The Pistons Pulse Countdown to the Season

The Pistons Pulse Countdown to the Season

[Music] [Music] Hello and welcome to your goto Detroit Pistons podcast, The Pistons Pulse, co-hosted by me, Bryce Simon of Motor City Hoops, a former D1 hooper, and current teacher, husband, and father of three amazing kids. And I’m Omari Seno for the second Pistons beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. And of course, we’re always blessed to be joined by our producer, Wes Davenport. If you are not listening to Wes and Blake Silverman over on the pinown on the Detroit Bad Boys YouTube channel, you absolutely should be. Make sure you’re reading Omari Sanca II on the Detroit Free Press. And while content’s been a little slow, make sure you get subscribed to the Motor City Hoop Substack absolutely free. There will be content essentially every day once the season gets going over there. And I think I have some new contributors that are coming on, you know, throughout the season. So, YouTube user says, “Interesting recording time.” Listen, guys, it’s the fall. I’m coaching football right now. All three of my kids are in sports. So, like for example, tonight our youngest son has a flag football game. The oldest son has flag football practice. I have football practice. Like it it just I told O2 and Wes, I said, “Hey, for a few weeks here, maybe a couple weeks, unless we go on a Sunday, we may need to go in the morning before school.” So, if you’re with us, hopefully you’re not stuck in traffic. Maybe you’re sitting at the office with a nice cup of coffee um before your boss comes in or whatever you’re doing. if you’re listening after, obviously we appreciate you, but there might be a few of these O2 over the next few weeks. Yeah. And I feel like we kind of fall into this scene every year. Uh the one thing we cut out after our first year on the pod was like we can’t do like the super late ones, you know, like 11:00 p.m. or, you know, 10:30 or whatever. Like that was just the one thing we cut off. Like I’ll happily wake up at 7 a.m. for a 7:30 pod. Like who doesn’t want the business post in the morning? I want the piss post in the morning. You want the piss post in the morning? Yeah, I mean people with the piss post in the morning. That’s right. Like hopefully I mean if you listen I I already worked out this morning and I was listening to a podcast. Now unfortunately it was an 0 and2 the world is ending Chiefs podcast for me but hopefully we are in the ears of some Pistons fans out there taking a morning walk maybe getting an exercise in. 01 here says good morning. He’s on his way into work. So a little bit different schedule and I’m with you. Listen, Sam made me record after playoff games last year and that was a grind. I was exhausted by the end of the playoffs because some of those games would end so late and then we’d record and it’s an hour and a half and all of that. YouTube user says he is at work. So yeah, if you’re with us this morning, thank you so much. We appreciate you. Let us know where you’re listening from. I think our good friend Keith Smith over on their podcast, the Front Office Show, they say you do the little trick where you put your, you know, you put something around your ear or whatever, kind of tuck it in and and listen at work. Uh, while I mean, who who’s really doing anything at 7:30 at work, right? Like, we’re just chilling here to start the day right now. I’m sure you guys are all grinding. We appreciate you very much. So, let’s get into this O2. We’re going to talk like uh Wes gave us some uh I don’t want to say superlatives. They’re more like category predictions, but it’s not like who was number one or anything like that. But before we do that, let’s just get a opinion, update, whatever on Malik Beasley and that situation with the Pistons. Anything you have and then after you kind of get that out, we can talk about do we think he fits on this roster? Would he make sense on the roster? Anything like that? Yeah. Uh, so for those who missed it over the weekend, I wrote about Malik Beasley’s situation and not necessarily new info in there, but more so, you know, just up todate. Uh, here’s where the situation is. And obviously, he’s under federal investigation. He’s not the target, but the subject, which means there’s still a risk of of uh prosecution. And then there’s the NBA investigation as well, uh, you know, which is in its final stages. So, we’ll see what these scenarios resolve. But long story short, you know, it’s just highly unlikely he signs with the Pistons or any other team until those investigations resolve. Uh, you know, when I publish the story, like I feel like most people get it. But seemed like some people were still kind of confused like why like just sign them now or you know, this doesn’t make any sense. But it’s like just random example. Uh, let’s say some trade goes down like at the last minute like Cat and Julius Randle last year. Let’s say a player, a useful player sent to a team that for whatever reason, like you know, you know, they they want to send them back out. Uh if you’re the Pistons, you have a roster spot, you could be in that conversation. If you’re the Pistons and you sign a player, uh you know, obviously you can’t. And then you also carry the risk of okay, well, that player, you know, uh is now in a scenario where he can’t play and you know, then you use that roster spot and you kind of jammed yourself in the corner and moved yourself for opportunities for no real reason at all. So, long story short, uh, you know, I think once be these investigations resolve, that’s when we’ll begin to see some movement, but until then, uh, it’s just going to be not a stalemate, but it’s, you know, it’s just going to be on ice essentially until he could move forward with his own career. Yeah. So, as Wesley says, like, do you get the feeling that Pistons or any team would be willing to risk signing Beasley before it’s officially resolved? It it sounds the answer is more than likely no. I mean, unless you have a very high degree of confidence that nothing’s going to come from it, uh, you know, which you probably wouldn’t get until it’s officially resolved. Uh, no, like there’s just no reason to risk it. And if you’re the Pistons, like you don’t need to work easily into your system. You had him all last year. Like you know exactly what he’s going to do, how he’s going to fit. So, uh, yeah, I think it’s just easier, you know, for all parties just to allow this to be in the past before you move forward. You know, I don’t think Beasley wants to be in a scenario where uh you know, he’s reporting to camp and kind of dealing with all this with these investigations lingering in the background. Uh yeah, it’s just I talked to his lawyer. Expectation is that there’s not going to be any movement until after the fact. I I do want to talk a little bit more about this and then we’ll get into the rest of the episode, but uh real quick in Wesley also asked, “What time is it where Sam lives?” Omari, what time do you think it is where Sam Vini lives? Uh, I’m going to guess between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. Close. It’s 9:40 p.m. So, um, yeah, I usually Sam and I if we need to conversate, we have a little bit of time when I first wake up in the morning before he goes to bed and then it seems like he’s waking up, you know, mid afternoon my time. So, and then Will Jay, what up do fellas? Catching a live show on the way to work. I love it. So again, if you’re with us live this morning, little bit different recording time, let us know where you’re listening from. Obviously, drop questions in the comments. Um the outline is full in terms of we have a full episode for you, but it’s definitely this episode probably next week as well. O2 uh are a couple episodes where we can take questions, right? So if you have something that you’ve asked in the past that we haven’t got to or you got, you know, some lingering question you want to get out there, throw it in the chat and I feel like this is the type of episode we can get to that. Here’s what I want to ask. Let’s let’s say everything moves past, it’s all on the up and up, Malik Beasley is going to play in the NBA, etc., etc., etc. Do you see the path for Malik Beasley making sense on this roster? Because my short answer is yes, and I I’ll expand on that, but I do feel like I’ve seen some Pistons fans question the rotation and the minutes and how does it all play out. Do you think it’s a no? Where are you on the scale of they should bring in Malik Beasley if everything is clear and they’re able to do so? Yeah, I mean if the question is purely you know does he fit and does he help this team? Uh you know I think the answer more than likely is yes. Uh can you guarantee him the same role he had last season? Probably not. But uh you know to have Duncan Robinson and Blake Beasley uh you know as your shooters off the bench I think that’s a very very very good scenario to have. Uh, you know, I think that gives you, you know, flexibility going forward. So, the Pistons have Beasley’s non-bird rights, which is basically when a player signs a one-year deal, uh, you have an exception where you can sign them to 120% of whatever they made last season. And, uh, that’s a cap exception. So, he was on the books for 6 million last year. Uh, they could bring him back at a salary starting at 7.2 million and over three years, I think that would be around 22 million. Over four years, that goes up to like 31 or something like that. uh you know so you can get him under a multi-year deal if that’s what he wants to do and obviously that gives you a little bit more flexibility when you get to the deadline like okay we have bees we have Caris we have Duncan Robinson we have all these wings uh you know where do we stand uh you know under any moves we can make to you know flesh out the rest of our roster because if you sign Beasley then that’s a team that I think skews ball uh and they already skus ball I think in some ways I think they got bigger on on the on the wing but you know they’re pretty much the same at the uh you know forward and center positions. So long story short like I think Bees helps you run the court uh you know from a salary standpoint uh like you’re still getting him on an absolute steal of a salary uh that 7.2 million and that opens up options down the line. So I think for a variety of reasons like that would still make sense for the business. And just so everybody’s aware, you know, because some people may reference or go back to the contract offer that was out there like essentially the day this all initially came out. Remember that was going to be a contract given to Malik Beasley with the non-tax MLE, not his nonbird rights. So the numbers that Amari just threw at you guys was his nonbird rights numbers, which is I think 120% of the previous year. So he’s on 6 million last year. That’s at 7.2. I I I assume it’s I think it’s 5% or eight. I I I don’t remember exact 5% raises for that type of contract. So, however that projects out over two years, 3 years, whatever you want to do, but that’s why that three-year deal comes in at a number lower than whatever it would have been a whatever fouryear I think it would have been three years 42 million 42 that Yeah, cuz the non-ax MLE was for roughly 14 whatever. So ju just just so it’s clear for people they understand why that number would not be on the t even if Malik Beasley is like hey this was he’s clear he had nothing to do with it everything’s on the up and up. Detroit does not have the they don’t have the means to give him that number anymore. It’s it’s the number that you outlined. I just want to make sure everybody understood why to make sure that’s clear. Yeah. And because there are really no other exceptions around the league that you know could be used in that boat. the Pistons. I think Brooklyn may still have some cap space. Like I don’t necessarily see them shelling out from Malik Beasley given that you know twothirds of their roster. They just traded for another young like I listen no more. I love Kobe Buffin. You won’t find a bigger Kobe Buffin fan but I’m like what are we doing right now? You know what I mean? So yeah. Uh Aruna says if Beasley signs a one-year contract do we get his bird rights next year? I believe yes. I think you could have nine consecutive one-year deals uh to activate that. And we could double check, but I am pretty sure I am texting Keith Smith right now. Um he lives on the East Coast, so he may be awake. So if he texts me back, um this is one that I am not sure about Aruna. So this is a great question. I’m texting Keith. I’ll text uh um another another cap guy as well. So I’m pretty sure non-consecutive one year deals could work. Uh they just count the actual time you’re with the roster, not necessarily the length of the of the contract, right? So, we can Yeah, we’ll definitely verify that. Don’t want to put false information out there, but assuming that you can do that, then yeah, obviously that creates a scenario where basically Beast does exactly what you did last year. Uh, sign a one-year $7.2 million contract, you hit the market next summer, uh, now Pistons have your bird rights because you were there for two years, which is very important for him in terms of the amount of money that they could give him. Exactly. And of course that would enable the Pistons to you know not need cap space to sign them to whatever number and you know bees gets more money and uh it’s a win for everybody. So assuming that the Pistons would get his bird rights then like that’s absolutely a potential scenario because he essentially lost if you’re looking at a three-year deal he essentially lost half of his salary. Like you’re going from 14 million a year to a little bit over 7 million a year. So I think they were being sent for him definitely to do that. Yeah. And here’s where I want to just in terms of the roster. I understand people who say, you know, who’s not going to get as many minutes. Like we went through our stats predictions and we struggled to get to a realistic points per game and all of that. Keith text me back early bird rights. So he would have early bird rights I think because it would only be two years at that point. Early bird is two years, bird is three. Yeah. So early bird rights and early bird rights um would give them 175%. So 7.2 million um maybe O2 can do the math for me there. Uh if he was at 7.2 next year around 11 or 12 billion a year. Yeah. And then Yeah. Then they could sign him for 175% of that. So that that’s what you’d be looking at with Beasley. Um I I just it would be 12.6 billion. It would start at 12.6 billion. So, so again, just to, you know, for comparison sakes, that’s a few million less. That’s probably two million less than what the non-tax MLE is going to be next off seasonason. Um, but you you’re a lot closer, right? Like you’re you’re getting to a reasonable number there. And yeah, I I just I understand the log jam people could see with the roster. Here is what I will say. To me, they have a nine-man rotation right now. I kind of like the Javvante Green signing as a depth piece. I like Marcus Sasser as a depth piece. I like Paul Reid as your third center. Like, I like those guys, but I don’t think I don’t think that they have a full 10-man rotation. Now, does Malik Beasley slot into the spot that I think they need to add to fulfill a 10-man rotation? No. I would I would rather them, you know, Trey Lyles ended up going overseas, which is a whole another conversation. Yeah. But I I do think if a star is going to play some time at the four, if you see some Ron Holland at the four, maybe there is some Isaiah Stewart at the four with, you know, whatever. I do think there is a path to Malik Beasley being part of your 10-man rotation. And here’s the other thing I’ll say. How good do you feel about the floor spacing on this team in any game that Duncan Robinson doesn’t play O2? To me, it could be a little scary. Like Jay Ivy shot 40. We’re we’re big Jaden Ivy fans here, but it’s not the same level of gravity. Carris LeVert at shoots the ball well sometimes. It’s not the same level of gravity. If you know, even Sasser, it’s more on the ball three-point shooting. Tobias, not super high volume. So, my thing is like, is it the worst thing to make sure you have two of those guys so that way in a game where one of them doesn’t play, you at least have the other one? So, just something to think about there. Yeah. I mean, Duncan Robinson’s elite. Bees is elite. Uh, you know, if you back to your question of if they lose Duncan Robinson for some time, how confident do you feel about their spacing? Uh, it’s not really at all because you’re at that point hoping on internal improvement. Uh, which, you know, there there could be. Sure. But I still think you need just like that absolute knockdown offball threat. And you know like even if Ji maintains 40% even if Kate gets to like 37 like you still need somebody in that Beasley or Duncan Robinson type role I believe. So yeah that’s another reason uh like you don’t necessarily want Duncan Robinson single-handedly anchoring your your spacing next season. Uh cuz keep in mind they lost uh Tim Hardaway Jr. as well. So you know that’s two vets last year that you know are not here this year and and you’ve got to replace those shots somehow. Um, so real quick, Harry Morose asked, uh, this is from Order of the Blazing Horse. Make sure you’re checking out their pod. What up though, what was his next closest successful season? Harry, uh, let me know. Are you talking about Beasley like in terms of his three-point shooting or um, let me know exactly what you’re asking there because I want to make sure I like we answer that correctly. YouTube user says, “I have an Excel sheet that gets Kade IVSR 30 plus minutes and all the other guards at around 20. All the lineups make logical sense as well. This is a 10 man 10-man rotation with Beasley. Interesting. So, um, again, I think it’s doable. Uh, Harry says yes. So, looking at Malik’s three-point shooting seasons, I will wait and go to 2021 with Minnesota because anything before that, the volume wasn’t there. So, 2021 with the Timberwolves as a Disney Plus Hulu ad pops up in the middle of my basketball real GM page. Um, no thank you. Uh, now I have to refresh, guys. So, 2021 with the Timberwolves. He shot 8.7 threes a game and made 40%, but that was only 36 games, 37 games, excuse me. Uh the next year he shot 8.1 and was at 38%. Milwaukee the year before Detroit he shot 6.9 and was 41. I mean these back-to-back seasons are pretty impressive but the next closest type of thing was 2020 2021 with Minnesota. And again he only played 37 games. He averaged 20 points a game that season by the way but in 37 games. So I think Harry’s point here and this is something we’ve talked about O2 is how do we know Malik was going to replicate and you know do that and you know 27 28 minutes a night. So I I I I think if everything plays out a certain way bringing Malik back Beasley back makes a lot of sense. I think the roster could use it. After this break we’re going to get back into the Pistons roster and we’re going to talk about some of these statistical categories. Who’s the number two scorer? Who’s the number two assist guy? Who’s number two in deflections for the Detroit Pistons? We’ll get into all of that right after this. Okay, so we’re back from segment two and we’re just going to do a category leaders segment. Uh like I think we could realistically guess who’s going to lead the Pistons in various categories last year. I put good money on Kade leading them with points and assists. I put good money on Jaylen Duran leading them in rebounds. But we can debate the number twos and I think that’s really kind of longterm for this, you know, ongoing get the Pistons back to the finals project. Like the number TWS are obviously going to be a really, really, really big part of that. So, we could start off with number two for points per game. Uh, Bryce, I’m assuming UFK leading them next season. So, with that, who would be your number two? Yeah, I mean, we did our our point, you know, our predictions episode. Um, I I don’t have a hot take here, guys. I mean, I don’t even I I I’ve I’ve long said I thought there was a, you know, that Kade Cunningham might be the best player on the Pistons Championship team and he may not be the leading scorer. I’m slowly having to backtrack on that. Um, it looks like that may not be the case. I think there’s a world where it’s closer to like Kate averages 24 and the number two guy averages 23 or something like that. Um, but the scoring may stay higher than what I thought, you know, the first few years of his career. So, no hot takes for me. the number two score. So for reference for Pistons friends last season Ji was at 17.6 before he got hurt. Beasley ended up at 16. Tobias was fourth on this team in the regular season at 13.7. I just don’t know that there’s a ton of competition here. I I think it’s going to be Jaden Ivy. And and even if my thing O2 is even if Jay Nivey doesn’t take the jump that we kind of predicted on our stats prediction episode, I still think he’s the second leading scoreer. Like even if Ji’s at 15 or 16, is there anybody else we see averaging 15 or 16? Like it’s not Tobias. I don’t think Assar takes that type of jump. I I guess maybe some people could think Duran, but like it, you know, Duran’s probably not playing 30 minutes a night because you got to play Isaiah Stewart. So I pretty solidly confidently say Jaden Ivy here. Yeah, I also say Jayen Ivy. Uh 17.6 six points per game last season. And like you said, like that’s more or less unchallenged on this team. Uh like if we’re even talking guys who I think could crack like 18 per game within the next few seasons. Like honestly, my next guest for this roster would probably be a guy like Ron who’s got a little bit more I think on ball creations. That’s YouTube users. Ron is the second league score if something insane happens. So, you know, if we’re talking about capability, then yeah, you know, like I certainly think if all goes well for Ryan and he’s getting downhill and getting to the line, like, you know, there’s a outcome for her for him where he’s averaging 20 points per game. But, uh, the minutes more than likely will not be there next season for that. Uh, and yeah, Ji is just the easy uh, guess here. He did it last season. It would have maintained it had he not got hurt. And even coming off the injury, you hope he comes back and like I mean, the first step’s not going anywhere. shot. Ideally, it’s not going anywhere. So, we agree on this one. I’m going with JI. I I think the one other guy I’ll throw in that I think maybe is second on the team in scoring in multiple games next year is Carris Levert. This is a guy that, you know, he had a season, you know, five seasons ago where he averaged 20 points. Again, only 47 games. Had the next season he averaged 17 points in 58 games. Now, he hasn’t hit that recently. Last year in his 26 games with Atlanta, he was just under 15 points per game. if that role is bigger, I think that only happens if we don’t see some of the young guys fulfilling the role in the necessary way. But I just again, if we’re going like outside the box answers or whatever, um I I think Caris Levert will be second on the team in scoring multiple games this year. I I think Jaylen Durn would be an interesting one here. Like what if he starts hitting the little push floater? Um what if the free throw percentage goes back up? Some of those type of things. you could see him, you know, you know, mostly, you know, the downhill drive. He he does JD is a guy that gets to operate with the ball in his hands a little bit. So, um, I I will, again, I will stay with Jay Nivey as my answer, but some other interesting names there. Speaking of Jaylen Duran, uh, I don’t have a hot take that he won’t be the Pistons uh, leading rebounder next season. Uh, O2, we’ll see if you have that hot take. But the bigger question is who will be number two on the team in rebounds per game? Number two on the Detroit Pistons in rebounds per game. So I believe uh second in rebounds per game for him last season was Kate Cunningham. Uh and the only other player who would have been sort of within that category is well was up there a bit. you know, Stew like it’s worth a minute thing with him. Why I think he was, you know, between five and six or six and seven around there, but I’m going to go with Cade. Uh, you know, I think he is, you know. Okay. So, I’m looking at their numbers last year, right? Okay. So, Cade was second last year, 6.1 rebounds, but Tobias had 5.9 and Isaiah Stewart had 5.5 and Assar actually had 5.1. Yeah. So, no, I’m I’m changing my mind. I’m going to go with Assar Thompson. Play more minutes. There you go. That’s the answer. Yeah, he Yeah, he’s going to play more minutes and he was I mean he was just half a rebound behind Kate last season, probably playing half his minutes. So, yeah, I could easily see Assar averaging seven or eight, honestly, if he’s cracking 30. Yep. I’m I’m going to go Asar as well. Um listen, uh YouTube users bringing up Tobias. I think Tobias is a really good answer. My thing is I think Tobias’s minutes go down. I think his role goes down. Maybe if his role goes down, maybe there’s an argument to he’s even better on the boards. I just think Assar’s minutes are going up. And here’s the stat that does it for me. When you look at per 36 minutes, and listen, I I realize Assar is not going to play 36 minutes. I get it, but I think he’s going to play. He’s at 8.2. That’s two more rebounds per 36 than Cade and one and a half more per 36 than Tobias. So, I I just think if Assar gets to a certain minutes per game, he’s definitely going to be the guy that that ends up being second. So, um Isaiah Stewart, for what it’s worth, when you look per 36, is second behind only Jaylen Duran, but I don’t think either of us believes Stu is going to get those minutes. And that’s no shot at Stu whatsoever. We obviously love Isaiah Stewart, think he’s an important part of the team, but I do, you know, here’s the thing. 02 Assar was only one rebound behind Cade Cunningham and played almost 13 less minutes and it’s the same with Tobias eight behind Tobias in nine less minutes per game. So I don’t even think you know this is not even a 30 minute per game thing for Assar. I think if he plays five more minutes per game he’s averaging more. And I think the other thing is who’s on the court together. Aar plays a ton of minutes with Tobias with Cade in the starting lineup and I think he just naturally takes their rebounds away because quite frankly he’s more athletic and get can get to the ball before them. Yeah, I agree. I’m looking at their per 100 numbers from last season. Uh Duran 19.1 uh you know Isaiah Stewart 13.4 Assar is the only other player on the team to crack double digit rebounds per 100 and he averaged 11. After that you get Tobias Harris who had nine. So per 100, Assar is averaging two whole more rebounds than Tobias Harris. So yeah, just from a minute standpoint, uh yeah, I mean honestly, I think I’ll be surprised if it’s not Assar. Uh you know, he is like if I’m looking at his numbers and cleaning the glass like for his size, he’s got to be like a 99% rebounder. Uh what’s also interesting is that K per 100 averaged 8.3 rebounds which is the same as Fonteio and Ron Holland and his rebounds are like a clear step above all the other guards on the team. So you know Kate might be number three. Kate might be number three but I can definitely see like a star just like having unbelievable numbers for a guy who’s 66. I think the rest of the league and fans and whatever found out how good Kate Cunningham was last year. I still don’t think they understand and appreciate his all-around game. And I think this is the year now that he’s on the radar going into the year. Now that um the Pistons are on the national radar in some sense going into the year, like they they’re consistently picked in the top four or five in the East in every podcast I listen to. People are going to understand Cade’s all-around game. And that goes to the defense and the rebounding. Aruna says Kade number two because he’ll be on triple double watch every fifth game. Interesting point. YouTube user Tobias plays a ton of minutes because he’s our biggest four. I do agree with that. Like there is definitely minutes there. Um the other thing I’ll say with Assar though is I do think they’ll let Assar go grab rebounds. Like I don’t think Cade gets the Russell Westbrook treatment where everybody else boxes out and lets Cade get the rebound so he can start the break. I think this team is very comfortable and maybe even encourages Assar getting the rebound so Aar can lead the break at times as well. So uh YouTube user asked who plays more minutes, Assar or Tobias? I will say Tobias still plays more minutes, but I think it’s much closer than last season when Tobias was 31.6 and Assar was 22.5. I think Tobias averages more the first half of the season. I think Assar averages more the second half of the season. Interesting. Okay, let’s go to one that I think is really fascinating and that’s assists per game. And again, I mean, hot take if you want to say not Kate Cunningham, but then there is a litany of other players. O2, Jaden Ivy, Assar, Jaylen Duran, Caris Levert. Like, where do you go for number two on this team in assists per game? For reference, obviously Dennis Shruder was second last season in his 28 games at 5.3. JI was third at four. If you look, let’s just go per 100 possessions. You used that a second ago. Cad’s number one. Then it was Shruder, Sasser, Jaden Ivy. Uh then down to Dur. Yeah, Dur and Assar were tied about one and a half behind Ji. I was going to look at playoffs just I I think those numbers are kind of interesting sometimes. In the playoffs, it was Shruder and then Jaylen Duran right behind Shruder third. So, uh what’s your answer to? Yeah, I think just off of opportunity like I want to guess Jayden Ivy like he’s going to have the ball a lot when Cage sits and you know like I don’t know if they’re running pick and rolls with him or if they’re trying to get him more off ball stuff with Assaar during complimenting but uh yeah I just think Kaza is gonna have the ball he’s probably number two. Um, you know, if you told me a year from now that uh Duran or Assar managed to pull it off, I don’t think I’d be very shocked. But to me, that would also point to a intentional effort by the coaching staff to put those guys in more playmaking positions, whether that’s during working out the elbow or, you know, a SAR in transition, maybe getting like even some lead ball handling reps. So, there’s some flexibility here, but I think long story short is that Ji is the de facto backup point guard on his team, even though there’s still a good chance he starts. And that just feels like the safe guess. Yeah, I think I’ll go Ivy as well with the caveat that, you know, I would not be surprised if it’s Jaylen Duran. Again, I I don’t know that we always talk about how much they utilize Jaylen Duran at the top of the key. They throw him the ball at the top of the key. I’ve done video breakdowns on this. Um, I did some like, you know, season reviews or previews, whichever way you want to look at it over on the substack and I really highlighted how they throw the ball to Jaylen Dur at the top of the key and then run actions on both side of the floor. Dur gets a lot of assists because of, you know, like little DHO drop passes and stuff like that. And so I I I think there’s an opportunity for Duran. Assar you mentioned, I think Caris Levert, so I think YouTube user probably sums it up well here. Ivy if all goes well, Levert if things go just okay, Assar if something insanely fun happens. And then here’s an interesting one because remember his summer league, one of my biggest takeaways from Ron Holland was the passing outside of, you know, the the jumper looking more fluid and stuff like that. Our guy Harry says, “How much do Ron’s assist go up if he’s doing those drive and dump offs like he did in summer league?” Does Ron factor into this or do we do we think the minutes in year two are still low enough that it’s hard to get him into these type of predictions? Yeah, I think it’s hard to get him into these types of predictions. Uh like I do see his assist going up, but I also don’t necessarily see, you know, Ron having that that same type of role as he had in summer league, right? Uh like yeah, will he have driving and dump off opportunities? Sure. But I don’t necessarily see that being something that’s like sustaining uh a big percentage of his possessions more or less. You know, he’s probably coming in 20 25 minutes some nights and you know, just giving you what he gave last season. Like I don’t think they’re going to tell Ron to check in and be like, “We want to see you make a a very very in intentional playmaking effort.” Like, do you want him to do that? Yeah. But I think his strengths are more so, you know, getting downhill defense, things like that. So like his assists go up, but I don’t necessarily compared to other guys on the team, I don’t know if he’s going to be that secondary ball handler uh to the extent of like a JI or a SAR. Yep. I agree. Let’s go to a short break here and then we’ll come back. I definitely want to do the blocks and then if we want to run through the other ones for fun, we can do that. And then we were going to do just some NBA in general awards predictions. I don’t know that I want to do all of them, but I think at least three of them would be a lot of fun. So, we’ll definitely get to three of those. But before we do that kind of general NBA stuff, I want to at least talks about talk about who we think will lead the team in blocks per game. We’ll get right into that right after this. All right, we are back with segment three and we’re going to get into who leads this team in blocks per game next season, which it’s a bit of an interesting debate. Uh so, personally, I’m going to stick with Isaiah Stewart. He led them last season with 1.4 blocks. Uh Duran was right behind him uh with 1.1 and then nobody else cracked a full block per game. uh you know assuming the minutes stay steady you’re probably clocking in at about one and a half blocks again uh if you’re Isaiah Stewart but you know of course Duran could take a you know step forward in that category and then maybe there’s an argument for Assar as a dark horse as well so you know I’m going to go Duran number two in box but if you say Assar I’m not going to I’m not going to argue against it so this is what’s funny to me, Omar, like Isaiah Stewart, you said it, led the team in blocks at 1.4, which is crazy to me. That’s absolutely insane for a guy who averaged less than 20 minutes a game. I think Durn’s I I’m going to click on Durn’s. I want to see like how his went throughout the season and if it went up because it it felt like it felt like it did. Oh, this isn’t going to do it. Um because it doesn’t give blocks per game. It just gives it uh total which then let me see if I can do the game logs. But I I feel like for Duran, we saw an increase throughout the season. So, and then here’s the the I mean, do you really want to bet against Assar potentially doing it, right? Yeah. So, Dur against him doing it. Duran’s really didn’t. He was he was at 1.1 from the calendar year on. So man, you know what? I’m going to go out on a limb. I think Assar Thompson is a allNBA caliber defender. I’m gonna say Assar Thompson. 02. I’m going to say Assar Thompson. Let’s have some fun here early on a Tuesday morning. I’m going to say Assar Thompson leads the team in blocks. I don’t think Duran would be too far behind. I I think Kate Cunningham is a fun conversation as well. He was behind. I mean, Stewart only played the one game. He was barely behind Jaylen Dur. I I don’t think Cade can do it for a full season. I did predict that he would average one block, but I don’t think he’s gonna lead the team. Um, yeah. What was the per 100 if we look at blocks last year? Yeah. So, Steu’s numbers are silly, man. Oh my god. Stu was like far and away number one with 3.4. And then our guy Paul Reed, man. And then Paul Reed at 2.7. and then Duran at 2.1 and then Assaar at 1.4. So what’s interesting is that Assaar is at 1.4 and Tobias was at 1.2 and then Kate was Okay, hold hold on real quick. I love Tobias. I can’t stand the way the NBA stats their blocks though cuz I would guess half of Tobias’s blocks are not when his hands are above his head. He gets blocks. He gets a block stat when he digs at the ball, but it’s just like if it’s a shot attempt, and I I I don’t know exactly what the criteria is, but I I only realize this from watching games so much on Synergy now. I I almost never watch games live just for time purposes, but a lot of his are like a player has left the air. And I guess in regards to that, that’s a block, right? The player’s in the air, they’re going for a shot. Um, Tobiases are just fascinating because very rarely are they actually where the his hands are above his head. But that’s why stocks in some ways to me are useful because yeah, there are scenarios where what counts as a block is like a little bit up for debate. Like definitely watching games live like sometimes I’ll see guys I’m like well he had like three steals and you check the box score after it’s like okay I guess some of those were tracked differently. Like sometimes depending on what happened after the shot, it might just be a like a a missed shot if you’re just digging at the ball, but I was surprised to see Assar and Tobias so close because I mean just off of eye test and I mean Assar obviously is the guy who has a little bit more vertical pop. So yeah. So Aruna says I want to get to the comments here. Definitely Sue he doesn’t have to worry about foul trouble. That’s a fair point, right? So, in his 20 minutes a night, he is able to go after as much as he can. And uh Steven Suggs could saw be in the blocks conversation. Chile says, “Cade going to do it. Love it.” YouTube user Duran just doesn’t have good enough fundamentals to be a great blockman. He had flashy blocks occasionally. And M. Wesley got to get Stu more minutes in the all defensive team. Love. Yeah, it’s going to be tough. The thing with Stu is I think Assar is going to catapult himself into that and then to get two guys in that conversation, your team defensive rating just has to be really, really good. Um, again, I think I’ve referenced this. It’s they’re all fully out now. We had Isaiah Stewart just barely outside our top 25 defenders in the NBA. And then we had Assar, I think at number 16 or something like that. Chile brings up a good point. Assaar being point of attack defender makes it harder to get volume blocks. Great point because uh you know less opportunities as the low man. I think with the SAR though it’s like these transition blocks. He’s a guy that can get blocks on the ball that a lot of guys can’t. Before we move on, let’s go to this YouTube user says, “Who leads the team in stocks?” So, let’s just combine the steals and blocks together. Yeah. Yeah, that’s the answer, right? Um the the steals with w with him is is pretty significant. He actually, it looks like, yeah, he led the team in stocks last year. Um, actually he a steal like 1.7 steals in 23 minutes last year. He is I mean I don’t I think he’s closer to Dyson Daniels in steals than whoever the second best player. Yeah. On the Pistons is to be completely honest. So yeah. Yeah. I mean when you look at this, this is funny. when you look per 36 what Paul Reed is the best actually and we all know that Bball Paul um gets in and gets disruptive I mean then you go to like Sasser and Ron Holland um per 36 so yeah I I think the answer there is um is a Sar Thompson. So um okay I I’ll throw out some others and then if we don’t want to we we can get into them or we can get to some of the allNBA stuff. Um we talked about only going about 45 minutes here. This has been really good conversation. and we appreciate everybody in the chat, but you know, with it being middle of September, we’re about to get to training camp and and some of that stuff, but we may keep this a little shorter, get me to work on time so I don’t get fired. Um, so we could we kind of did the all the disruption numbers, so we could do charges drawn, that was obviously Tim Hardway Jr. stat last year, best transition player, Mr. Clutch or we can go into the NBA awards O2. Any of those for the Pistons between charges drawn, best transition player or Mr. Clutch that you have overwhelming thoughts on? Yeah, I don’t really have overwhelming thoughts on charges per game because to me that’s more like a intentionality stat and like a lot of guys just aren’t necessarily going for charges. So I think that’s just a stat that’s going to have a lot of variance. Like I couldn’t tell you who was number two on charges last season because I’m looking it up. Yeah, because obviously Tim Hardway Jr. was number one because he went from most often. Uh so I don’t really have anything on on on charges drawn. Uh best transition player like I’m just going to go with Sar just because I think he has well maybe there is some debate there. I would go with Sar just because he is such a weapon in transition. Uh and then Mr. clutch. Like for me, that’s just Kade and I don’t even know who number two would be. Uh you know, Kade’s the guy who’s going to be taking the last shot a lot of nights. So yeah, I think I would go I’m trying to find the uh the charges drawn stats. Um, yeah, the transition one is the interesting one because I think Assaar has an argument for it, but like I hate to go anything against Cade Cunningham whenever we’re talking when we’re talking, you know, scoring in any capacity. So, I uh I think Assar has an argument for it. Ron Holland. I think this this is a a stat where he could get involved as well. So I I think that one’s interesting. I mean, you know, depending on Oh, Dunk. Okay, so we have some fun one here. Chile says Ivy for Mr. Clutch. I was actually thinking Duncan Robinson. Like what if Duncan Robinson just becomes like, you know, big time, you know, hits some three-pointers into the game. All right, I got the charges drawn. This is hilarious. Okay, 2022. Okay, let’s play a game. How many charges drawn do you think Detroit had last year Omari total as a team? Yeah. Uh I know I know Hardway was around 20. Yep, that’s correct. So how many do you think they had as a team? So if Hardway had 20 then I’m just going to guess as a team they had 30. They had 26. Okay. Wow. So he had all but So he had all Tim Hardway Jr. had 18. Yeah. Of said 26. This is the regular season only. Yeah. G. We have a tie for number two. Guess who number two was. Guess who the two players tied at number two were. Kade and Assar. Kate Cunningham is one. It’s not a SAR. Not a SAR. Paul Reed. That’s a great answer. Uh Paul Reed took one. Okay. Lindy Waters III. Here’s the list. Amari. I wouldn’t have guessed that. Okay. Tim Hardaway Jr. at 18. Kate Cunningham at two with two. Lindy Waters III at tied for second with two. And then all of Assar Thompson, Dennis Shrruder, Paul Reed, Simone Fonteio with one. So, uh, Pistons fans probably shouldn’t be putting a Piston player takes a charge on their bingo cards this year because, um, of the 26 charges taken last year, 18, 21, two of the 26 are no longer on the roster this season. So, uh, no, most guys are not are not taking charges. Like, that’s just, you know, it’s a very specialized skill, I feel like, in today’s league. So, yeah. Chilly says, uh, Ivy for Mr. Clutch. Caleb backs that up. had some gamewinners. Um, you know, we’ve seen that fair. Chile says, “Duncan for charges.” Listen, man. You take three next year and you’re leading the team. So, um, it it could literally be anybody on the roster. Let’s go. Had eight. Okay, there we go. Good. Nice. Okay, good shout out. Like, cuz I was not thinking about the newcomers. So, there we go. Okay, Duncan, I see you. I’m going to go Javvante Green. My guy Javvante Green’s going to lead the team. All right, let let’s end the episode with some NBA stuff. Uh, MVP. Who’s your MVP? Giannis. Okay, that’s that’s that’s a good one. I like it. My guess is just with everything Milwaukee is going through and I think every season he’s had, you know, essentially since his last MVP has been MVP caliber and, you know, unfortunately you’re going against, you know, absurd seasons by Joic and uh Embiid, but like Joic is going to have like a voter fatigue issue. Uh, I mean MB is a complete wild card as Philly is and Giannis just feels like a pretty safe choice. I could also see Luca. So, I’ll go Luca. Um, I like the Giannis call. I’m with you. Like I I feel like the only thing with with Joic is there was a lot of arguments for him last year. If they end up top two in the West, like I I could see that coming back. like there was just such a big I’m also just interesting to see if there’s already thunder fatigue, you know, like SGA wins MVP, they win the title, if people are still fans of OKC or if if they’re already tired of them after one title, especially with how young that team is. So, I’ll go Luca here. I think Giannis is a really fun call. I don’t want to do most improve. That’s hard. I think you got to do a little more research for that. DPOY, who’s your who’s your defensive player of the year um this season? I mean, you can interesting one because you you can go with the with the status quo, but minutes games played is that one that that So, yeah, I could see it’s a bit of a dark horse even though he already has one, but I could see a bounceback season for the Grizzlies because their main issue really has just the health. Okay. And if they have a bounceback season and they’re a true West contender, uh Jiren just got paid, like I could see I could see Jiren going for DPOI again. Uh you know, and I think some of that would just be narrative driven, you know, with all the issues Memphis has had. You know, they were in the limelight, then they kind of fell out. Uh I think that’ll help his case, but if Atlanta takes a big step forward, you’re going to have like a Dyson Daniels crowd. So, you know, so we’ll see. But I’m going to go Zarren. Listen, I love Dyson Daniels. He’s got to get better at the point of attack for me to buy into that. Uh I will say though, he is one of my my personal board. He is one of my top defend 10 defenders in the NBA. So I think any one of those 10 guys. Obviously, not all of them are going to qualify. I mean, I got to look at the top of my board. I I think Wimi is the answer here. As somebody as Aruna said, Jokus Jokic is always preseason MVP. And so you see who’s playing well. I kind of agree with that. I understand that I think Wimi is always the preseason DPOI and so you see how many games he’s going to play. If if it’s not Wimi, I think a men Thompson has squarely driven himself into that narrative and conversation. And then I think Mobly and Chad, obviously Moy, you know, already there. I think Chad if he played the games just because OKC’s if OKC’s defense is historically good and he has the games and everybody has decided he’s the best defender on that defense. I think there’s a real argument for him as well. So, uh, last one, rookie of the year. Let’s let’s do rookie of the year and then we’ll cut it off there. So, you have Cooper Flag in Dallas, Dylan Harper in San Antonio. Obviously, he’s starting the year um you know, dealing with an injury. Edgecom in Phil Philly, Ace Bailey in Utah, Trey Johnson in Washington, the guys in New Orleans, there’s like 17 of them in Brooklyn, and then you can get into the dark horses. Uh Yang Hansen in Portland. Who’s your rookie of the year? Cooper Flag. I can’t think of a better situation a number one pick has entered. Uh, I mean, like, I just can’t I mean, you’re joining a playoff caliber roster from day one. Uh, you know, you’re Cooper Flag. You’ve been the dominant player in your class for a while now. And it just lines up for him to have like a monster season. I mean, opportunity, support, like I mean, he’s got everything you you would want. So, to me, that’s his award to lose. My only concern with Cooper and I don’t disagree with him because that team’s going to win games. They may not win a ton. Like I don’t know how good they’ll be, but I don’t think they’re going to be like bottom the bottom of the West. Right. Voters hate when rookies lose. That’s right. So get penalized for that. So correct. More so than ever before. So like I think Trey Johnson could put up big numbers in Washington, but they’re going to lose. I think Ace Bailey might put up big numbers in Utah, but they’re going to lose, right? And so that’s what’s interesting with the top guys of the draft is especially the top two and then even the top three depending on health in Philly like those teams are going to win some games. Like I’m not saying they’re going to be like lock playoff teams but those teams are going to win some games. My thing with Cooper is I actually wonder how much they play him out of position because I think his natural position is the four and that roster is just very congested. Um, but because of that, he may get to do a little bit more than what you would expect on a team with with guys like Anthony Davis and and especially till Kyrie comes back. There may be the ball in his hands. So, I think that’s probably a good call. I think Dylan Harper’s in an interesting situation in San Antonio again where it’s like Steph Castle’s not a great shooter and Jeremy Sohan’s not a great shooter. you know, they have some shooting concerns on that team and, you know, how much can they play these different guys together? I think the dark horse for me is VJ Edgecom. If Philly wins a little bit and, you know, he’s really ingrained in the ro the rotation and really playing minutes, I I think he would have a chance there. I mentioned a couple guys that I think are on losing teams but put up big numbers. Um Derek Queen, I mean assuming like health would be a factor. Yeah, cuz he was already injured as well, you know. So, but he’s on a team where he could put up big numbers. So, I can see him being in that conversation. I just don’t know if they’re going to have, you know, wins, but you know, from a number standpoint, him and Jeremiah Fears, I think, uh, are in pretty good positions. So, I don’t I don’t see them having better seasons than Cooper Flag, but yeah, you know, if you’re talking voting, like I can see one or both of those guys being pretty high just off of opportunity. Yeah, just trying, you know, like you say, you look for team, you know, players that maybe the opportunity, it’s weird because like the Nets drafted, you know, some of these teams drafted so many guys, it’s like even on their own teams, like even Young Hansen with where they took him, but like Klingan’s on that roster, right? Um, you know, like I like Eskcom as a pick. You know, it just seems like they have a lot of guys sort of like in like that’s his range. Like just from standpoint, you’re not wrong. You know, they’re just kind of interesting. You got Tyrese Max Baxi. You’ve got uh the rookie last year whose name is slipping be. Yeah. Jared McCain. Jared McCain who’s coming back from injury and then VJ Askcom and all those guys. Jared and Grimes depending on what happens. I mean, I think Grimes is going to be on the Sixers whether it’s the QO or something gets done. So, yeah. So, we’ll see as far as that. I mean, Canipple could put up, you know, if he really knocks down shots and LaMelo plays and Brandon Miller has a bounceback year off his injury and they’re not just completely trash. I think there’s a world where the Hornets are like flirting with the playin game if LaMelo plays. Like, listen, I’m not the biggest LaMelo Ball fan um in terms of the way he plays, but he’s obviously talented. Like there there’s a world where in the East that that team wins enough games to be relevant in the playin conversation and I think there’s a world where Canipple plays a bunch of minutes and gets a bunch of really open looks. So uh you’re you’re right. It’s Cooper. It’s going to be the narrative to start the year and it’s hard to break those narratives sometimes. Um and then there’s there’s a bunch of names after that. So I have one more dark horse. Yeah. Yeah. Dee Clifford. He’s on a Kings team that I refuse to say anything positive about the Sacramento Kings right now, but go ahead. They’re gonna have to build that roster up mid-season probably. I I love so many players on the roster. O2. I trul I love Zack Lavine. I realize the contract. I love Keegan Murray. I love Keon Ellis. I love Malik Monk. I love Nate Clifford. Sabonis is interesting. The roster makes zero sense to me though. Yeah. And like if it clicks, maybe Nate Clifford doesn’t get the minutes, but you know, if it doesn’t click and you’re like, “Okay, it’s fire cell time.” And Nick Clifford’s getting a a lot of minutes through the back half of the season. It’s It always seems like there’s a guard every older player, too. Older player. Older player, too. It just always seems like every year there’s a guard who just catches everybody by surprise. And like Dee Clifford, I think, checks those boxes for me. So, in in that same vein, I think Seth Coward’s worth mentioning just because Yeah. Yeah. Chile. I I think we’re out of like the true rookie of the year conversation. Let’s not win rookie of the year. Yeah. Just like rookies who may like make all rookie team and stuff. I I think Cedric Coward is another one just because Memphis seems to do a good job with with those guys. So, all right. I got to go to work. Um but no, no, no, guys. Yeah. Yeah. We’re we’re again we’re on to like not rookie of the year, but just like all rookie type stuff. Great conversation this morning. O2. Uh, sometimes I go into these ones, I’m like, man, are we going to get 45 minutes out of this or are we going to be scrambling? I had a question I was going to ask you just in case, like to make sure we got there. And quite honestly, we got 55 minutes of really good conversation and content, I think. Um, hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Thank you for joining us this morning. If you’re listening after the fact, please rate, subscribe, help us continue to grow. I know things are slow right now, but the buildup is about to start to happen here. Make sure you’re listening to Wes and Blake over on the pin down. Make sure you’re reading Omari on the Detroit Free Detroit Free Press. And again, make sure you subscribe to the Motor City Hoop Substack. More content going to start coming probably in the next couple weeks. Again, I have multiple content creators over there that will putting be putting out multiple different things. My guy Harry from Order of the Blazing Horse, um, a couple other people I think are going to start putting some stuff out as well. So, uh, make sure you subscribe. fully free, always will be. Otherwise, hope everybody has a great Tuesday, has a great week, and O2, take it away, my guy. Big thanks to our audio producer, Robin Chan. Big thanks to our editor-in chief, Nicole Avery Nichols, and big shout out to Wes Davenport, as always. And we’ll talk to you all next week.

The Pistons Pulse is your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast for all the best news, analysis, insights and opinions on the team.

Hosted by Omari Sankofa of the Detroit Free Press and Bryce Simon of Motor City Hoops. Omari brings insider insights and analysis as a Pistons beat writer and Detroit native combined with Bryce’s in-depth on-court analysis as a former D1 player and current high school coach of 12 years.

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