Santi Aldama Is The BEST TARGET For The Detroit Pistons This Offseason | Will Memphis LET HIM GO?

Santi Aldama Is The BEST TARGET For The Detroit Pistons This Offseason | Will Memphis LET HIM GO?

in today’s episode of locked on pistons podcast we’ll be discussing why i believe santi alama is the best fit and the best target for the pistons this offseason we’ll break it all down why it’s a possibility today’s episode locked on pistons podcast let’s go you are locked on pistons your daily detroit pistons podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day the deal welcome back to another episode of the locked on pistons podcast per usual i am your host cuckoo hill you can find me over on twitter cuckillo i want to thank you guys for making locked on pistons your first listen of every single day we’re free and available on all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the youtube channel at lockdown pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on that’s another great way to support the podcast and today’s episode is brought to you by fanduel right now new customers you get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins make sure you guys head over to the description down below check out the substack i just put out a long film breakdown on santi dama and why i like him so much so if you want film and some breakdowns to go along with some santi alama talk go head over to the substack subscribe you guys will get that also head over to the playback where we might have just one more game to watch as it looks like the okc thunder might close out in game six matt you’re not going to be too happy about that one your guys going down um but i maintain that i want the thunder to win the finals we’re joined by friend of the podcast matt griffin you can find him over on twitter griff oneonone we’ll be discussing santi alama and why i believe he is the best fit for the pistons this offseason why i believe he should be number one on their uh target list uh list of guys to go after this offseason we have some words from lockdown grizzlies host joe we’ll talk about why santi alama may have some starting potential and what it would look like if the pistons went after him so let’s go ahead and get into it matt before we give our thoughts on santiama why i like him i know you like him as well as a player before we get our thoughts i want everyone to get uh get to hear from lockdown grizzlies host joe who’s going to give us two minutes real quick like we got from lockdown celtics host john carales a few weeks ago to talk about derek white uh lockdown grizzlies host joe is going to give us some time here to tell us what he thinks of santiama has been rumored to be a possible sign and trade target for several teams around the nba the detroit pistons are one that do make sense in fairness to the idea but i’m not convinced that that’s actually what the grizzlies want to do i’m joe mullen of lockdown grizzlies thanks for having me it’s nice to be here albeit for a brief time and it’s fitting that it’s only going to be for a little while because i’m not sure that santi alama is actually going to be on the move aldama provides much needed scoring pop for this grizzlies roster and while it’s common to hear national media say things like the grizzlies are rebuilding what’s next for jaw and jiren this is a retooling that memphis is going through in the wake of the desmond bane deal this is not something that people should look at and say the grizzlies are moving on from key pieces santi alama is not a dog he’s not somebody that’s going to go out there and be a dominant force defensively or on the boards what he does provide is a variety of offensive skill in a unique 6’11 frame and he’s able to do these things in memphis because of the setup that the grizzlies have around santi whether it is john jiren themselves whether it is a bench that consists of scotty pippen jr moving forward vince williams jr gi jackson there’s lots of different cogs and components that make santi alama unique and a good fit for what memphis wants to do could he make sense in detroit absolutely what he brings to the grizzlies as a three-point threat as a three-level potentially scorer he could do the same things for the pistons but what would the pistons be willing to part with in order to bring in somebody like santi alama the desmond bane trade works for memphis because it did not come from a position of desperation the magic made the grizzlies an offer that they couldn’t refuse what would detroit do in a similar situation memphis is not looking to move off of a young costcontrolled big who can score the basketball in a variety of ways they’re not asking him to be a starter they’re not asking him to be anything other than santi alma and as he continues to develop his game you want to see better rebounding you want to see improved defensive versatility but again that’s not what’s going to get santi paid around the mid-level exception this coming off season what’s going to get santi paid is continuing to grow and build upon what he already is and that’s too valuable for memphis to move on from unless detroit like other nba teams is willing to pay the price all right so that was from joe locked on grizzlies his quick thoughts on santi alama real quick before we get into our thoughts he brought up how much santi alama would eventually cost he brought up maybe around the ml i have hollander’s model where he went through and according to his model how much these players are worth um he dropped it yesterday he has santi alama as the ninth best free agent in this class he has them priced around $25.6 $6 million on average so that’s what hollander model has him priced at he’s right behind nas reed at 26.2 million in this model so that’s where hollinger has him at i think santi is going to be worth more than the ml i think he’s going to want more um but now that we heard from joe and we’ll talk about some of the stuff about him starting is he starting level player we’ll talk about that later um because there’s some things that i think joe uh there’s some things that joe said i think maybe would work in the pistons favor that he didn’t bring up but matt just real quickly before we get into all that what are your thoughts on santi the player i guess we could we should probably give just like a quick explanation of what he is 6’11 7 foot power forward very offensive versatile offensive player young guy 24 years old um played his best season this past year for the memphis grizzlies so with all that matt where are you at with santi alama i mean yeah i i think aldama’s like a a he’s an he’s kind of a unique player but i think he’s an easy evaluation man like he’s seven feet tall and can dribble pass shoot and rebound like that’s a good basketball player you know and i think this year like is kind of the first year of aldama’s career where it feels like that none of that stuff was theoretical at all um you hear you hear dribble pass shoot a lot of times and a lot of times it is theoretical especially with guys this big just because the idea of a player who can do all of that at his size is so exciting but like he just can none of it none of it is questionable i think we know that he can shoot we know that he can pass he can put it on the deck he’s a very good kind of closeout driver for what he is and he’s not gonna you know he’s not mitchell robinson on the offensive glass or anything but there’s no doubt that he helps you end possessions defensively and he’s huge you know he’s smart he’s a really smart player i think like he’s just kind of one of those guys who um is additive you know you’re you’re not it doesn’t feel like you’re losing a lot when you put aldama on the floor he’s not going to get in anybody’s way you have to cover for him defensively a bit yes but i i also don’t think that he’s like dreadful on that end right like he’s he’s definitely a level above a kelly olen or something like that to me you know so um i just think like he’s he’s an awesome player to have that can play in any number of contexts i love players who like when i think can you play in a small lineup or a big lineup right you you can kind of size up or size down and keep that guy on the floor i feel like aldama is one of those guys um i remember when we played memphis this season they started aldama at the three and then by the second quarter he had a stretch play in the five you know like he he’s one of those guys who could kind of fill in a lot of gaps for you so i’m i’m pretty into aldama i think he’s really good yeah i thought i think that last point you made is big that he has such lineup versatility you can play him in so many different ways and he’s able to bring so many different things to the table just to give his stats of this last year 12 and a half points a game 6.4 four rebounds 2.9 assists to just 1.1 turnovers a game takes care of the ball makes right decisions a good passer shot 48% from the field 37 around 37% from deep on five attempts a game and shot 60% on twos if you go to per 100 possessions which you can do over on basketball reference he’s shooting around nine or 9.13s a game on 36.8% from the uh from beyond the arc he got up five threes a game and just playing 25 minutes a game so more volume more minutes he can maintain that kind of volume and percentage he’s a really good shooter if you look over it clean the glass you see that he has great touch from just about everywhere on the floor 73% at the rim 76 percentile in the short mid-range area i did this breakdown yesterday i just told you guys about go check it out on substack i went through what i really liked about him one of the main things i really like about him and matt brought him up brought it up he’s great at attacking close-ups and he’s great at attacking close outs whether it’s finishing at the rim or shortening up and going to a floater he has great touch on his floaters 49% on short mid-rangers that’s in the 72nd percentile on all mid-rangers 48% 69th percentile on corner threes 73rd percentile 40% on all threes 37 percentile 63rd percentile or 37% from three 63rd percentile he has great touch from all over the floor he’s able to finish at the basket really well he’s able to shoot from beyond the arc he’s able to attack and score in the mid-range area more of like the paint non rim area kind of stuff you don’t really want him taking like long twos you don’t really want anyone doing that but he can he has good touch in his floaters great finisher i this is just a really versatile offensive player and the other thing that really jumped off the tape to me never stops moving never stops he’s constantly moving around he’s constantly finding places within the offense within a gap uh to try to find his you know a unique way or his an opportunistic way i should say to score the basketball whether it’s like you brought up matt it’s offensive rebound putbacks whether it’s cutting which he’s a really good cutter i believe he was in the 67th percentile on cuts this past year he’s just a really good offball player with great feel i would say within the half court he and like you said matt he’s a dribble pass shoot guy he’s not catching the ball holding it jab stepping trying to you know stopping the offense he’s catching it he’s either shooting it driving passing and then cutting off of it and moving to the other side of the court constantly keeps the ball moving offense flows really good with him on the floor i really really really like santi alama he gives you the chance to potentially run a five out offense you want to slide him up to the five and play sort stretches with that it gives you the opportunity to have a really good uh stretch four which i guess you don’t really have stretch fours in 2025 was just everyone’s expected to shoot at that point yeah um really good shooter at that position gives you some offensive versatility he’s also like matt mentioned he’s big he’s around seven feet long arms i think he’s a better athlete than people give him credit for he moves really well for his size i think he has underrated uh uh jumps to him as well u but like i really like him i think he’s a really good player i think whatever if he ends up leaving memphis for a bigger role i think he’s going to flourish in that role i think he’s valued i think hollinger’s value of him at around $25 million i think it’s pretty on point with how good he actually is i just don’t think the box score matches what the casual viewer would think of him um i want to get into whether he has starting potential but man i’ll give you the quick last point before we go to the ad um and then we’ll talk about does he have starting potential yeah i mean uh i think like you said i feel like john hollinger is kind of correctly ident like he’s one of those players that i’ve always thought is better than maybe people give him credit for or a lot of people give him credit for being good i think that there are a lot of kind of nerdy like hey sandy alama in a bigger role could be really really good there’s a lot of those people out there and like he’s one of and people say that about a lot of guys who i don’t buy that with aldama is one of the guys that i buy buy that with just because you said like you said like it’s the sound decision- making it’s that you feel comfortable you feel confident with him with uh the ball in his hands now i i feel like we’ve we’ve done so much everything we’ve said thus far has been positive and i don’t want to frame it like sonia alam is lebron james or anything you know he he is a good role player but i do have some questions like hey as as games get more physical in the playoffs do those drives continue to hit the same um or defensively right like it i think that there’s a world where you get deeper in the playoffs and it feels like aldama’s defense becomes a bit of a problem but i’d rather have my problem be with a guy who has crazy positional size than than say somebody who’s smaller you know so um he’s not a perfect player by any means but do i think he’s an over $20 million a year player i do i do think that so coming up we will discuss whether santi alama can be a starting player moving forward because obviously if you’re going to pay him that type of money when you have tobias harris you want this ford to eventually be your starting for so could santi alama end up being a starting level player well we’ll tell you guys why i at least believe he’s already probably a starting caliber player and i think he probably already is better than tobias right now we’ll get into that coming up today’s episode is brought to you guys by fanduel i’ve told you guys this many of times a few years ago when i started out and it became legal betting became legal in michigan i didn’t know where to go didn’t know what to try out tried out fanduel i haven’t turned back since it’s super fun to use super easy to use most importantly out of anything it’s super fun to use if you if it wasn’t fun i wouldn’t be using it and the nba finals are in full swing it could be ending pretty soon here and every night delivers highlight worthy performances major momentum shifts and can’t miss moments whether it’s a game-winning shout shot or a breakout player there’s never been a better time to get in on the action fanduel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props performance trends and same game parlays fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big so if you’re new to fanduel it’s the perfect time to sign up head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet and if it wins you’ll get $200 in bonus bets again if you’re new to fanduel you can get $200 in bonus bets if you place your first $5 bet and it wins great deal head over to fanduel check it out make every moment more with fanduel the official sports betting partner of the nba with fanduel so i want to thank you guys again make locked on pistons your first listen of every single day free available all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the youtube channel locked on pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on it’s another great way to support the podcast check out the substack if you want to see that full santiama breakdown i did um going into what i really like about him you have some film to back it up um check it out over there or you can also subscribe to the playback room down in the description down below as well so matt the next part of the conversation obvious obviously is santi alama a starting level player or are you going out and paying this type of money to a guy who caps out as a 20 minute per game guy um do you want to give some thoughts or do you want me to put the numbers on the screen first i mean i i can just i guess the initial thought is that yes i think he’s a starting level player is he is he a a a plus starter in the sense that he’s an above average starter in the sense that he’s like a top 75 player maybe not but is he starting caliber i mean i think comfortably yes okay so we’re going to bring up some numbers to back up why i believe he already is a starting level player and i think he can become the box score will start reflect that i guess i should say um if he were given a bigger role so the first numbers the first numbers we’re going to bring up here this is santi alama per 75 possessions with jaw and without jaw on the floor with jaw on the floor as you can see on the screen if you’re watching on youtube but we’ll explain it for those listening on the podcast of course with jaw 13 and a half points 3.1 assists 8.4 rebounds 1.3 turnovers 55.8 true shooting percentage 32% from deep 1.4 free throws a game or attempts per game without jaw it jumps up to 19.1 points a game 4.4 assist jumps up to 8.9 rebounds true shooting jumps from 55.8% to 60.1% he draws more free throws and he shoots 38.8% from deep jumping from 32.4% from deep now my takeaway maybe you have a different takeaway but my takeaway from that is that shows me that when there isn’t a primary ball handler on the floor that he is capable of taking on some responsibility and upping his play when you ask him to when he’s when he is asked to and he has more of a role and he has more usage he is capable of upping his play and upping his box score stats and upping his impact on the game do you agree with that i do agree with that yeah i think i think that that even shows in like international play when he’s with team spain and he is kind of their number one guy i haven’t watched much of it you wanted to watch the highlights yesterday of on the playback but i haven’t watched much of him is he is he like li marketing kind of like yes he is he is like li he’s team spain’s li um i don’t know i love international basketball you probably can’t take away that much of it or from it or i’d be like man we got to trade for bogdan bdanovich but uh sandy sandy looks good sandy looks good when he’s in spain all right so here’s the next set of numbers i want to bring up i almost just broke a bowl in my room that would have been tragic the next set of numbers i want to bring up is this one right here and this is tobias against santi alama versus santi alama per 75 possessions so if you look if you’re looking at the screen you can see it but obviously like i said again we will explain it for all podcast listeners tobias per 75 averages 15.8 points a game santi 17.0 tobias 6.8 rebounds a game santi 8.7 tobias 2.5 assists santi 3.9 assist tobias 1.3 turnovers despite being a whole one and a half assist less santi 1.5 turnovers uh they both don’t really average any blocks they’re not you know neither of them are great defenders 57.1 true shooting percentage for tobias santi 59.1 two point percentage tobias 55 54.2% santi’s at 60% from two and then this is the part that really like con like convinces it for me tobias is at 34.5% from deep santi’s at nearly 37% from deep on much higher volume and if he played more minutes the volume would go even would get even more or get higher i don’t think this is where i’m at with santi versus tobias and it’s tough having this it’s tough talking about this because everyone loves tobias right now i love tobias like tobias is great he was fantastic for them this past year in the playoffs as a veteran in the locker room on the you know all that stuff but i think santi is better night to night defensively than tobias i think night to night he’s better tobias in the playoffs was really good maybe santi can’t be that good like he was santi santi is not equipped to deal with carl anthony towns the same way tobias yes but night during the regular season i think santi is is probably better than tobias defensively um he’s a better finisher than tobias is right now by far he’s a much better shooter than tobias is right now tobias wasn’t that great of a shooter this year from beyond the ark and he didn’t do it on much volume either it wasn’t like it was on heavy volume with the minutes he was playing so santi is a much better outside shooter he’s a much better finisher at the rim i think he’s just a much better offball player he moves a lot better i think he’s a better cutter i think he’s a better decision maker i think he’s a much better passer um i think the one area that tobias does have him in which does have value it absolutely does is as a self-creator tobias probably can punish mismatches a little bit better he can go at guys and score you know off his own creation in the mid-range areas especially after january 1 he was much better at that that’s probably where tobias has him he’s a better self-creator i’d give him that but i think santi is just a better offball mover i think he’s a better rebounder than tobias i think he’s a better shooter than tobias i think he’s a better finisher than tobias like all the numbers back this up so i think santi if he was given a role to play 30 minutes a game i think he would be able to put up rel close to these kind of numbers i i i think he could do it so for those out there who are wondering well if you sign santi is it just for him to be a backup but no i think santi could theoretically i think he’s already better than tobias if you don’t think he is i think he 100% will be next year and maybe he doesn’t start next year because of politics um but i think at like we’ll be we would be in like december i think december 1st when everyone would be like “oh yeah santi is the best four in the roster.” go ahead matt your thoughts i talked for a lot there but go ahead no all good i do wonder i think that there’s also definitely value in like santi being a better rebounder and also that he can push the break a little bit in a way that like you just don’t see tobias do um especially on a team like ours who wants to run as bad as we do right if you can just kind of cut out a little bit of the middleman if santi doesn’t have to throw a hit ahead pass if he doesn’t have to find an outlet pass and he can just push in transition that creates mismatches for everybody because now santi’s bringing the ball up somebody has to grab the ball and the defense is kind of in flux and then who knows you know what the matchups end up being like that’s the type of thing that allows kade to be matched up with the opposing team’s point guard way more because kade was already potentially guarding that guy whatever like he’s going to create matchups in that way i think like you said offensively the versatility is big the shooting is big just to back up i just want to bring up a number to back up your point by him in transition transition was by far his most used play type this past year 70th percentile in transition yeah and the grizzlies run a lot like we do you know like they they like to run but that’s always been kind of their mo um in the the jaw era quote unquote so i think like he would fit in that way i think the thing about him versus tobias and there’s maybe not so a number to back this up i guess maybe you could say like assists or something but tobias’s process offensively oftent times is he catches the ball and it’s tobias’s turn in a sense right like he catches the ball and it’s like “okay let me size up this matchup let me let me you know get into the high post let me back this guy down.” whatever it is kind of figure out what i’m doing now and this is not to criticize tobias but just to to show you kind of the other side of it like whereas with santi it’s like he catches the ball and it’s an immediate okay either i’m driving or i’m passing or i’m shooting or it’s like he drives and then if the drive isn’t really there it’s just an immediate kind of reset right he can flow into a handoff if you need him to that’s not really what the grizzlies do but he can do that um so like i just think that there’s there’s sort of a flow that santi plays with within an offense and and he’s able to produce within a flow in a way that i feel like tobias has kind of never been adept at which is not to say that tobias’s methodology of offense was bad like he was he was good for us i was really happy with his season but i do think that santi unlocks another level of sort of that flow that team play that that kind of like the motion principle sort of um that tobias doesn’t doesn’t really have in his bag yeah and going to what you were saying about him as a you know as a processor and as a passer just to give you guys a insight like one of the plays i broke down on the substack yesterday he does this he did this a lot but this one of the plays that i’ll just explain here that i loved from him was they like you mentioned the grizzlies love to run in transition so they kick the head kick the ball ahead fast and and santi gets it on the left wing and j back door cuts from the top of the key and santi hits him with the immediate back door touch pass and usually right there you get job morant a clear head of space back door cutting usually everyone stops moving everyone you know okay that’s about to be a highlight dunk it’s going to be a finish or something like you’ve done your job he delivered that pass and as soon as he delivered that pass he loops around he loops around keeps moving follows his pass loops found jaw cutting to the basket so now santi’s coming down the middle of the lane everyone else has stopped moving j gets to the basket there’s help defense there he’s not actually able to get the clean look that you thought and if santi’s not cutting down behind him it’s probably a missed layup or a turnover but instead santi after making the pass keeps moving cuts behind him great feel now when uh jaw went up for the shot he realizes he can’t get off he turns around he’s able to just jump it off to santi now santi has a two-hand slam like that’s not like a highlight you know sports center top 10 play but that just kind of exhibits like what you’re mentioning what we’re talking about here where he just he has great feel within the half court he plays the right way and like again i can’t put any more emphasis on this this dude does not stop moving like literally he’s seven foot he’s not the fastest guy but he moves all the time he is he is not someone who holds the ball stops ball movement he’s not someone who stops the flow of the offense he keeps it all going so i i really really like santi i think he’s gonna go less for nas reed i think it would take less to get him than naz reed like i think naz reed is a better player but it’s going to be harder to get nas reed i think i think it would be easier to get santi which is why i have him at number one on on my you know go after him list um and i 100% think he has starting potential i maybe he wouldn’t start next year because like i said politics they don’t want upset tobias whatever okay but i like i said i i think by december 1st everyone would be sitting back saying “oh yeah santi is the you know the best four in this team.” so yeah have we have we mentioned that he’s 24 by the way yeah i did mention that it was kind of like a passing comment but we didn’t spend much time on it 24 years old he’s a long-term starter i guess is the thing that i’m saying like or he could be you know um yeah i your point about the movement is interesting because i think that that pops up when he plays with spain especially i think that that’s maybe where the markin connection makes because markin is a constant mover uh in utah as well and also i guess he’s also playing international basketball for finland oftent times but uh there the grizzlies mo this season was a movement a lot was made about it ah it’s bad for j it’s good for the team whatever coach uh tom thomaso i want to say um and his whole uh his whole the way that he views basketball hey that was their best half court offense of the jaw of the jaw regime so so maybe there’s something to it but no i’m i’m totally with you i think like he is my number one target he’s been my number one target for the piston for a long time kind of of just like other teams role players that i think would fit here have the pistons ever had a sevenfooter or like i guess six like a center sized player who does the things that that santi does i can’t think of one maker maybe i can’t think that’s a joke to be clear i was about to say uh just real quick before we move on i don’t think maybe we put enough emphasis on and we can’t spend too much time we got to get to the ads here but like the lineup versatility you could run a lineup with kade assar santi tobias and like steu duran and that could be a feasible lineup you could run a lineup of kade ivy assaar tobias santi you can run a lineup of cade ivy assar santi d like he’s able to you can do he gives you so many more options that you can do with your team because of his versatility offensively um obviously i don’t think you brought him at the five for long stretches he’s not like you know a center for real but like he gives you that you know the ability to run those in certain miss matchups and i think like part of this offset like part of the reason that everybody seems to want a stretch five is not necessarily just for just because they think stretch fives are awesome and obviously they have utility but it’s because it’s like we want to see what a stretch five with assar looks like or a stretch five with cade like we want to see if that is kind of the right archetype to put around these guys and aldo is not a full-time five but like you can test run that if you have him like you can kind of knock out two birds with one stone in that way so there’s there’s a ton of reason to pick him up i really think but i also will say i think joe is right in that the grizzlies like he might be on the grizzlies next season i think that that’s that’s certainly in the cards and that’s what we’re going to talk about coming up what would what would have to happen how does it work how would the pistons be able to get santi alama we’ll break all that down for you coming up so i want to thank you guys again make locked on pistons your first listen every single day we’re free and available on all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the youtube channel locked on pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review whatever podcast plist listening to this on that’s another great way to support the podcast all right so how would the pistons be able to get santi alama well joe khan mentioned it the grizzlies may not want to get rid of him there was a report earlier this week that he may be expendable because they want to create more room for a jj excuse me extension they’re not rebuilding um but there was a report earlier in the week that they may you know let him go so they can have more room around that maybe that is the case maybe it isn’t um joe seems to be skeptical about whether that actually would be the case but i guess we’ll have to see the other area that joe brought up which is why i said earlier in the podcast we’ll get to some of the things joe said was joe mentioned like you know he’s in the perfect role here he’s able to do some of the things here and he’s not asked to be a starter well i think santi might want to be a starter like i think santi might want to go somewhere where he’s given a more a bigger role when he’s asked to play more minutes when he has the chance to be a starter and i think that might lead to him wanting to leave and lead to him looking for other areas to go also there was a report i think like two weeks ago it it was that the pistons have interest in santiama that doesn’t shock me at all based on the reporting that we’ve heard all offseason about the pistons so far that they want to stretch five like they want a big man that can shoot very clearly um so it would start with i think it would have to start with santi wants a bigger role because if he doesn’t want a bigger role and the grizzlies actually don’t want to move on from him he he probably would just resign maybe he doesn’t even try to test restricted free agency but he is a restricted free agent and i think he probably is going to run a bigger role so how would the pistons make it happen well i talked with kyle mets who we’re going to have on the podcast soon um salary cap cba guru fantastic with that stuff him and uh keith smith uh they’ve been on the podcast together they talk about it with each other all the time kyle is really trustworthy with this stuff he’s great with it um he said i asked them to draft me up a trade of how it would have to work because the pistons are operating as over the cap team they won’t be able to sign him with just cap space even if they went the pure cap space route they can only create around $16 million and that’s not going to be enough to pry him away from uh from where am i memphis so it’s going to have to be a signing trade real quickly i had a few of you guys ask me already getting santi does not stop you from resigning malik beasley because you are still operating as an over the cap team you will not be using an ml cap or whatever to get him you’ll be using sign in trades you’ll be using a trade and then you can still use the mole to resign malik beasley it’s not stopping you in that and the pistons are so far away from the luxury it’s not a concern either way all right so what the trade would look like this is maybe it looks a little better for memphis whatever but this is just like the structure of what it would look like kyle say it would be like simone goes to the nets um and they get a second round pick for taking on simone’s contract that’s $8 million the pistons sign santi alama to a signing trade where he’s getting around $19 million per year and then the grizzlies get marcus sasser and two second round picks so and that frees up around $9.5 million for memphis along with jj’s extension so they would be more flexible it creates that much cap space for them and then the pistons you know send uh simone to memphis thank them for helping create this room you know to make it happen give him a second round pick and then the grizzlies get two seconds of marcus sasser in part of the signing trade because santi wants to go to detroit so that’s the structure of how the trade would look like matt if that is the structure would you be willing to do that yes do you think that gets it done i don’t know what okay hold on run the run the brooklyn piece of it back what does brooklyn get for what is brooklyn taking on so brooklyn’s taking on simone’s contract expiring contract for a second round pick okay i guess my my one hesitation would be i feel like every single trade that is being drafted up this offseason is like we also send $10 million to the nets and give them whatever like is that how they’re going to is that the the the bite that they’ll take is is you know to take on an expiring contract for for a second or two i don’t know you know um but so i don’t know if that gets it done uh and you got to talk about the grizzlies piece i mean you want to talk about money i mean they just gave up one of their long-term guys desmond bane right so like they don’t have to they’re not paying the four years left on his deal albeit it was a good contract i would say um so i don’t know i don’t know if that gets it done it’s tough to say i the brooklyn piece of it is is the one that gives me more hesitancy because i think if the grizzlies want to trade him and he wants to come here i think that that part of it makes a ton of sense but and they might want to i don’t know the grizzlies have like 25 guys who are like a good eighth man or a good seventh man so i don’t know how much they would value like a marcus sassler just because they already have so seemingly so many good uh depth pieces um i don’t know i mean definitely works for me i feel i would feel really happy about that yeah i think what it would have to come down to like i mentioned i think it’s just going to come down to the santi want to come to detroit like once free agency starts like we i feel like if that piece is is checked off like the rest of it will fall into place we can all be adults here yeah i just realized we can all be adults here um and realize that yes teams aren’t supposed to talk with each other or free agents whatever not supposed to talk until you know july 1st they’re probably going to be talking as soon as these finals end they might be even talking right now so i’m sure the pistons have an idea of okay does santi and his team you know do they have interest in coming here and if santi again it comes down to i think like you mentioned outside just the trade itself it’s going to come down to does santi want a bigger role does he want to leave memphis to where he’s maybe will get asked to do more like he would in detroit i think would he does he want that because if he does and then he signs let’s say offer sheet with the pistons which i don’t think he can even actually sign an offer sheet with the piston i think it would have to be he agrees to an offer with memphis and then they just trade him straight to the pistons because they don’t have cap to like have a offer sheet even extended to him but either way like it has to be like a understanding i want to go to detroit please trade me to detroit you know this is the value this is the contract i want to sign send me there if that happens then it’s just basically okay well how do we make it work and i think you just you figure it out from there so that’s the bigger point there if santi is is okay in memphis and is cool with this role and doesn’t want more then maybe memphis just holds on to him and they don’t actually move them and memphis has like five different routes they could take this off i don’t know what the hell they’re going to do they they could do so many different things so it’s like kind of hard to predict what is going on in memphis’s you know front office’s head right now um but i at the end of the day i think santi would be a great addition um i view and i had a few people wondering this as well yesterday on twitter they were tweeting me asking me you know whose minutes is he taking is he taking assar or ron’s i don’t view assar or ron as a four like i view both of them as three and twos so i think that’s where their minutes are coming from which is why we’ve talked about on the podcast i believe you’re getting a little bit of a numbers crunch at the two position if you bring back schruder tha and beasley along with ivy coming back and you want to give ron more minutes it’s like okay where you you’re not going to be able to find all these minutes i view both them as two and three i don’t view either of them as fours at least right now like maybe ron in three years if he puts on a lot of muscle but i don’t think that’s the best version of of ron anyways so i don’t view either of them as a four so i think he just slots in at text minutes and takes minutes away from tobias i think that’s that’s where he slots in at at that point but you got any final thoughts matt i mean not really i think you just kind of said it like i don’t think you’re going to have a problem finding time for aldama because he fits because how versatile he is too in lineups he can play three i i think when you start you know crafting out like i i know before next season i’m probably going to do a whole you know like what exactly my rotation would be what what lineups and things like that i would like to see like pairing certain you know pairs of players together or whatever and i bet a lot of times i’m going to see like or i’m going to think hey you know these two guys together works really well with aldama on the floor because the way he spaces it and the way he passes it you know so especially when you consider that we have two wings who who you don’t trust to make any jump shots right now yeah so and again alama can steal minutes at the three he can steal minutes at the four he can steal minutes at the five that he provides you incredible lineup versatility i think so i’m really high on sante i think he would be a great get for uh traan i think he and i think that checks off my biggest weakness for the pistons which is a legit four um anytime tobias is not on the floor and we didn’t even mention this this has to be considered tobias is getting a year older and while tobias was great for the pistons you know in the playoffs last year and got better as the season went on like we have to be honest with ourselves there were times last year where it felt like is tobias starting to show his age is he you know is he you know not it’s not that he’s getting bad or like tobias is still good but there were times when it was like okay is he starting to you know be a little bit on the down slope not again not saying tobias is bad not saying he wasn’t good for the pistons last year but we can be honest with ourselves now like there were definitely times where it was like “okay you can see he’s getting older and he’s only getting another year older now.” so eventually you got you got to have a success in plan and someone to release some of his minutes so matt unless you got anything else we can wrap it up there uh no i think uh i think i’ve said it all all right so appreciate you guys making lockdown pistons your first list of every single day all of you everydayers keep commenting down below let me know you’re an everydayer i appreciate all that i love seeing those comments appreciate all of you guys um hit that subscribe button to the youtube channel we’re less than 200 subs away from 11,000 subscribers on youtube i really want to hit there before the season starts so hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already leave us a fivestar view whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on follow matt over on twitter griff1 thank you matt for coming on i appreciate you as always but until next time i’ll see you guys later stay safe out there and until next time i’ll see you guys later peace out

Santi Aldama: The Detroit Pistons’ Missing Piece? Exploring the potential game-changing acquisition that could reshape the team’s future.

Host Ku Khahil and guest Matt Griffin break down why Aldama is the ideal offseason target for the Pistons. They analyze his versatile skillset, compare him to Tobias Harris, and discuss potential trade scenarios to bring the 7-footer to Detroit. The conversation covers Aldama’s impressive stats, his ability to play multiple positions, and how he could elevate the Pistons’ lineup versatility.

Discover why Aldama might be the key to unlocking the Pistons’ potential and how his addition could impact the team’s strategy moving forward. Tune in for expert insights on this potential roster move that could define Detroit’s upcoming season.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!

OLIPOPGet a free can of OLIPOP! Just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one. Head to drinkolipop.com/LOCKEDONNBA to claim your free can and find OLIPOP near you. 

CarGurusBuy or sell your next car today with CarGurus at CarGurus.comto make sure your big deal is the best deal.

WayFairGive your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.

Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use codeLOCKEDONNBAfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPistons?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

#DetroitPistons #Pistons #NBA