Detroit Pistons Training Camp DAY TWO! | Latest News and Updates!
All the dirty work. All dog. I’mma dive on the floor. Go try to block every shot. I’m going be physical with you the whole game. You know still going to be physical with you. When you think of the Pistons, you think just hard work and just pretty basketball. That’s just identity you got to have when you put on that jersey. I’m not your average dog. I’m bad for life. I set the tone. Don’t care about it. I get my respect come in the lane and see I don’t blow you if you retaliate that’s on you talking I hear your sh you must mess around [Music] the mess Oh my god. [Music] for somebody. You better comprehend [Music] [Applause] [Music] another episode of the Downtown Dude Show. Happy Wednesday everybody. Hope everybody’s having a great Wednesday hump day so far. And we are joined once again by my brother, Clutch Points, beat rider and reporter for the Detroit Pistons, none other than Eric Vincent, aka, as I call him, E Vinnie. Eric, welcome back to the show, my brother. How you feeling, man? Feeling good, man. Uh vibes are high right now. Um Piston fans, happy to see y’all here today, too, man. Uh it’s going to be a good show. I’m happy to be here, man. Let’s uh let’s get this thing going. Let’s get to some comments real quick. lowbudget talker calling and y’all talking about we late, bro. I’m trying to get this content together for everybody. We trying to get we trying to get this content, man. These videos and pictures y’all love to see. So bear with us, man. But no, my bad. My bad, man. We got to delay a little bit like the Pistons last year for media day and all that. So, you know, if you like that sometimes, I understand them without Listen, if I’m ever a half hour late, then you then you can come holl at me, right? James, what’s going on? Ricky, what’s up? What’s up? Detroit Drew, I see you in the building. Ricky says, “E Vinnie loves butterbe.” I don’t know what that’s about. No, I don’t. No, I don’t. I was talking to him earlier and he just just just acted stupid. No, I do not. I gonna say that’s that’s not random at all. But we not even a little So, listen, bro. We had media day on Monday, right? And now training camp is in full swing. The Pistons are back in the gym in preparation for the preseason, which begins next week on October the 6th. Super super close. And Eenny has been in the building at the practice facility every day and so we appreciate you as always, bro. Oh yeah, for sure man. I’m happy to be uh happy to be a part of the scene, man. Even going back to media day, like you could just tell the energy is a little different. You know, last season it was clear that they were just trying to wash away what happened the year before. Thanks. Um but now it seems like just all the spirits are raised with the culture being set with the direction clearly in sight and it was like they’re excited for the expectations. So yeah, I’m excited, man. It’s going to be a really fun season. Real quick, did you see the little teaser trailer for their together all the time? All the time together that they put out, bro. That looks like that’s going to be fire. Shout out to their media department. Shout out to their social team. They’ve been killing it with these uh these like little teaser videos and whatnot. Yeah, that that’s going to be fun. I I cannot wait for that to drop. That’s going to be very entertaining. Yeah. Shout out to Detroit Pistons admin because they have been on top of their game. Like it’s been non-stop. A lot of Pistons fans in the past been asking, “Where’s the content? Where’s the content? you know what’s going on behind the scenes. They’ve been non-stop this year. Oh yeah. Like every few hours it seems like they got something new popping off. So shout out to them for sure. They doing it right. They doing it. They doing it. So talk to us, bro. Talk to us, man. Anything that stands out initially that you’ve noticed or observed um from training camp so far. What you got? Yeah, it’s been um it’s been pretty interesting. Um it’s a lot of good um like I don’t want to keep repeating it, but it’s been a lot of good intention from what I’m seeing um from everybody that’s been involved thus far. Um, you know, JB talked to us a little bit today. Um, you know, we talked about, you know, the direction of some of the depth that they have with their wings and some of their bigs as well, and he kind of preached about, um, you wanting to focus a little more on positionless basketball, which maybe last year wasn’t so much of the case. They had versatility, but I feel like now he wants to open it up a little bit more based on what he has on the roster. I think they do have the ability to kind of have that affordability, right? Um, but I like it. I like where they’re headed. It looks like the guys are really confident um even with the new faces added even with uh again the expectations on their mind of building off of what was last season you know from 44 38 as well as the you know first round entry with the playoffs in the Knicks it looks like they’re really trying to capitalize on what could be in front of them and like Kade said he said we all trying to get a championship out of this thing and I don’t think they’re trying to you know settle for just oh what we got here like they they got high aspirations based on what we’ve been hearing so um yeah seen some good energy on the floor. Um very very excited to see what they do with preseason starts. Um but looks like they’re very locked in for, you know, the the training camp they didn’t really have last season. Guys like Assar having a full bit. Um Jay Nivy being involved. Um just everybody being on the floor together. You know, this is one of the more healthy training camps they’ve had over the past several seasons. Um but I’m excited, man. Yeah, it feels like they they got everything in line for, you know, the progression that they’re looking for right now. Yeah, you mentioned some interesting things we’re going to get into later. Um, the biggest thing that stood out really quickly, we’ll touch on and get into later is the versatility piece you mentioned. We know the most important thing this season is the development of the core. Right. Right. But I think another thing that’s going to be really beneficial for this team making that next jump is the versatility that they’ve added that they didn’t really have as much last season, especially coming off their bench. So, we’ll talk about that a little bit further, but I want to highlight that because that was a great point that you made. Before we really get too deep into it, um, we have a clip a quick clip of some of the guys getting up getting up some shots today. So, let’s check that out. [Music] [Music] 28. Man, did y’all see Bobby’s jumper? Anybody see Bobby’s jumper? Tell me that don’t look silky smooth, bro. Looking like MPJ on that jump shot. Not the same elevation, but it looks it looks super clean. Knocked them both down. I think that’s going to be the ro for him. We’re going to get into it, but that’s going to be the role for him next year. It’s not going to be having a a ton of stuff on his plate. It’s just going to be just very specific things. So, we’ll get into that later, but that was kind of the vibe from today. Shout out to all the reporters and beat riders. Eric, you’re obviously here with a shout out to you for getting this stuff for us, you know, making sure that we are in tune and up to date and up to speed with what’s going on. Um, yeah. So, did you get a chance to see Bobby at all today or was he kind of just there and pass? I saw him. Yeah, I saw him towards the end of practice. Normally, when the beat reporters come in, it’s after they’re done practicing and doing scrimmaging and like the individual drills and whatnot. We don’t really have the ability to see that. We kind of come in after that and we see the shoot around that they have and then we talked to some of the players. Um so yeah, what we saw was um yeah, what you saw that area had, you know, Cade, Bobby, um I forgot who else was over. I think Janice was over there as well. Yeah, Javvante Green was over there. Yeah, I think Javvante was with him as well or Dannis, excuse me. Um so yeah, they broke off um normal section they had like last season. Um I think next to that was Stu. Um who else was next to Stu? uh one of the other shooting coaches and then next to him was Ron and Assar shooting with Fred Vincent. They that trio is always going to be together anytime we shoot around. Those three are working together for sure. Um and then Duran um working on the other side who we’re going to talk about in a minute as well. Um but yeah, it seemed like they had you know a lot of sweat is a lot of hard work. Like I remember the Lions kind of talking about how hard they work. I think the Pistons kind of have that same kind of energy at their practices where they treating it like you know five on five and like games. not just simple walkthroughs like you know JB’s pushing them and making sure that everybody’s intentional with you know what they need to do so you know that seems to be the energy when we walk in there and um I think that’s what they need to get ready for the season just having that plan. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, man. Um there’s some questions in here. I’m keeping track of these so we can get to these later um as they apply. But keep the comments coming guys. We appreciate you guys really showing up and showing as you always do. Um let’s see what we have here. All right, so let’s move on, bro. Mhm. Okay, so let’s talk about versatility a little bit more. Um, we’ve talked about it a little bit, but I just really think it’s important. And there’s two guys that I kind of want to go to who have who really manifest that all the time in everything that they do and the way they play the game. Nine to five. Nine to five, man. Yeah. Asar Thompson and Ron Holland. So, coach Bakerstaff today, um, he said at the or I’m sorry, at the media presser on Monday, he said that he fully expects to get Assar Thompson and Ron Holland more minutes together this season. And here’s exactly what he said because he actually um said it a few times. So, he said here, this is from Omar Senova, he says, “JB said he’s certain Assar and Holland will play together this season. We’re expecting both of those guys will take steps and the way they take steps is if they get opportunities and just the way the lineups go and just the way the lineups go, they’re going to have to play together more and I expect them to. So, that was music to my ears. Um, what about what were your thoughts when you heard coach say that? Yeah, I think that’s going to be important. I think it shows two different things. Um, it shows that they want to turn up the energy on defense for sure. Um, again, having a Sar in the starting lineup is going to be big, but um, after that it kind of gets a little, I don’t want to say quirky because, you know, you have Kade who’s a pretty good defender, but how much you want to lean on him defens defensively is a question because he’s your primary guy and your ball handler. Um, so that means Ron is going to have to come in and turn up the energy when Kade sits down or when Ivy sits down or whatever they decide to do. Um, it also shows that they plan on doing some things different offensively as well. I talked to Assar during media day and asked him, you know, how it felt to be the primary ball handler, you know, work with the offensive sets as the table setter for the team. And he said he likes doing it and he said he wants to get used to being able to do it even when like cuz when he did it, it was I think the the one the one immediate game I’m thinking of is the Sixers game late in the season when K got hurt, Tobias was hurt, and Ivy was hurt as well. And it was a ESPN game if I’m not mistaken. And Assar was the one running the show. you know, he was out there controlling the flow of the offense, you know, dictating the pace, and he said he wants to be able to do that again, even if guys are healthy or whatever the team asked him to do. So, you know, being able to have Ron and him on the floor, I think would give them that ability to do so cuz I don’t see a whole lot of, you know, time with Ron being their primary, you know, ball handler. I think Assar is going to have a lot on that on his plate, and I think he’s capable of doing so, especially considering how much we’ve heard about him working on his ball handling skills. So, yeah, I love this, man. Again, the the Pistons, two of their biggest identities in terms of offense is transition buckets and the pick and roll duo between Cade and Jaylen Duran. And to be up and down the floor, I think is their biggest key. And considering how much athleticism and speed that they have, those two are going to be the primary focuses of it along with Jaden Ivy, along with Cade, and even Dur as well. He talked about being able to just grab the ball off the off off the glass and just pushing it up to the floor. So, we’re going to be seeing them do a lot of different things this year compared to last season where it was kind of just fill in with what you need to do. And now they might try some different things based on what the roster looks like. So, I’m kind of excited to see how that goes for them. Yeah, it looks like they’re trying to create as much unpredictability as they can on both ends of the court, even with how they defend. You know, I think I think that’s going to make it hard or make it harder for teams because we have so many guys who can do so many different things. So even though they’ll have foundational things that they do, I think they’ll still have additional things that they can kind of pop during the game when they need it to really make it hard for teams to really combat that. So yeah, I love the versatility. I love I love how how broad and how much range this team has as far as different abilities. I think they can come together really well. It’s funny because coach talked about um at some point he said it’s possible that we could play five guys who are 6’8 at the same time. 6’8 or taller. So obviously he’s talking about Kate, you know, people say K 66. He’s talking about Kade. Um he’s talking about Ryan obviously Assar. Like he’s talking about those guys and being able to play with a Stew or a JD or Tobias. So that that’s that’s kind of scary to think about when you can really go big if you need to in certain situations. And I think he just wants that versatility once again, just the optionality to be able to do whatever he wants regardless of the situation. And when you do that, you’re hard to beat. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think that helps make life easier for guys like um Ron NSR as well. I mean, just having guys like Kate Cunningham as well who um you know, he’s obviously the focal point of what this franchise does, but he’s adaptable as well. It’s not like a Luca situation where Luca needs to have the ball in his hand where he doesn’t really play a whole lot of offball unless he’s posting up. Um like Kade is whether to say, “Hey, all right, you got it. Cool. I’m running up the floor.” Oh, you got it. All right, I’m running up the floor. Uh, one of my favorite plays last season, um, was the Lakers where I think it was Assar got a strip and Ivy gets the ball and he’s running a fast break and Kade is running up telling him to throw it and he catches the lob. I like seeing Kade play off ball even though, you know, I’m not the one trying to push him to be a three like we heard for so many years. But I like his ability to play versatile and I think having that with your point guard makes it a lot easier for everybody else. It lets Ivy bring the ball up. I mean, again, even when Durn was able to do so as well, I don’t I don’t like it becoming, you know, so repetitive, but he does have the comfortability to be able to bring the ball up and be a decisive passer as well. Um, so yeah, it may take a little while to kind of um round out consistently with what they’re asking for cuz they’re going to find out, okay, I’m good at this. I can feel here. My, you know, comfortability on this wing is here. like just those simple little things may take a few games to kind of put together, but I like that they’re not going to be opposed to trying it early in the season. Um, you know, based on what they have right now on their roster. I agree. There’s going to be some turnovers, some careless turnovers at times, miscommunications, things like that. But I don’t think the coaching staff is going to put too much on their plate as far as trying to branch out because they want to grow these guys gradually. And I think they’re going to do it in such a way that the things they added, they’re they’re really good at by the time we get to the playoffs, right? So that way you’re not still trying to figure anything out and at the same time you’ve grown. You got that balance. So I think that’s the going to be the approach. If that happens, it’s going to be a good situation. Somebody mentioned uh 925 uh Asar K Ryan. I like that. 925. That’s lowkey dope. I could see that could be Yeah, that’s put on a t-shirt. But I could see it. Asar grabbing the board, pushing outlet to Kade R for the alley. But I could see it. I can see it definitely. Um let’s get a few more comments in here. Uh, Devon says the 9 to5 patience could be like going to work part two. I think we might have to make something outside of it. Outside of Ron and sorry, there we go. We got 925. Devon Bure got you covered right there. So, definitely. Um, let’s move on to a few more comments. Uh, let’s see. Sharon says, “Fast break involving Ivy, Assar, and Ron will be deadly 100%. The amount of speed that we have on this team now in the wings, I think is unmatched as a as a group.” And they all see it too. Yeah, they talked about I asked Assar, you know, because they haven’t we haven’t seen a whole lot of Assar and Ivy playing together and I asked him, you know, what’s it going to be like to have that, you know, that that speed. I think you put the video up where he said like, “Hey, Ivy’s one of the fastest dudes I’ve ever seen in my life.” And I know I’m fast, too. So, it’s going to be absolute havoc trying to keep up with those two and then, you know, Ron coming at you too, you know, having Kade being six, you know, seven, Dur coming on the other side being a sevenfooter. Like, they have a lot of options to kind of pose a good threat. And again, it’s all based on the athleticism that they have. They’re not playing out of their body. They’re playing with their specialty and their, you know, what they provide. So, it’s going to be very important for him. I’m liking this. You touched that, bro. You touched on that as far as what a star said about Jaden. That’s crazy. Like, considering who’s saying that, right? He said he’s the fastest person he’s ever seen. Like, not in the basketball court, just period. He’s one of the fastest guys. Jaden is the fastest, one of the fastest guys he’s ever seen. He’s like included himself. Like, I’m one of those guys, too. him and his brother, you know, there not too many people who they probably seen who are at least as fast as them or have the speed that they have. So, I thought that was cool that he was raving about that. We didn’t see that at all last year. We did not get opportunity to see that at all. They didn’t start one game together. They had no overlap as far as getting starter minutes together at all. So, it’s just nice to see how excited he is about getting on the break and creating easy hoops, turning defense into offense, which is exactly what they want to do, right? Um, we have the perfect guys for that and we didn’t see it at all. So, especially when they were at their peak, we didn’t see it. Right. So, right, Eric, you and I we talked about this last week, bro. You know, just about how these two guys are going to help each other. Yes. On both ends of the floor. I think predominantly Assar is going to help Jaden out defensively. Mhm. And Jaden’s going to help Assar offensively. Definitely. I think both of those guys are going to get better at the things they’re not as good at just because the others on the floor. Yeah, we didn’t see that at all. For sure. Go ahead. Yeah, and I that’s important to keep in mind. Again, while people are so concerned about certain deficiencies that both of them have, you have other guys around them that can kind of make that a little less of a problem. Like, right, knowing that Ivy can create his own shot, create shots for others is going to be able to set up the table easily for guys like Assar where he doesn’t have to. Again, it’s one thing to just have your own jump shot. It’s another thing to have to create your own jump shot, too. And I don’t know if they’re asking to do that right now while he’s working on the mechanics, his confidence. Like you want to be able to gradually get to those points and having Ivy is going to help him with that. Being next to Ron is going to help him with that. Being next to Kade is going to help that. And then again, like we talked about defensively, yeah, Ivy is going to be able to not have as much responsibility on his plate. Even though we both agree that I think he did a great job in certain spots with like guarding guys like Trey Young on an island, guarding guys um like Darius Garland on the island like he stepped up when he had to. He made plays in passing lanes and was able to still be productive with the identity that they want which is in transition. So yeah, I I again they did good with it last season. I think they were one of the I think 10 best teams in transition uh points. I think they’re going to be top five, if not better, next season based on the depth that they have now and the experience that they have and will put together as the season goes on. Absolutely. I think that is well said. So, I kind of want to get back to Ryan in the soft for a second. Mhm. Because I I got we got we got to look at both sides of the spectrum. Y the only way this is going to work is if they both improve their shooting, right? It doesn’t have to be dramatic. I’m not saying 15% improvement over one season, but it’s got to be significant. It’s got to be respectable. the low, you know, to mid 20s. That’s that’s that’s got to be improved on. And by all accounts, you know, they’ve been working really hard on their shot. Um, so let’s go ahead and take a look at some of the progress that they have made so far. [Applause] [Music] So, first things first, it’s good to see the commitment, um, the dedication these guys are the work these guys are putting in relentlessly. We’ve heard about them working with for Benson since the beginning of last year. So, it’s just nice to see that nothing has changed. You know, these guys aren’t taking any days off and they’re trying to get as many shots up as they can the right way. Um, to me, it does look like Ryan is ahead of Assar at this juncture as far as with his shot. It just looks more natural. He just looks more comfortable putting the ball up, getting the shot up. It doesn’t look like he’s thinking. It looks like Assar is still trying to get get comfortable and that’s okay. It’s just something that I noticed. Um, I did talk to Ron Hill’s Ron’s trainer, Charles Hill, not too long ago, and he did say that he does expect Ron to make a significant improvement or jump with that shot. So, that’s good to hear. They’ve been working really hard. He’s been in the gym working his jumper. So, the the point for me is if they can both develop a respectable jump shot, bro, just imagine how impactful they can both be on both sides with their size and athleticism. Man, the Pistons, they’re going to be so athletic. one of the most athletic teams, if not the most athletic team in the league next year. And I think the better they can kind of keep defenses honest with their shooting, the more I think we’ll see these two guys on the floor together and they will be create causing chaos as a start put it. Yeah, I think the the words you use being respectable is key. Again, I’m not expecting either of them to become elite shooters anytime soon, but respectable means can you make the defense move? And that’s the biggest key that you have to have. Again, Lar don’t have the ability right now to make the defense come crash and stop him. They’re going to dare him until they believe it’s real. And that’s the point that they’re trying to get to. Ron, I think, is getting there very soon. I think you see the arc in his shot. It’s very um fluid in terms of his confidence. While Assar still can be a little flat sometimes with his. He even talked about that during media day in improving his jumper. Um he still kind of needs a little bit more of that touch to, you know, make it a little bit more consistent. And then even Ron’s body language like a lot of times that you know I didn’t really have it on camera but he’s smiling in a lot of his shots. Like he looks confident and ready and excited to get to it while Assar is kind of still treating it like a bit of a project even because it kind of is. So I I definitely would say Ron is ahead right now. I don’t think Assar will be too far behind. Um and again I think it’ll translate as well. Again they also take a lot of times when not just threes. I know a lot of these videos that come out are really just the three-point shooting. They spend a lot of time on free throws as well, which is important for both of them. Um, because that’s going to have to be a respectable point as well. They both should be, in my opinion, in like sub 70%. I I think anything lower than that is unacceptable from a wing. Um, especially knowing that they’re going to be driving to the lane a lot and trying to get to the hoop. So, teams are going to put a body on them. They’re going to club them. They’re going to try to stop them and make sure they can’t get no free chili at the rim. So, in order to make that happen, they’re going to have to make them pay with free throws, mid-range jumpers, you know, have the touch, you know, away from the rim. And I think we’ll slowly see that develop as time goes on, man. For sure. For sure. I’m It’s just the possibilities are endless with these guys. Mhm. Because they still haven’t really figured out all they can do, but we are to see the the projection and the ceiling that they have potentially they have. Muffin says Ron looked good in that clip. Yeah, he he looked good and he Who was it that mentioned Summer League? Someone mentioned summer league and how he was really Where is it? Where is it? I want to find it because it was a good comment. Mhm. All right. Um, basically he was just here. Sarah Sarah was saying shout outs to Sarah by the way. Um, was saying Ron teased us with three more in summer league. So looking so much more comfortable already. Yeah, he looks he looked confident in summer league. He did. Last year you could see he was not as comfortable and his his technique was a little bit different too. His form is a little bit different too. So you could see how much smoother it looks now and just how much more confidence he had just getting him up. And not just getting him up cuz we know he has confidence. We saw some games last year, especially early in the season where he’s 0 for three, 0 for four. It’s like, all right, Rob, we know we know we know you ain’t scared. But the confidence was never an issue. Correct. So it’s just good to he’s going to have even more confidence as he starts to knock this down consistently in the league. So yeah, I’m definitely excited for his growth. Go ahead. Yeah, Ron was my favorite person to talk to during media day. Um I asked him about his summer league experience. He was cheesing ear to ear. Um just talking about, you know, how excited he was to get out there and um not just to get on the court again, but he said he took it on his shoulders knowing, hey, this is going to be my team. Like they’re going to be a lot of things that are on me to prove and to show that I can help the guys around me. Um I talked about him being more vocal, which he, you know, said he was trying to do, and like just take more charge to show that he can be a floor raiser for his team even in summer league. Um, we saw with his passing, the defense obviously hasn’t taken the drop off in any way, shape, or form, right? And his dad even confirmed that he put on some muscle as well, and we could definitely see it. A lot of Pistons put on some muscle this off seasonason. So, yeah, just just those little kind of things um kind of add to that kind of confidence in certain areas. And again, knowing that Ryan already has that confidence, um, I even asked him about, you know, the the confidence of not backing down, you know, even when he got to squabble or, you know, step up to an opponent, you know, that all kind of adds into it. He don’t really have no fear in anything that he’s been through. Um, you know, I think a lot of the things that he struggled with last season have made him who he is now. And, you know, that’s just that’s really just life in general as a human being. So, see that they’re evolving in that way as a basketball team. It’s beautiful, man. It’s really working out and coming along nice. You mentioned how they all put on muscle. You’re right. Like K looked bigger, Jaden looked even bigger, looked bigger, JD looked I don’t know how, but he looked bigger. Yeah. Um, even Ryan looks, we’re going to get to him a little bit later, but he even looked a little bit bigger. And I’m just thinking about the teams in the east and the guys are they’re going to have to play against guys like you know Paulo Van Carol you know who’s who’s pretty muscular guy. So I think they’re just preparing for the teams they’re going to be facing and you know I can see a guy like Assar you know handling a lot of that responsibility you know with Tobias and guys like that but that’s why they’re getting bigger I believe just to get stronger of course obviously to play defense but also looking in the east and see who’s going to be who might be in the way and seeing how they can kind of combat that. JT and Jay, I know he’s out right now, but him and Jaylen Brown, guys like that who are stronger guys. You got to make sure you got guys bodies to throw with those guys. Yeah, Tjan talked a lot about that during his session, too. He said, you know, Assar didn’t really have a whole lot of time to get his conditioning up to prepare for a moment like uh the playoffs last season, you know, kind of being thrown in the fire towards the middle of the year, you know, ramping up. And while he was doing that, unfortunately, it was kind of hard cuz he didn’t have a consistent stretch of, okay, we’re playing him, he had a minute restrict restriction for like I think his first 10 games. Then it kind of went up and down. All right, we’re going to play you 20 minutes here. You may play 30, but oh, he’s in foul trouble. So now he can only play, you know, 15 to 20. So it was a lot of fluctuating for him. And I think now being in the gym for training camp and preparing, you know, for these moments, you know, working with the guys off the floor during the offseason, like these are the kind of things to help prepare for those moments. And you know, we heard that a lot from the veterans last year. Tobias telling us, you know, how he talks to the guys about keeping their body right, how to prepare mentally and physically for the long duration of 82 games plus the postseason. It’s a lot that goes into it and it seems that they’re trying to get prepared for it at this very moment, even in earlier training camp. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, that’s interesting tidbit there, bro. My city says Javvante will be a dop member by season’s end. I’m seeing a lot of a lot of Javvante talk. We are going to get to Javvante Green a little bit later. Later, Ron Dri. Funny. Really quickly before we move on, I wanted to get to this comment here too from Vulture. I thought this was important. Vulture says, “I remember him being Ron missing some clutch free throws last year against the Bucks after that game he turned up.” Yes. So, here’s the thing, and this is why I’m such a a fan of Ron, because when that happened, that could have been a Nick Anderson moment for him. A guy who goes to the free throw line in the big moment. It wasn’t the finals obviously, but in the big moment and just forgets how to shoot the basketball. And he was never Nick Anderson was shooting 80% before that happened when he missed four free throws against the Rockets four in a row. Just needed to make one. He missed four. Um and he was never the same after that. He dropped to about 60% career after that. So mentally he just couldn’t put it together. Ryan, as Boer said, went the opposite way. He turned up after that. So once again, we’re not just saying this when we say the confidence is there. He’s shown it and he’s he’s going to continue to show it as he continues to get better with it. I just want to highlight the mindset because a lot of time we talk about the basketball, the skill and these things, but the mindset is just as important and he definitely has what we need when it comes to that for sure. Yeah, that game is going to be a huge footnote in his development. I remember JB Bigger Staff talking about it immediately after that. He said that’s going to help him after. It sucks right now, but it’s going to help him. He’s never going to forget that. He’s going to find a way to work it and be better. And he was strong, you know, from the line. and shot 75% uh from the from the line last season, which is respectable. That’s good, you know, for a guy who didn’t get a ton of volume from his spot anyway. So, that’s probably going to go up and hopefully the averages can go up with it as well. But, yeah, that was huge for him and, you know, we see why it’s, you know, done wonders at this point up to right now. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, let’s move on to our next topic. Jaylen Dur, man. Jaylen Durren is Jaylen Duran developing a jump shot. So during media day interviews, both he or both Isaiah Stewart and he Jaylen Durren specifically said that coach is giving them more of a green light to shoot the basketball more. And from what I’m seeing, it looks like JD is wasting no time with that. [Music] JD out there. Thinking Tim Duncan, man, going glass like that. Listen, listen. I want to first of all give you credit for that cuz that was actually you standing right there getting that for us. So, I want to shout you out for that. Guys, make sure you guys are following Eric. We’re going to get to that later, but Top Title Detroit, go follow him, pause the video, follow him, come back. All right. Well, we appreciate you, bro, as always. Um, I don’t know if you remember, bro, but I’ve said multiple times, multiple times in the past few months that I wanted JD to work on a mid-range jumper. Mhm. Not a three ball, right? Just a 10 to 15 foot jumper. And just how much it could open up the rest of the offense out of the pick and roll. Like, I’ve I’ve always said this name. Um, I just think about Jermaine O’Neal with the Pacers. I know a lot of fans don’t like him and I understand why, but as a basketball player, he used he was a killer. He used to kill us in the pick and roll, pick and pop because he was a good screener and he would often like to pop instead of roll and you know that would kill us cuz when you got Ben in the paint, it’s harder to roll, right? But so it’s a little bit different. So he would use he would use the MIDI and he would pop. But then that’s kind of what I see for JD. You know, even if you don’t like O’Neal, think and Tony McDice when he that was what he did. Pick and pop. Pick and pop from the corner top of the key. He was knocking down the 10 to 15 foot jump shot. So, I think that JD can add that to his game and I think he can develop that consistent 10 to 15 footer. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, somebody else that I mean Pistons fans should know very well in terms of that that range is Antonio Big Dice. That’s another guy that had that just in his pocket. like you know we saw a little bit of trace of that when Dur was boom right the comment right there we saw when he was with Memphis y we saw him when he had it there and he even mentioned um working with Rashid Wallace when he was in college and how he still teach uh keeps in contact with him now who’s you know somebody that if anybody that’s a big that can help you out with getting your shot right it’s Rasheed Wallace so having him in his ear and you know as a decision that’s huge for him um but I love it again I’m I’m I’m 100% with you I don’t want to see him I’m I like that he has the green light, but have it within reason. Like he shouldn’t be shooting threes right now. Like kind of like I remember when when Andre Drummond, you know, said he had the green light and he was going to start investing in that. That got a little, you know, a little too much. Again, I love Andre Drummond. Respect for him, but that just it didn’t really seem like a natural transition in his game. It seemed like it was very forced. This seems very natural for Duran. Again, when I was covering him last season and the year before, he’s been working on that jumper a lot. This is not something new that he’s just starting now. He’s always had this in his bag and now he’s hopefully going to ramp up and add that a little bit more to their halfcourt sets. Um, again, it looks fluid. I like that he’s getting it off the glass like uh little KG or Tim Duncan style. Um, again, the form is there. It doesn’t look like he is a broken jumper at all. Um, he’s a confident free throw shooter as well, and that’s only going to make him that much more dangerous, you know, being the Pistons big man for the future. Right. Right. Shannon has an interesting question. She says, “Who?” Maybe you could help us, Eric, with this. Who are the guys who pass the basketball to the players so they can shoot it in practice? I always wonder that. Is that strength and conditioning coaches or trainers? Yeah, just trainers and like coaches and assistants that they work with. Those are the guys that they are uh with during the pregame as well. You know, the pass to the guys, you know, be the defensive bodies that they need. They’ll hold the body bags to like bang during when he’s on the on the block just to work on simple little things. But yeah, just simple people that help them with their uh their practice um areas, whatot. Great question for the classroom, Shannon. For sure. Mr. Metti says, “How can I get that job?” Right. Marvin says, “Loy Va, y’all remember?” I do. I do remember. What a drop. I like that for sure. Sarah says, “Love the McDice comp.” Ricky says, “That McDice baseline jump.” Yes, it was automatic, bro. You couldn’t stop it. You could not leave him. No. And that’s what allowed the guards to Yeah. to do what they wanted to do. They couldn’t They couldn’t help off, man. Go ahead. No. No. Yeah. I was just going to say, yeah, whenever you had him lined up there, you knew he was going to pull too if he had a step and he was wide open, which it seemed like he was a lot of the time, but he could also post out of it too and spin and get that jumper as well. Dice had a great transition dealing with those knee injuries and whatnot. Transitioning into that mid-range shooter after that was a really good spot for him. And doing it in Detroit was great, too. Wish he would have got a ring, but you know, I know he was so close. Just a few minutes away. Yeah, he just didn’t have enough he didn’t have no best guys with him. Facts. him and Lindsay, right? That was pretty much it. Was that just that was really all we had. Carlos Royal. A man. Carlos Roy. I haven’t heard that name in years, right? Man. Oh, man. But yeah, I definitely think that’ll be huge. And I think for him having a point guard like Kade who can make every pass. Yes. Regardless of how the defense is trying to defend it, the pick, right? We’ve seen him do with the lobs, but Kade is very good at getting the basketball to you however he needs to. Bounce pass doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t matter. Chest pass, he can get it to you. And I think that’s a big reason why JD was saying or has said that every offseason he he goes to wherever Kate is and tries to get in at least a couple weeks of work with him because he wants to have that because he understands how good he is of a point guard and how unselfish he is and that you know if you if JD improves his skill set it’s only going to help his offensive game because Kate is already going to help him. So I just think them adding these things incrementally season over season we’re going to do this next season we’re going to do that. Just building blocks and someone says stepping stones in in the chat that’s exactly what it is. So that way you’re not trying to do too much come playoff time and now you’re kind of back at step one, right? Kate understands that too. He was talking in media day about like, you know, he talked a lot about his leadership and um being able to teach everybody else. But he says, “I can’t teach if I’m not also learning. So if I’m not putting myself out there, learning where guys like their shots, how they get off of screens, you know, where the areas that they’re most comfortable, where they’re not most comfortable, like all that information is important and he’s patient enough to understand that instead of, you know, I need you here.” Like a lot of players, I’m not going to mention no names, but there are players who do kind of play like that and have had that, you know, through their career. Kade is good enough to kind of adjust to how other guys around him are able to get their production. And that kind of goes with the positionless basketball and the versatility that we were talking about as well. And that’s only, like you said, make them more unpredictable and a lot more dangerous in the East. 100%. Sarah says, “A consistent JD jump shot is scary. Use it the same way Steu will expect to use his three ball.” 100% unexpectedly to throw off the defense. still has an advantage cuz he he shot 40% two years ago in his first season that which is incredible having never really been out there consistently before in his life. Mhm. So he can definitely build on that when it’s there. Not a ton of attempts maybe, you know, a couple of game. I’m with that just to keep once again keep the defense honest. That’s that’s what will really help this team. So I definitely agree with you there. Sarah Ricky says Carlos Tofino. Yeah. Thumbs. They called him they called him thumbs cuz when he would run he would always run like this with his thumb out. That was literally his name for that. That was his nickname. you grow up like this. They had the the the the teaser videos for him playing at the palace from when he was going to come over from uh from Argentina like and that yes, you know, he was supposed to be the next geni. Oh my god. That’s exactly how they branded him and that did not work out that way. He became the next Jono. Yeah, that did not happen. Not at all. A little bit a little bit further, bro, on on the pick and pop and with JD cuz I just feel like that’s so important, man. I was just thinking about just how much that will improve the offense overall like in the half court just developing you know that midi it will really force the defense to be more honest like once Kade attacks and gets two feet in the paint because you know the pick and pop of JD it’s going to give him more room. So, we know how well that it worked last year with the, you know, with the pick and roll and in the lob, but teams now have film on that, right? So, with the consistent jump shot now, you you’d have another threat outside of the lob to go along with the other shooting on the floor. So, it’ll also allow JD2, who is a good passer for a big man by the way, to find cutters easier off the catch, right? Because the paint won’t be so clogged with him stepping out on the perimeter because they’re going to pull into him if he’s knocking it down. So guys like Assar who are cutting, it’s going to be so much easier to get the ball to those guys because they’re going to be more attention on JD and worrying about his jump shot. And we saw it worked well last year without the jump shot. So if he adds that, it’s just going to open up so many things in which like you said, the unpredictability is going to make this team really hard to defend. So just want to point that out for sure. Yeah, teams started to figure that out too. You saw the Knicks collapse a lot um on uh Dur when he was rolling to the hoop. It wasn’t a whole lot of uh Cade to Dur lobs, you know, during that series against the Knicks. they were really collapsing a lot of those passes, deflecting them and getting their own transition opportunities. So now if you have an opportunity where Duran can step back and open that floor for Cade and again you either get and the open shot which is hopefully improved by Duran or you get wide open paint space for Cade who is their best post player to just abuse his defender like that’s a win-win assuming that the jump shot comes along. But just having that option again just makes them a lot more dangerous and I’m happy to see Duran is working even harder on it and a little more consistent with it as well. Right. Right. I totally agree with that, bro. Okay, so let’s move on to a guy who I kind of feel like is being overlooked, bro. Um Caris Levert, bro. I feel like Caris Levert his signing, and I said it before, I feel like the amount of attention it’s getting is the amount of attention that Bees got last year. like, “Okay, huh, cool.” Right. But in retrospect, we see how great of a signing that was. I’m not saying it’s going to be the exact same. I’m just saying I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised with how well he plays for this team. And I’ve said it before, man, like his versatility is going to be so super key in my opinion to this team taking that next step. With regard to that, uh, Coach Bickerstaff actually commented on that. He said when asked asked JB about Keros did Omar Sen Kofa shout out Omari. He said he can initiate offense and he’s really good as a second side attacker. We’re going to use his versatility but he can do so many different things and not just for himself having spent so much time with him. He’s a really good playmaker and passer. So just based on what he had to say there, do you have a reaction to uh coach’s statements about Caris? Yeah, he’s really excited about having him aboard. Um, you know, Caris is going to be able to offer a lot to this team and again, just kind of going off what we keep growing with the positionless basketball, him being able to bring the ball to the floor, him being able to kind of help set up the young guys and, you know, put them in their spots to, you know, knock down the shots that they need to, I think is going to be huge for them. Um, again, I think kind of what we talked about last time as well, you know, sitting next to guys like Ron Holland who’s still a bit raw offensively, a guy like Caris who has moves, has packages to, you know, create his own shot. Um, whether he’s going to the hoop or as a jumper, I think he’ll be able to pick off and learn that, you know, as a secondyear player. Um, I really liked Caris when he was with Brooklyn. I think that was really his best form. Um, I know he got better and averaged a few more points when he was with Indiana, but I really liked him when he was with the Nets. I think he was a huge piece for what they had before they kind of exploded that off and traded, you know, their pieces for what they got with I think Kevin Durant. Um, but I like him. I really like his game a lot. I definitely do think he is kind of slept on. Um, I think it’s unfortunately due to a lot of injuries he’s had as well cuz I don’t think he’s really played I don’t think he’s had an 82 game season in his career if I’m not mistaken. I think the last I think last season he was relatively healthy. Okay. He just played for two different teams. So when you look at the the games played, it looks like 60 or know 40 and 20 when in actuality it was 60. So I made I made that mistake before. So that’s correct. That’s correct. Yes. So he’s hopefully shedding that history because they need him to be on the floor. The Pistons need him um in terms of the depth that they have. Again, defensively, it can’t just be Ron and Assar, you know, locking up everything. I think Caris is going to be very engaged. Kade will be engaged. And I think him as a veteran on this roster, he’ll help hold everybody accountable and make sure everybody’s in their proper spots. So, I really like him a lot on this team. I definitely agree that he’s a bit slept on and I think he has a huge opportunity to kind of turn that around like the other veterans did last season. I’m really confident that he of the ones that they’ve picked up will be the one to shine the most um for the Pistons this year. Right. I think that’s a great point. Everybody show some love for Mr. Ron Holland Senior who was in the building coming back around showing love. What’s going on family? Hope you’re doing well, man. We just got done talking about your son and um what we expect from him next season. We think he’s going to have a great year next year. Um yeah, man. So looking forward to next season. Want to shout you out? Go ahead. What you got? I think Ron Ron, we need you on the uh the nineto-5 t-shirts, man. Get that branding going. We need to see those nineto five t-shirts popping at LCA. So, so, so Ron Sior, how do you feel about that nickname, the 9 to5 now that Ron has his number back? Somebody I love that name. That’s cool. Yeah, me too. Somebody in the chat uh said 925, meaning Assar Cade Ron. So, how do you feel about that, Senior? Let us know. Um, and y’all show some love for sure. Definitely showing love. All right. For me, bro, with with Caris, I I think I enjoyed watching him play the most with Cleveland because it felt like he was playing both sides of the basketball. Even going back to Michigan, he really wasn’t uh he he could play defense, but he didn’t have the mindset to play defense, right? But watching him with coach now in Cleveland then, he just seemed more committed to that end. He was exerting more energy on that end. And I think that’s what’s going to make him good here is that he is really committed to playing two-way basketball. He said he really hadn’t even when he first got here, he really said that he hadn’t really played much defense in the NBA in his career before going to Cleveland. And he said that’s when he felt like he played his best ball because he was a two-way player, which is something that we have, you know, a lot of right now, which is great. So for me though too, his abil offensively his ability and coach talked about it just to the ability to play on or off ball. He can he can just kind of gets in where he fits in. He can be a chameleon and he did that at a at a high level with both Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland when he played with the Cavs. I think that’s going to make for a seamless fit for him here when it comes to having to play alongside guys like K Cunningham and Jaden Ivy, especially considering he already played for him for a couple for a couple years. So, it shouldn’t take him that long to get acclimated to what is required of him. But his size and versatility, that’s something that coach has talked about. He over and over again and Traion, they both say it. They want that versatility. And today, he actually provided more evidence did coach of that. But before we get there, what are your thoughts on Caris Levert and his two-way? Do you think he has the two-way ability? I think he has shown that in his size being 66 and having a longer wingspan than a guy like Tim Hardway, you know, and having the willingness. I think that will kind of help this defense when they go to the bench. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, he was the last person to talk during media day and he kept emphasizing how excited he was on the of to be a part of that side of the floor because he said JB was the one that really emphasized that in his game and brought that out of him and knowing that the P that’s the Pistons identity of how they want to be able to generate points in production, he wants to be a part of that and I think that’s huge. Um especially for looking at the Pistons roster last season, they didn’t have a whole lot of, you know, point generators off of the bench. Um, Ron was Ron was fantastic at it, but that was more so in transition. And again, he was still pretty raw, so it didn’t look like it was just, you know, him, you know, playing iso by himself. It was more so just an open space, you know, kind of getting his own. Um, Caris, I think again offensively he can kind of offer that balance, create his shots for the bench, create shots for others as well, when normally last season it was a lot of just shooters that were coming in like Beasley being a shooter, Fonteo being a shooter. Um, even Sasser who’s really not much of a passer, he’s more of just a shooter for himself. And now seeing that you have a guy like Caris, I think he helps elevate not just his own game, but the guys around him as well. And defensively, I definitely think he’ll be able to be locked in. um especially when he’s playing with Beef Stew behind him. He’ll have Dur behind him and other guys that are going to be committed as well. You know, we talked about how important communicating was while they were out there and he said as long as they have that, they’ll be able to take those steps needed um as a unit. And I think we’ll be able to see that for sure. That’s a great point. Once again, I wanted to get to want to come back around to Ron Senior. He says, “I feel like it’s fired and it’s time to go to work.” Yes, sir. Yes, sir. You know that indeed. And then he said, “Appreciate the love family. Good takes as always, folks.” I appreciate the co-sign, brother. You know, you know, we we try to do what we can. So, it’s it’s always always nice to have a co-sign and supporting you guys, man. For sure. So, appreciate you, Ryan. For sure. Okay, man. So, we’ve talked about versatility a lot, right? Mhm. And offensive and defensive. And Trajan and JB have both talked about that at length. As I mentioned, they want size. They want that versatility on both sides. you know, being able to switch one to four, sometimes one to five is that’s the kind of flexibility that they want. And we all know there have been a lot of questions about, you know, if the Pistons going to get this guy, they’re going to get that guy, they’re going to get a backup point guard, they’re going to get a backup power forward. We’ve heard that, right? And I think those are valid questions, right? And today JB responded to that. We don’t need to have guys that are just one position. Um, we feel like we have a bunch of guys that can pay play positionless basketball and it helps their skill set. So, what we’ll do is just put, you know, the combinations that we see that work best for us and we’re not worried about, you know, having a backup one or backup two. Um, you know, we’re trying to get talent on the floor. So, Eric, I’ll let you go first. Um, what are your what’s your immediate reaction to what he had to say about that? I loved it. I loved it because I think now is the time to embrace that. I think if you look at this core and a lot of the other guys that you know we’ve seen come and go since Kade was drafted here. Yeah. They didn’t really emphas I don’t want to say they didn’t but they did emphasize a lot of positionless basketball. Like there were moments where you would see Killian bringing the ball up and K playing off ball or Stu playing two different positions. Um like you would see a whole lot of like kind of mixing and matching and figuring things out. And I think when you have a young team that’s learning how to win, I think that can be a lot on them. Um, I feel like after kind of seeing the success that they had and JB talked about it as well, he said you wanna you want to perfect what you’re great at or what you’re good at or trying to be good at before moving to this position. And I think now after seeing a playoff run, after stepping up to a team like the Knicks who got as far as the ECF, pushing them six games, competing all six games, establishing an identity like he said he wanted to, you know, by March and, you know, having that as, you know, their focal point, now it’s okay to kind of expand and have that versatility. And when you have veterans like Caris Levert, um when you have guys like Cade, when you have guys like Assar where their talents aren’t really just suited for one position alone, you can kind of try some different things and it makes sense, especially when you’re taking on different teams and you may want to tinker with the roster and, you know, try different ways to attack what their weaknesses could be. I think now is the time to work on that. So, I love hearing that from him, you know, uh today. He said um he said he he he he doesn’t like always how it’s like become just like kind of like a open like YMCA kind of style flow where people just shooting threes and not really having you know the cohesion. But I think again to kind of go what we’re talking about you want to be unpredictable and you want to keep your opponents guessing at all times. And I think having that, you know, unpredictability and that versatility, I think is going to be huge in a positionless roster where, again, they’re not just experienced now at this point, they’re, you know, bigger. Being able to run a lot of that 68 and up through five guys, that’s terror for for a team to deal with. So, yeah, I think that’s going to be huge for this team and I think that’s going to be a big part of what we see in their success. For sure. it. That was one of the closest six game series I’ve ever seen. Six game series in the history that I’ve been watching basketball. Sarah says this all the time. They lost that series by combined six points. It doesn’t get any closer. So, it’s going to say six points when you go back and look at history. Look at those scores. Yep. Look how close those games are and watch the games. Don’t just look at the box score. Watch those games and see how close that series actually was. So, yeah, I wanted to point that out for sure. And we have a lot of good players on this team. I’ve seen all different kind of names, you know. I’m not just seeing one. Duncan Robinson, Dennis Jenkins, Tou Smith, 100% got a great motor. He was on the show. Shout out to Tou for sure. All these guys, all these guys play the same way. They all play hard. So that’s a great thing. And as far as what coach said about that versatility, once again, this tells me that guys like Caris is going to play point along with Kade, right? Along with Kade, along with Jaden, along with at times Sasser Dennis Jenkins, right? It also tells me that guys like Paul Reid is gonna play power forward. Bobby Clinton, power forward. Even at times, Ryan Holland, power forward. And honestly, that’s not something I really wanted to see to be honest cuz I thought Ron was more of a 2-3. And you said this too, more of a 2-3 than a 34. But from what I from what I remember, maybe senior can can confirm this, but I I remember him posting to his IG story that it was a picture of his scale and I think it just said 15 or 15 pounds or something like that. So he he like we talked about all these guys are getting bigger. He got bigger. Maybe that was part of the reason why. So in certain situations, if you’re playing against a small ball bench, for example, you have a guy like Ryan who can play and switch and play whatever you need him to play regardless of the situation. Having that versatility again. So, it’s not going to be like he’s he may not be the the, you know, the permanent backup forward, which I don’t see anything like that, but just having the ability to be adaptable. Guys get in foul trouble. I got you. I got him. No worries. You know, just having that ability to do that, I think, is very, very important. Um, and so, yeah, I I like it too because it also makes it hard to scout because you don’t know what you’re getting on the individual night. It’s all going to be left up to the situation and circumstance. So, once again, that makes it hard to defend. Go ahead. Yeah, it sounds like they’re up for the challenge as well. Again, I like bringing up this game a lot because I the the home game, I think the second time they played the Celtics at home, we saw Kate Cunningham match up against uh Chris Porzingis guarding him in the post. That’s all a part of the adaptability and the unpredictability. Like you look at this team, they’re not just, you know, tall and big in size. They got crazy wingspans as well. Even Ivy, like when people talk about, you know, his defensive deficiencies or whatnot, he’s still not a guy that you can just hunt out and say, “Okay, we’re going to pick on Ivy today.” No, you can’t. Ivy’s huge. Like, you got to work to get past him. You got to work to like kind of get him out of his scale or where he’s supposed to be. So, um I think they just they have a lot of that at their um you know, at their disposal. Huge wingspan on Assar, huge on uh Ron Holland. Like a lot of these guys are going to be committed to, you know, defending that paint and contesting as many shots as possible. I think that’s one of their biggest um you know, points of emphasis on the defense is make sure we can at least get a hand up there. Can we at least make them contest? We saw a lot of that in the playoffs last season. Like a lot of those shots that the Knicks were hitting, they weren’t just wide open. They were contested 90% of the time it felt like. So, I really like to see that effort and I think it’s going to be a lot more, you know, punctual now that they kind of understand, you know, their spacing a little bit better. You know, have time to work with each other in training camp and, you know, they’ll have time to develop it as the season goes on as well. Yeah. You mentioned wingspan, JD, 7 foot five wingspan. Like, so like you mentioned, a lot of these guys have are are tall and long, right? if they’re not the tallest like JD 610 6’11 maybe maybe he’s grown maybe he hasn’t right but he’s at least 610 610 um and he’s long so that helps you mentioned also um when Cade was guarding uh Zinger in the post and we’ve seen him do that even as early as his rookie season in the NBA when he was shutting down Evan Mobley in the post yep we know Evol is not the biggest guy but he’s got inches on him pause as far as his height right so we saw that early but when you have a brother a literal brother who was built similarly to Mo Moby, right? Similar height and Canon Cunningham 6’10, right? Moi is a little bit taller, but I think Ken is 6’10 and 6’11. When you got to guard that growing up and you’re guarding bigger guys all the time growing up, you pick up a thing or two along the way on how to do it. Did you see that overtime interview that they had where they was going back and forth with each other and K was talking about I used to be a big but I transition to guard and you know I’m comfortable being out there. He’s like yo I I like his brother was talking like you don’t want to see me on the block. He’s like, “Bro, I’ve never been a mismatch. Like, if you want to come see me down there, come see me. It is what it is.” It was cool to see Big Brother, you know, jaw back and forth. But it was cool to see Kane like, “Yo, I’m good down there. Like, you want to throw down, I’m fine doing that for a game if I have to. If that’s what I got to do, I’m built for it.” And we’ve seen that. They You can’t just You can’t just bully Kade on the block. We see him do it to other people. I’ve never seen them do it to him. Like, that’s that’s a big plus for his game. I I watched that a few times when it first came out. Um cuz I’m a little brother. I have one brother and he’s older. So I I understood how K felt in that situation a little bit like, “No, I can guard you. I can guard you.” But no, and and Kenneth, it’s funny cuz Kenneth said, “I get off the couch right now and I and I I’ll embarrass you.” No reps. I get off the couch. I love that line. And it’s funny cuz if you pay attention, you can hear Lil Kay come out cuz K’s got a D voice naturally, right? But when Ken was like, “I’ll embarrass you.” He’s like, and you and Cage is like, “You might you might score a couple times. You might score.” and his voice kind of got high like like a little brother came back out again. Embarrassed. He didn’t even look at him. He just stared down. He said embarrassed. That was so funny. Yeah. And then he mentioned how, you know, he’s like, “I’m bigger. You’re more so trending towards being a point guard now. It’s different.” But he’s like, “No, in my prime, bro. You could you couldn’t guard me.” And K was just kind of like, “That’s cap.” But he knew. He knew, right? So, it was just cool to see that. But the point is, he’s had that all his life. Mhm. as far as being able to learn and get bullied as a kid to know how not to get bullied in the NBA. So, it definitely transferred. Slim Holland says all facts. Hey, I didn’t even realize I said it. I had to throw a pause in there. I know how you are. They killing you for me. He would have called me out immediately if I didn’t say pause. I already know that was coming for sure. Devon called me. Yeah, y’all all call me. Marvin said dude’s going to miss. Why? Why you playing, bro? Bobby Clement for me is going to make it easier to not miss him, right? I think Bobby Clement is gonna do a better job of doing what we needed tech to do last year. So anyway, y’all get me off course, but yeah, I definitely love the versatility. All right, let’s move on. Let’s go to We talked about already. Um, yeah, let’s let’s go let’s go to Javvante Green, bro. Let’s talk about Javvante Green for a minute. A guy that actually for the first time I think he spoke today for the first time, I think, right, as a member of the Pistons. So, we’ve had him for a while, a couple months, but it was nice to see him um in the building working with these guys. And his jumper in the first clip we showed, he knocked down both of those shots. Mhm. Right. Him and Bobby. But he his jump shot is I think a little bit underrated. I think he can shoot the ball and spread it a little bit better than most people think because they just haven’t seen enough of him. But I am a fan of Javvante Green. Um we got to hear from him today for the first time um during camp. So, let’s go ahead and listen to what he had to say and kind of get to know him a little bit. I look forward to just being tough, you know, like you could take somebody, you know, soul or like take them out the game, you know, something like that. It’s, you know, it’s it’s something you that bring that brings me happiness, you know, like make somebody quit. So, I mean, I just feel like that’s what these guys bring. That’s what I’m bring. He’s going to fit in just fine. It makes me happy to take your soul, take your heart, and make you quit. Mhm. You don’t hear that too often today, bro. No. It sound like somebody took him from the 90s, bro, and just inserted him here in the 2025. Just that mentality that I want to take your heart every time I step on the court. We got guys like that on this team already. We just talked about Ryan. Like he’s him and Steu are the epitome of that. So having another dog, another a big guy, strong guy, athletic guy, tough nose guy. I love it. I love it. What are your thoughts on Jvonte Green? What? Yeah. Yeah, he’s extremely motivated. Um, one of the first few things he said when we were talking to him is he’s looking for a home. this is his fifth team that he’s been on. Um, you know, he’s looking for a place to kind of, you know, find somewhere that he can build on in his career. Um, you know, he also talked about how he believes his skill set fits perfectly for what they do. I mean, I don’t mind being, you know, rugged, playing dirty, um, you know, playing defense, you know, playing in transition. I’m athletic like a lot of other guys around here. Like, I think a lot of what he provides is what they have on this team already. And it’s important to have that. And you’ve seen even if guys like aren’t playing, you know, 15, 20 minutes a game, you still can find a way to be impactful. We saw that with Marcus Sasser last season. We saw that with Paul Reed last season. Like there’s different ways in different areas that he can be involved and active even when they have the log jam of wings that they have right now. I still think he can find a way to, you know, be a spark when they need it because the Pistons don’t give up. Even if they’re getting blown out, they still find a way to keep fighting. So, I like him. I like his game a lot. Super athletic. Um they they asked him about, you know, what’s it like to guard Kade and what you see from him and we talk about not backing down. He said like, “Yeah, he looks good, but you know, I think I could hold my own if I needed to.” So, you know, it’s it’s a lot of confidence within the room and I think he adds to it big time. Um I really do hope that this could be, you know, hopefully, you know, successful landing spot for him because I think he could make some things work based on what the team needs. Yeah. Sarah says, “I look forward to just being tough.” That’s a fantastic I mean, yeah. Who says I look forward? Most guys I look forward to, you know, they won’t say it, but they they look forward to getting the ball, getting touches, and getting shots up, getting to the offense. To say I look forward to just being that sound like something Steu would say. I look forward to going out there and just being tough and making it hard for everybody and putting a beat on everybody. Like it’s the same kind of mentality. You cannot have it too many guys like that. And bro, he’s he’s a freaking nature athlete, bro. Mhm. I’m not sure if you guys have seen any tape on him, but just he he has a couple different separate videos on just his dunks, right? and he’s not a household name. So, go check him out. The dude is an athlete. He will fit in just fine with the defense to offense running and gun style the Pistons love to play. He’s going to fit in perfectly for this team. Marvin says Javante sound like he grew up on Dexter’s Lab. I’m screaming. That’s hilarious. Oh, that’s hilarious. That’s funny. But definitely a Darham type of guy. Yes. but but with more ability offensively for sure. But yeah, same kind of build and all that. I like that. And for him, he may not be a rotational guy to start the year or anything like that, but I do think he’s going to get some opportunities this season. You know, if there’s like foul trouble or anything like that because just his attitude, just his motor, just his intensity defensively. I think those things alone could get a guy like him on the court if he’s knocking down open shots. and he can guard the three, he can guard the four, and small some small fives, right? And you can’t have enough guys like that. JB just said he fully intends on using all of these guys at different points, right? Depending on the matchups, depending on the situation, right? So, we may see him go 10, 11 deep some nights, maybe even 12 depending on the situation, right? So, I just love what he had to say and it reminded me of why I was glad the Pistons brought him here when they first got him. So, right, shout out to Trejan Lang, man. He knows what types of guys he wants on his basketball team and they all fit the culture and they all fit the mold of Detroit basketball and he goes out and gets them. Yeah. And I think it’s important to find that. Again, it’s it’s important to have talent, but it’s just as if not more important. We heard all last season, the buyin for the culture and the buyin within the locker room and the camaraderie is just as if not more important as well. You can have as much talent in the world, but if it’s not cohesive, and if it’s not working together, it’s not going to produce what you want it to. We just saw that with the Phoenix Suns over the last few seasons. A lot of talent all over the floor, but it couldn’t go anywhere because it wasn’t working together. So, knowing that they have, you know, what they have, you know, with a guy like Javvante, who again wants to work hard, wants to, you know, establish himself as a household name Dave, he’s going to have an opportunity for sure. And JB’s not going to be scared as well to to give him those opportunities. he’s going to be playing a lot like like what Ron Holland did last season just kind of being an energy guy. Um if we don’t have it from the starting five right now or the bench isn’t doing it, okay, we’ll try to roll in somebody else. And it’s not like a Monty Williams thing where it’s just a consistent 13 14 15 guy playing like I think he’ll find the the the rhythm that they need in terms of what their rotations will be. So, I have all the faith in JB to kind of find that and I think Javvante will hopefully find a way to, you know, be what they need him to be. Yeah. Yeah, man. That’s all I got on um on day two of training camp. If you don’t have anything else, there’s a couple questions that I wrote down that I didn’t want to forget. A little bit separate from what we’re talking about. Um anything else you got or you good to move on? No. Yeah, let’s get the questions. Let’s do it. Okay. So, first question I have here um comes from Ricky Ricky Sanders and he he basically was asking about Sasser as a point guard. Some comps he had for him. He said maybe BJ Armstrong, Steve Kerr. I have a couple I have one guy in mind who I would like to see him try to become. Maybe not that exact player or that caliber of a player, but I have I’ll hold that I’ll hold off on that and I I’ll let you go first. Do you think do you think first of all that there is a role for Sasser on his team? Because we have heard him say over and over again he’s talked about him being a point guard himself being a point guard as a point guard as a point guard and we’ve known him not be that at least while he’s been here. So what are your thoughts on Sasser um trying to expand his role or expand his game to trying to be the floor general point guard and is there anybody in mind who you think would be a good comp for him? Um I do think there is a role for him. I think having a guy like Caris Levert helps that because now he doesn’t have to just be the guy. And considering that Levert plays as a two and a three, it’s not they’re not going to be having overlap. Like it’s not like when he had Dennis Schroeder um you know next to him where you can only really have one of those two guys on the floor at the same time. Like they’re both smaller guards. You can’t play them both in your back court. So having a guy like Levert next to him I think is going to be huge. And I do think that would create opportunity for him to play his game, not even have to adapt as just a prototypical point guard. I think there can be spots where like we’ve seen him bring the ball up and shoot a three in transition or catch it, you know, in transition from Tim Hardway Jr. or Beasley or whoever else. Like he’s good at kind of adjusting and finding his looks, you know, all over the floor. Um I if I had a comp for him, that’s tough. I would say I like the BJ Armstrong one. I would say offensively, maybe not defensively because he was a dog. I see a little Mike James in his game offensively. Um I think they both, you know, had nice jump shots. They were smaller but not fearful at all or not fear had no fear at all in terms of how they drove or created their looks. Um and I think defensively he can kind of study off of some of his tape to expound on his game in other areas too. Uh but no, I definitely think there’s a spot for him. You know, the team loves him. they’re really excited about seeing what he can do. Uh Kade talked about him being much improved in the gym in terms of what we’ve seen. So, yeah, I definitely do think there’s a an opportunity. I I think that can be a little tough because we saw when you have a a ton of young guys, it kind of makes it tough for all of them to kind of find a way to prove themselves. I think when they had the James Wiseman’s, the Marvin Baggley’s on top of the other core guys, it does make it a little tough. But I think at this point now, knowing that they have some direction, I think it’ll be a little easier for a guy like Sassin, I think he can find his way with the guys that’ll be around him. Yeah. Yeah. Like dude is definitely talented. Yeah. Like ridiculously t offensively he and defensively he’s a dog. He’s not the biggest guy, but he he he pretty much gives you all that he can with the size that he has. And I I appreciate that. I respect that. Um I was a little bit concerned before media days presser about what his role may be, right? because I just kept hearing and it’s just based off of what Tanjan was saying. He just kept saying this off seasonason, I want defensive versatility, guys who can guard multiple spots, right? And I don’t know how many shooting guards or small forwards SAS can guard comfortably, right? Even point guards, some points are just big, right? So, that was one of the things I was concerned with for him was is does he fit that mold of what Tan is looking for as far as having that defensive versatility, right? you it would be hard for him to play shooting guard only on this team in my opinion because that doesn’t give you the defensive versatility that he’s talking about. So that was what I was concerned about. But if they do have plans for him to eventually try to mold into more of a point guard, more of a floor general, more of a guy who you have more confidence with the ball in their hands. We saw him last year they would run certain sets for him. He would he would run he would run the offense, he run a set and it would look good and they they get a score, but it wasn’t consistent. It seemed like he was still trying to learn and learn on the fly. So, I think over time I think he’s going to continue to get better and better and better at it. One guy that he said that he has been watching, you’re gonna love this. TJ McConnell. Yes, I heard that. Yes, he did. He’s been watching watching film on TJ M. Now, he’s Look, SAS is more talented than TJ McConnell. Yes. Right. But TJ McConnell, his IQ of the game of how to run that point guard spot. Mhm. and understanding what that team needs from him to do. So, he’s one of the best as far as understanding that for his role. As far as understanding your role, he’s one of the best in the league. Yes. Right. As far as supplementary guys, for sure, far and away, but it took time. Yes. It took time. Right. He didn’t have the natural ability like SAS does to be able to get a bucket whenever he wants. So, he had to focus on those things early. So, a SAS is just going to take him time to be able to get that. But, I think if he studies if he studies McConnell, he can be better than McConnell. For sure. For sure. Yeah, for sure. No, without question. Right. So, I would love to see that. Don’t don’t flip out on me here. I’m only talking about the transformation, not the player. Mhm. I see a Chanty Bilips trajectory possibly for him as a ceiling as far as being a scoring guard who came into the league and didn’t know how to play the point guard position. They don’t play the same way, right? But Chanty over time with the right coach learned how to be a Florida J. That’s why he bounced around so many so many different teams. the Nuggets, the T- Wolves, right? The Celtics. He was everywhere. The Raptors. And then when he came here, he finally learned how to play the point guard position, right? But it took time. The first year and a half was was a little tough, right? So, I’m just hoping that Sasha can have that kind of trajectory as far as understanding how to play the point guard position over time. And I hope he’s given the chance to be able to do it because if he can get something of that, something of McConnell, something of a ch something of those guys, you got a really good basketball player in your team that you don’t that you’re you want to keep around. Yeah, I think career trajectory wise, I see what you mean. Um, again, it took Well, Chanty had an opportunity. He was, you know, starting for a few different teams at a point, but he found a perfect landing spot in Detroit. Even with Minnesota before he got here, he was still pretty good. Um, so I think um, Sass kind of needs a little bit more of that opportunity. I think he has that now. I think again last year really honestly a comp I think would be kind of uh, Dennis Schroer to an extent. I kind of see a little bit of their game like when he drives they both kind of have that floater. Um, Sharter had a little bit of a more funky jump shot than uh, Sass did, but in terms of confidence it was right there. And I think towards the end of the year, remember on Big Sean’s birthday was one of the big times or big games that SAS had of his coming out party. Um, and I think he has a lot more of that in him as well. Again, you have a lot of willing passers on this team that are willing to set him up for looks and he’s shown that he could be dangerous in catch and shoot situations, creating his own look. Um, you know, he’s really quick and really shifty. Um, he, you know, really put his defenders on a heel. So, I think that’s going to be big for him. again, if he has the opportunity, I could see that, you know, being a bit of his growing curve for sure. That game you’re talking about, I believe that was against the Bucks. That was when Bezy was still a buck and he was giving the Bucks. Yeah, he he was giving him buckets, man. He was giving buckets, but the confidence was there. He wasn’t thinking at all. He was just going out and hooping and that’s what you want to see. That’s what you want to see. We talk about guys adding a little bit to their game this year, right? JD with the jump shot, for example. Right. For SAS, it could be learning how to play that point guard position. Mhm. Right. that that could be the main because offensively he’s got everything else and defensively he’s going to bring it, right? So, if he can just slowly learn from guys like Jared Jack and obviously Cade and I think that will help him a lot and even Dennis Jenkins to an extent as far as understanding how to play the point guard position, how to be that floor general, how to make the right decision at the right time. So, and just having the instinct to be able to do it as well, which comes again like you mentioned with time. Exactly. Got to get those reps in. So, I’ve got confidence he can do it. Um, and hopefully he gets that chance for sure. Right. A couple more questions and then we can kind of close up here. Um, someone asked, “What is a 90s player 1990s from the Pistons that you want to see on this team now?” A 90s player I want to see on this team right now. Yeah. So, technically, you could count the the championship roster if you want with Isaiah and those guys, but that that kind of go back to that. Yeah. Yeah. The bad boys that Yeah. I don’t I don’t know how many bad boys would translate to this team right now. Maybe Vinnie Johnson. Um I mean obviously the Stars I think would be just fine. You Zeke could play in any era. Jod could play in any era. Um if I had to go somewhere else I would probably go That’s a good question. I would say my one of my favorites talk about Jerry Stackhouse. I think he would fit as a three on this team. Yeah. And how about Terry Mills? How about Terry Mills is a stretch forward for this team. I think that would work if you had to swap out Tobias or if he couldn’t play, you just needed a heater. Terry Mills was a shooter. I I think he would fit perfectly on this kind of a team. Great one. That is a really That That was one I was like I was thinking about that, but now that you said it, it kind of confirmed it. Yeah, he’d be a perfect stretch forward, bro. He would he would fantastic this team. Yeah, he definitely was. Absolutely. Anybody who doesn’t know, look up Terry Mills. Yeah. Um Terry Mills was one of them ones. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Marvin says, “The Raleigh and Junkyard Dog.” Okay, I like JYD. I like that. Yeah, I was I could definitely see that. Theo, he’d be more like, you know, like you don’t have too many Theos in the league now. You got, you know, you got who do you really You got Goar. I mean, you don’t really have too many guys. Yeah. Mitchell Robin who are limited offensively, but dogs defensively are really effective. I don’t want to say dog. Effective defensively. Um, not all those guys are dogs, but anyway. Right. Um, yeah, I I think Junkyard Dog could could definitely play in this era. Um, James Edwards, I think that’d be a good one, too, cuz he could knock down the mid-range jumper to go along with the post game. The post game wouldn’t probably be used as much today. Obviously, only a couple guys do that now. You know, Yoke, Sangon, um, that’s pretty much it. Oh, Embiid. But, um, yeah, I I do think his his shooting though. His shooting again out of I think the pick and roll would be cool with him to watch with him and Kate. That’d be pretty cool. I’m here with that. Yeah, I like that. Theo over Paul Reed. Uh I don’t know cuz Paul gives you more offensively, bro. Yeah, Paul can shoot from from long range. He can and he was giving a lot of good defensive energy too for a guy that isn’t really revered for his defense. Yeah, he’s very underrated, right? I don’t know about that one. I think it might go Paulo right there. But that’s a good one though. Um Heisenberg says Edward Sweet turnaround jump shot for sure that was money. Don Reed maybe Don didn’t have much of he was undersized. He was 6’8 playing center so that wasn’t fair to him. and the Piston just didn’t have any guys during that time. Um maybe maybe he he’s a good role player. All right, wanted to get that one. I got one more for you, bro. I like that one. Um let’s see. Grant Hill Cade comp. Is there one that’s better for Cade? Yeah. Do you have a better comp for Cade just in the league or like for the Pistons? Just No, just far as like is there a better comp for Cade than Grant Hill period? like anybody in the history in the game. It’s hard because I don’t really see because we haven’t really had too many 67 68 point guards that can score like this. Yeah. I It’s I No, I don’t even like that one. I I don’t know, man. It’s Grant Hill was a three straight up. Yeah, I don’t like that. I I’ve never liked that comp. I see it a little bit in terms of their size, but Grant was not a point guard at all. Like I just I don’t think that fits for him. I don’t like the Luca one. I didn’t like someone said James Harden. Like there’s been a lot of comps for him that I really haven’t been that high on. I think he’s a mixture of guys to me. Like if you want to say G Hill and Brandon Roy or so, if you want to get those guys in the conversation or something like that, then okay, I can see that. But I don’t I it’s I thought about this for a while. I can’t think of one guy like beat says Scotty Pippen. No, I don’t see that. I I don’t see Scotty Pippen. No, not Scotty. Cuz Scotty Pippen relied a lot on his athleticism. Right. He was he was one of the best defenders of all time, but he didn’t have Cage’s offense. No. You know what I’m saying? So, it’s just like he didn’t have his defense. Right. Or I I won’t even say Right. Exactly. So, to me, they’re kind of off they’re kind of like opposites. I don’t really see that one. The size is similar. They’re both like 67. I think Scotty was 67 68. So similar there, but I don’t really see um any really there’s not really a comp for him. People say Luca, it’s like come on, what we doing? Stop. Just cuz they’re big and go for that. You know what I’m saying? It’s it’s different. Yeah. Yeah. Devon says K’s comp is him, right? Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. I think I think what I said before it this don’t even really fit now that I’m playing it out. Like I thought like No, I don’t even like it. I’ll say it anyway. Go ahead. To an extent, I could see maybe like in terms of just how they operate offensively, if Paul George was a point guard, I could see that for Kade, but then again, Kade was a way better pass than Paul George ever has been. Exactly. So, yeah, man. I don’t know. It’s not a lot of really like accurate comps for Kade Cunningham. I really don’t see I mean, a guy that just kind of fits. Again, there areas he can improve in, but he don’t have a lot of weaknesses in his game like some of these guys that we’re talking about have. I don’t know. It’s that’s that’s about for real. What about this? Let’s stay in our own backyard. And I mentioned his name already, but what if Chanty was 6’7? I mean, Chanty was known as a big guard. He was a 6’4 two like 20 play pretty big. Yeah. I mean, that’s not bad at all. That’s not bad. K. Yeah. Because then again, like the diff the separator between them is Kade’s athleticism, which is mad slept on, right? But Well, Charles could dunk though. I mean, if if he had three or four more inches. Yeah, Kade is dunking on people though. Chanty K. Boom. On nobody. You’re right. Um, we got Yeah, we gotta find somebody. We got to find someone that’s the most accurate represent because there are people I think he can morph into like I feel like his I don’t care how people feel about this. I feel like his ceiling could be LeBron. I think if in a perfect world if he rounds out I’m not saying like I think he already has LeBron like responsibility to this team meaning he has to do so much. But I’m not saying he’s going to be the greatest or the highest score of all time, but he can do so much. Yeah, I know you going to love it. King going to kill me when I say this, but I think the fact that he does so much at an effective level to where it’s not a glaring weakness, I think that’s why it’s best suited for him. But yeah, I don’t know. It’s that that’s a that’s Kade’s a different dude, man, in terms of comparing. I will say this. I I don’t I don’t LeBron’s my goat. And you know how I feel about Kade. I will say this though, if if Kade had LeBron’s athleticism, you’re talking goat. Oh man, you’re talking goat. Yeah. Yep. You know what I’m saying? Like better rebounder at the time. Would be better shooter already. Like he you’re talking goat. Yeah. So yeah, I saw some Steve Smith. He didn’t play point though. Like I get it as far as the build similar, but Steve Smith was just doing that little hesy spin move to the rim. That was his little move. Boom. And he go to the rim. He didn’t really have much ball handling ability. He wasn’t a facilitator really. He was a knockdown shooter. Good defender. Kad has mastered that move now too. That smitty and that he goes by him like I love when he hits that move. His bag is so deep. The in-n-out Jaden has been doing Well, he was he was doing the Jaden the Jaden was doing the in-n-out move. Did you Did you catch that? I did. Yeah. He’s getting a little better. I like that. Yeah. It’s almost like Kate has been working with him on that because on one play I saw him do it last year, he hit the in-n-out and got to I think it was against the Lakers. Go look it up, guys. Right. He hit he hit the in and out on Reeves, got to the hook and as soon as he did it, K stood up like Yeah, that’s that’s what we we worked on that. That’s it. I think I see one right here. That might be the maybe the best one about Penny. Oh man. Okay. So, yes. Yes. That might be it for real. I ain’t going to hold you. Maybe I think so. Penny or maybe I forgot Penny. Penny or T-Mac? Cuz T-Mac was a pretty good passer, too. Kade is better, but I feel like T-Mac was still a pretty good facilitator, too. a better ball handler than T-Mac. I think that’s tough cuz T-Mac could handle the ball at 68. He could. He could. He could. But I think Kate has a deeper bag as far as like going, you know, as far as moves, but as far as getting to where he wants to get to. Both of those guys can get to where they want to, right? I I would pro Yeah, I I would probably go in like a combination of T-Mac and Penny. Okay. I don’t I don’t know if Kate has the offense of T-Mac. T-Mac’s off offense. He was just a 30 point per game scorer every single year. He has 33 one year. That’s true. Like like what? Yeah. He just he was just a bucket, but he didn’t have as much facilitating responsibility. He wasn’t much of a playmaker. That’s true. Right. He could do it. We saw him do it against the Pistons. They were down 3-1. But when Taan Prince came into the game and started instead of 35, it went down to 25 points per game. You know what I’m saying? So like he could Kade’s better in that aspect. But that’s where Penny comes in because Penny was a pass first point guard who could get a bucket whenever he wanted. He just happened to have the most dominant big man playing alongside him. I think that’s I think Penny is the closest one we’re going to find. Again, I think Kade is definitely going to be a better and probably right now is already a better offensive player, but in terms of just comparisons in terms of what they both brought, I think that’s the closest one probably. Who said that? Who said Penny first first? Because that was that’s a great one. Shout out to whoever that was. Yeah, it’s right above that comment right there. So, I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to be that may be he was my favorite player in the league. I hate to say it, but like I was a Pistons fan. I love Grant Hill. I love Grant Hill, but I always want to play point guard. And so, Penny, I would always be torn whenever they play each other and they would go they would go at it. Like there was a time when Jordan retired, it was Penny and it was Grant Hill. Yeah. As far as Wings, those two guys and then everybody else. So, I am not mad at that at all. And we love Penny Hardway and he does have a lot of those same attributes, man. If Kate Yeah. If Kate Kade and JD the next Penny and Shaq, who knows? We’ll see. We’ll see. We see the comparison. I see the vision. I’m here for it. You know what I mean? For sure. All right. So, we had a little fun. So, we will end it there, guys. Um, I wanted to get through this really quickly before we get out of here. So, someone asked earlier about open practice, if the Pistons were holding an open practice, and the answer is yes. They’re holding an open practice at Wayne State University on October 11th. Doors open at 11:00 a.m. And here are some details for everybody to take a look at here. So, it’s free admission. Um, anybody can come out and support. So, bring the fam, bring your friends, bring a girl, bring whatever. And I’m going to be there. Eric, I know you’re going to be there. Uh, talk to King. He’s going to be there. So, if anybody is going, you know, make sure you guys let us know you’re going to be there. Uh, come. If you see us, say what up though, right? show some love. Um, we were there last year. Yes. And man, I got to shout this out again. Towards the end of that practice, bro, we got a chance to catch a few guys throwing down some dunk contest dunks, right? It was it was something it was it was fun to watch. And there was something that stood out to me, bro, when I was watching that clip. We talked about it before, but there was a particular player that threw down a crazy dunk off the side of the backboard. And just in case you guys missed it, here you go. [Applause] [Music] One more time in case you missed it. Pay attention. [Music] [Applause] [Music] That was Mr. Dennis Jenkins. Yes. I had no idea he had that kind of bounce, bro. I saw him like doing stuff before, but when they started going like that, I’m like, whoa, let me pull my phone out just in case he do something crazy. And Tou Smith, who’s on the show, y’all saw him with his hands on his head just like this. He said that he has seen it before, but not quite like that. Not quite like that. He said a lot of guys were surprised at just how high he got. And shout out to uh shout out Sass with a nice off the side of the backboard pass form. But that Yeah, that was incredible. So you guys make sure you come out. Anything you want to add to that, Eric? Go ahead. Yeah, I Dennis, Lamar Stevens, I think, and then Ryan. Those were the three standouts of that little dunk contest that they had. Ron Senior, if you still here, I want you to push Ryan to get in the dunk contest. We need a piston back in the dunk contest. Ron was building up some of the in our warm-ups last season that I was watching. Like he had a couple between the legs joints that were fire. I think he would be a fun contestant in the dunk contest. Ron Senior, if you can get in his ear and make that happen, I think Detroit will be appreciative of that. No, you know what? Cuz Ryan is a ham. You could tell, bro. Yeah, bro. He go He’ll do a little dance after, too. Like Ron going to have fun with He would he would Yeah, he definitely uh he would get up for that, too. him being as competitive as he is and him engaging the crowd like he Oh yeah, you know. Yeah, I definitely think he could kind of command command the arena a little bit if he if he’s able to complete some dunks. He’s got the balance for it, too. We’ve seen him. We’ve seen him in summer league as early as summer league last year, you know, reverse reverse double pump. Like he’s he he got the ability. That’s a great That’s a great one. If Ron Senior, if you’re here, bro. If not, I’m going shoot you a DM and tell you that he said that we need definitely need to have Ron in dunk contest. So, I’m here for Definitely should make that happen. That’d be cool. That’d be cool. All right, man. All right, guys. So, that is all we have for this episode. We are getting closer and closer, you guys, to Pistons basketball. So, once again, they play their first preseason game on October 6th, and that game is on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies. So, we are just a couple days away from seeing these guys back on the court. E, as always, bro, we appreciate you tapping in, giving us the latest updates, pulling up. let everybody know who is not acquainted with you yet know how they can get in contact with you and stay in tapped in with you and all your updates with the patients going forward. Man, appreciate you for having me on, man. And thank you all for tuning in. Y’all are the greatest fans in the world, the greatest viewers in the world. We appreciate everything that y’all do. You can lock in with me on social media. I am Eric Vincent as you see on the screen. Uh I try to tap in on my social media as often as possible. So you can lock in with me on there. You can follow all my beat reporting at clutchpoints.com. And all of my online content is on my YouTube page, Toptitle Detroit. I just crossed over 500 subscribers, and I feel special with that. So, if y’all want to help add on to the party, I really appreciate it. Tell a friend to tell a friend to lock in with us here at TopTitle Detroit. I would really appreciate y’all love on that one. Yeah, he doing his thing over there, you guys. And so, buckle up cuz it’s about to get real busy. No cap. He about to be working. He about to be working for sure. And I I didn’t want to do it, but at least I saved it for the end of the episode. Okay, y’all have a good day, man. I’ll holl at y’all later. This is a fun time. Y’all y’all just ruined the Holy Spirit for me. Here you go. Come on, Drew. It’s tradition at this point, bro. It’s tradition at this point. You talk about how Jordan LeBron think about him. I talk about how I throw any Derek White comments up here. That’s That’s talk about that. Didn’t talk about that leprechaun from Boston the whole time. And now here we are. Damn it, man. Come on, Drew. I had to, bro. Now you can go sleep a night per you. Yes. And deal with your PTSD with that. All right. So, guys, we’re going to call it a night. We appreciate you guys. Stop. Stop. Devon. Stop it. We’re not doing that tonight. We’re not doing Divine. No. No. No. No. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. No. Look. Look, bro. I’m catching strays, too. I’m just the messenger and I’m still catching strays. What I do? What I do? Y’all editing this on the worst note possible. Y’all literally are, guys. Like on the major minors of keys. This is the worst note, bro. Come on. All right. Anyway, guys, we appreciate you. Hit that like button, man. Um, we are getting closer and closer. We’re almost here. So, like I said, guys, make sure you guys support Eric. Turn those noties on for Eric and myself. We appreciate you guys for staying tapped in, man. We got a lot of love for all you guys for showing love to us. And we appreciate you guys pulling up tonight, man. So, with that, we will see you guys soon. And y’all know the drill. Detroit verse everybody. Peace. Cuz when I step on the floor, you know your time’s up. I’m on my way up and I’m not going to stop. We heading straight to the top in love. I got to waste it. I got no time to waste it. [Music] Everything we can everything we can we
The Detroit Pistons are just a few days away NBA basketball. What are you looking forward to heading into next season?
0:00 Intro
4:15 Vibes Inside Camp
9:29 Ausar Thompson, Ron Holland & Jaden Ivey’s Impact
29:22 Jalen Duren’s Jumper?
39:08 People Are SLEEP On Caris Levert!
46:54 Pistons Preaching Defensive Versatility On Both Ends
56:56 Javonte Green Fits Detroit
1:03:15 Can Marcus Sasser Play Point Guard?
1:14:28 Player Comp For Cade?
#detroitbasketball #detroitpistons
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1 hour worth? Bet.
LOL @ Duece
After seeing those Ausar bricks, "Its good to see the commitment". That made me spit out my drink. Didnt see that coming.
I have faith in Ron though, my man looking smooth.
Duren with the bank shots. Nice.
Yes, yes, Yes! There goes that song!!!!
Great show once again!
Another great video❤ this about to be a fun year🎉 I’m going with 58 wins! this team can beat any team any given night.
Great show! Excellent well researched analysis.
jermaine o'neal jumphooks in the middle too. those were killers.
Carlos Delfino…wow…I had high hopes for him too…lol! Shout out to you on your coverage of our Pistons!! You do a really good job Deuce and I watch all of your content! It's gonna be a fun year!!
Thrills Mills would flourish on this team and in this era!!!
Eyyyyy Eric said what I said about Sass + Caris. I consider this a personal victory – great minds think alike.
Delfino was fun to watch though