Maxime Raynaud? Liam McNeely? Noah Penda or Noa Essengue? Should The Detroit Pistons Draft One?

Maxime Raynaud? Liam McNeely? Noah Penda or Noa Essengue? Should The Detroit Pistons Draft One?

in today’s episode of locked on pistons podcast we finally dive into some draft prospects and why i believe the pistons are going to have to trade up into the first round to get any of these prospects we’ll break it all down 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 network your team every day what’s the deal welcome back to another episode of the lockdown pistons podcast per usual i am your host cuckah hill you can find me over on twitter cuckill i want to thank you guys making lockdown pistons your first listen every single day all of you everydayers out there i appreciate all of you guys make sure you guys hit that subscribe button to the youtube channel lockdown pistons or you can leave us a fivestar review or whatever podcast if you’re listening to the song that’s another great way to support the podcast we are less than 200 subs away from 11,000 subscribers so if you haven’t already please hit that subscribe button i really would appreciate it and today’s episode is brought to you by game time download the game time app create an account and use code locked in nba for $20 off your first purchase and make sure you guys check check out the description down below for the substack and for the playback i just put out a breakdown about santi alama why i believe he would be a really good get for the detroit pistons this offseason but today we are joined by friend of the podcast hal he joins us every offseason to talk about the draft it’s now that time again the pistons don’t have a first round pick right now they don’t have a lottery pick for the first time it feels like in my life uh but we still are going to talk about draft they do have the 37th overall pick i do think they’re going to end up trying to trade up into the back end of the first round that’s why we’re discussing these prospects we’re going to be talking about maxim reno we got liam mcneely noah penda and noah essen so we’re going to talk about all of them how how are you doing man you looking forward to to discussing some some draft prospects man it’s good to be back it’s good to be back for draft season it’s one of my favorite times of the year yeah i’m excited so let’s go ahead and get into it also i guess i should let you guys know we’re recording this on wednesday because i’m getting my wisdom teeth four wisdom teeth all four of them taken out the next day so next time you guys see me probably on like monday’s episode i’ll probably look like alvin the chipmunk or whatever because i’m going to be just completely messed up so just wanted you guys three or four days that’s what they say it takes three or four days for it to kind of start looking normal yeah it’s going to be it’s it’s going to be rough but all right let’s get into it first prospect we’re going to start off with is maximo but we’re going to hear from locked on nba draft first before we get into it ourselves is a legit sevenfooter with an all-around game that can make nba front offices salivate but somehow the frenchman from stanford despite being 71 is wildly overlooked how about this just one player in all of division 1 last year averaged a 2010 rebound double double and his name is maxim reo he profiles as a pick and pop five due to his high level screening and knocking down just shy of 35% of his career threes at stanford but it’s not just the outside ray no has the ability to attack closeouts and get to the rim and finish growth is needed on the defensive side where he is solid but not an elite athlete and that’s going to force him to play drop coverage which should be an issue against nba pick and roll games now given his size you would expect more rim protection but reo’s career block rate in college was just three and a half% all the same reo’s size and game are tantalizing enough that i expect him to hear his name called on night one of the nba draft all right house and now also locked on’s very own raphael barlo he has renault 12th uh in his mockdraft which he has dropped i believe last week he dropped it so um he has him 12th so now how tell us why should first of all like i mentioned earlier uh will the pistons have to trade up into the back end of the first round to be able to get this guy because they’re at 37 right now um would they have to do that and then also obviously get into why should pistons fans be interested in this prospect and why would the pistons be interested in this prospect yeah i i think they’d have to trade up and i think it’s really just going to be this this draft you know i’ve i’ve seen renault i think ross sport is the highest i’ve seen him at 12 i’ve seen him in the second round comfortably in the 40s so it’s all over the place and that’s true for most of the the prospects in this draft to be honest this is this is um it’s a draft that lacks a lot of star power once you get out of the first couple names and uh it’s a draft full of international prospects uh renault went to to stanford but uh we’ll talk about three different people who are uh from france today so because of that people are all over so this is going to be a draft where uh trajan langden’s going to need to do his his homework and just kind of be comfortable with numbers on his board and see you know if he if he likes or no it’s okay you know he slid past 12 he slid past 16 he slid past 22 you know what’s the number where you say i can go get him do you do you have some things lined up you know the nets have two picks at the end of the first round do you have something lined up where you can say “okay we’ll pull the trigger on something that’s not uh you know not too costly and we’ll move up.” is there something you know where you’re willing to maybe give up a little bit more you know maybe you give up a future first because one of these guys slides to like 18 and you’re you know you’re really excited about that so you’re probably going to have to trade up for all four of the names we talked about today renault might be one of the ones that slides um because his defense is probably the biggest concern he’s he’s um he’s a bit like the kelly olen archetype right he’s going to he’s going to shoot the three he’s got some post up stuff where he can he can mash uh switches but he’s going to need some protection defensively he is a true sevenfooter um you know but he doesn’t have he doesn’t have crazy plus wingspan he’s got a i think it’s a 9 foot uh two standing reach um which is which is pretty good for uh a big man but it’s not amazing so um you know he you you’re interested in him because he comes in as an alternative to stuart endurance right you you would have that that counter punch um somebody who would hopefully let you play people like assara and ron who aren’t shooters yet right you can put rena in the corner he’s a great spot up shooter uh and just say “okay space the floor we’ll run k to sar pick and rolls right and we’ll let we’ll play out of that we’ll let assara do short roll stuff and renault is over there he’ll hit the he’ll hit the corner three on the kick out um you know and then he can also run uh run some pick and rolls a little bit himself he can do some offball screening um it just gives you a lot of offensive options and then defensively you just you know you hope that maybe you’re playing him with stewart you know you’re playing him with ron nar you know you hope that the length and ball pressure from your other players can cover enough for him uh just survive minutes and and hopefully he learns a little bit he is i think 22 yeah 22 is what i’ve got so he’s a little bit older he he is a a senior at stanford um you know but you hope he can learn a little bit more defensively he’s kind of happyooted and stuff still so um you know it’s just just a nice gamble to to make really because if it works out great if not you’ve got two other big men on the roster that you you know you’re pretty comfortable with right now so before we move any further i do want to say i just noticed on my screen i misspelled his name over there on the today’s show i put a e instead of a that’s my fault i don’t i just i completely messed up on that i messed i missed on that one that’s my fault um well i want to ask you how is this spell everything weird that’s all uh we we’ve we’ve seen a bunch of reports over the last few weeks with the pistons involving them being interested in a stretch five would this be some would this be another way for them it seems like they does he he has that stretch five ability oh yeah would would this be another way for them to try you know they like you mentioned they could draft him and because they have steu and duran it’s not like you’re going all in on it but it does give you that ability to be like okay we want to test it out we want to see does it actually peak higher than having you know ron and and duran or assar and duran two nonsters on the floor we can throw him out there like do you have enough trust in him to where he can do that right out the gate yeah that that part of his game um you know is pretty reliable he he was basically the highest volume big man shooter in college basketball last year and uh you know he didn’t hit amazing percents but part of that is that he took a lot of tough ones um stanford didn’t have a ton going for them um you know beyond him he he was their offense you know this is he is a 20 point per game scorer uh who shot i think five attempts per game so i mean he he got him up 35% isn’t amazing but uh it is you know at that volume it’s pretty impressive and i don’t i don’t really have any any concerns with uh with that translating for him at all so where do you where do you great touch he has great touch where do you see what what is his peak outcome in your opinion what’s what’s the best outcome for reno i think you’re looking at kelly olen right that’s in in the the secret for lynn is that he’s a really good passer and i don’t think renault has that yet so that’s something that he would have to learn um a little bit more to do the dho type stuff to kind of unlock a little bit more fluidity in the offense but like um you know that ability to to take some shots put the ball on the deck a little bit he’s a good slasher as well um he’s not a lob threat but if you give it to him with like the bounce pass and stuff on the move he’s pretty good there um and and finishing so it’s that kind of it’s that kind of kelly lolin uh you know swiss army knife offensive piece um you know i i don’t see i don’t see a guy where i’m like “oh yeah that’s definitely going to be a long-term starter.” you know i don’t see uh the kind of shooter it’s not like i i see him being someone who’s like “oh he’s got like lowry markin where he can like become a a movement shooter at 7 foot.” uh you know but i i think it’s just this this is a guy who hopefully gives you a rotation option that you can you can rely on for uh you know for changing things up probably not somebody you’re going to build around but you know a nice tool to have in the bag so last thing before we move on to the next prospect which will be liam mcneely um so the place i always look at that the pistons could trade up to i just look at brooklyn because they have four four first round picks now eric of locked on nets new host you guys go check him out um he mentioned that he thinks the nets might use all those picks to try to go up further into the draft so maybe that’s what they do but i don’t think they use all four of them so i feel like they’re the most likely ones where the pistons could trade up with if renault is there at 26 to 27 do you think he’s a worthy person to grab go up and go after at 26 to 27 it depends on what they ask for but given that they’ve got four picks right i think for the most part they’re going to be like “hey we just want to try and move some of that down the road.” um you know they they can’t really roster four people so um you know i i think the price should be fairly tolerable and yeah i think that’s fine i think i think that would be a fine move to make the other thing is if the nets do consolidate and move up whoever they consolidate with you know if they send three of these first round picks to somebody that person also now has three first round picks and they probably aren’t going to want three players out of it so you know that those picks um you know 26 and 27 is the two they have that are backtoback at the end of the first almost assuredly one of those is going to move because it just doesn’t make sense for for people to hold on to it so um and and i think there’s i think there’s going to be plenty of movement because i think there’s going to be a lot of teams that are going to want to take uh who will take what could be a bad first round pick next year or a later pick next year and they’ll gladly swap it for a pick in this draft because they don’t like who they’re seeing you know i think i think teams will have a board that’s you know 15 16 players deep of people they trust and the rest of the draft they’re going to try and get out of fair enough all right so coming up we’ll now talk about liam mcneely and how he could be a fit for the pistons and why he could be someone the piston go after in this draft we’ll stay we’ll talk about that so stay tuned coming up guys this is my favorite sponsor maybe ever this is lollipop i absolutely love this i’ve been drinking the i i i have a full counter of this over in my kitchen right now i’ve i’ve drank all the vintage cola which is my favorite flavor but this root beer flavor let’s go ahead and do it live on stream live live recording i absolutely love this i’m telling you guys favorite thing about it it’s a new it’s a new kind of pop i’m not going to say so i’m from michigan so it’s a new kind of pop you know how you drink pop you know it has a lot of calories a lot of sugar it’s not good for you and especially 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just like last time we did the ad read i i couldn’t stop myself from burping throughout the throughout the the podcast but it’s amazing i i i truly do love it i got i got the pre-show pitch for the alip that’s how you know it’s real it absolutely is it is absolutely real um how before we get into liam mcneel just i want to ask you real quickly about this there’s been a lot of talk about like before people were like okay the got the 37th pick like a few months ago it’s like oh yeah it’s like a late first round pick like you can get some value with that i’ve seen a lot of discourse now that said okay that 37th pick really is bad now there’s a lot of players that went back to college that people are expecting to stay in it sounds like a lot of draft uh a lot of scouts a lot of people i followed that cover the draft do not look at this draft anymore as deep as maybe they did a month ago do you back that opinion do you think the same way or do you think there’s still value to be found in the second round i i think that’s absolutely true and i think you can still find value in the second round he’s going back for thirds now guys it is too good uh you know i i think the important thing to remember is that teams are not draft people right like teams are not you and me where we have we look at a big board of of 60 70 people right teams have uh you know they they scout everyone but they have 10 15 20 names they like and they order those names and they say okay this guy’s still on the board we’re fine this guy’s still on the board we’re fine all right we’re down to the last like three guys on our board there’s 20 picks you know in between us i don’t want that pick anymore right we need to move that pick we’re not going to get one of the guys that we like that we feel confident is going to be part of our organization who those guys are is different for every team right and it’s different based on your scout it’s different based on the personality and the and the and the scheme of your team you know it’s it it changes for everyone so the fact that like i personally don’t have a 60 person big board right now i don’t really have 60 people i like that’s fine if you’re a team right you don’t have to draft six people you got to draft you know two maybe three people so uh it’s definitely shallower because so many people went back to school because nil has become such a big thing uh there were a couple of international guys that went back uh and chose to withdraw from the draft so um it’s definitely shallower than it was and that means that you’re going to have to be um you know you’re going to have to nail your scouts right if you’re going to be one of these guys picking either a you just you know you just kind of picked a guy and you say “okay well he’s going to be on our summer league roster or you know you’ve got a few people that you really like that you hope are kind of hidden gems and you know you’re willing to bet on and and that’s just you know it’s going to be a test to your scouting department.” all right fair enough and one of the guys that you wanted to talk about was liam mcneely so before we get into it we’re going to hear from locked on nba draft on liam mcneely may not have met expectations last year but star freshman liam mcneely sure turned heads i’m andy patton the locked on college basketball co-host mcneely averaged over 14 points per game as a true freshman for danny hurley’s club last year looking like the best player on the roster throughout the season which was even more true when the team really struggled while he sat with an ankle injury mcneel’s outside shot wasn’t as good as it was advertised coming out of high school the 66 6’7 wing shot just 31.7% but nba level spacing should help him improve that mark and his 86 and 12% mark from the free throw line is a promising sign of things to come mcneely is also a tenacious personality and relentless hard worker and if he ends up on your team with a chip on his shoulder oh boy it could be a really fun rookie season all right house so before we get into it raphael has liam mcneely at 37 on his big board so pistons have the 37th pick raphael seems to think that he might be around at that time um this is a small forward uh from from yukon 68 around 215 pounds how why should the pistons be interested in this player what does he bring to the table what kind of player is he mcneely is just really steady wing depth that’s what he is he’s he’s you know he shot i think what do you say 31 32% from three this year coming off a a foot injury so there’s you know i think he would have shot better yukon was also a little messy this year after a couple of of title years um mcneely played with cooper flag at mount verd and was awesome as a as an offthe-ball secondary creator shooter i got a lot of faith that the shot’s going to be fine he he liam mcneely plays like a shooter he’s got a huge history uh pre-ol of of shooting you know is i think of him as uh like a cory kisspert type right he’s got a he’s got a big frame he’s not a freak athlete but he’s strong so he’ll hold uh you know he’ll hold up uh defensively physically he’ll hold a line he’s not going to beat people to the spot he’s going to be part of a team defense um but you know he just he just does a job and he does a job really well you can trust him to execute you can trust him to make you know he’s he’s going to make the kick out threes uh he can do a little bit of playmaking by himself um he’ll compete defensively you know he he’s got limitations but he’s he’s going to compete uh that that showed up uh repeatedly even when he was coming off an injury so um if you if you’re looking at this draft especially if you’re at 37 he’s starting to slip um and you’re saying we just want somebody that we’re pretty sure can can take the nba floor you know kind of like an isaiah liver type right i liver didn’t work out for the pistons in part because he had so many injuries but if you’re like hey i just need a guy that i know can execute the basics mcneely is going to do that and if uh some things break right for him and the shooting really works and some of the you know he is a a pretty good passer and kind of secondary creator ball handler um you know so if you end up getting more like the the kind of like luke canard secondary creation where like he’s not your point guard but like okay he’s doing you know he had a game where he got you five assists over here uh you know that’s kind of your up your upside there is that he he takes on you know a little bit more of a role especially maybe with a bench unit so uh mcneely is just just a a good solid you know contributor who i i think is somebody who’s probably going to be likely there late in the first and and you know probably could slide into the second even so what is it the negatives about him because i see some mods i’m looking at one right now where he’s going at 12th and raphael has him at 37 it seems like he’s all over the place so why is it that he’s just people are so there’s some people are really high on him and some people are just really low some some people are going to look at the shooting numbers and they’re going to say “okay he shot poorly this year.” and and they’re going to say “what what was wrong there was it the foot injury was it something more?” uh it’s not like he was amazing before the foot injury but he was pretty good in like catch and shoot situations um i think he was closer to like 40% in some of those so it’s it’s going to be about like okay was he taking too many pull-ups you know was it a role issue and an injury issue or was it a maybe he’s not as good a shooter as we thought and maybe the nba is going to going to press him a little bit more and then i think it’s mostly just going to be like this is a a below average nba athlete i think he’s going to have the strength margin to kind of compete especially if he’s you know defending somebody’s third wing or their like i think he’s the kind of guy who he can defend your like power forward if you if you’ve got like a a non-shooting power forward or something he’ll compete in there he’s not going to be your wing stopper so uh if you’re trying to take him at like 12 uh you’re going to have a much higher belief in the offense and the playmaking and you’re you know you’re probably not as worried about the the defense and if you’re thinking you know uh if you’re if you’re putting him at like 40th on your board or something the the defense is probably where you’re you’re most worried so where would he slot in for the pistons the pistons did trade up and got him at 27 whatever at brooklyn where does he slot in is he someone that’s going to be a rotation player instantly or someone that is going to be needing to be developed and and and maybe sees the floor two years from now i think he’s your like fontio replacement right you know it’s it’s hey can we get him 12 minutes a game you know as as kind of a a three when ron’s out there playing the four that kind of thing um you know he just joins that wing group takes some some mixed minutes uh as they come you probably aren’t worried about you know getting him 18 every game every night and you know if he proves himself then great then he can carve out a role and and um you know every team wants you know 68 who can shoot so uh if if it all works out great if not then you have you know certainly what tech was doing last year is is pretty replaceable so uh that that should be an easy role to fill and you you compared to cory kisper do you think that’s his peak outcome yeah i think that’s the kind of thing you look at kispert’s got a similar thing where he’s he’s stronger than he is uh fast though kisser’s got a little more bounce to his game and he’s got the same kind of broad frame and obviously kispert is is an elite shooter and you hope mcneely gets back to that kind of production kiss obviously is had a lot more college production to go off of when he was drafted and he is going to be 19 years old at the time of the draft do you think he has some upside to him as well like is is this a guy that because he’s much younger he theoretically could have some upside or do you think you basically know the kind of player he’s going to be i i think everybody has upside i think i think you’re looking at him and saying can he become more of an onball player that was something he did more at yukon he didn’t do it a lot at uh at mont verd because cooper flag dominated everything um so you know can he become you know can he transition to more of that like luke canard on ball creation that we saw like when luke was was in his like sophomore season and you’re look you you would hope you see some of those flashes and if you don’t then at least you just got a you know you got a a rotation wing all right fair enough we’ll wrap it up there coming up we’ll discuss both the noah noah penda and noah and why the pistons could be interested in both of those guys we’ll talk about that coming up today’s episode is brought to you by game time there’s nothing like the nba playoffs the nba finals could be wrapping up here pretty soon i think it’s over in six but the intensity the buzz of beers the fans losing their minds it’s the kind of atmosphere you must experience live and this year’s matchups are already delivering if you want in game time makes it fast and easy to get the seats even for the biggest playoff games prices on the app actually drop closer to tip off and with killer last minute deals uh seat views and no surprise fees game time is a total game changer my favorite thing about game time by far is i get to see the view of my seat before i purchase no more getting tickets showing up to the game surprised shocked by what the seats are no i know exactly what i’m getting before i even have to purchase it the app makes it so simple two taps and i’m done and with the game time guarantee you know you’re getting the best 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the pistons love santi okay perfect you’re on my side you’re on my side all right you already know let’s go ahead and get into noah penda and then we’ll eventually get into no as well but we don’t have a video from lockdown draft for noah penda we did get some input right before the podcast started raphael barlo sent me over a brief description of how he feels about noah penda i’m going to read that off and then we’ll hear from h how he feels um raphael mentions quote “noah penda is a strong physical forward who plays a smart team first game he scores well in the post with good footwork and knows how to cut and move without the ball he’s solid passer can play both forward spots and posted a positive turnover assist to turnover ratio during the past season with i it’s a france top division team i can’t pronounce it i’m not going to try.” while he has some wing skills he’s most comfortable with using his strength inside when he can get by defender when he can’t get by defenders he’s also a sneaky athlete most of the time he finishes below the rim but every now and then he’ll surprise you with an athletic play at the rim however penda isn’t very quick or explosive he struggles to shoot from the outside and often drives in the traffic forcing some plays still has strength feel and willingness to do the little things give him real value as a potential glue guy all right with that said how do you is there anything you disagree there with raphael and where do you stand with penda no i i i think i think he kind of nailed it i mean the the the physical profile right you’re talking about a 67 dude who’s 240 right so that’s that’s that if you’re thinking like your stanley johnson’s uh you know really big really builds carries that weight really well it’s it’s all muscle um and and you know he he said it in in the report he’s not a crazy athlete it’s all about strength holding your line um it’s kind of like what if what if aaron gordon didn’t have the hops right so like you have you have this forward who you trust to do a little bit of ball handling not like he’s going to run pick and rolls but he can slash he can run in transition he’ll make the right play with the ball um you know there’s some shooting there he’s going to need to get with with a a shooting coach and really work on some little things i don’t think it’s like he’s got something horrifying going on but it’s definitely going to be a work in progress um he is you know not crazy old he’s he’s uh in his uh he’s 20 now and it’s just kind of one of those things where it’s like he and he’s a guy i’ve seen probably closer to like the 12 to 18 range is where i see him most so he’s one of those guys where he starts sliding towards the 20s and you start you start wondering is is there value there and he’s a guy who just you know plugs into any rotation spot and gives you you know similar to like the ron holland thing of just like he’s going to give you effort it’s going to give you energy it’s not going to give you spacing so you’re going to have to work around that um you know but he’s the kind of guy who like a playoff caliber defender like you know he’s he’s the kind of guy where he can give you you know the kind of lou dort you know he’s putting up a wall and you’re not getting through him he’s got that kind of of physicality he can be a little bit of a gambler so if he’s he’s got some things that you know you want him to improve on over time um you know but we see you know we’re seeing all playoffs long now right that it’s those those big physical defenders right physicality is is uh a bigger margin than shooting even has been in some of these playoff games and penn is the kind of guy who can add that to a rotation so before we get even further into pe i do want to say you brought up the playoffs i i me and matt have talked about this in the podcast a bit i forget who it was that started it last year but like i’ve watched these playoffs and my biggest takeaway from these playoffs at least for me has been you really just you you will go as far as your weakest defender allows you to go like you have to be these teams now like there are no pick on defenders there are no just bad defend you need everyone on the floor to be able to hold up like you mentioned be extremely physical well i mean alex caruso talks about all the time how he put on so much muscle so much strength and so much uh so he gained so much weight from the muscle obviously so he could be more physical you’re watching okc but not even just okc i mean nemhar is being extremely physical with sga like uh what’s it n smith is being extremely physical with sga so i look i i’m at a point now like you mentioned i almost value that more than shooting at this point like i’m i’m getting close to that where i’m like i just want a team full of guys that if i can trust if i throw on the basketball floor are just walling guys up or i’m not worried about them just getting blown by non-stop and i can trust him to defend so with that said is that it sounds like that’s what you you expect with penda that’s something you think he i i think penda’s big thing is he’s strong as heck he’s got you know legit wing size six you know 67 611 almost a seven foot wingspan right so he’s got legit size legit strength uh he’s pretty good on the ball he’s smart he knows where to be he rotates really well like he is a plus defender right now with you know plus physicality for the role so if you’re asking him you know to to defend an opponent’s you know second best wing and just go out there and compete at a high level i think he’s going to give you that and so i i think that’s that’s really valuable um you know i think we’re seeing that you can survive uh poor shooting if you’ve got consistent defense and shooting is such a surplus right or not not a surplus uh it’s it’s uh it’s so pricey right now right it’s it’s so hard to find shooting that doesn’t come with terrible downside that if you don’t have enough shooting the best thing you can do is just get five defenders on a string with you know that that have a high compete level and the pistons are already well on their way to that so adding penda is just adding another another tool there all right and before we move on to ensang uh penda is there any kind of upset that you believe in offensively that makes you believe he can be not a poor offensive player and good defender where he can become a two-way defender or a two-way player do you believe in that and where do you think he slots in the with the pistons if they were to draft him well he’s he’s a he’s a really smart connector he’s not like a like a sar thompson where he’s like blowing your mind with some of the reads he’s making but he’s he’s just a smart connector he’ll make the right play consistently and he’s he’s big enough that if you want to use him as like a little short roll passer and stuff like that that’s great if the shot comes around and he can give you like the pj tucker corner three while also being you know the the big defender then you’ve got you know you’ve got a real weapon where you don’t have to worry about him on the floor right until the shot comes around you’re going to have to be a little more creative with how you use him you’re going to be a little more limited in the lineups you put him in um you know but but certainly if if he can hit just you know the 35 36% from three and start making that you know something that people at least kind of respect then you’re going to have you know a pretty good player on your hands all right so let’s go ahead and get assang gay now this is who uh this is who where is it i just lost it where did uh i just lost where raphael had him on the big board either way this is the other no we were going to talk about yeah why have i just like i can’t find his name it was right here i scrolled accidentally too far down and all right forget about it um sorry raphael i lost where you had him on the big board it is what it is um all right how where do you can you explain to us the kind of player he is where oh here he is ace he has him eighth on the big board yep thank you i found him he was i figured he’d be higher on rossburg yeah i was gonna say i thought he was the highest one and i just was missing him but um so you got noah esay he has him eighth on his big board how do you feel about him how why is he so high and if he’s eighth how could the pistons possibly be able to get him i mean he’s another one it’s just it’s all over the place and he is kind of a four who’s who’s uh you know under 200 lb right now right so you’re talking about about somebody you probably want to play power forward who’s 69 7 foot wingspan but only 195 so so you’re talking tall and real slim right now um much bouncier than penda is though uh really fluid athlete great transition player but there’s still a lot of just question marks around dustin gay so if you really believe in uh in his tools and and what he flashes you’re going to have him eighth and if you don’t he’s going to be way lower on your board i’ve seen some people who are like they don’t they don’t even want to draft him because they’re not really sure he shoots it a little bit but not enough he’s not a shooter right it’s like okay this could be something in a few years he’s a really interesting perimeter defender he can switch out on guards but it’s not consistent right there there are flashes he’s got the athleticism he doesn’t have the fundamentals uh there’s uh plenty of reason to believe that he could play the five eventually if he puts on real muscle and he’s got the length he’s got the the ability to backpedal but the the technique isn’t there yet and the the muscle isn’t there yet um you know he’s got the ability to cover defensively cover a lot of ground but your bigger power forwards are you know like a tobias harris is going to eat him alive just bullying through his chest so you you have a guy with a lot of potential and who has a lot of work to do right and it’s not unlike you know uh ron holland to me where ron comes in and you see it and you’re like “okay i believe in in a lot of what ron does.” i and in two three years when some of the skill comes around and some of the physicality is there and he bolts up a little bit i think ron’s going to be great and as gay is kind of in the same mold where even if you believe in him you probably don’t believe in him being like a major contributor this year but the potential is really high and he’s one of those guys where i think a lot of teams are going to have him you know they might have him eighth ninth 10th on their team board but because of the chaos of this draft if everyone else is getting their first you know their their fifth sixth player on the board and people keep finding those guys that’s where someone like essen can start to slide where if everyone has him eighth but they don’t have the same players ahead of him you start having a guy who’s at you know 15 16 and suddenly you’re out of the lottery you know and and do you want to take a gamble on a guy like that who maybe could be um you know not your tobias replacement in the same vein but like maybe he’s got the talent to be the the power forward of the future maybe he’s got the the talent to be you know if assar or um or ron become the for the the forward of the future maybe this guy is the is the bench you know creator on the other hand the downside is maybe you’ve got another seiko dumbia right you know you’ve got another another french forward with all the tools and that just never quite figures it out so he’s 69 around 194 pounds right now he is going to be 18 18 by the time of the draft so this is it sounds like this is obviously a very young prospect that you kind of have to mold and have give time to develop do you believe the pistons do you trust the pistons to where they’re at right now to de to have a player on that ar that maybe isn’t ready to play right now and just needs to be developed behind the scenes is that something you think that that could be enticing to the pistons i guess i guess i’m mixed on it because they didn’t use their g-league team last year which i thought was interesting right we did not see ron go to the g-league we didn’t really see anybody go down there we we brought a few guys up and down um you know harper i think was one of the guys that they brought up and down a few times but we didn’t really see them utilize it um very aggressively and sn might be a guy that gets some run there while you let him figure some things out uh and they are pretty deep on uh like the athletic wing room when it comes to assar and ron at like the three so the the real question is what are you going to do with text minutes um you know what what are you going to do is is uh stuart going to play some four for you or is he going to stay as the five you got to figure that out i think uh the the development staff i think showed out last year i think i think everyone came in and showed you more than you probably expected um at least certainly for for me i felt like everybody came in and performed at a high level which i think speaks highly of of the development staff there you know you’ve got one of the best shooting coaches around in in fred vincson um you know that all speaks well and jb was willing to let ron cook even when ron was cooking something that didn’t look so great so that you know it it it’s nice i was worried about that with ron that like would he you know just go crazy and you know jb just like yank him and bench him for a week and we didn’t really see that too much so like if that same leash is given to someone like essen gay then you know i think i think it would be pretty fun and worth seeing what happens all right and real quick before we wrap it up where do you see a peak outcome for him like what is your peak comparison if you have one ah it’s it’s a tough one because he could be you know he could he could do anything from like the jeremy grant path to you know like aon maker thing and a secu thing you know it it could be all over the place he could end up playing like the jared band vanderbilt you know effort energy five thing as the undersized five um you know we could be seeing more of like a zeke outcome you know there’s there’s all sorts of things just because he’s you know he’s got so many tools but none of it’s really locked into any one form or style yet um you know he he mostly just played as kind of like a transition uh runner a little bit of a a little bit of a role threat um you know but i i think i think what he is long term is still very open uh and and going to be really dependent on the team that drafts him and how they want to use him all right we’ll wrap it up there last thing i want to ask you how quick yes or no do you if you had to predict right now do the pistons trade up into the first round no can i can i follow it up though and say i think they i think they don’t make a pick i think i think i think the pick moves with something else and they and they use it to maybe bring in another veteran as they try and shuffle the the tim hardway jr fontio those kind of minutes rounds i mean i i i’d accept that as well if that’s the outcome they take all right appreciate you hala for coming on i don’t think it’s going to be a quiet night i’ll tell you that much i mean i hope not i mean i’ve been one of the loudest people saying “please do something.” but we we’ve got two nights now oh my god i lowkey forgot about that i yeah so so you’re going to you’re going to have a a chaotic uh first night of the draft because some something’s going down and then you’re just going to have a real weird second day i think where everybody’s just trying to take a good long breath and we’ll get you know we’ll get a bunch of like tiny little trades and and swaps and things and and we’ll see what happens but making this a two-day event is there it’s going to it’s going to be wild i i’m i can’t wait to see how it goes it could be very interesting um but i appreciate you guys for listening you guys can follow how over on twitter how british thank you how as always for coming on might have you want to get to talk more some some more draft if we get any more clarity on what maybe the piston make a move before the draft even happens and we get some more clarity on it um we’ll talk more about it then um but appreciate you guys for making lockdown pistons your everyday listen first listen of every single day thank you guys for hitting that subscribe button if you haven’t already please do that leave us a fivestar review whatever podcast is 5 listening to us on and until next time i will see you guys later stay safe out there until next time peace out everybody and hopefully i have i can speak again by the time you guys listen to this please pray for me

Detroit’s front office faces crucial decisions as the NBA Draft approaches. Ku Khahil and draft expert Hal break down four intriguing prospects: Maxime Raynaud, Liam McNeely, Noah Penda, and Noa Essengue. They analyze each player’s fit with the Pistons’ roster, debating potential trade-up scenarios to secure top talent. The discussion covers Raynaud’s shooting touch at 7 feet, McNeely’s 3-point and defensive potential, Penda’s physical play, and Essengue’s high-risk, high-reward profile.

Will Detroit make a bold move to reshape its future? Tune in for insider insights on the Pistons’ draft strategy and how these prospects could impact the team’s trajectory.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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