Who Should Be the Detroit Pistons Backup Power Forward?

Who Should Be the Detroit Pistons Backup Power Forward?

I feel like the one thing that I keep seeing Pistons fans talk about is power forward and backup power forward. So, I kind of wanted just to get your guys’ like overall thoughts. Like, do you think the Pistons need to address to get one or do you feel like there’s a backup for on the roster right now that’s not currently playing that position? Um, I mean, I can the forward rotation is going to be primarily three guys, right? Tobias Harris, Assar Thompson, and Ron Holland. And I think you’re going to sneak Duncan Robinson in there at the three a little bit as well. Like he’ll kind of split his minutes between the two and the three. You got Caris Levert will kind of split his minutes as well. One, two, three, and Jay Nivy’s one and two, right? So like the way that this is all kind of shaking out, it seems to make sense right now. You could put together a nineman rotation with basically a hole at the backup one and the backup four and just shift guys around at the guard position, Ivy and Levert. And at that four position, Assar and Ron Holland, right? So, it seems like that’s where this is going to go. They went nine-man rotation for the majority of last year, and this gives Ron Holland a nice minutes boost, which by all accounts for summer league looks like he’s going to earn at the very least. So, like I I don’t think that either the starting or backup power forward position is something that A needs to be addressed or b will be addressed. Now, that being said, if there’s a a four or kind of a combo big out on the free agency market right now with a little bit more size who you could sign and not expect to have minutes uh right right off the gate, right? Like just kind of be a big injury replacement. I I think that’s a really important move that this team could make with that 14th spot because like what happens if if Tobias goes down, right? All right. If the bias goes down and you start, let’s say you just move Ron Holland in the starting position, your your two forwards that you’re starting are Assar and Ron Holland. You have nobody behind either Assar or Ron at the four? Absolutely nobody. Are you Are you going to pull up Paul Reed down to that position? Are you going to have Isaiah Stewart playing the four again and backup units? Like you could theoretically go even smaller and have Marcus Sasser enter the rotation there, but now you’re really looking at four guards off the bench. like it it gets a little murky pretty quick if they start getting injuries in the front court. So I I would like to add a guy at at the four maybe like the four five type position. I just I think Trey Lyles is going to come in and expect to play. I think Chris Buchet, he’s going to come in and expect to play. These are guys that are NBA players, proven roles. Last year they didn’t get zero minutes and they weren’t on terrible teams. So I think it’s got to be someone else. Um but I I would like some depth there. I don’t know. What do you think, Blake? Yeah, I mean I think just when you you send out Simone Fonteio in the Duncan Robinson sign and trade like I totally get looking at the roster and you’re kind of like what’s going on here? But like you said, I think those those minutes and Simone Fontekio didn’t have his best season by any means last year. Like I think the plan always should have been like you hope that uh some like Ron Holland is definitely going to get more minutes in year two. Like you sort of want him to just take those and even if he can’t take all of them like like you said split it amongst Assar Thompson and Ron Holland. Um I I’m with you too like if there is a move to add some depth I’d be all for it especially when you do have open roster spots. Um, also like similar to what you said about what if Tobias goes down, like all the trade stuff we talk about, like now that Tobias is on an expiring deal and if there is some deal where the Pistons go and acquire a player who’s making a pretty decent salary, like Tobias almost has to be included in that deal. And like maybe the player you’re bringing back is your starting power forward. But like if it’s not then you would sort of need to fill that uh position too because I don’t think it it can fully just be Ron Holland and Assar Thompson if Tobias Harris isn’t in the equation either. But I think like as it stands now I I sort of think it’s like following the plan that um the the front office wanted to follow. This made me think a lot of Tobias’s first stint. You guys remember who the small forward was next to Tobias? Marcus Morris. I think maybe this could be their plan. They view us as a long-term four and they view Ron as a long-term three. And maybe that might not be the plan right now this year, but maybe next year they feel more confident of having those guys at the three and the four. But there’s one guy you named, Wes, that I was just like, I’d love Chris Buché, but I don’t know, you know, how many minutes he wants. I mean, there’s report that he might sign for a vets minimum. I don’t know. I I’d love him. I like the versatility with him. You know, he can play four or the five, but I think what you said is correct. Like, he’s probably going to want some rotational minutes and then like when you kind of get into that, like where’s where’s Ron gonna play? like I doubt he’s going to play over Caris or Duncan because you need like more three-point shooting out there. But um maybe you know the long-term plan is just to kind of roll with the SAR out there kind of how they stagger you know Jaden Ivy as a shooting guard and as a point guard on this roster. Yeah, I mean that’s I think that’s one I do think that that is the plan and that’s also exactly what I would like to see. So I’m kind of happy with it. Like I I love the idea of the two combo forwards just kind of mixing and matching and and Ron Holland looks like the exact type of forward where he could guard realistically three and four. Some nights you might be able to stick him on a two and have it go pretty well and not have him get out quick, but he he is looking like he can develop in the type of forward that allows Assar Thompson to actually guard one through four. You pair this with the fact that Cade can guard one through three, like you can hide him one through three wherever you need. Like you you can have Assar Thompson play the four, which is who he is offensively. Uh KC brings this up all the time, but like Ron or not Ron Howen, Assar Thompson and Jaylen Dur, they cut to the exact same spots on the floor all the time. Their instincts are both as a big, they’re both very good at it, and they get in each other’s way pretty frequently. So like having Assar Thompson play a four offensively makes a ton of sense. your worry is that defensively he’d be stuck guarding bigger guys with Ron Holland and with Kate Cunningham he doesn’t have to. So I I think that that’s probably where things are tracking. And just to like really quick to to bring this up like you brought up Simone Fonteio like and maybe this will calm down some some fans of the podcast here, but is it fair to say that Ron Holland and Assar Thompson both are far better equipped to play the four for backup minutes than Simone Fontio ever was? Like even when they went in and and acquired Simone Fontakio two years ago, he started a game at the four and I think it was Julius Randall just buried him. Absolutely buried him for every second that he was on the court with him. Like Simone Fontekio, we went into last offseason saying he can’t be the backup forward or the four because he he’s just not physical enough to do it. And that’s what he played. Almost all of his minutes last year were at the four. And it didn’t kill him. this team wasn’t toast when he was on the court, right? And now you got Ron Holland and NSR Thompson. Both are at least physically able to hold up with most force across the NBA, starters or backups. So I I I think we should not have too much concern with this. I they made an upgrade just by not doing anything. Yeah, I think you could like argue like, okay, Simone is brings more shooting, but even he didn’t shoot like we know he can last season and he’s like 32%. Yeah. And you go out and you sign Duncan Robinson and Carris Levert and I know they’re pretty much replacing Malik Beasley and Tim Hardway Jr., but like Duncan Robinson has some size. I’m not saying he’s a good defender by any means, but if you just play one of those players next to Assar and or Ron Holland, whoever is out there, like that should bring the shooting that you’re missing from Simone Fontio and then some uh even when you don’t have him in the equation. That’s a good point. I didn’t think about kind of playing Duncan maybe as a three or a four. I mean, I know some Heat fans said that Spo did have Duncan at the four before they kind of tried Kilaware, which I don’t really know why he didn’t he drafted him in the first place if he was going to be on the bench, but they they’re like, “Oh, he can play four next to Bam. Let’s go.” Um, but I don’t know, maybe they do sign one, maybe they don’t. Maybe they they feel that, you know, Assar is kind of like that long-term solution. I always felt like that the bias contract was just kind of like a band-aid or a placeholder until they could maybe kind of identify who could be the long-term for on this team or maybe he’s not even on the team yet. Maybe they trade for somebody. You never know. Yeah. And Tobias kind of seems to me like I mean even before he signed here I when James Edwards was still in Detroit like he was reporting how Tobias wants to be in Detroit. I think like he met his wife here and everything and everything we saw last season was just how huge he was in the locker room. So like yes, he’s making $26 million this year, but his next contract isn’t going to be for anything close to that. And I would probably bet that he wants to end his career in Detroit. So, like eventually if you flip-flop and like Tobias is your backup four and Ron Holland and or Assar are your starting four, like I think that’s the best case scenario, honestly. Yeah, that’s my dream. And and honestly, they they kind of set up this off season to be able to do something like that. Not saying that they will, but they have a lot more stackable contracts than they did last season. So once we get past that moratorum after a guy signs a free agency deal like Duncan Robinson and Caris the Vert once they are both able to be traded you can stack some of those salaries together and actually get to a pretty big number because I’m right there with you Blake like longterm if you could have Ron and Assar or Assar and Ron however you want to put it doesn’t matter as you’re starting forwards with a uh with Tobias Harris backing both of them up that would be fantastic. I’d be all over something like that. So, kind of have like Tobias play that Al Horford role, just kind of being that vet off the bench and and that that’s a guy I wanted in free agency so bad, you guys. Like, I was get I was getting cooked for it. Like, why would you want Al Horford? I was like, why wouldn’t you want Al Horford? Like, it’d be a perfect back there, right? I know he’s go the Warriors, but yeah, for Warriors will retire. I don’t I don’t I don’t know, man. It’s uh Warriors haven’t made a single move. It’s kind of weird. They really like watching everyone else have fun. That’s That’s what I’ve gotten out of this Warriors off season. Honestly, honestly, I [Music] Oh, [Music]

Today we talked about who could possibly be the backup power forward for the Pistons this upcoming season.