BREAKING: Detroit Pistons Sign And Trade For Duncan Robinson!

BREAKING: Detroit Pistons Sign And Trade For Duncan Robinson!

you will on the side. In today’s episode of Locked on Pistons podcast, the Detroit Pistons acquired Duncan Robinson to a three-year contract they signed and trade Simony Fontio. Is this a good signing for the Detroit Pistons? They did they make up for the losses that they’ve had to their roster? We’ll talk about today’s episode of 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. What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host, Cahill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the Lockdown Network over the last four years. I’ve been a credentialed media member for the last three years. I appreciate all of you guys making locked on Pistons your first list of every single day. All you everydayers out there, I appreciate all of you guys. If you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button to YouTube channel at locked on pistons. We just crossed over 11,000 subscribers. Appreciate all of you guys. We’re on our way to 12K. I want to get to 20K soon. Hopefully, like, you know, within the next year or so, maybe maybe we can do it. But let’s get to 12K next. I really would appreciate or you guys can leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. We are joined by Friend of the Podcast, Matt Griffin. As always, Matt, appreciate appreciate you coming on, making some time to, you know, stop playing rematch for a minute and come come uh come record about the Pistons. Um, today’s episode, we’ll talk about Duncan Robinson, who just signed with the Detroit Pistons in the signing trade. We’ll discuss later on whether we think the Pistons are having a good off seasonason thus far, and then we’ll also get into is there any other moves coming? Do the Pistons have anything else up their sleeve? We’ll discuss all that today. But let’s start with the breaking news, Matt. It was looking urgent. It was it was looking urgent there for a minute. We’ll get into the other players that the Pistons lost, but for a minute today, it was like, “Okay, they got they have to hit this one. They have to hit this one.” And they did. Duncan Robinson is going to be signing a three-year contract with the Detroit Pistons. The first year is fully guaranteed. The second year is partially guaranteed. The third year is non-g guaranteed. So, it’s basically a one-year contract. They had to make it a three-year contract so you could sign and trade. You can’t sign and trade a contract unless it’s at least three years. So, they basically made it a one-year deal with no real guarantees on the back end. So, it’s around $16 million a year, three years, 45 million. But again, like I said, only the first year is fully guaranteed. He’s coming to the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons are trading Simone Fateo to the Miami Heat. Matt, what do you make of this move? Yeah, I mean, first reaction, well, obviously this was needed, right? I think like this is this is a great fit from a basketball perspective. You lose Tim Hardaway Jr., you lose Malik Beasley, your two most voluminous uh three-point shooters, or I think Tim took the like the exact same amount as Kade basically. But you get what I’m saying. Two of your higher volume three-point shooters, and you replace them, their minutes essentially, you know, in my head, I kind of did it well. You lose those two guys and then add in Carlo Silver, add in Jay Ivy, it’s like there’s a lot of threes kind of left on the table, which best is far more than just how many threes you’re making to be clear. But I did think like adding a movement shooting threat would be really important with kind of the limitations of the roster right now, right? We play multiple wings who can’t shoot or don’t shoot well yet, I should say, maybe. Um, but really, they can’t shoot. And we played bigs who don’t shoot. So, you’re kind of a in a little bit of a flux there from a spacing perspective, but Duncan Robinson’s a little bit of like a he does what Malik Beasley does. It feels like he’s he’s a oneman spacer. Like, he occupies so many defenders with his movement and uh his shooting ability. So, great fit. Uh the kind the first three year 48 million was a little bit of a woe, but then like you mentioned, I mean, it’s partially guaranteed. Third year is an option. Like that’s fine. That’s completely fine. In my opinion, that seems like a good bit of business.
Yeah. I I So, let’s step away from the basketball perspective for a second just real quickly. I like it for the reason that you brought it up like this the last two years are not really guaranteed. It’s only the first year. Now, the Pistons, and this has been a big deal because the Pistons, if they wanted to make any kind of trades, let’s say at some point they wanted to move on from a Duran, wanted to move on from an Ivy, maybe Assar, Ron, whatever, and then wanted to go after somebody, the only large contracts they had that they could really use is Stu, who they don’t really want to move on from, and Tobias, who they don’t really want to move off from. Like, both those guys they’d like to keep. They just didn’t have any other matching salaries. Now, they have Caris Levert at around 145 million. Now they got Duncan Robinson at around $16 million. I would not be shocked if either of those guys were traded at the deadline this year. Would not be shocked because now the Pistons can be a little bit more aggressive in the trade market because they have more salaries that can match. So I would not be shocked if either of these guys get traded at the deadline. But let’s go ahead and go back to the basketball perspective. I mean Duncan Robinson was the only other option I think left on the board that could replicate any of Malik Beasley’s shot profile. And I’ve said this on the podcast the last two episodes. You’re not going to replace 300 threes with one person. Malik wasn’t gonna be able to do like that was a historic
Yeah. Malik wasn’t gonna have 300 threes again, right? It was just it was an insane season that Malik had that maybe he would have another great year, but expecting him to do that would have just been asking like two backtoback Steph Curry like years and that just wasn’t realistic. But is there another player out there that could at least do the same take the same type of shots, provide the same type of offense to where you can run some movement, run some DHOs, pin downs, have that type of gravity? Um, you know, you can play with Cade. Mik Beasley played a lot of his minutes with Cade. Could they get someone like that on the roster? And we’ll get into it later. They did lose THA before this. It was looking like Dun, it was either Duncan or nothing. And they did get Duncan Robinson. So, I think it’s a good I think it’s a good signing. I honestly like this signing more than Caris Levert, but we’ll get into that later. Matt’s more hot. Matt’s higher on Caris Levert than I am. So, you got you guys will get the positivity about Levert from from him. But, I like the signing. It makes sense financially. You can trade it. It’s a tradable contract. It’s it’s really inexpiring for a lot of teams. I think he helps this team right now, obviously. And he addresses a major need that they needed, which is shooting because they lost all their shooters. Yeah. I mean, it’s Malik Beasley had I call it the best role playinging shooting season, role player shooting season that anybody’s ever had. You know, like you take the the Damen Lillards and the Steph Curry’s off the board and and I guess the Klay Tom like nobody’s done what Malik Beasley did last year. The efficiency, the volume. I mean, the shots that he shot, we watched it night in night out like it was it was nuts. He was he was running hot. He had he had the magnet working all year. You can’t bet on that again, right? Shooters fluctuate quite a bit. Um, so I said like it’s a coin flip who has a better shooting season between Beasley and Robinson to me. But then past that, like I personally just think Duncan’s a better player, at least a better offensive player for sure. I Beasley brings a little bit more to the defense. Obviously, you don’t want Beasley guarding anybody for real, but like he does fight in a way that I feel like Duncan doesn’t kind of. Um, not that Duncan doesn’t try. I just I feel like Malik’s got a little bit more uh grizzle to him, a little more grit to him. Like we’ll get up in you a little bit in a way that I don’t think Duncan does. Um, but a more I think like I I think Duncan is less of a specialist on offense and like the saying is always specialists can’t play in the playoffs. Specialists don’t play in the playoffs. Like I trust Duncan to be able to hang and at least like provide you good offense in the playoffs. Um I like I think to his you know watching him with Miami, the movement obviously stands out a ton because it’s not just the movement around the perimeter, right? It’s the cutting. It’s it’s the pass and then right it’s the pass pitch and then follow your pass, right? The two main game with Bam I think was always something super notable. Yep. Like those two guys had a really really good chemistry. Hopefully, you know, Duncan is able to develop something similar with Duran. I think having like the dribble handoff type of big is a kind of a perfect pairing with a movement shooter kind like this. So, I’d like him to I’d like to see Duncan play as much with Duran as possible because the less that he’s with like a real kind of screener handoff guy, the more he sort of has to create for himself. Not that Steu doesn’t set screens, but has crave for himself with the ball in his hands, which is the last thing you want Duncan to do on offense, but I don’t think he’s bad at that either. Like, all things considered, right? Like, so I’m I’m pretty excited to watch him play. I think Duncan’s just a fun watch. My biggest qualm though, I mean, there’s there’s just a lot of Amazing Blue kind of affecting infecting this this beautiful Pistons franchise that’s begun to finally sprout and we’ve got to put an end to it. I think if we get another Michigan player like things could start to things could start to turn poorly in a real way. Well,
so out on Movagner. No, not Mo Vagner. That’s not going to happen.
True. Killian already beat him up. I almost said something. I’m not allowed to say uh but yeah. No, I agree with you about Duncan’s uh what he brings to offense. He brings more than just movement shooting. It’s not like I’m not He’s not a superstar offensively, but he’s able to, like you mentioned, he moves a lot more than Beasley. Like if he gets denied,
he’s more dynamic, I think. Like his movement feels way more dynamic than Yes. If he gets denied, if he gets face top locked, he’s cutting back door and he’s just running around to the other side. He keeps He’s just constantly moving. He cuts really well. Honestly, I talked with locked on Heat host Wes Goldberg today. Um, let me see if I can get the quote pulled up. Uh he said I asked him just give me a quick few sentences on him. He said I think he’s a two-3. He’s an awesome movement shooter who can unlock a ton of space. He has more off the dribble than a lot of people think and he’s a pretty good passer. So look, I I don’t think that Beasley was a very good passer. I do think Duncan provides some like easy reads. He’s able to make some easy reads and it you know
gets on the ball a lot. Yes. And he’s able to make that read quickly to the slipping defense or the slipping uh big man in the role setting the screen. He’s able to do that and again he’s just it seems like he just moves and it leverages his movement more than Beasley did. Now Beasley maybe obviously made up for it because he had a legendary suit shoot shooting season but
in other
I didn’t want Beasley passing the ball last year.
Right. Exactly. But Duncan does bring a different aspect. I think he was really not only was he the best option to to kind of replicate it he was the only option. If they didn’t get Duncan I don’t know what they like if they didn’t get Duncan baby. It was it. No, it was it was getting it was getting bleak, dude. Like I look at the P community is as the day was going on. It was getting dark, man. It was it was it was it was getting dark. If they didn’t get Duncan, I don’t know what was going to happen. So, they did. They got him. It’s effectively a one-year deal. Fits the team, brings what they need shooting wise, more movement, smart player. I think Cage’s going to love play with them. I think you have to play him and Kade a lot together. I do agree that you want to play him with Duran as well. I like it. I think it’s a good signing. Um, but coming up, is it enough? Is Duncan Robinson, is Caris Levert good enough to have a good off season with how the rest of the Eastern Conference is looking? Is this enough for the Pistons to hang with the rest of the Eastern Conference? We’ll talk about that coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can check all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also spending wealth. You can take control of your finances with Monarch Money. You can use code lockdown at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Again, take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Head over to monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year if you use code lockedon NBA. That’s monarchmoney.com/lockdonba for half off your first year again with monarch money. So I want to thank you guys again for making lockdown pistons your first listen of every single day. We are 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. Appreciate all of you guys, all you everydayers. I appreciate all the support for the podcast, the substack, the playback. Appreciate all of it. Um, let’s go ahead and get into it. Matt, the Pistons so far, we we didn’t really talk about it earlier, but they’ve lost Shruder. Shruder’s gone. He’ll come up again actually in the third segment. Um, but they lost Shruder. They’ve lost Tim Jr. who signed with the Denver Nuggets. And obviously, just to give you guys an update on the whole Malik Beasley situation, listen, I’m not I’m not a lawyer. I’m not a judge, but
the more information Yeah. the more information that keeps coming out, it just keeps getting worse. So, I just like
I’m going to just pencil in that he’s it’s like it’s done.
He’s needed Monarch money. That’s a good that’s that’s that’s a good plug. That’s a good plug. It’s not looking good at all. Billy Beasley. I think it’s I I I don’t think he’s he’s coming back at any time. I It’s not looking good. So, you lose all three of those guys. Once THA signs the Nuggets, everyone’s like, “So, the original plan was to bring back your bets. Now, you’ve lost all of them. You’re not you’re not bringing any of them back. You lost all of them. Now, you’re able to get you got Duncan. You got Caris. Matt, is this enough? Do you feel good about the offseason? Is this is this a good enough offseason?” Good enough is a a funny term. I’ll say like is this enough? Uh I I mean yeah like I said the very first so we me and you streamed like as as free agency opened up yesterday. Um and the very first thing I said was I’d exhaust all options to give every dollar that we can to Santi Alama, right? And we didn’t do that. I also wanted Jake Larabia. We didn’t do that. So could the offseason have been better? And Larabia got Ty Jerome is a better player than anybody that we’ve acquired and and they got him for cheaper than either of the players that we acquired. I know that he has beef with JB. What do you do? So, was it a perfect was it a great offseason? I’m gonna say no. I like it could have been better is what I think. But I don’t think it was like bad either. Like I’m not ringing the alarms like some people. The way that I look at it, the way that I divvy it up, right? Like you’re losing Tim Hardway Jr. minutes, you’re losing Beasley minutes, you’re losing Shruder minutes. So Jane Ivy obviously is coming back and he’s going to relieve that. Jane Ivy didn’t play any games with Dennis Shruder. So, I mean, not from a positional fit standpoint, they do different things, but like just from a minutes allocated standpoint, you can see like he can those minutes can go there basically. You don’t have to worry about that. And then you lost two offguards. Well, you bring in two more like you bring in Duncan Robinson, you bring in Caris Levert. Now, the way that I look at it is really Jay Navy is kind of taking like Hardaway’s minutes because Hardaway spent so much time just sort of as the starting two guard or maybe you start Duncan Robinson. Whatever those are your two guards and then I mean Caris essentially acts as a backup point guard.
Can you spend a little Can you spend just a little bit more of your time talking about Caris Levert? Because chat and and the listeners, the comments, the podcast listeners, everyone, they know based off last episode,
I’m not the highest on that signing. Now, I do want to say this real quick before Matt goes into all of his positives about why you should like the signing. I want everyone to know that his first reaction as soon as the notification hit the phone, his first words were, and I quote,
I mean, he’s bad, man. He’s bad. I don’t know. He’s bad.
All right, I can explain. I can explain. He is bad. Well, he is bad in the sense that he was he was bad for way longer than he is good. So, you still have to say that he like he has not I don’t think that he’s graduated from bad to good yet
because he’s been in the league. Last year was year eight for him. Year nine year n
he spent all of those seasons but one or two of them as bad. So, you have to call him bad in my opinion. But last year he was not bad. Last year he was good. In fact, I would say last year he was like the ideal of what you want role players to be in in 2025. Like he’s a guy that you can trust to create his own offense with the ball. He’s really low turnover. I mean last year he per 75 possessions he was getting as many assists as a guy like Jaden Ivy who we consider our secondary creator and less than half the turnovers. So like he’s just more efficient with with on ball opportunity than Jaden is. Um he defends like relatively well. I think that he defended really well last year. like I watching Cleveland I think like that was one of my main takeaways early in the season um was what he was doing defensively and he shot the ball over his head a little bit last year and maybe that won’t happen again like he could come back down to 33 34% from three and then things feel worse. I I recognize that but the reason that I have optimism for him continuing sort of his ascension and yeah it is weird that a guy just got better in a contract year in year nine. That is weird. All right, I I get that. But it’s not like he just made jump shots or it was something that was completely unsustainable. It felt like his process as a basketball player was better. It felt like his commitment to defense was better. Like that’s stuff that generally carries with you. Like I I guess I don’t think it’s going to go away unless this is a little bit of a DeAndre Aiden situation just trying to get paid or whatever. But I mean he was good on serious basketball teams. Like he was good for the one seed Cleveland. They were the one seed when they had him one seed Cleveland Cavaliers. Um and he like he’s 66. He can dribble. He can pass. He can shoot. He can defend. if he does all of those things, which he showed to do last year. There’s no way this isn’t good is is generally my takeaway. And I mean, like you could totally poke holes in the stats that Dennis Shruder was putting up. You know, if you want, oh, he shot 37% from the field. There’s a lot of a lot of situations people would look at that and go, “Oh, six foot guard is shooting 37% from the field. He’s bad.” I don’t think Sher is bad. I love Shuer, but that like that’s the that’s the the essence of the situation, right? So, um I think he I think it’s going to be fine. I think he’s a pretty good player. Did he get a little bit too much money? Like, did he deserve the full MLE? Maybe not. I I I don’t disagree with that. I think that that’s a fair thing to critique, but I don’t think like I don’t think it’s out of the cards that he’s going to have a good season for us. The thing that I I will continue to harp on is yes, he has been bad for most of his career. He was good last year, and the only thing that matters is is he good for us, not whether he was good three years ago, which again, I can concede he was.
All right, fair enough. You guys got the positivity from uh you got the positivity from Matt with that uh with that one. I hope he’s right. I hope he’s as good as he was last year. If he was as good if he’s as good as he was last year and he he really has turned it around in year year 10. Like that that’d be that’d be great. Uh
for another piece pos I mean JB knows him, right? He has a good idea of if he would buy into this culture, if he would fit with this locker room, if he would, you know, buy into the identity of this team. team. I always thought Terce Levert was, you know, not always the smartest basketball player, but I feel like I never question his dog, right? But, you know, like and and that’s that’s what this team thrives on. This team loves dog. This team ran a lot on vibes last year and I I trust JB to at least uh JB clearly good vibes got well until until the end of Cleveland. I guess you can’t I just said he we weren’t allowed to sign uh because JB hates him. So, maybe I can’t say that. But so far, the vibes have been great under JB. So, I trust him to uh to lead us to good vibes. continue it.
All right. So, there’s the positivity with the Caris Levert signing. You guys got it. He He was more positive than me. I know you guys want more positivity. So, there you go. Um, how I feel about the offseason? I feel like it’s I feel like the offseason is basically kind of what Traion said he was going to do just like with different players. Like, so Ivy comes back, he’s taking THJ’s minutes basically. Let’s just let’s just, you know, THA was starting. Okay, Ivy’s taking THA. You lose. They were planning on bringing there, according to what Traan told us, they wanted to bring back THA, Malik, Trud. They wanted to bring these guys back. They lost all three of them, but THA is replaced by Ivy. Beasley’s replaced by Duncan, and Trud’s replaced by, you know, uh, Caris Levert. So, they didn’t go out and make like any big moves. They I mean, and he said he wasn’t going to be super aggressive. So, they didn’t they I mean, and it’s just day two of free agency, so obviously more more things can happen. But as it stands, it looks pretty there’s not much wiggle room here for, you know, much else. But he made it clear he wasn’t going to make an aggressive move. He kind of replaced the guys that they lost with the same type of guys with the same type of usage. They’re not going to be asked to do more than those guys were asked.
And they’re relying on internal growth. They’re going to rely if they’re going to get better this year. It’s not going to be because they signed Duncan Robinson. It’s not going to be because they signed Caris Dvert. It’s not going to be because they, you know, uh, Chaz, I I don’t at least I don’t think Chaz Laneir, but I mean, who knows? Maybe he comes any place, but the improvement is going to have to come from K Cunningham, Jay Ivy, Assaar Thompson, Jaylen Durn, and Ron Holland. That’s what they told us. That’s what Traion told us. So, they lost their three their own three vets. They had to pivot. They got three different vets. They maybe they didn’t go and get the starting forward that I would like. Maybe they have time still, but they doesn’t look like they’re, you know, really prioritizing that right now. But
right,
they they they made sure they got their movement shooter. They still have it. They made sure they still got somebody that can go play backup point guard. They got it. They, you know, they getting Jane Ivy back, which they hope is better than any of the three guys we just named. They hope that he takes this leap. And he, if he does take the leap, they’re way better. So, I I honestly feel like at the end of the day, it was a long kind of 72 hours for Pistons fans to arrive at this point.
It was a roller coaster.
Yo, yes, it was. It was
It was up and down. It was a It was definitely a roller coaster for 72 hours. It was It was something. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, they did arrive. I feel like basically where Trajan wanted to arrive at, which is three vets, come back, have three vets, and rely on internal growth. And I think that’s basically where they’re at right now. So, what do I think of the offseason so far? I think it’s exactly basically exactly what Tan said he was going to do. You agree? pretty lateral.
Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, it was pretty lateral. No, I’m sorry. It was lagging a little bit. I interviews over here. I It was lateral. Like, if your young guys get better, you should theoretically be better now. Obviously, like other teams have gotten better, too. So, we’ll see what that looks like. And but like I don’t I don’t think their context has really gotten worse. Like, sher wasn’t spacing the floor any better than than than uh Levert will. Um, and you you talk about three vets. I mean, Laneir turns 29 next month. He’s basically a veteran. Come on, man. I think he might play. Why would you draft a guy that old if he’s not going to play?
I mean, how is he going to play? Where’s he going to play at?
I don’t I’m just like if if Duncan miss I don’t think Duncan’s playing all 82, you know, if he misses if he misses a couple weeks here and there, it might be Chaz time. He is he they d he can shoot and like he’s got, you know, physical tools. They drafted him for real. I’ll continue to say they drafted him for a reason. They drafted him because they think he could play.
All right. Well, we’ll we’ll we’ll end it there. I think the offseason has been basically exactly what Tan said. So, I don’t expect nothing crazy. I I I wasn’t really expecting anything crazy. Like I said, it I think what makes it I think it kind of what makes some Pistons fans feel like it was so bad because I have seen a lot of people say that they feel like it’s bad. I feel like part of the reason why is because of the roller coaster it took and how long it took us to like like you say 72 hours people are like that’s only three days but like if you like
Malik Mo is dangled in front of your face and taken away from you feels worse.
Yeah. And then like within the 72 hours if you know the guy who just hit 300 threes for you all of a sudden it’s being investigated by the FBI. It’s like you the ups and downs it took to get to this point. I understand why some fans are maybe just like emotionally exhausted. I get it. But they basically are in the exact same spot they were already in. And that’s basically what Tayson said they were going to do. That’s basically they said they were gonna be in the same spot and rely on internal development and that’s where they’re at. So it’s like, yeah, your offseason was was somebody sideswipes you on the highway, but but you got out of the car and you’re like, okay. You know, your car the car is a little effed up, but you’re okay. You can keep trucking. Like you’re you if you were if you were going to do a good job at work tomorrow, then you’ll go do a good job at work tomorrow. You know what I mean? You’re not affected coming up.
It wasn’t great. It was might have been traumatic a little bit, but No. Yeah. Trust me, I’ll remember forever. Like you mentioned this before we start recording. I’ll forever remember. You remember few years ago when Beasley hit 300 threes and they immediately was investigated by the Yeah. Never played basketball again. Do you remember that? That was weird.
I’ll remember this forever for sure. These these 72 hours. But but coming up, are there any further moves to be made? I am hearing that maybe there’s something else on the horizon. I’ll tell you guys what I’m hearing and what I’m talking about 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 at Lockdown Pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review. Whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on, that’s another great way to support the podcast. to wrap up the podcast. Is there any further moves to happen? I’m not going to get into the whole CBA and cap stuff because honestly, we I don’t feel like anyone really knows what where the Pistons are at right now capwise, how they’re operating. We’ve had some people say they’re operating under the cap. We then had some people say maybe they go the over the cap route. Then I just saw an hour ago from Keith Smith of Spotre saying the Pistons will be under the cap. Then I saw people saying, “Oh, well they might have.” The Pistons have a bunch of flexibility with how they can do things. Basically, what you need to know is they’re not locked into anything right now. They’re not like capped or anything. They can they do have flexibility to still do moves. I can’t tell you for sure what moves or like what exceptions, how much cap they exactly have because it doesn’t feel like anybody truly knows right now. It it doesn’t feel like anyone truly knows exactly how much cap they have and what they, you know, exactly have to their to their benefit. So, are there any further moves that could be made? I will tell you guys this. I know that a few days, obviously, Matt brought it up. Malik Monk was, you know, rumored to be coming to Detroit. We talked about that on the last podcast, a signing trade with Dennis Shruder. Then Shruder signs for this three-year contract and reports come out and say the the uh signing trade is dead and kind of just move on from it. I’m I have heard today that the science trade is not dead and that the Pistons and the Kings are still talking. Now, I want to make this clear. It does not mean that Malik Monk will for sure be the guy they trade for. They might just trade for a trade exception. They might tra Who knows what will happen, but the Kings purposely signed Dennis Shruder to a three-year deal because in order to execute a signing trade, the player signed has to be for three years. you have if it’s less than three years, you can’t sign and trade them. So, they purposely signed Dennis Rut to that or that three-year contract so they could spend the next five days discussing whether they want to actually sign and trade with the Pistons. And the reason why I say next five days is because on July 6th, that’s when everything has to be finalized. July 6th, things get signed and that’s cooked. Right now, we’re in I forget what the exact what what is it the pre
I don’t know like moratorum or whatever. Yes, that’s what it is. They’re in that phase to where you can agree to things, but nothing is truly finalized. So, what I am told is that the Pistons and the Kings are still talking about a signing trade. Malik Monk is not Malik Monk to the Pistons is not dead. I wouldn’t say it’s likely. I wouldn’t say it’s likely right now, but a signing trade with the Pistons.
Don’t do this to us again, man. Look, listen.
I already thought I was getting Malik Monk and then didn’t think I was getting Malik Monk, too, man. And then I don’t think I’m getting him again.
Look, I thought we were getting Malik Monk, too, and then I woke up and was like, “Oh my, he’s, you know, it is what it is.” But basically, all I can say is I know that the Pistons are still in talks with the Kings and a signed trade could happen. Whatever whatever happens with that signing trade, I know the multiple options are. They can get a trade exception. There’s a way the Pistons could acquire a trade exception. They could sign and trade from Malik Malik Monk. Maybe another player on the Kings they want that the Kings will send. Maybe maybe that happens. Or the Pistons could, and we’ve talked about this with Kyle a few times already on the playback streams, they could in a long roundabout way make it a three-team deal, include an extra salary, send whatever, you know, contract to that third team and then acquire somebody on a larger salary. So, those are all the they have a lot of flexibility if they end up doing a signing trade with the Kings. We’ll see if they actually do. If by July 6 you don’t see a sign and trade, that lets you know it’s actually completely dead. But from what I’m hearing as of right now, I’m 8 I’m we’re recording this 8:13 p.m. on July 1st. They’re still talking about a sign trip with the Kings. We’ll see if they get it done. Uh with that said, Matt, do you expect anything else to happen with the Pistons?
I guess I don’t. I mean, I expect I guess I Well, I think something else will happen. There’s still so many parts that have to be moved for the rest of the offseason. Do I think anything as major as signing Duncan Robinson or or Caris Lever will happen? I I guess I don’t. Um, like I I would place my money on No. But I think the cool part kind of of where our roster is at right now, again, here I come with the positivity, like you can kind you need shoot like I think like I don’t think that you can acquire another like non-shooter, but you can kind of acquire any sort of type of player like from a positional standpoint or from an archetypal standpoint as long as they can shoot. Like if you add another ball handler, Allah, Malik Monk or whoever, like that’s fine. And I think like the bench would be fine like with another ball handler and you could kind of slide positionally. You could say Duncan will spend most of his time at the three as opposed to the two. And I think that you’re living with that and you could say, you know, Levert spends more time at the two than the one or whatever and and they kind of, you know, him and another guard would probably share those duties as the one. But you could do that. I think you could add like a Sam Hower and it makes sense and Duncan is just kind of always playing the two more so and and because like the thing that you have off your bench right now from as like a three four is Ron Holland, right? And I don’t think like he’s probably not really big enough strong enough quite yet to be a four, but I don’t I don’t question that he’ll want to do any of the dirty work or that he’ll he’ll shy away from any of the physicality that might come with with playing more of a four roll and a three roll. or if you ask him like, “Hey, you’re you got to, you know, spend a little bit more of your energy on the glass.” I think that he’ll do that, right? Obviously, it might be better to have him running on the break in transition and being more focused on that, but if he has to commit to the defensive glass, I think that that’s probably okay, and I think he’d be happy doing it. He’s not Stephen Adams or anything like that. I I don’t think whatever Ron Holland’s role is, there will be some hiccups this year. I’m sure he’s he’s very young. So, I don’t know. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not as if they don’t feel like the four is as dire a need because they think, hey, that’s kind of the minutes that Ron will be playing. We just need another player. We just need another another sort of anybody. Like we could use a ball handle off the bench. We could use a wing off the bench. We could use a four off the bench. Like whatever whatever it might be, whatever the best talent or best fit there is available, like we could kind of take in.
Yeah. I guess my final thing I’ll say before we wrap up is I I went to the offseason feeling like the the four position was the spot they needed to upgrade the most. I feel like that would have the most impact. They haven’t upgraded that spot at all.
Maybe, like you said, they feel like that Ron that’s where Ron’s going to play his minutes and then now you can play both Ron and Assar a lot. I mean, you can play them both a lot of minutes instead of cutting into each other’s minutes. Maybe that’s, you know, maybe that’s how they view it. Um, but I would have liked a four. I completely agree with you with, you know, agreed with you about Santi with Laravia. I would have loved either of them. Yeah.
I still feel like
I don’t feel like Ryan’s a four, but I understand why if they do decide to play him at the four, I understand why, but I don’t feel like he is. I think if they had another four, it really would be good, especially with Tobias being another year older. I I just really
The four position is just something I I feel like I’m going to go on like for 15 months of feeling uncomfortable about. Um,
I I guess my I agree with you like four is the number one positional need for sure. I agree with that. But I I guess I would say with the spot that we’re in, I wouldn’t overlook a better player who’s not a four,
right? Yeah, I agree.
What I’m saying?
I agree. But we’ll see. Maybe they make something happen. Maybe they create a trade exception. Maybe they do a three team trade if they’re able to get the sign trade done with the Kings by July 6. Maybe it happens. Um, the last thing I’ll say, we did get a comment during the stream. I actually do want to hit on before we leave. We only have a few minutes here, but do want to hit on it real quick. This one’s from Antonio. He says, “This off season feels like an L because a lot of teams behind us got better. We lost our deemed main target to one of them. Got thinner at one of our main weaknesses and lost our veteran leadership. I mean, our veteran leadership. Can I just say the veteran leaders? Can we be like we lost Malik? I feel like that’s the veteran leader Malik Beasley. I feel like we can’t we can’t we can’t be in love with any. Are you saying Malik after what’s coming out may not have been a great
I’m just I’m just saying we got we should factor it in. That’s all I’m saying. I will say this. I completely understand this. I can’t really say everything you said is like nothing you said is really wrong. Um but
one of our main weaknesses. What did that mean?
I’d assume that he’s some of four. That would be my guess.
Okay. I mean we tech. We lost tech. That makes us dinner. Uh, I
nobody wanted him to play. I was the only one that was like, “Hey, yeah, I mean, if he plays, like it’s whatever. I think he’s an NBA player.”
I wouldn’t say that anything that Antonio said was wrong. Um, but I my thing is I feel like Traan kind of told us this is what was going to happen. Like he kind of said that he wasn’t going to swing for the fences. They weren’t going to be aggressive.
Um, and all they did was just replace Beasley Shruder.
Yeah.
And they said, “Iive coming back. He’s going to take a jump. The young guys will take a jump and we’ll get better that way.” So I like feel like T
handles the ball a lot better than last year’s did. Sorry.
What did you say?
I said this team handles the ball a lot better than last year’s did when you’re taking Hardway and Beasley off the floor.
They do have more guys that can handle the basketball. That’s fair.
It’s more dynamic, man. That’s I I think like that’s you watch the playoffs, it felt like that that definitely was one of the main themes was that teams were just had more dynamic ball handles. There wasn’t like just catch and shoot was not was not somebody’s skill set on offense that that lasted in these playoffs,
right? Look, if they’re able to get a four, I would love it. That is the last. If they could do it, I think that would be great for them. I don’t know if they will, but I’d love it. If not, my takeaway is this is basically what Traan said was going to happen and that they were going to rely on internal improvement. M people maybe didn’t believe it was actually going to happen. It took a long roundabout way to get here. These 72 hours have been crazy, but this is where they were going to arrive at. This is what they wanted to do. They believe that young guys will take a step forward and they’ll get better that way. We’ll we just have to wait to see at that point. If they do, we’re talking a little bit better. But if they don’t, then it’s, you know, you might not have as great of a season. But you kind of got to hope and have optimism that the young guys will take a step. The SR will take a step. Ivy will take a step. Dur will take a step. And now a lot of these issues maybe aren’t issues anymore. So, we’ll see what happens. But I think this offseason has been fine. I think they’ve done it basically what Traion said would happen. So, that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Appreciate you guys making lockdown on Pistons your first listen every single day. Thank you, Matt, for coming on. I appreciate you always making time to come on. Um, thank you guys. Hit that or hit that subscribe button at the Lock on Pistons YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. And until next time, I’ll see you guys later. Stay safe out there. Until next time. Peace out, everybody.

Detroit Pistons shake up roster with Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert signings. Are these the game-changing moves fans have been waiting for?

Ku and Matt break down the Pistons’ latest free agency acquisitions, analyzing Robinson’s sharpshooting potential and LeVert’s playmaking abilities. The discussion explores how these signings align with GM Trajan Langdon’s strategy of striking a balance between veteran presence and internal growth. Key topics include Robinson’s fit alongside Cade Cunningham, LeVert’s role off the bench, and potential future moves to address the power forward position.

Will the Pistons’ offseason strategy pay off in the competitive Eastern Conference? Tune in for expert analysis on Detroit’s path forward and how these moves could reshape their playoff aspirations.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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