, and he's only going to continue to get better. He'll like occasionally make a wrong read. or force something at the basket. And obviously the perimeter shot making piece is still in its fledgling stages. But I just, I continue to be unbelievably impressed by Steph Castle.

Like, I thought his shot creation last night, game high 11 assists. I thought his shot creation last night was huge. And then with Victor on offense, you know, he got shoved around a little bit. This wasn't a very good on ball game from him.

I thought Jalen Duren just did a good job of just constantly getting away with pushing him off his base. It was a very physical game going both ways. I don't think anybody was getting away with anything. but Jalen Duren, if the game is going to be super physical, is going to have an on-ball, like, strength advantage against Victor Wemanniam. But he still gets 21.

And why is that? It's because of his 21, 15 of them came through sheer vertical playing athleticism. Just him being able to outreach and outjump everybody. It gets like a couple of fouls on just like boxouts and like entries. Like there's a offensive rebound foul in the first half. where he's just staying in there and a guard's like trying to box him out of the lane, gets a foul because he's switched on to a guard and the guard has to foul him to keep him off the glass, boom, he goes to the foul line.

Late in the game, just over a minute left, they're just trying to inbound the ball. No one's open. Well, there's Victor. Just throw it up high to Victor. They all hack him. He ends up drawing another foul. Like there's a, there is so much value that he gets just by being big. He had a dunk on a pick and roll just slipping to the basket.

He got another foul on a pick and roll just rolling to the basket. He had four points on offensive rebound putbacks. He had one where he made it and another one where he drew a foul. Like 15 of his 21 points literally just by being in the vertical plane in a way that no one else on the team can match. And when you can get 15 points without having to do any sort of self-creation just by being way too big for everyone else, then all you have to do is hit a couple threes and you have 21 points.

And that's what he did last night on a night where he was otherwise not great, like offensively, like really a mediocre offensive game from him. and he finishes with 21 points, 17 rebounds and seven stocks, six blocks in that poke away from Jayland Duren that I told you guys about, just a completely outrageous performance from Victor. It's one of those things that I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around with this team. To put it very simply, the reason I've had this team as a second tier contender all year in terms of, you know, like, do I think they're on the same level as like Oklahoma City or Denver or Minnesota? one of the reasons why I've had them on the second tier is just what NBA history tells us.

We've never seen a team this young compete for a championship ever. In the playoffs are typically a place where weaknesses get exposed. And it takes time for young teams to identify those weaknesses and to address those weaknesses. Like, will teams guard Steph Castle with centers or just go under everything comically low below the screens, just dare him to shoot? Or like, will teams just physically bully Victor Women? that all that kind of stuff like what will happen when we get to the postseason but while we've never seen a team this young contend we've also never seen a young player like wemby and if in a

game like this where a lot of wemby's weaknesses were on display in terms of physicality like in him struggling to create his own shot and yet he's still the best player on the floor by country mile because he can get to 20 points just by being big and because he's the most gifted defensive player ever in the history of the league by by a wide margin. Like he dominated that game last night and he won good offensively in the half court. Like that, that is the type of value

that this guy brings. And so honestly, like when I'm looking at San Antonio, I might have to recalibrate how I view them as a championship contender just strictly because of the wild card that is a player in Victor Women, Yama that we've just simply never seen before. Some quick Pistons notes before we get out of here.

I thought Jalen Duren was fantastic. his bully ball around the basket was as impressive as you would hope to see in this type of matchup, 25 and 14 last night, had some big highlights at Wemby's expense, had a big power finish through him early in the game, dunked all over his face in that fourth quarter run. The only other note I had on the Pistons, Duncan Robinson, and this is, you know, he was three for 11 from three last night. I missed a lot of good looks, and this is a dynamic I've seen a lot over the years. Like a lot of times the strict jump shooting type of players will get a little physically overwhelmed, in games like this, and then they won't get the lift that they need,

and then they'll miss a lot of good looks. And that freaked me out just a little bit for Detroit. Like, of all the guys that you needed to shoot well, Duncan was the guy that you would have expected to perform better in this game, given the types of looks that he was getting and he just wasn't hitting. So it was a little bit of a concern there. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.

We got another jam-pack slate tonight, some really fun ones to get into Oklahoma City on the road in Toronto against the Raptors. We're going to be covering dad and a couple other games tomorrow morning. I will see you guys. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin.

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