Detroit Pistons GM Trajon Langdon Joins Karsch and Anderson | Karsch and Anderson

Detroit Pistons GM Trajon Langdon Joins Karsch and Anderson | Karsch and Anderson

Doug Carr, Scott Anderson, 971 the tickets and we are from the Henry Ford Health Pistons performance center and proud at this time to be joined by the general manager of the Detroit Pistons one, Tjan Langden, who has just come by and sat down. Sir, how are you doing? Well, how about you guys? We’re good. Thanks for having me. It’s a different feeling this year, isn’t it? I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think there’s a little bit more known in the gym um with a lot of continuity from both our players um coaching staff performance but uh a lot of familiar faces in the building which I think helps. Well, it’s been a year now, over a year now that you’ve been here. How Detroit are you now? I love it here. Uh it’s still weird. I’m not going to lie to you. um just cuz I hit the ground running so fast and and even though I’ve had some time this summer for my family and I to get inundated in the city, it still feels like this is still brand new to me. Um but the people have been great. The city’s been great and we’re really enjoying it. Some business things I want to get to you with. First of all, contract deadlines for Duran and Ivy deadline tonight. Is there any update there? No update at this time. We’ll see here tonight. Okay. And the Sorry. Tell you what, if there if there is any update, we’ll be here till 2. Sounds good. If you could come by and just let us know. And Malik Beasley, is there anything new on that front? No, definitely nothing new there. So, um, you know, for his sake, I’m really hoping that he can get cleared, but obviously still under investigation by, uh, the league and and the feds. So, um, yeah, for his sake, I hope he can figure they can figure this thing out and he can get back to working. Okay. Well, let’s get into this team and what you have. when you have a young roster like you do had a year ago and still have, there’s always that question of who’s poised to make that big jump. So, when you look at your team, where are you seeing that just on the brink of happening now? Yeah, I don’t I hate putting that kind of pressure on any player or two players, but our our whole group put in a lot of work uh over the summer. They were not only in the gym here, but we had our staff flying out to see them whenever they wanted them. And when I say staff, I mean coaching, um, performance, medical, whatever they needed at whatever time. So, um, we put a lot of hours in with our players and, um, which is great cuz I think we garnered a lot of the trust from our players, but they really worked. They I think they got better. They know there’s an opportunity coming into this uh, into this season, not only individually, but as a group. So, um, I think the pieces that we added really uh, will help. But the biggest thing for us this offseason was continue, like you said, to allow these young players to continue to grow and get better and have an opportunity to show um what they can do from the work that they’ve put in. Looking at more of the bigger picture down the road, doesn’t have to be this year or the improvement from this year, from last year this year, but just the bigger picture, how high is the ceiling for guys like Assar Thompson and Ron Holland? Yeah, you know, the one thing with those two guys is they work. Um, so they are going to reach their ceilings. I have I have no question that those two will reach the potential, that’s all you can ask of any player that you bring in a program is that they are going to reach who they can be. Uh how long is that going to take? Um that’s going to be up to them. And obviously JB and his staff do a great job teaching the game, uh developing the players. Um but I they they do put in the work. Uh we think they can be really good players. I think they’ll both take a um they’ll both be better this year. um they’re going to get the opportunity to get better and they have the trust of their teammates as well from not only what they did last season but the work they put in. Uh obviously you saw Ron and Summer League took a leap. Um NSR has put in a lot of time. So him having a complete summer, a complete training camp and being healthy now, I think you’ll see two different versions of both players. It’s probably hard to answer this question right now with not knowing where you’ll be at that time, but because this team now looks like it’s can make a push in the East. Does that tra change your approach at all or your thinking come trade deadline time? Come trade deadline time. We’re in October. What are we doing? I know, but this I can guarantee. Here’s what I guarantee. We’re going to get 10,000 phone calls when the trade deadline rolls around. And I’m going to think back to what you said. But I mean, last year, you know, coming off a 14 win season, we weren’t thinking buyers at the trade deadline. This this this time around, you could be. Yeah. No, I wasn’t thinking buyer either, uh, until about two to three weeks before the trade deadline, and that’s what we ended up doing. So, I, you know, for me, it’s continued to assess and watch these young guys grow. Um, try to have an understanding of who we are within the Eastern Conference. Um, and then figure out where we need that, you know, do we need a position? Do we need a skill set? um when that time comes. So, it’s hard to tell right now. Would I like to be a buyer then? Cuz that means we’re playing good basketball and we have a chance. Sure. Um but again, like we’ll we’ll assess. I I have a good group with me. Um JB has a really good feel for the team and and what’s needed uh for us to take that leap. But again, it’s just assessing game to game. That’s why I try to be at every game possible and and seeing the dynamic of the team and the chemistry. But we have a good group and I’m excited to see where we go. Can you take us through the process of getting to the off seasonason and identifying the players that you wanted to talk to and then eventually offering those players to become part of the Pistons in general or this past summer? This past summer. Yeah. And how was it different? Um well, two guys we targeted I were our own players and I you know I said it pretty early as we would love to bring Dennis back and we’d love to bring Malik back. Um, and um, you know, Tim was was great for us, but I I I did want to see our young guys continue to grow. So, I knew that was going to be a tough one um, if we brought him back in a different role. And so, I think we all agreed that um, probably for him, too, that probably being in Denver and getting that opportunity was was a great situation for him. But, um, Dennis obviously got a great contract from Sacramento with the starting role and I there there’s no way we could give him the same thing. Um and then the thing that happened with Malik was difficult late cuz we really wanted him back and then we had to pivot. Um uh we thought that Duncan could could fill in um for Malik a little bit. U Malik obviously had a historic year with what he did. But Duncan is a uh his character and his work rate in here. He’s the first one in darn near every day. Um great for culture. Obviously won a lot in Miami and was around a lot of good players. I think his um partnering with uh JD will be similar to his partnering with Bam. So I think I’m looking forward and excited to see how he can help JD out because he’s not just a shooter. He’ll drive the lane, he’ll pass it, he’ll finish. So uh I think he and Caris bring a different dynamic of play making um size and versatility on the floor. As a GM, do you when you’re going into these conversations in the offseason, is it strictly with an agent? Do you get a chance to talk to the players? Do the players want to talk to you or they stand off just talk to my agent? How does that work? Yeah, there’s a certain time frame where we can engage uh we can obviously engage our own free agents and talk to them earlier. Um but obviously that July one is around the time that you can talk to other players and if it gets to the point where the player is interested um then yeah, we we’ll have phone calls with the player. Uh I think it’s I think it’s more important for the player than it is us. We’ve done our intel, we’ve done our background, I pretty much know the character of the different players in this league. They just want to know, okay, well, what is my role going to be? And it’s more important they hear from JB than me in all honesty. Uh, we got a question here from a listener. Uh, Joe in a van sent us the following when he heard you were coming on. Uh, as a Duke fan around Detroit. What is one lesson you learned from Coach K that most applies to your current position with the Pistons? Coach Kay was such a great coach and a leader. I’d be curious what his answer would be. Yeah, the one a big thing that always amazed me with coach and it was more after I was done playing than while I was done playing was his ability to flush the results from the past season. He he never I I realized in my years there that he never referred to the team the year before. He never talked about we did this last year, you guys did this last year, weren’t we? It’s always like this is what we need to do this year. This is where we’re strong. This is where we’re struggling. We need to watch film. We’re not guarding. And he would compare us to the other teams in the ACC but would never compare us to a previous Duke team. I always found that fascinating, his ability to flush. And he always felt like this season is one life. The next season, you could have you’re going to have different players, you’re going to have a different conference, a different um a different league you’re navigating. So, he’s always like, “This season is one life and I move to my next life next season.” So, um I wouldn’t say that I’m able to do that. Um but um uh day to day, week to week, season to season, I try to be able to move on from things that are could be difficult and affecting me in the same way. Okay. With the Eastern Conference now with injuries with Tatum, Hallebertton, that feels like you’re excited about that one. What’s that? Sound like you’re a little bit excited about this where we’re going here. I’m not excited about other people being hurt. Um I am excited. I know where you’re going. I know where you’re going. But that kind of opens up the door, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s what I was referring to earlier when I said that our our players see that there’s an opportunity. Um and again, not not talking about the other players. Obviously, what happened to them is horrific and I wouldn’t wish that on any player. Um that being said, you look at just like you said where the Eastern Conference is, Eastern Conference is, but we can’t take things for granted. We can’t take things like, “Oh, we’re just going to be better than that team.” No, they’re they’re going to be hungry, too. those teams are going to come in with a chip like any competitive team does and say, “Okay, watch what I can do.” Even if our star player is out, watch how I’m going to step up. So, those opportunities arise in those situation, those teams become dangerous because you step in, you don’t think they’re going to be good, and they all they all come together and they galvanize in a way that they hadn’t maybe before. But, um, I think our group is in a good place. Um, got some tough games that are going to that are going to challenge us right off the jump. Um, and and I think like anything in this league is you got to stay healthy. You earned a reputation in college, the Alaskan Assassin, one of the great nicknames of all time. You’re a shooter. Still competitive. Do you get out there with the guys and and and shooting practice? Do you have competitions? Do you get cocky? What’s it like when you kind of take the GM hat off and the competitive juices get going? Can you still light it up from 23 out? I can still shoot. Um, I can’t run up and down obviously like I used to, but I I can still shoot. Um, I kind of stay away from that cuz I’d like to take the GM hat off, but it just doesn’t come off when they’re around those players like to in their view. Do you get called out by him at all? No, I they they don’t. No, they don’t. I I I my thing is I don’t want to go out there and beat one of my players shooting the basketball. That’s one of our players. that that wouldn’t be good for confidence building and we’re all about building confidence around here. I’m sensing he’s still competitive. He thinks he’d beat him. Uh well, we appreciate your time. Thanks for uh being with us and uh good luck this year. Things have changed, man. In a year, I can tell you from our perspective. Thank you. It was fun to get phone calls last spring. I mean, people fired up. So, we’re excited. Yep. Thanks. Good luck. Appreciate you. Yes. Langden, the GM of the Detroit Pistons, joining us from here at the Pistons Performance Center here on Carson Anderson.

Before the Detroit Pistons season gets underway, their GM Trajon Langdon joined Karsch and Anderson to preview the season. #pistons #nba

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